TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 66, 17 March 1908, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

St. Patrick's Day—bank holiday. NgiiTiiawahia, Regatta proceeding-. Sir Joseph. Ward -will be in Aueklanl again for the end of the week. Latest bulletin states-that the l-itna < Minister's weakness is considerable. China has apologised to Japan for thflj seizure of the Tatsu Maru off Macao-l The Prime Minister has invited the American Pacific fleet to visit New Zealand. i Socialists are strongly attacking Mr. John Burns for his attitude in opposing I the (Labour) Unemployed Bill. Lady PJunket is actively working in Wellington as in Auckland on behalf of j the movement for the improved feeding of infants. Mob at Finnevalley, in India, burned | and attacked various public buildings. The police fired and killed four of their number. Mrs. Robinson has been committed foe trial in London. The latest evidence in« eluded the testimony of Detective i-ade, of Christchurch. The Mount Eden Borough Council passed a resolution in favour of amalgamation with the city as a means of carrying out the drainage scheme. - Appalling revelations of corruption have been made in Pennsylvania, where five State officialayrhave swindled thei treasury to the extent of £1,800,000. A bill has been introduced in the-Rus-sian Duma, for the construction of a, second line on the Siberian Railway. The total cost is estimated at £ 15,732,000. An inquest is being held this afternoon in regard to the death of David Ernest Forrest, the young man who .took •his life under such sad circumstances' on ; Sunday night. ; British Columbian Asiatic Restriction - Act has had the effect, through the unrealised . width of its scope, of-shutting out a desirable German because he earn* from Australia. A New York coalman, mistaking a, sewer manhole for the coal shoot of a house, emptied two tons of coal into it. He was arrested for violating a cor- ' poration by-law. * • The Westport Harbour Board resolved . to take steps to have a Loan. Bill passed next session of Parliament for £200,000 for harbour improvements. _-Itjs proposed to procure one or two 1000-ton suction-dredges.-- — ■ -J, '■'.'■■ '" A;.case,.wMcht has dragged through the Courts of Massachusetts for 122 years, has at length been closed in the; Probate Court.' It concerned the es-tates-of creditors of i. Boston merchant who died in 1786. ' Stated that Mr. Lloyd-George (President of the Board of Trade) and Mr. Win? stoa Churchill (Under-Secretary for tne Colonies) are inclining towards the nationalisation of the railways and 'canals as a Bet-off: to protection. \ V 1; -, The express from Scarborough to Hull •: crashed into a horse and cart at a level crossing near Bndlingjion, killing the driver,-David ;ttxoji, and the animal. The express .'had a one! of the carriages. \e^vingiihje_r^_ls,..hut - -- gaining- them after ,100yd_.. • .^ Mexico' City reports *' that.three guano:,-islands off the 'coast oflYiic&izn: ■bhedf the -States of __exiciai' ' ■ have disappeared beneath the waves byvolcanic action during the past few days! '-. jThe islands contained very- rich deposits, and the loss to the owners is - heavy.-. '-■; ■''.'. •!■■' At a meet of the Croombe hounds a fox," which had escaped on two previous occasions, .was put up. He was hard pressed, when suddenly,, the scent .was' .'--'■ lost. 'It was found .that the .fox hai entered a market garden in which soot had been strewn, and had foiled himself in.- the soot -in ■. order to destroy the' ■ SCeiitr-- 7 "-;.*-.-.'" -; ...i:!. . . ' The!"Gen_ah-TBud"get"TCommission .had/ passed a bill setting aside a fund of nearly £100,000 for.. organising a motor-car transport for tho army. The bill provides that tha Government will pay an annual subsidy; to owners 1 of the machines and to manufacturers who keep a certain number in stock. 7'V -' . Disorder and confusion are.everywhere, in Russia. All are convinced that a radical change is imperative. Still, wa do not move, and disorder redoubles. For a- time we were "led by those, who wanted to lift .us slap-dash into the twenty-fifth century. Now/our destiny is in the hands of others, who would liks to force us back- into the sixteenth.—• "Slovo," St. Petersburg. i"