TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 47, 25 February 1901, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

Criminal sessions opened. Mararoa from Sydney to-day. University benate resumed to-day. Terrible shipwreck near Ban Francisco. . (Steamer Waikare for Sydney this evening. .Four hundred burghers have deserted De Wet. Lord Metb. uen has captured another Boer laager. Wirth Bros.' circus will arrive iv Auckland next Friday. A Pacific mail steamer has been lost and 150 persons drowned. The big French barque Max has sailed hence for Glasgow. The, schooner Maungnroa has arrived here from Barotonga. It is estimated the Boers lost a thousand men in January and 800 in February so far.. The No. 1 Battalion Auckland Rifle Volunteers will parade to-night for, Government inspection. Auckland volunteers for the Seventh Contingent were to leave for Wellington this afternoon. Several officers at Hie Auckland district have applied for commissions in the Seventh Contingent. Mr David Craig, general manager of the N.Z. Instirance Co., arrived here from the South yesterday by the s.s. Waikare. The mail steamer Tongariro put up ft record the other day by crossing Taupo Lake to Tokaanu (25 miles) three times in one day. The Butchers' ricnic- Committee announce all butcher shops will be closed on Wednesday next, when the annual picnic takes place. The barques Clan McLeod and Aidebaran and brigantines Vision and Defiance have arrived here from Newcastle and Wollongong, coal laden. A lady in Addington, Christchurch, left her house for an hour on Friday, and on returning* found it had been entered and £1 13/6 in money and over £50 worth of jewellery stolen. Something like a thousand . wild horses are said to have been shot down within the last few months in. the Lake Taupo district. The commercial value of the animals is 2/6 for, a mane and tail. The Government propose erecting1 a temporary bath-house at Tokaanu (Lake Taupo) at once for the convenience of tourists and others; also fthe fencing of Maunga Namu and forming a winding; track to the summit. " 'A naval gumjery school 5s to be forthwith . established art- Chatham,' with an instruction, staff, of officers, ' chief petty' officers, and seamen gunnery instructors. A torpedo school is also to be built at Sheerness at a cost of about £3000. . An engineer, representing a syndicate, has been in Eotoru-a making enquiries with a, .view to laying down, an electric tram, line between <Qhinp-v • • > mut-u and Whaiiarewafewa,", providing', the Government can. supply the .motive power at a reasonable rate. ' A .firm was fined,.,£ 4 and .£4O costs at Clerkfcnwell (England) for applying the description "hand-cut*'; to a ;"■ tobacco which had been cut by. machinery. Tha prosecution had been, undertaken by the Board of, Trade, under the Merchandise Marks; Act. A few days ago, after conveyingl Chief Judge Butler (of the Urewera , Land Commission) safely to his destination in the Urewera Country, th» driver had some trouble in fording the Eangitaiki river, and two of Messrs E. Robertson and Co.'s horses were drowned. A ratepayer, resident .in Unionstreet, complains that the first notice of his rates being due which he re-, ceived was a demand for payment forthwith, and that he had to pay on. an increased assessment, of which, also he received no notice, and was therefore prevented from lodging an appeal against the same. A number of Ma sterton natives (reports the local "Star") laid in a stock lof victuals on Saturday, with the in- f j tention. of holding- a. big- "tangi' 5 overthe death of the Queen. They in-* dulged rather too freely in stimulants, and the police were called upon to assist them on their journey. Government tenders are called d$ advertisement in this issue until noon of Friday, the Bth March, for metalling four miles of road through the Te Eau-a-Moa improved farm settle* ment on the Pirpngia-Kawhia Road, nine feet wide, and 12 inches deep,' with metal. The overseer will point out the road to intending contractors on March, sth. Last week the Hons. Duncan! and McGowan, accompanied by Mr G. Mueller, Captain Turner, and others, left Rotorua by steamer for Hamurana, thence on to examine the out- . I let of Lake Rotorua at the Ohau stream, after which they proceeded to the Okere Falls, where, guided by ,Mr Fletcher, of. the Brush Electric Engineering Co., the electric light works, in course of construction were inspected. An astonished American gentleman", who witnessed the Commonwealth, celebrations in, Sydney, declared that "this is a great and glorious people, and there ain't no power on airtli' can keep them back. They are about as jakey a lot of civilised hijrh-rollers as air fidgeting about this planet, nnd although I ain't much in the prophet business, I will put up some dollars that they will make a noise in the word's history." News from Taupo states that the Government officials lately inspected the new bath-house erected by Mr Warbrick over the old A.C. bath, near Taupo township. A splendid new edifice has bee n built, and instead of one large bath as formerly, there are now two splendid baths aTailable at the moderate cost of nothing' except the trouble of -procuring one of tnT? keys from the Domain Board and returning it when bathing is finished. The oak cask which Professor Morris lately discovered at To^oga Buy. (East Coast), a place where Captain Cook was supposed to have landed in order to procure water, proves to be nn Illusion, so far as the oldtime navigator is concerned. An nsred native says the easTi; was put there in IS6S, when Te Tvoeti was raid- , ing the district. The natives left thefr pns, and went to live, at Cook*s povev., and Jt was they who placed the e^Wti there in order to collect water fron*. the spring. Just opened ex a.s, :Riirwtnkn. sicm in harbour, latest novelties in autumn dress sfeotiar—Smith and Caughev, Limited.—(Ad.)