TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 93, 21 April 1902, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

Peace prospecfs hopeful. More Boers have been captured. Eenewed fighting has occurred in Belgium. The s.s. Tongariro has arrived here from London.

The outward 'Frisco mail leaves here next Saturday. Mr. Seddon was enthusiastically welcomed at Sydney.

The Socialist campaign in Belgium is believed to be "fizzling" out.

"The Gondoliers" will be performed at the Opera House to-night.

Another assassination by a Socialist student has occurred in Russia.

The new consols Joan in London nas been covered twenty fold, as was anticipated.

The American beef "ring" is now trying to establish a monster corner in eggs and other foodstuffs. An English mail of London date, March 14, arrived here last night by the s.s. Waikare from Sydney.

The plague in Sydney has spread to the unfortunate wallabies and other animals in the Zoological Gardens.

Mr. and Mrs. Liston Wilson, who have been on a trip to England, returned from Sydney by the Waikare last, night. The flagship Royal Arthur and H.M.S. Lizard spent last night in Coromandel Harbour, anchoring off Beeson's Island.

The Victorian Labour Commissioners took evidence to-day in Auckland. They had an interesting holiday at Rotorua last week.

The dog tax has already provided the ilorowhenua Maori "Council, in the Wellington district, with a. re* venue of nearly £300.

The Rrayton Grange, with the North Island Battalion of the Tenth Contingent, has called at Sydney. There were 48 stowaways on board.

The Belgian Chamber of Deputies has rejected the socialistic demands for the revision of the constitution, in the direction of universal suffrage.

Kruger's entourage are delighted with the temporary suspension of the peace negotiations. They say De Wet and Steyn caused the negotiations to fail.

Hiientenant Davenport, of the Royal Marines, arrived here from Sydney by the Waikare last night, and proceeds to Wellington to join H.M.s. Phoebe.

The American beef "trust" is now turning its attention to eggs, of which the enormous quantity of forty^five millions is stored away pending a rise in price. The Union1 Company's two big steamers Waikare and Mararoa are in port, the former having arrived from Sydney last night with 110 passengers for New Zealand ports. Mr. Seddon, at the banquet given in his honour in Sydney, protested against being used by New Zealanders as "an instrument of torture to pin-prick the Federal Government on various matters." fullest capacity in rushing maize on to the market to take advantage of the high prices now ruling. The Clansman yesterday brought up rom Tauranga a very large quantity of maize. ■ . As showing the costliness of insect pests (aays, the Poverty Bay "Herald"), a gentleman who is in tno very best position to form an estimate states that so far this season the caterpillars have eaten up between £6000 and £10,000 worth of linseed in the Poverty Bay district. A party of tourists recently returning across Foveaux Strait from Stewart Island (says a IXmedin paper) noticed a humble bee pass across the track pf their steamer at a distance of six miles from the Bluff. The sturdy little voyager had apparently set his compass for Dog Island. Is it not quite unusual for such an insert ■ to be found so far away from terra firma? The Hon. Mr Carroll (says the Gisborne "Times") has evidently not given up all hope of a trip to EngFand. Speaking to the Gisborne natives who recently went to Wellington to undergo examination for the Coronation Contingent, he remarked:. "I am sorry that you cannot be included in 'the.'present Contingent; but return to Gisborne and form a native mounted corps, and I will take you Home with one next March." A serious accident occurred at Rotorua last week to a young man in the .employ of Mr R. Griffiths, while driving two horses attached to a double-seated buckboard. The horses took fright and bolted down to the Priest Bath, where they turned off, passing' between two trees, the overhanging branches of which struck the driver on the head, and threw him to the ground. He was picked up, and medical aid obtained, when it was found that besides the head and face being severely lacerated, some injury to the base of the skull had occurred. The Source of the new water supply at Whangarei is the Borough Council's freehold property, containing 1636 acres, situated at the hiad of the Whau Whau valley, in the Pukenui Parish. This reserve is; covered with mixed bush, its valleys nnd rivulets are decked with ferns,, palms, and ever-green trees, while the ridges are crowned with varieties of valuable timber, thus making the reserve a valuable one for scenic .'as well as timber and water purposes. The water springs take their tftse in a range 500 feet above the sea level. "Every inhabitant of New Zea land (writes an English visitor, in the Wellington "Mail") should study geology in one form or another, as they possess such a gem of a country. I, who am only on a visit here from England, am enchanted. At every turn some new interest pre* sents itself, either in the effect of $ paroxysm, or of slow movement. There may not be for all the sam« excitement in exaonining rocks toi find out their history and composition as in looking for gold, but it, V an excellent hobby, which may lv, to valuable discovery for science airfT manufacture," a _._^ t