TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 10, 11 January 1918, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

Mr. Hughes' old Ministry lias been sworn in without alteration."' „ The Wellington gasworks dispute has been settled, by a Conciliation Council. An Auckland barmaid was fined £35 yesterday for betting as a bookmaker. The British Labour party has issued a, manifesto ■ supporting iir. .Wilson's programme. ' j" The final figures for the conscription, i referendum in Australia give ">\o" a majority of 104,895 votes. British newspapers are at present brief lin comment on Mr. Wilson's speech, but J generally express approval. I A Finnish deputation has left ' for ,- England to influence Britain to recognise the Finnish Republic. The Wellington municipal clearinghouse system of milk supply proved a failure on its inauguration on Wednesday. The British mercantile marine lost IS j large vessels and three smaller ones by jßubmarine attack last week. Four fishing boats were also sunk. A religious objector, Arthur E. Johns, who escaped from Eotoaira prison camp on Tuesday, was re-captured at Raurimu yesterday.The German submarine which sank the hospital ship Rewa deliberately used the illuminated Red Cross as a target, .the torpedo passing clean through it. . There is a movement among Freemasons to provide a fund for the maintenance of one. hutment or more in France for the soldiersf , * 'The 'Portuguese Government is taking energetic measures. against the Democrats, whom, it declares, aims at regaining power forcibly. A German officer taken prisoner says that Germany's internal situation would ■compel her to risk another Verdun and a possible disastrous peace this year. The hospital chip Rewa sank in 79 minutes, and within two hours all. the 550 persons aboaTd had ibeen picked up, save three Lascars, who were probably killed in the ■ explosion. ' The Germans are extending the submarine zone to take in an area between tho Cape. Verde Islands and ■ Dakar, on the adjoining African, coast. The Azores zone is also extended' to Madeira. The "Daily Mail" states that a group of British textile workers,' after two years •of • hazards, has secured the secret recipes of the German dye. monopoly. • . I The references in Mr. Wilson's speech to freedom of the seas and post-war trade equality are regarded as an explanation of the; sudden slump on Wall Street. A Christchurch. hotel proprietor is claiming £I,OOQ damages from the Canterbury Licensed Victuallers' Association and other's for alleged stoppage of supplies of local' ale, beer and stout. "A tumult" occurred at a Berlin meetingowing to a Reichstag deputy 'declaring *1f the German nag is not hoisted in Handera for ever, we shall have lost the war." Dissentients broke up the meeting. ~■. -....-.. ._ M. Kerensky is drafting a report for the •Constituent Assembly explaining "why he refrained, from peace 'negotiations, sent the Czar to Tobolsk, and the causes of the downfall of lis own Government.