DUNEDIN"

Bruce Herald, Volume VI, Issue 380, 16 August 1871, Page 5

DUNEDIN.

(From our own correspondent.)

The event ot the past week has been the centenary of Sir Walter Scott's birthday. Why this celebration should have taken place on the 9th instead ot ihe 15th August I cannot tell. So far as I can learn, there is no doubt, or at all events no reasonable doubt as to the 15'h having been the date on which the great Sir Walter was born. The only reason I have yet seen for substituting the 9th for the 15th, is that it better suited the sportsmen of England, who wanted to be ofr' to the grouse shooting and who could not delay that engagement even to celebrate the natal day of one of Scotia's greatest sons. We have no grouse shooting here, so that reason could not influence us at all, we, however, have to follow the lead of the great folks at home, and do as they did, f-eling all the force of the sentiment that we might as well be out of the world as out of the fashion. There were two distinct entertainments given here, in Dunedin, in honor of Scott's centenary. _?irst, was the great dinner of the great folks in Murray's Hottd, and secondly, the tea and concert of the — shall I say "great unwashed. 5 ' in the Masonic Hall, both being followed by a ball, where was all the joy and gladness found, where

" Youth and pleasure meet To chase glowing hours with flying feet." I hear a number of ladies in Dunedin were highly offended by the arrangements of the " Celebration Committee," as the gentlemen who charged themselves with the first entertainment delighted to call themselves, by which they were precluded from participating in the pleasure derivable from an intelligent review of the life, times, and Writings of Sir Walter Scott. I deeply sympathise with the ladies in this *»atter. I before expressed my opinion oi the unsuitability of a dinner, at which only gentlemen who could afford to pay 20s for a few hours' entertainment, could be present, and from which ladies were, of course, excluded, as a mode of celebrating the centenary of the author of the * Heart ot Midlothian " and the • Lady of the Lake.' What sort of a conceprion of the character and genius of Sir Walter Scott, the Celebration Committee can have is somewhat of a puzzle to me, and the idea they have of the intellects and the hearts of the gentler sex, cannot be of the most exalted character, when they exclude then, from anv participation in " the feast of reason* and the flow of soul," and invite them to the lighter and less exalted and refining gailties of the Dall-room. The speeches at the dinner were good, specially those of Mr Bathgate, Major Richardson* and Professor Sale; but none of them, to my fancy, were equal to the occasion, and the whole affair was wanting in that warmth and enthusiasm which one looks for on such occasions. This was too doubt largely owing to the absence of the ladies* and a growing conviction in the minds of many present of the utter absurdity of the old and barbarous habit of toast drinking. When men have come the length of discarding the u generous Wine*'' and have begun to toast oneanother in toast and -yater and Cold tea* specially provided to imitate the P.B. or rhe sherry, it is time the absurd and antiquated habit was given up entirely-. The celebration by the _3unedin Mutiial Improvement Society, in the Masonic Hall) was most popular and proved a

fyiumphanr success; There was, certainly,] 'tio lack of enthusiasm there. Every one 1 apparently went with the determinarion . of enjoying themselves to the utmost, and 'every one seemed to «ucceed in their purpose. So far as its bearing on the centenary went, the feature of the evening wa. ! the delivery of an address by Mr j. W ; Jago, on the genius of Scott's writings. This was an admirable production, and as worthy the great subject, as that any of the great men at the dinner. There must have been from three to four hundred present, and the whole thing was very creditable to the Association by which it was managed. It is proposed to form a scholarship in the University, in honor of the Scott's centenary to be called Scott's Scholarship. This is a proposal which will, I think, commend itself to all classes of the com mnn'ty, and I trust the necessary fui V will be soon subscribed.

Mr Bathgate's meeting, on Monday, was as noisy as enthusiastic in support of the liberal policy of the present Government as heart could wish. Again the squatoerats have sustained a defeat, their endeavors to injuire the policy of Bathgate and party have returned on their own beads, the only result being that our Provincial Solicitor, will go to Wellington with the eclat, arising from a successful publio meeting giving a very decided testimony of approval of that policy with whioh he is identified.

Affairs in High-street are not so healthy as they have been in times gone bye, and Henrv Driver has for " private reasons " resigned his seat in the Assembly and Provincial Council ; but offers himself fbr reelection. He is not to have a quiet walk over however. Messrs Cutten and M'Glashan are already in the field agaicst him for M.H.R., and there will, I believe, he opposition to his return again for the Council.

There have been several occurences in town to which I should like to allude ■ but time presses rather hard on me this week, and I must leave them over till a further opportunity.