OPENING OF THE BOATING SEASON.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3517, 16 October 1882, Page 2

OPENING OF THE BOATING SEASON.

The boating season wae opened on Saturday, and the ceremony—it we may use so imposing a term in connection with the dull and uninteresting proceedings in the inner harbor that afternoon— was not a success. The fates were against the accomplishment of a success. The weather was unpropitious; there were other attractions, and nothing, we are convinced, ever will be a success, in relation to boatiug matters, that has its locale off the hideous and uncomfortable shiDgle beach at Long Point. There has been at no time too much enthusiasm shown in rowing matters in this town, owing, no doubt, to the distance to good water; but when that distance ie increased to an unattractive spot where there is neither shelter from rain or sun, and which affords no vantage ground from which to see more than the conclusion of a match, it is not likely that spectators will throng tbe course, and in the absence of spectators very little rowing can be expected. There ie another thing about matches being held in the inner harbor, and that is the difficulty of finding hands to pull the boats from the eheds and back again. The work is invariably left to a few half-willing members, who fail to see the fun of the thing after a tin c or two, and any attempt on the part of tbe captain to " order " club memberstodowhat their own sense of duty should suggest would either meet with derision or break the club up. Hence everything was at sixes or at sevens on Saturday; abput a do?en members of the Napier Rowing Club showed op out of a roll of nearly seventy, one halfmanned boat of the Union' Club put in an appearance, and the " Telegraph" boat, the smartest on the water, made up the whole exhibition. There was no procession, unless a few boats; that were squirmed around promiscuously could be

called such. The matches that were to follow did not come off, because there were no crews, and no volunteers to take the places of those who were absent. With some difficulty a scratch match was got up between the following crews:— Westenra (stroke), Hanna (3), Jell (2), Black (bow), and Begg (stroke), Gracie (3), Rich (2), and Hunter (bow). The match was closely contested, and was won by Westenra's boat, but the less said of the style of rowing the better.