"THE MESSIAH."

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 136, 6 December 1909, Page 7

"THE MESSIAH."

The first appearance of the Wellington Choral Society, outside of the Town Hall, takes place to-morrow evening, when the society is to produce Handel's "The Messiah" before an audience comprising the residents of the Hutt and Petone districts. The concert will bft held in the Drill Hall,! Lower Hutt. The performance is to commence at 8 o'clock, and will be_ conducted by Mr. Maughan Barnett. The soloists are Mrs. Arthur Mead (soprano), Mrs. E. B. Buckeridge (contralto), Mr. E. J. Hill (tenor), and Mr. Alexander Millar (bass), with Mr.' Horace Hunt at the- grand piano, and Mr. Laurence F. Watkins at the organ. The Choral Society, now in its fifth year of existence, maintains a solid reputation for the excellence of its, work, and the public always accords it in consequence a gratifying reception. In deciding to give the popular Christmas oratorio at the Hutt, the performing members, numbering some 150, readily resolved to make the journoy, however unpropitious the weather might piove to be on the occasion. Judging from the rplendid rendering just given in its town concert, residents in the Hutt will have an opportunity of enjoying a musical treat. . A full rehearsal of soloists and chorus takes place this evening at St. John's Hall, Dixon-street. Tickets for the special train, which is timed to leave the Government railway station to-morrow at 6.50 p.m., can be obtained upon application to the joint secretaries of the 'society, either at St. John's Hall to-night or upon the train itself Any visitors from Wellington \vho purpose attending the performance, can similarly obtain tickets by the 'special train, which will return to Wellington after the concert.

A general conference of the members of the Licensed Victuallers Association is to be held in the Wellington ' Hall, Boulcott-street, to-morrow morning at 10 o'clock. The pc >,""ial business will be to discuss the compromise etfected ■with the Prohibition Party in. connectibn with the proposed licensing legislation. Members of the association from all parts of the Dominion will be present. "Drawing the colour line" — a procedure much in favour in some of the United State 3of America — appears to have reached New Zealand, but in this country the drawing is being done" by tho coloured man. The occurrence took place in tiie Forty Miite Bush, near Dannevirke, last month, when a gang of Maori shearers struck work because a white man had been given a stand in the shed. The result was that the white man was dismissed. - He sued the runholder for £20 damages for breach of contract, but the Magistrate (Mr. M'Carthy, S.M.) held that as plaintiff could have obtained shearing work elsewhere, two days later, he was entitled only to the £5 which defendant had paid into court.