Page 4 Advertisements Column 2

Evening Star, Issue 16950, 24 January 1919, Page 4

At a meeting of the Employers’ Association, held tnis morning, it was decided that the retail houses in Dunedin close at 12 noon on Thursday, oOtli inst. be ng People’s Day of the Otago A. and P. Society Summer Show. This action is much appreciated by the committee of the society, seeing what a. bad “spin” many of the retailers have experienced owing to closing for the influenza epidemic and loss of trade thereby. At the quarterly meeting of the Port Chalmers Old Identities’ Association held last night many old reminiscences of the early days at Port were recounted by Mr J. liarland, who arrived there in 1864 from Melbourne with his mother and sister ; n the brig Lahore, which made the passage in six weeks. Among the many interesting and humorous incidents given by the speaker was ono telling of the arrival of the late Duke of Edinburgh in Port Chalmers, how the street was lined with volunteers with, fixed bayonets, how the excitement ran high when the late Mr George Dodson tried to get his carriage close to the Duke’s and the order was given to the volunteers to cut the traces of the Duke’s carriage and take his horses out, which was very quickly done. _ And how Dr Drysdalo tried on that occasion to imitate Jolin Gilpin, meeting with serious results to himself as he parted company with his horse and broke his leg. The speaker also made reference to the .mode of conveyance in those early days to and from Dunedin. There were two' ferry boats, thfe Golden Age, and the Peninsula, and a coach that started from the top of George street, the stables being where the Salvation Army Barracks now stand. The making of the docks, the construction of the Port-Duncdin railway, the landing of cattle from Australia, the making of the Blusskin road, were all long forgotten memoirs shaken free of the dust and mould of age and clothed in romance by this hardy pioneer.