TABLE TALK

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 32, 7 February 1900, Page 1

TABLE TALK

Timely rainfall. Volunteers being examined. Auckland Board of Education met

to-day. Fourth Contingent preparations under way. Important movements in Northern; Cape Colony. Contingent camp at Potter's Paddock to-morrow.

Lord Beauchamp, Governor of N.S.W., is in Dunedin. Steamer Hauroto ueaves for thfl South Sea Islands this evening.

The British authorities ,are ordering: large quantities of Lee-Enfield rifles. Arthur Wolfe, the Wellington mup« derer, has been sentenced to death.

Germany and the oilier nations want /better protection for missionaries in China. ,'.''■ "-•"■

Four Auckland volunteer officers have offered for the South. African contingent. .« Auckland volunteers for the .Trans* vaal go into camp at Potter's Paddock to-morrow. .

Applications for the. fourth. 3Sew Zealand contingent are coining in all over the colony. . . The patriotic, relief, and war/funds raised in Auckland so far total upwards of £7.000.

Fifty-one of the Auckland volunteers for the next- contingent will provide their own horse*.

There is a. fine series of views of the Auckland Police Barracks in the " Graphic " this week. Richer goldfields than _ Klondyke. have been discovered, it is said, in the north of Labrador. '•

Cicero said it took a week.to make, a man a lawyer, but a lifetime to make a man an orator. During- the past 43 years gold-ami silver worth £56,242,617 has been exported from New Zealand. It is expected that the, amount of Peter's Pence for the coming; year will amount- to £2,000,000.

The Auckland Harbour Board has accepted a tender for the extension oi Y'ictoria Wharf, Devonport. ;

Presidents Kruger and Stein have protested against the destruction of farm-houses by the British. Gifts of horses are wanted for the use of the Auckland division of tie New Zealand Bough Eiders.The business of Messrs Hunter and Nolan has been purchased by the N.Z. Loan and Mercantile Agency Co.

General French lias sent a strong force .to. capture..Nerval's. Pont, near. Colesberg, and cut. off, the Boer retreat. 'C * """■'Ai'AA Either Lieut-rColonel , SommerviUe ; or I lajor Jowsey will have charge-of: New Zealand's contingent of Rough Riders. - .' . - - The grand total of Mr Andrew Carnegie's gifts to free libraries is said'to be somewhere in the region of £ 1,----300,000. For war pictures .and the latest, pen- - cil sketches of events at- the ■ front see the New Zealand ■ " Graphic " of this week. '" The ." Graphic", published to-day. contains -portraits--of all* the teams which took part in the recent bowU'n£

tournament. * ■■• ■'■■ The New Zealand contingent helped to clear the way for. the advance of General French's forces near Colesberg. Northern' Cape ( :'■:..-"' . Complaints were again made at the meeting of the Auckland'; Harbour Board yesterday afternoon regarding the Northcote and Birkenhead ferry service. ' :" ' The Duke of Argyll has made over to the Church of Scotland all the historic ruins on the Island of lona, and it- is proposed at once,to take steps to restore the ancient cathedralA friendly"conference is to be^held. shortly between the "Devonport^Borough. Council and tire directors of the •-. Devonport Ferry Company in order; to discuss the question of possible'US* I provements in the'service.-- •'■ ■ '_- : ■ One hundred and twenty-young-men made application-in:.A;u'ckla,nd jester'day for the Transvaal contingent.' Qt these sixty-eight are deemed 'Suitable, under certain conditions, and will go up for medical examination this evening. ~ _~"..■'.■ Entries for .the Premier Picnic sports Will be received in the Cookstreet Hall until eight o'clock, this evening. The sports, which are ;4naid of the patriotic funds, will be heldat Home Bay, Motutapu, ;on< February, 17th. '.. ' . '-" '-■ '■ ' •-.. In connection; ; with the attempt! made by a number of Christchurch cyclists "to bring the City Council bylaws into ridicule, by carrying dinner bells and constantly ringing them, instructions have been given to take leg-al proceedings against the ringleaders. - j.v' ■". The crowds to be seen studying iftaps of Africa, e^ibitod.ffl'.pitwne; places just now are significant of th'<? great interest which is being tak?^ in the last and largest Empji^-.;.Aga rule it is the m# that drafS th« mt not the map that -draws the" mail.— "Globe." •' : J-. One of the applicants for the Rpugfcriders at the Drill Shed yesterday w.^ an unusually tall young man from the Waikato, 6ft. 7in. in height. He. wr^ told that be. was too tall for the con-tins-ent. "I -wish I couldscut some of it off and give it to some of my mates," he said. ... .