Saturday Night.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 7, 3 October 1907, Page 5

Saturday Night.

WELLINGTON'S WEEK-END FESTIVAL. , ITS CHARACTER ANALYSED. Tho bold competing lights from a double row of shops were reflected oilily on the treacly film of accumulated slush that, oven 011 woodblocked streets, comes from somewhere — Heaven knows where! — riving ' the rains to suggest insidiously that. a visit to the half - solo and hocl merchant might not be an unwise tactic. It It was Saturday night— a .wet Saturday night! That is —it had been pouring pretty steadily all tho afternoon,' but, with the day lost 011 tho nethermost side of the western hills, the rain had called a glum halt, which, while tempting people to tho lighted ways of the city, insisted on overcoats, or umbrellas, or both. To a vast section of the community glittering lights , and moving crowds aro irresistible attractions — they are cinematographic ■ magnets with a fresh visual diversion at every stride. ■ < ■

Who is tho churl that cannot discover a certain charni in town on 011 Saturday evening? There is a subtle something somewhere,, not very definite, in the gay crowds; the flaunting window fronts; the hoarse'talk of the open-air purveyor; .tho raucous orator at the. street corner .who fancies himself a Socialist of the Bebcl typo when ho advocates, a six hours' working" day, a share in tho profits, and a complete isolation from, losses. Further down the übiquitous grama-, phono squeaks a distant imitation of someone, but fulfilling' its mission in drawing attention to something, orother distinct altogether ;- from the ir.usical art; the crackling, "learn to shoot" shops with automatic birds and beasts floating along serenely dcstinationless;' the vibrant "clang-a-lang" of the motormari's foot-gong as' tho electric 'cars cut canals through tho drifting thousands —sights and sounds that'make up an cnsomblo aspiring to a Festival of tho Street, marking tho passing of another week— ;' "Week in, week out; another gone; To notch the. Stick oV-timo, That, gaping, marks the passing'on .., Of life's relentless climb." !. . ' .... DEVOTEES OF THE WOODBLOCKS. „ ' >■ - "It is those on the cheerful side 'of' thirty' who aro amongst', the" most sturdy devotees of the wood-blocks' on Saturday evening. The assnnip-. tioii.. hero is that tho middleragod and elderly aro making sober propar-. ation for the Sabbath, which ceremonial largely consists of staggering homo under a shut-out cargo of'foodstuffs to bo consumed on tho joyous' morrow, the vanishing' of which engenders that drowsy Sunday after-, noon feeling so cultivated by tho easy-; minded married. . • - • The writer pauses here to remark that Sunday in th'o Dominion of New Zealand is the day of, tho ,Great Feed, and the' exhilarating''"atmosphere of the town nr. Saturday nights ,it altogether divorced from that keonly pleasurable anticipation ; thajt persons suffering more or' less ;froni indigestion havo averred is better than realisation. The average young liiari or young woman does not care a sna'p of tho fingers for a drop of rain on Saturday night. On any other night when the crowds afacl lights are not, .it .would be far , too .wet- to venturp out, but Saturday is a thing apart—it is Sat; unlay night, and thero you'are I' It' a glad evening, though; and most of us would resent the loss of our illuminated Saturday night iiv toy.*n, evon if we only occasionally become units of tho army of "wood-blockors." A bold hilarity scoms to. bb' permissible that. v,-fiuld' bo distinctly' unde:ous any c'.!:er ovening, and thcro is moro naturalness, and a nearer approach to a manifestation of tl\o joy of living, on the aggregate face after tho sun goes down 011 the week than is clearly noticeable at other times. GETTING INFLUENZA. On a recent wot Saturday, night, people even took a frank delight in informing their friends that thoy had, or were getting, influenza —it was quite a jolly circumstance. A chemist who gnrglod "Good evening," and. then sneezed, said quite cheerfully, between "A-chews!" that'tho public .vere giving up tea for ammoniated quinine. Then he laughed—a lively Saturday night lough, though- at- other times he is quito rational and represents a .phase of respectability that never jokes. It is held,- too, by tho married male who has to bargain to make beer money, that Saturday night is much the best- marketing time. Tho exuberance of spirits, m»ni-,, fest in the thronged streets is reflected in a diluted form on shopkeepers' assistants. Ergo, 'Saturday night weight is generally good weight, and nearly all the bargains worth boasting about in tho domestic circle havo boon made on the final evening of the week. Then, tho ogling I Tho shy approaches of Jack and Jano; the bold manoeuvres of Tom, and the rerdy responso of Sarah, are delightfully obvious to any observer on Saturday night, wet or lino, summer or winter.. Marriages aro said to bo made in Heaven, hut the working plans, as far as, Wellington is . concerned have, in a big' percentage of casos, been sketched on Saturday night. . Most certainly tho open-door illuminated Saturday night has a' valuable place 011 tho Wheel of Things, otherwise it would not havo deserved this rambling recognition. CUSTOMS REVENUE. — —♦ The Customs revenue collected at the port for the month ended September 30 amounted to £71,034 25., as compared with £05,062 Is.. sd. • for tho corresponding month,,last- year.The. beer duty for the month was £1121 10s pd as aganst £1007-4 a2d for September, 1006. The Customs revenue for the quarter. just closed amounted to £243,391 12s. ,2(1,, an increase of £26,073 15s. 3d. oyer the third' quarter of last year. .''. ,