TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 37, 12 February 1904, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

I Moiv; good news. f Pank- at Port Arthur. V j "Old Chums" meet to-night. ' Japs taking all before them. Japanese have occupied Seoul. Unh'ersity Council meets to-day. Horticultural Show at Avonclale today. Melanesiaii Mission mass meeting to-night-Germans will be signatories to the American Note. Russian soldiery at Port Arthur getting out of band. Waihi Company declared its 44th. J dividend of 2/6. j Auckland tennis championship matches J proceeding slowly. Papakura Racing Club's summer meeting to-morrow. Jurors for civil sittings are discharged from attendance. Transvaal Chinese ordinance passed by Cape Parliament. America lias sent a warship to restore order in San Domingo. Prices at Otahuhu sheep fair about 25 per cent, above last year's. Governor bids farewell to Urewera natives at Ruatoki on March 15. Japs destroyed a bridge on the Manehurian raihvay, killing thirty Russians. A big Russian force is marching on Seoul, which is occupied by the Japanese. A full account of the naval fight offi Western Corea appears in our eablee to-day. Autonomy question discussed for the third time by Synod without reaching the division. Russian officers at Port Arthur are accusing Alexeieff of being " ; a drawingroom commander.'' The Waihi G.M- Co. has paid and declared £1,315.396 in dividends out of a' total output of £3.202,564. The Russian administration notifies that private telegrams over the Port Arthur cable cannot be accepted. Dunedin is taking energetic steps to raise a large sum for the Veterans' Home by a military bazaar and display. Northern section nf tiie Trunk railway expected to be pushed from Taumaranui to Piriaka by the end of the month. Increase of imports into New Zealand (luring 1903 over the previous year I amounted to nearly a million and ai half sterling. Treasurers' conference agree that Slate debts should be taken over by Commonwealth, subject, however, to certain conditions. "Would you like to live near a rifle range?" asked counsel at the Supreme Court this morning. "Yes, very much," replied Colonel Davis. A movement is on foot (says the Hawera "Star") to induce the 'Government to acquire the farm belonging to the estate of the late Mr FanthTani for small settlement purposes, and possibly for use as a small stud farm. Hop-picking is general in the. 2selson district this week. The yield is expected to be about 300 bales short of the average this seas.on. The red spider •4tas juade its appearance in several of the gardens. ■ Farmers expected a "boom' , year in prices, but are pointed--1 A petition is to be presented to the ! Governor praying for the release of MakwKai, the young Maori who murdered an old man named Stephen Malony in the New Plymouth Recreation Ground in IS9O. The Executive Council commuted his death., sentence to imprisonment for life. . ' .' There is in Japan—or was — a bank called the '"Russo-Chinese Bank," organised under the Imperial decree of December 10th. 1895. It has a capital of lo : 000,000 roubles, of which the Chinese Government has contributed five* million Kiiping taels. The reserve fund of this bank is over two million roubles, and the special reserves nearly equal that sum. The head office is at St, Petersburg. i Our great summer clearance fair now proceeding. Every article reduced to! "bona-fide™ clearance prices. Smith. Bad! Caughey, Ltd. —Ad. ~