TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 65, 16 March 1916, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

It is a year ago to-day since tliS Dresden was sunk off. Chile. "." Shackleton is expected, hack from the Antarctic any day. now. in Hobart:... ,;, Competition is more general and' prices . are firmer at the London wool sales. _ The German mark has fallen 30 "per cent below its normal value in Copenhagen. Arrangements are.being made for the exchange of all British prisoners in Turkey. The indications are that the British Budget will show a surplus of £20,000,000. In spite of the four-days' lull at Verdun, the French are prepared for a renewal of the attack. A charge of arson against Mr. and Mrs. Haynes, in connection.with a fire at Napier, was. dismissed. German officers and guns hav£" been landed at Trebizond by r the Goeben, says a report from Athens. David Daniels, a married man, watt run over by a suburban train at. Avondale this morning and killed. Trooper Kelly, on final leave at Oamaru, from Trentham, was drowned while bathing in the Kakanui River. Portugal has no quarrel with Aus* tria, and has neither seized Austrian ships nor interned Austrian subjects. ' The War- Office is revising. the. Est of exempted trades at Home, and the„effect . will be to release a large .number of;.unmarried men. The Operative Baker's' Federation-■ "ft Australia wants day-baking made .universal throughout the Commonwealth from May 1 next. A party of 34 Auckland soldiers, who debarked at Dunedin from a transport, - are due home by the first express"' tomorrow morning. Hamburg's condition is deplorable. Poverty is widespread, and the port looks" deserted, so many shops and places •being closed. : . ' ' ".'. The City-Council is moving to have a clause inserted in its contracts prohibit- • ing the employment of enemy aliens on city-contract works."'"..'.'■' - ••>.- -..— J. " Great" Britain has'made- great 'strides in the jnatter.of :air.. defence, ibut..she' was .greatly handicapped by want, 'of engines for'the aeroplanes. There is an agitation in Switzerland for the removal of the German military attache, who is accused of being the organiser of a big spy system. -An old resident of Pahiatua named John Fitzgerald, aged 90. years, died" yesterday in the hospital-from dislocation • of the neck due to a trap accident.. Several of the officers connected with the withdrawal from Gallipoli 'lave been . decorated, included' among the number being General Godley, of New Zealand. There is reason to believe that the , trouble in Mexico is the work of Germans who wish to. keep America busy at home, and prevent her from Working for the Allies. . " •* i .It is expected that the race for the I America Oup will be held next year, says Sir Thomas Lipton. Shamrock iV. is - laid up i n New York,' and she is in ex- ' cellent order. _.'.■. ' » . • •; Manitoba will-probably carry prohibi- ... ~*!?P.Si ft? sa )e of liquor by three voces rto;;.t"n-6:^.%..result of yesterdays po'i. Every soldier who voted was in iavpljr of prohibition. » Mr. A. P. Whatman has given his • Ahitouka property, valued at £20.000, ,to the Wairarapa Wounded Soldiers' . Fund. The estate passes eventually to r the Salvation Army. ; A picture worth £1,000, in the Sydney Art Gallery,'was damaged by some person, the supposed reason for the iri3ane act being that the subject of the canvas was taken,from'!Faust."....; ,„. s . • The.Germans' chances- of _ breaking through the French defence at Verdun are very remote indeed, says Mr. Frederick Yilliers, the famous war correspondent, who "is in Australia oh a visit. Constantinople .reports say that the idea of an attack on Egypt has heen abandoned, but a feint will he made in order to induce England to keep Jialf-a-million men idle near the 1 CanaL