TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 210, 3 September 1917, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

Ballot published to-day.' The time for subscription to the war loan expires at 5 p.m. to-day. The first units of the great air fleet planned by America have arrived safely in France. The Italian "bag" since the crjnrmence* ment of the Isonzo offensive is 720 officers and 26,481 men. A tremendous fire in the Riissian city of Kazan has killed and injured several thousand of the inhabitants. A five-roomed house at Waiuku, craned! and occupied by G. Sarsfield, was destroyed by fire on Saturday night. Robert M. Douglas, an elderly farmer, was killed by a at the IMatahuru Gorge, near Rangiriri, on Thvursdaj; last. French papers say that General Cadoraa believes that a severe defeat would force Austria to conclude a separate peace. „ .-*". The receipts to date from the "Paddy's Market " fair amount to _ 1927, with other amounts to come from the outside sale of tickets. ■? > It is reported in Washington that the Allies have agreed that measures to save. Russia can best be exercised through President -Wilson. British and Belgians have cleared another tract of country in the northern, region of East Africa, driving the Ger« mans southward. Numerous anti-conscriptioniats have been arrested in Canada. The .Government has announced that it will strictly enforce the law. A large vessel (a stranger) waa stranded outside Bluff Harbour, on Saturday night, but was towed off and berthed on Sunday morning. Four enemy mino sweepers -were driven ashore at Jutland by British light naval forces and. blown up by the explosion of mines aboard them. It is rumoured in Wellington tbat the Government's bill respecting the early closing of hotel bars, proposes that the hours be from 9a.m. to 7.30 p.m. _ On the Doiran and Vardar fronts, ia Macedonia, the British have been conducting .raids- and repelling counterattacks. The French and Serbians are also active. A report is current in Holland to the effect that the Germans are preparing to evacuate the coastal districts of Belgium before the winter sets in. Civilians are already leaving. .. ...'___ America has stopped, th_--_uppiy o£ grain to Holland on .the ground that-it-is-not required there. No grain will besuDTjlied to any of the northern neutralitill December L .Trench warfare, has been .almost tha. rule on the Palestine front since April;: though the Anzac and Imperial mounted troops have been used, to protect the British right flank. The American Shipping Board has contracteds for the' construction of threeshipyards, capable of turning out highepeed SQOtVton merchantmen at the rat* of one'iyery two days. .-;>. • . -,-*' A Rueeian official Teport states th** forty-enemy aeroplanes dropped ninety bombs on the warships and harbour, works at Riga, and that there is much ,na-Y_U'activi.ty off the coast. . '■-'"' The Brit—h Food controller has fixed ' maximum prices for butter,, and has limited the profit of distributors, (other than .importers). : to • 7/6". per cwt, and" those of retailers to 2Jd per lh.": An Italian .official estimate of the enemy's- losses during the recent offensive on the Isonzo is 100,000 men. The Italians have already stormed and captured fourteen .strongly-fortified mou_> tains." . - '." v .. •:--'■.