TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 243, 13 October 1902, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

'Frisco mail dxie to-morrow. The King has returned to London. S.s. Eling-amite arrived from Sydney to-day. The new railway time-table came into,force to-day. Another Irish M.P. has been sent to gaol under the Crimes Act. The steamer Zealandia arrived from Southern ports early this moming. Mr J. If. Witheford, M.H.K., has returned from Wellington by way of the West Coast. Serious strike riots have occurred in Geneva, the streets having- to be cleared by the military. The. Governor is at -present on a visit to Napier to inspect a site offered for the Veterans' Home. A policeman has been shot dead at Melbourne by a man w>hom he was ■endeavouring" to arrest. The murderer then committed suicide. . A rumour is current in Paris that Turkey has agreed to allow Russia a warships .to pass through the Dar-. danelles, but not those of.any other Power. Mr James Stewart, C.E., has.arrived at Itotorua in connection with the laying' flown of the permanent levels of Itotorua, which work will be proceeded with at once. , Bishop Wilson, of Melanesia, has arrived from Sydney by the Elingamite. He sails hence for Norfolk Island and Melanesia by the mission yacht Southern Cross this week. Trout fishing" commences next month. Fish are. said to be plentiful in all the streams around Rotorua, and at Okoroire, Atianrnri and Galatea good sport is obtainable. H.Jf.s. .Penguin is at present at work surveying the coast in the Bay ci Plenty. Last week she was at Matata. taking soundings at the entrance to the river, and was afterwards engaged at^work off Whale Island. Regarding the new railway time-table between Auckland and Rotorua the. Rotorua "Chronicle" says:—"On all sides complaints are. forthcoming regarding the inconvenient time at. w-hich the arrival and departure of the trains have been fixed, but the department turns a deaf ear to all entreaties for a change." The round trip from Rotorna by way of Wairoa, Tarawera, Rotomahana and Waimangu is expected to be a favourite outing with tourists during the coming season. The spice of danger attending the .pull across Rotomahana in boiling water will give a zest to the performance. A track has been foi'med between Tarawera and Rotomahana, and it is intended to have a trial trip before the season opens. ■■■■■■• While felling the forest on the land taken uip by Mr George, at the back of ; Hainurana, Eotorua, lately, the workmen came across a. very old native, pa that must date back to the very early' dayi of the Maoris. Imnvtdiately under -the pa, wJwch is built* on the edge of a very geep gully,' 15" ai large-cave or >Qc)|.r^Jaelter capable of holdmg a large number of people, possibly the whole garrison of .the pa> The natives living in the vicinity were not aware of the existence of a pa in the locality. Seals were supposed to be extinct in this part of the colony, but, according to a report which came to hand to-day from Tauranga, there are still some in existence in the Bay of Plenty. One day last week a party about to land at Mount Maunganui, at the entrance to Tauranga harbour, observed a seal basking in the sun on the rocks lying right above high water mark. The creature was about six feet long". As soon as it perceived that strangers were coming- it waddled over the rocks and plunged into deep water. The same, or possibly a mate, was subsequently seen basking- on the surface of the water in Pilot Bay.