TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 308, 29 December 1902, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

Outward .'Frisco mail this week. i The English cricketers left for Taranaki; this afternoon, Mr.Chamberlain had a most enthusiastic reception at Irarban. - The. barques Clan . MeLeod and Kathleen Hilda have/ arrived here irom Newcastle. • The Powers interested have agreed to the Venezuelan dispute beiiig '■__- ierred to the Hague Tribunal. j The British Government has acceptted the offer of a Boer contingent for the Somaiiiand campaign. An English mail of London date November. 21 is to hand to-day by the the s.s. Mararoa from Sydney. ' Mr Seddon arrived at Cliristchureh from Wellington yesterday, and was ■to leave for the West Coast to-day. It is. now reported that twenty .thousand people lost their lives through recent terrible earthquakes in Russian Turesktan.'

Two hundred and forty passengers, most of them for Auckland, came over from Sydney by the steamer Mararoa, which arrived here j'ester■day. ', ,!;..:■ . ~..'.,, ...;;

I A. dividend of £ 125. .16/ was paid on one'of the races (Second Hack' Handicap) at the Dunedin races, on Saturday, ,by. a horse called -Buluwayo. The investments on the. totalisator were only £2. ', .- ■ ~ r _?■' -'i

...It is rumoured in Wellington that anattempt is likely to be-m'sde to repeal the women's' fraiichise 'legislation in order, to, in some measure, weaken the prohibition vote in , the •colony.,; ...

Mr William Ward,'a Raglan (West Obast) 'settler, aged 94, after haying Christmas dinner" with, a neighbour, William Lumber, went to sleep on a w.ofa, and when.called for tea Was found dead. A vCrdict of death from Iriatural' causes' was returned- at. the ;inquest. " . * '■':'''" ''

Some observers are (says the "Taranaki Herald") anticipating a: Warm summer.this year. They base their belief on the, unusual Wealth of blooms noticeable on the. flax and.cabbage, trees, i The free, flowering, of these plants is said to presage a hot season/ •••-.. The annual shark fishing expedition of.the Maori owners of Mayor Island (Tuhua), in the.' Bay of Plenty, is about to take £lace from Katikati, Where they now permanently reside, to the island. This event generally; comes off in January and results in a supply of dried shark being obtained sufficient to provide for all requirements for a twelvemonth. ■

I The Wairoa ; geyser at, Wbakarewarewii was induced • to;, perform on Christ._ias Bay,' and jfave a -magnificent display, witnessed by hundreds ofpeqple. A number, in order to obtain'wha* they considered the finest' view of the first disbharge of the geyser, mounted some rock's adjacent and a__H" 'share of the water, 'Wsi^9aT.'£, A i ■~;.; :\ . While' proceedipg to a , ,t.ngi'hpld. '.oyer; the "late: ,Haeate, ; hr "the, . ,** tiik "• Tsioi' -eh ief ' Maihi Te Ka|.J> : ofV'K<>l.h., Radian, was thrown from his horse last Wednesday, and rendered insensible. He was -taken to the residence "of W-aUis-' Bros., Okete, where he on Friday night. At the inquest a, verdict ; of. accidental' death was returned; A member of the Tuhoe tribe, who inhabit the mountainous regions of the.Urewera Country, writes to th«. Rotorua' paper as-- follows:—"Oh■friend, can you inform us the reason why work is not given to the Maori people of Maungapohatu, that is, the members of the Tuhoe, tribe? Wo have neither clothes, nor food, nor money to procure thes_ and it is yet three months before our harvest is ready, and we hot how we and the little ones are to exist in tha , meantime." * .' During, last week a large number of trout have been taken at the different streams in the Rotorua district. At Okere and Ohau, Mr O'Callaghan has made fine baskets Averaging forty; pounds daily.:'. One. gentleman at Okere secured a nine and a quarter pound fish. The fishing at, Atiamuri. on the Waikato Rivei. has been particularly good. Mr Morton caught some good j fish, the largest- being twelve and a, half pounds. Some very fine iontanalis have also been secured; these fish must have been carried from Tahuna-a-tara creek,.which runs into the Waikato abote Atiamuri. In the Upper" Waikato, above Lake Taupo, Mr de Uatour'has had some very good sport. The largest fish taken weighed sixteen pounds. A number of anglers who have returned from Galatea, exareas • themselves,".s,- delighted with' : I»tf' Country. HambM*,easels fo. 'photos,. 2d each, ! _i^"f^*|l v?^h;'Ve xtra la .gepijlyj