TABLE TALK

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 168, 29 July 1901, Page 1

TABLE TALK

'Frisco mail due. Fine weather at last. Waikare arrived from Sydney. Ben Viljoen's commando has beeu routed.

The Governor of Fiji is en route to England.

The s.s. Maraoa leaves for Sydney this evening.

The racing sire Fitzsimon has arrived from England.

"The Flying Dutchman" at the Opera House to-night.

Mr Percy Dix returned from a bust* ness visit to Sydney to-day.

St. Paul's Church celebrated its diamond jubilee yesterday. The Shamrock 11. has commenced her voyage across the Atlantic. Germany's new tariff is framed for the greater protection of farmers.

Three more New Zealanders have accepted commissions in Imperial regiments.

A tailor makes 15/ a week in Germany; he earns £1 5/ in England, and x 2 18/ in New York.

Miss Trow and Carrel, the guide of the ill-fated Matter horn accident, had miraculous escapes.

A new term of the Electrical Engineering and Training Institute commences on Tuesday- next.

Mr. Chamberlain has ordered the suspension of Sir G. O'Brien's ordi* nance pending investigation.

The Tyser s.s. Tcvmoana suffered some damage by bu'niping the bottom while lying at anchor in Poverty Bay. Lord Salisbury announced in the House that the probable addition to King Edward's title will be King of the British Dominions Beyond the Seas. , ' s A miner -named Chas. Kidd was injured in the Kurunui-Caledonian' mine on Saturday, a fall of mullock striking him on the hip, fortunately without breaking the bone.

The s.s. Pakeha, which arrived from London on Saturday night, met with a succession of westerly gales across the Southern Ocean, and had only three fine days between the Cape and Tasmania.

Cecil Rhodes, though a physically big man, possesses a thin voice, which is nearly always pitched in a high key. 'In conversation he ia jerky, and hardly ever fluent. He is a man who, above all things, hates conventionality.

Mr, T. Peddie, of Napier, has received a letter from his son, who is now in the Transvaal Constabulary, stating- that in Pretoria early last month fresh butter was selling for 8/ per lb, fresh meat for 1/6 to 2/ lb, and that a decent meal was costing the frequenters of the hotels between 6/ and 8/. ■

"Your wife isn't one of those women who want to put a husband in the background and make him stay there." "No, indeed!" "Is she trying to make you prominent?" "Yes; she is goingl to' deliver a lecture to her club on how to manage husbands, and she wants me to come up on the platform and be an example."

, So much dissatisfaction has been expressed at i^e, present method of voting for members of the Education Boards by school committees that a meeting of chairmen and members has been called for Tuesday evening at 7.30 in the Wellesley-street school: room, when the so-called "ballot" will be criticised and an amendment to the present law suggested to Parliament. It is hoped that every committee will be represented.

In one of the rooms of Cecil Khodes' house at Capetown stands a model of the public baths, which he is having built, and which, when completed, he intends to present to the people of Kimberley, in commemora; tion of the siege. They are to be of Boman design, and will be constructed of white marble, with avenues of trees guarding each approach. The estimate cost is £40,000, but is is expected that the actual cost will far exceed that amount. V ,

Sir Joseph Ward and Sir John McKenzie have (says a Southern paper) to pay a pretty penny in fees for their K.C,M.G.-ships, and it is safe to say that there will not be much change for them out of £ 100. The Crown Office gets fees from eafeh, newly-created Knight totalling £5S 10/, the Home Office demands a mod-« est £7 13/6, the patent stamp cost £30, the warrant stamp cost 10/, and the docquet stamp the nimble florin. So that they, are not called Sir Joseph, and Sir John for nothing.

A very pleasing incident took place on Saturday last at the Pioneer Factory, Strand Arcade, when Misa Gillespie the forewoman, was present^ ed by her fellow-workers with a handsome tea service, and by Mrs Orpwood, the proprietress, with a beauti: ful silver teapot on the occasion of her leaving prior to her marriage. Miss Kelly in a few well-chosen words made the .presentation on behalf of the employees and Mrs Orpwood on behalf of his wife. Miss Gillespie suitably replied thanking the donors for their beautifnl presents. A French magazine gives an interesting account of the marriage methods of New Zealand girls. "In New Zealand," says the writer, "where the young girls are as robust as the men, a serious struggle takes place between the lover and his sweetheart^ and it is only after several hours of conflict, during which the clothes aro torn to shreds, that the would-be husband succeeds in carrying away hia consort into his hut. If he should be worsted in the desperate fight, thfc wedding is off —never will $, New Zealand girl consent to marry a man who lacks the bravery and the strength to be victorious in battle."

Kipling, says Colonel Mackay, who has returned to Sydney from South Africa, hopes to come out to Australia before very long, as he wants to have a thorough look at it and its people. He professes to be very muclt ashamed of having written "The Ab-sent-minded Beggar," but as it ha-p; brought £125,000 to aid the object for which it was written, I think he may be forgiven. Strange to say, he and Sir Arthur Sullivan met, for the first time, when the latter undertook to write the music for Kipling's verses. He told me that one of his most painful experiences was the fact that every, boy who passed his house, and every tradesman who brought' anything1 to it, whistled "The Absentminded Beggar" as a delicate compliment to its author.