TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 290, 6 December 1900, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

Alameda for 'Frisco. Outward mail to-day. S.s. Fiona.arrived from FijiSerious trouble feared at the Cap*. Yohmteers drilling- daily in the Domain camp. Tho Premier was at Kumara. \vesti Coast, to-day. Severe fighting took place at vryburg ou Sunday. . * Eighty' Boers were killed m the fight at Keitfontein. The Wesleyan Synod meets in open session fhis evening1. Chinese tortured a British ofheer for four days before his death. Two small Boer commandoes are raiding Natal, near Ladysmith. Heavy gun-firing will take place from Fort Takapuna next Saturday, afternoon . A British punitive, expedition i§J*esing- sent to Somaliland, on th.ts East African Coast. The Sale of Work at St. Ma:ry*s Convent, Ponsonby, will be.open till Saturday night. General Merejer made, a wiftl attack on the British Army and .NAivy in the French Senate yesterday. Upwards,of 70 Kew Zealand volunteers will go to'Sytlney-in the Tutanekai for the Federal celebration*. There are 119 iv persons in the Chtistf church district, receivingl old age pen* sions, against 1001 at the same data last year. At a meeting' of the newly elected. Hospital and Charitable Aid Board: yesterday, Mr A. Bruce was re-elected1 chairman. We remind our readers- of the united demonstration of the Presbyterian Sunday-schools to-morrow evening ia St. James*. Hall. 'When coming to town this morning, Mr Windsor saw a. weasel cross the footpath and go in to Mr Reals' property at the top of Hamilton Road, Ponsouby. The . box plan for the Auckland Banjo, Guitar and Mandolin Club's concert, to.be held at the Opera House on Monday next, is open at Messrs. Wildman & Lyell's. . Mr. Daniel McCurdy, of Waihi, died at the Thames Hospital yesterday. He was recently admitted suffering from typhoid fever. Deceased was in his 36th year, and was highly respected. The baptism of children in water brought all the way from the Hives Jordan was made a feature of the service of one of the Wellington churched on a recent Sunday. A member of the congregation'had. brought the prizedl liquid in returning from a tour that had included a visit to Palestine. Elaborate preparations are i being made in Christchurch for the Jubilee celebrations. On. .' Anniversary Day the city will "be. decorated on a scale that has ntot been attempted here before, and a procession, in which the pioneers will tak« part, will be a great feature" of the prweedi^gp,,..,,",,., V.: ..... ...... Mr J; ~8. Cqates,,the general.manager 'of Ihe v^.:zri^atf6iiaF-KffilE^"^c"ofti----panied by Mr C. W. Craufurd Brown, manager of ttie Paeroa aii& 'Waibl branches, arrived in Waihi on Monday. Mr Coates 'has come to the conclusion that the opening of the branch in--.Waihi was the right step for.the Bank to have taken. ' 'At the Ponsonby Baptist ChurcTi yesterday, Mr Thomas Adams, son of Mr James Adams, of Cambridge, was married to Miss Ada Wright, daughter of Mr J. D. Wright,' of Hamilton RoacU The church was prettily decorated) with* flowers. The Key. A. H. Collinu performed the marriage ceremony. Mr J. P. Hooton played Mendelssohn's ''Wedding March" on the organ as the bridal party left the church. • A wedding which caused much interest in Parnell took place yesterday; in St. Mary's Cathedral. Miss Ij. Whitison, second daughter of the late Mr T. Whitson, was married to Mr E. S. Withers, eldest son of Mr E. Withers, of Wanganui.. The church Avaa beautifully decorated with white flowers for the occasion by the ladyfriends of the bride. fhe Rev. G. Mac Murray conducted the marriage ; service. i . Interesting reference /to the pre-pil- ; grim history were made in fhe Lyitel- '. ton Magistrate's Court lately in connection with, an application for an old | age pension by a half-caste Maori woman. The applicant, through a» | interpreter, stated that she was fifteen years of age at the time of "Mantell's purchase." The transaction re- ; ferred to was fhe purchase by Mr Kemp, completed by Mr Walter Man- \ tell, of what was known as the Port Levy Block of Banks Peninsula. It. toofc place in 1849. Mr M'Coy, of Pitcairn Island,, once went to Swallow Island, in the Santa Cirwz group, to open missions, with, a party of Seventh Day Adyentist Missionaries. They found that a king reigned there, and that all his subjects were members of the royal family. He was a fullblooded, white man, and, what was more astonishing to the explorers, they found that everybody on fhe i island could speak the English language. The king was found to be a hale and hearty, jolly good fellow,'and his subjects were airgrosperous. They tilled the soil, and are a self-sustaining people.- There were forty-five men, women, and children on fhe island. The king was a runaway JSng'lish sailor who had settled there.