TABLE TALK. MOSTLY ABOUT PEOPLE, PLAYS AND BOOKS. (FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.) London, August 24.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 314, 7 November 1888, Page 3

TABLE TALK. MOSTLY ABOUT PEOPLE, PLAYS AND BOOKS. (FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.) London, August 24.

Dr. Charles Maokay, who wrote the words of •• Cheer, Boys, Cheer," and a whole host of songs that will live as long as the English language, is dying in poverty, whilst the author of "Two Lovely Black Eyes" is rolling in wealth. And yet people talk of discrimination of the great B.P. (British public) ! Now that every man's tongue is raised against Benzon, it may not be amiss to remember that he was always profusely generous to his relations and friends. He paid one cousin's debts to the tuneof £15,000, and whenever he had a stroke of luck, his larijessesto dependents wore royal in amount. What his valet made out of his discarded shirts and top boots the plunger never Move twice, I shouldn't like to s'uess, but I hear the man has started a fine business out of his earnings. The scene of the new Gilbert and Sullivan opera is laid in Norway (i.e. the Land of the Midnight Sun), and the action takes place in the reign of Gustavus Vasa during the revolt of the Darlecarlians and the miners of Falum. Rir A. Sullivan has for years made a special study of the Swedish folk, songs, etc., which have always strongly attracted him, and the result will be seen in this opera. Act I. will represent, the beautiful harbour of Hammerfest in Norway, and AcfclL the Aula of the University of Upsala. There are eleven principal* and the chorus will be seventy strong;. Gertrude Ulmar plaj-s the heroine. The two Broughton girls have always been so careful of their fair fame (never stirring abroad or receiving company at home unless accompanied by -'dear ma") that the rupture of the fair Phyllis's engagement with Loid Dangan some time since, fairly took " the profession's " breath away. At first Miss Phyllis's intention was to bring merely a nominal action for breach of promise against her recreant lover just so as to justify her reputation publicly. Subsequently, however, more prudential considerations supervened, and the solatium for her wounded heait was fixed at £20 000. I now learn that negotiations foi* a compi'ornise are processing, and that £15,000 or so is the sura now fixed by Miss Phyllis B rough ton's solicitors. Miss tfroughton lias recently 'espoused a wealthy general officer. The most important book of travel of the coming publishing season will undoubtedly be the "Last Voyage of Lady Brassey ' (which is being lavishly illustrated), and the most important biography •' Lord Westbury's Life." Most decent people will, 1 imagine, be sflad to learn that the enterprising publisher of the " unexpurgated " translations of Zola's novels has ac last been laid by the heels. Mr Vizetelly, who is a very clever man, conducts bis own defence at the Old Bailey. He proposes to prove by many hundreds of examples that the works of the greatest authors of aIJ epochs and nations (not forgetting our own Elizabethan dramatists) contain passages far stronger and more suggestive than any to be found in " Nana " or " An Terre." Moreover, he will quote in Zola's own 1 >nguage, the plan and motive of his series of works of fiction, of which the novels implicated fotm only a part, and show that the demand for realistic works in French \va* phenomenally large in England long before translation*, appeared. Wlv fchcr this ot special pie iding will weigh an iota with a middle-class jury of respectable men asrainst the fact that Vizetelly has been repeatedly warned that he would be prosecuted if he peisisted in making a feature of this class of book, remains to be seen. Personally I doubt it. The Senior Wrangler at Cambridge next year will veiy likely be a lady, anri a very charming lady to boot. Mis^ Millicent Fawcett is the daughter of the late Post-ma&ter-General, and inherit 5*5 * mo=tof his as well as of her clever mother's abilities. She studitd for a time under the champion ''crammer,' Mr Routh, in fact was his favourite pupil. When Mr Routh retired Miss Fawcett asked Mr Webb to take her on, but hi= conservative pi'inciplos would not admit of assisting towards anything po revolutionary as a lady senior wrangler. Your old friend J. K. Emmett, who is at present holiday-making in Europe, has just given Mr S. W. Smith, of Leeds, '600 sovereigns for his champion St. Bernard Kinlitnmon, which will in future appear with him in the perennial "Fritz." Emmett looks much becter than he did a few years back and lives very quietly. He is almost a teetotaller. A burlesque ot " She,"' by Mr Burnand, will be produced in November at the Strand Theatre. It ought to be srood. The subject offers grand opportunities. The Haymarket will be the first of the London theatres to reopen its doois for the autumn season Next Saturday has been fixer] for the premiere of the revised addition of Mr Haddon Chambers's "Captain Swift." Drury Lane follows suit on the 20fch prox. with a grand spectacular apropos drama in 5 acts and heaven knows how many tableaux, called "The Spanish Armada." We are promised at least three big sensatiou scenes, an auto-da-fe in Spain, from which the heroine is rescued by the prowess of her lover ; a naval battle in Calais Road, and the historic game of bowl 6 and sighting of the Armada from Plymouth Hoe. The " Pall Mall Gazette *' has resolved to follow French example, and will, in future, publish a portion of a story by some highclass author in each issue. " Dr. Palliser's Patient," which has been running through the " Budget," opens the ball, Ouida's new novel " Guilderoy '" has been purchased by the Messrs Tillotson for serial publication in the provincial weeklies. This is quite a surprise, as "Obhmar" in its serial form was a dead failure. A ghastly sanguinary murder story is what the B.P. really likes best. A news-agent told us the other day that " A Modern Ishmael, or The Adventures of Charles Peace," in the Sheffield " Weekly Telegraph," raised the circulation of that journal to nearly 30,000.

Grown* Lani> Settlement. — A parlianienrnentary return shows that between the 31sO March and the 31st December last year, the following number ot people settled on State lands :— Cash land, 211 : deferred payment, 184 ; perpetual lease, 189 ; small areas, 1 ; agricultural leases, 10 ; village settlement (cash), 43 ; village settlement (deferred payment), 101 ; village homestead special settlement, 407 ; special settlement associations, 70; homestead. 17 ; 'mall grazing leases, 19. Of these, Auckland province has much the largest total of any province (389), as,, follows: -Cash lands, 71 ; deferred payment, 17 ; perpetual lease, 28 ; village homestead special settlements, 236 ; special settlement associabions, 20 ; and homestead 17. Visitor: •' Do you love the piano?" Lady: " No, 1 prefer death by electriciry. •A- P u PPy's joke is n<st very funny, but there is something waggish about a dog's tail.