TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 182, 2 August 1900, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

Boers surrendering. Sullen capitulation of Free Staterfi*. Pekin Legations still in''*great danger. ..' ."■.,-,; Relief of Rustenburg is being arranged. Outward San. Francisco mail next Monday. An English Professor has been mur* dered at Pekin. The Victorian Contingent for China; has left Melbourne. An immediate advance on Pekin id contemplated by the British. .. » Details of the Transvaal war are toi hand to-day from our special war cor* respondent. The Europeans in Pekin had suffix cient provisions for several weeks at latest news. Two Australian blacks, who committed several murders near Port Darwin, have been captured.. . , , ' A dispute in the tailoring trade in Auckland is to come before;the Conciliation Board this month. tJ H.M.s. Mohawk, recently at Auckland, is already at work. on • the Chinese coast, rescuing foreigners. Mrs Draffin's "Theosophical Talk; for Ladies" Avill be held in '-Mutual Life Buildings to-morrow afternoon; The total expenses in connection with the late outbreak of plague at Noumen were a little over £2000. The cost is to be met by a supplementary sanitary tax. The sale of cattle from the ,Moana-» vale estate, held at Cambridge last Wednesday by Messrs McNicpl & Co., was a record for the Waikato, for it realised £1841, .and the lots were disposed of in forty-five minutes.. ■ The Terrace School Old Boys' Association, Wellington,. has decided to raise a subscription to erect a suitable tablet in the school containing1 the names of ex-pupils who served) during the Transvaal campaign. ■ '■,'■ It is announced elsewhere that the prizes won at th^e recent Auckland and Suburban Poultry Association n Show will be paid over by the treasurer at Messrs. Hurst & Co.'s, Queen-street, between 7 and 10 o'clock on Saturday, night next. ■ . ' ' y. : ■'•■ ' Colonel Banks has i ordered the newly-formed i Volunteer Cyclists' Corps to parade, with cycles, at the Drill Hall on Monday next,, at 7.30 p.m. Great interest will attach to this meeting as being the first occasion on which Volunteer Cyclists have met in ■ Auckland.' f ■■■ '_'. The highest sum mentioned as having been offered to General Bacleh- ~ Powell for a volume on thesiege'of Mafeking, upon1 the same lines as1 the "Downfall, of Premp^h," is - £10,000, suggested by an American firing Since the news of the relief an English .pub- .. lisher, not to be outdone, has cabled ' an offer of "any amount." :■ ,;. The broadening of the mind which' comes from travel is undeniable (says ". the. "New Zealand ' Times',').,,' ' Spin©, day'this will be realised .by a fSputhern ' M.H.E., who, on his way' to Foxton the other day, viewed .with-interest ; the bleaching flax which 'some.of his felr low-members pointed t out. to him.1 as "our second crop of jjay." ' ~*,!.";' The ■;Auckland'li'Cai(^ti^W^oteEfeti^^~'T:.annual plain and fancy ;- dress * bail takes place to-mori*b.w, night'l in:: St. Benedict's Hall. The ball promises to be one of the most,successful,fune-. tions of the season, The ■ Druids bariel of six instruments has' been engaged to provide the dance music. .'•■-. ' * On v a recent visit to the-Makohine Viaduct Mr.W; A. Grace,'of Palmerston, secured a curiosity in' the shape >- of two fossil fish embedded in; papa rock, dislodged during blasting operfltions at the tunnel. The -'Standard^ states that the fish are-lying and tails," and fins, vertebrae and scales show very distinctly. ■ The Auckland and Suburban"Pigeoii and Canary Show will take place pi • Thursday'next and the two following days in Etonian's old clothing fac»tofy, bottom of Grey-street. •■''•; Botfit pigeons and canaries will be well rep- f resented, the entries1 totalling abopt 450, which is the biggest received ia: the colony this season for a sindUar' ■ ",'■■■ ".}': J ■'■.■'.■ '"' ) 'r"^'-J0 ..'' In the course of a letter to a Vl<Sr torian resident a London iirin states:1 "Mr Cecil Ehodes has let a contract .for refrigerating engines for cool storage depots in three Rhodesi&n towils. Beira is to have refrigerating warehouses, and special trucks are to be provided for the railway. This is the course you urged him to adopts and we are glad to see your proposals are bearing good fruit." j The New Plymouth' "News" learns on good authority that the sjf|idicate for whom Dr. Robertson, was acting in the purchase of the Mokau^ cbal mine 4re.prepared to develop thei mipe in the most thorough and i businesslike manner. It is their.intention to build their own steamers suitable for the traffic, and there is little doubt that when they once makeia start It will be on an extensive and systematic scale. , , . ; t In a discussion the dther day. in the New South Wales Assembly on the bla<.cJdellow murderers^ Sir Williaia Lyne said if it would cost to catch the men the Government would give it. The Cabinet had already decided to give £200 a-head icit* them. Mr Norton: Have the police power to shoot them if they don't stand? Mr Haynes: Would you serve them with a summons? (Laughter.) Sir' William Lyne: The police, have the power tb shoot them. : ' . ' .