TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 198, 20 August 1915, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

The llotha Testimonial Fund clo.-e3 to-day. ; Part of Kovno is still in the _an_- of the Prussians. The death ..:' cardinal Vannutclli is announced from Home. To-day is the first anniversary of 'lie general "ofvttpation of Brussels l.\ :hc I I ieruiaiis. I 'Tin- (simstantinnple branch started by Krii|i|i- is turning unr. two thousan.l, shells .1 .lay. Useful rains nay,- fallen in the N.S.W. coastal districts, ami the prwpocu for crops i.r- good. 'Ihe crews nl the Zeppelins which recently raided England wen- entertained al Ham.i>ur<_ rtn.l feted. During toe eleven days the Hermans were attar-kin., the Kovno forts tney j lost .1 tremendous number of men. Alter the war Germany intends to flood foreign markets with cheap goods in nr.ler to "ret back the trade she has lost. •Krin 11. Heath, who escaped from a, prison camp on Tuesday, wa? recaptured near Wanganui yesterday after a c.lia~c. A lion 1- '! i~s been appointed in Xew South "Wales to incjuire into patents lik.-ly to be useful in connection with the war. About five hundred sick" and wounded Ne.t Zealanders arc returning by the transport Tahiti, which left Suez on August 7th. •1. t'. MeClenegfaan. a post, office official at Wavorle.v. was <or_mittexl for trial yesterday on charges of theft of Savings Hank money. Germany's unscrupulous tactics in endeavouring to mould feeling in the l'nited States are being exposedandcondemned in the American "Press. The latest news from Sydney respecting i>r. IL W. Cleary. Roman Catholic P.isliop of Auckland, is to the effect that li it-, recovery is now assured. A man named Nicholas Maddren was yesterday sentenced to a month's imprisonment at Wellington for the theft ..f butter from the Trentham camp. Advice- from Washington confirm the report that there is not likely to be much opposition in the United States to the declaration of cotton a.s contraband. A portion of the new scholarships bo ing established in connection •with the public schools in New South Wales will l.c il-'totcd exclusively to the children ol fallen -oldicrs. liecruititig is progressing satisfactorily in Australia. Numbers of men over the lighting age arc offering, and tho attthorities arc considering the subject of accepting them. Tiie oversea- arrivals in Xew Zealand hist month numbered 17_3. as acra'n-l, _."..->4 the previous July: while the departures for the same corresponding periods wer.- 2110 and _651. The measles cases a t the isolation hospital are daily decreasing. i)n» case came in from the Maori camp \v— terday. and three patients were discharged, leaving lt*> cases in hand. Regarding the complaints of delays in delivering the mails to the troops in Kgypt. Keuter's correspondent at Alexandria describes the method employed, and says there is as little delay as possible. 1; will probably be seven or eight weeks before the regular shell output from the Australian factory starts. The heads of the ironworks state that they have already manufactured suitable shell steel. Owing to the disclosures in connection with the tampering with scales at several racecourses, the X.S.W. Government has decided that in future licenses will be refused unless the floors of the weighing rooms arc concreted. Tiie Germans have .been losins such vast numbers of men by their system of rushing attacks that they have temp"t>rarilv abandoned that method, says a Petrograd message, and have been relying more on their artillery. The Royal Edward, which was torpedoed by a < lerman submarine in the. Aegean Se.i was formerly used at. a. prison for interned Germans at Southend. Then she was used to bring Canadian troops over to Tvo-gland. The latest outrage of international law by ".he German subarines is the seizing of the mails of a Norwegian steamer All remittances were taken, and matter intended for countries at war with Germany were thrown overboard. The authorities in Hawera district arc bavins, difficulty with the natives . there, owing to the Maoris endeavouring to preserve the old burial customs in cases where patients have died of enteric fever, and increasing risk of infection snrcadin_. The Isle of Man still enjoys its inde- ) pendeiiee. A motion suggesting that the British (Government be asked to .annex the island to Lancashire owing to the bankruptcy brought about by the absence of the tourist traffic, was thrown c out by the House of Keys, c Major Denton tells a story of an '• Australian who threw a sandbag on a n shell that fell into a trench. The colo- ., nial was blown into the air. and when , he came down unhurt the officeT remonstrated with him. " I didn t want to <et> all you poor blighters killed." replied th. Australian. A neutral traveller who has been on n visit to Germany says the country is thinking as one man. with only one I bought—war. The arrogance and insolence of the Germans is most marked, nnd when travellers leave the country iltey experience much the feelings of a ,7 release from orison. - A petition for the resumption of ihe old hours of closing his been presented to tho Assembly by tho Adelaide Corporation, the ground of the reouert beimr that the vote in the Adelaide . I'strict was overwhelmingly in fa yon- of roLvning eleven ..'clock. The vote for the whole State favoured six o'clock closimr.