25 YEARS AGO

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 101, 23 January 1933, Page 8

25 YEARS AGO

Visit of a Great Singer

(From “Tim Dominion,” Jan. 22. 1908.)

To-dav is the sixty-seventh anniversary of Wellington. January 22 had no very special significance in the year IS4O but subsequently it was doubtless thought that, the place should have a birthdav, and the date of the Aurora s arrival off the Heads was selected. The Aurora, which was sighted at the Port Nicholson Heads on January 20, anchored at the entrance of .the harbour until January 22. ** *

A crowd in Wellington quickly gathers, and when a cab with a pair of spirited horses and a liveried driver and footman on the box seat drew up last evening at the Grand Hotel, a score of people hung about, and than the name “Clara Butt” flew around. In a few moments the score of people had Increased to hundreds, and at eight o’clock nearly a thousand eager onlookers must have been waiting to catch a momentary glimpse of the famous singer. It was not until the hour of eight had been struck that the great contralto emerged from the hotel, and curiosity was gratified.

One hundred and twenty clergy of various denominations, including the Rev. R. J. Campbell (Congregationalist) and the Rev. Stewart Headlam, have signed a manifesto declaring that Christian socialism is essentially the same as socialism, and involves public ownership and management of the means of production, distribution, and exchange. .