THE NELSON SYNAGOGUE.

(Contributed.)

In the sixties of the last century life in Nelson was more varied than in these days. The city was then, to a large extent, the focus of traffio to and from tne busy gold-mining* districts of the West Coast and Golden Ba.y, and it was no uncommon thing for two or three hundred steamer passengers to be delayed here for some days while awaiting an opportunity to proceed on their way. This meant busy times for our shopkeepers, and many a fetore now deserted or removed was then an active centre of profitable trade. Among those attracted; to the town were-a small colony of Jews hailing mainly from the large Australian cities and endowed wfEh all the commercial keenness usual to their race. They increased to the number of about thirty or forty, •'"besides women and childlen," and, in accordance .with, tha injunction of their faith, set about building a Synagogue. In this" good work they were assisted by the financial aid of many Christian neighbours, including, it is .said, a personal subscription from a broadminded bishop. The opening ceremony was attended by a number of tho general public, as well as by the Hebrew community. The district rabbi, who in addition to his spiritual duties, dabbled in photography, was a thick-set genial man widely esteemed for his upright character. On Saturday mornings the passer-by mi»;hl hear unctuous trollings of the love-songs of Solomon or of the imprecations of David and later the congregation emerged refreshed: and fitted again to contmue the congenial and unending task of spoiling the Egyptians. Alas! The archmc scale of the Hebrew chant which carried the listener back to remote ages, long since gave place to the" obscene oounds of the ill-played bombardon. Coleridge says :—s'The wedding-guest here beat his breast, for he heard the loud bassoon." This is quite intelligible but if the impatient guest had chanced +«o hear our embryonic bandsmen at the Synagogue he would undoubtedly have bteaton his ■brclast much harder and longer. J.u is credibly related that two Irish diggers naused to scrutinize tho inscription over the portal of the House of Israel, when the following conversation toqk place :— "Now, Mike, it's the scholar ye are. What's that?" "Be jaberfe." said Mike "I dunno, butt, if had my flute, I could play ut." As the gold rushes died down, the' Jewish colony dwindled, and after indulging at times in the sport of kiteflying on the Nelson Rialto, followed by instances of judicious bankruptcy, tihe Israelites mostly migrated again, many returning to Australia. One of them, hearing the Jews were returning to Palestine, expressed the inifention of going to Jerusalem and buying up

corner sections. Occasionally foreign Jews of proncunced type, mostly wayfarers to and from the goldfieldsj would appear on the Sabbath at the Synagogue in their best.froggod coats and with well-oiled curls hanging over their cars. .We have lost a picturesque element in iho departure of the tribes of Moses and Lovi, Cohen and Solomon, to say nothing of such gorgeous foreigners as Funkelstein and Goldwasser.

Ichabod! IchiaJbod! The passqvor cake is now represented in our midst by the watier-biscxiit and the Temple, of Jehovah has become a cock-shy for the passing urchin. There is no longer even to be found an Israelite willing to pay his Lord the comel imont of decently removing the remains of His House.