Greymouth Evening Star, AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. MONDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1902. THE HOLIDAYS.

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 December 1902, Page 2

Greymouth Evening Star, AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. MONDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1902. THE HOLIDAYS.

“ All, work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” equally applies to the business man, artisan, and laborer. All require periods of relaxation, of change, and of amusement. Nature demands it of man that he shall not toil on year.in, year out, without intermission. And the man who neglects this demand of Nature sooner or later pays the penalty. We are approaching the period when a brief change from the everyday struggle for existence takes place; indeed with many the time has already come. All cannot, however, take the full fortnight; few, indeed, can afford to do, while the business of others is such as to preclude more than three days. Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day, are by statute lav/ of New Zealand given to all, and with few exceptions will be enjoyed by all, In

a few avenues of life, such for instance as the Railway Department, holiday time means longer hours and harder work, but as a compensation for such exceptional, treatment the employees are given holidays at other times. In this district the coming holidays promise to be enjoyable, The past year has been a “ Good Old Year.” In all departments of life there has been a fair amount of prosperity; and although there are among us those who through sickness or evil fortune may not be able to enjoy the season to its fullest, yet it is pleasing to know that in such respect we shall have a smaller per centage than elsewhere. Everything points to a good time. The only thing we cannot command, cannot rely upon is the weather. But should we bo favored with sunshine Greymouth will, we predict, have a record season, and a larger influx of visitors, and better amusement and enjoyment than has been the case for years past.

Of the events of the season, the first which commands general attention is midnight mass at the Catholic Church on Cristmas Eve. On such occasions the handsome structure in Chapel Street is invariably crowded. On Christmas Day we shall have our special Church services, our Christmas dinners—with the usual amount of indigestion to follow, —and our very excellent sacred concerts in the evening, The great success that in years gone by attended these fine musical treats in the Anglican Church induced the other two protestant churches to , follow the lead given, and now we have three concerts on the same night—this division of talent is perhaps to he regretted. In the afternoon there are the champion swimming races to compete at which come representatives from all parts of the colony. On Boxing Day the racing carnival begins at Reefton, the trotting meeting at Westport, sports at Kumara and Anglican school picnic at Greymouth. Saturday has racing at Reefton, trots at Westport and athletic sports at Totara Flat.

On Monday the Lake Brunner [regatta and land sports take place. Tuesday brings us to thafirstday of the Greymouth Trotting Club’s meeting, which is pretty certain to be the best gathering the Club has ever held. The Club now occupies the second position in the colony and has established a record for clear sport. The excellent acceptances which appear in another column of this issue, fully warrants that the sports will be first class. The appointments are of a very complete order, every convenience being carefully studied. Wednesday starts the racing at Greymouth. On that day the principal racing sports on the West Coast take place. The Club which is the foremost on the Coast, has the course in magnificent order, the appointments are thoroughly up to date, the number of accepted horses and the quality of same are sufficient to ensure excellent sport, and what all lovers of racing dearly love, close and exciting finishes. The club having decided to put an extra race on each day the number of events—eight—should be sufficient to satisfy all. In the evening will be the event for which Greymouth is celebrated all over New Zealand, The ringing out the Old the ringing 'in the]New Year, with all its display of fire works, its illuminalioijs, and its torch light procession, its well wishes, hand shaking, “a wee drappie o’t” and “Auld Lang Syne.” Captain Viosen and his Brigade will be in full evidence on that occasion, and we are informed the display will eclipse all previous efforts.

New Year’s Day brings us the second day’s races at Greymouth, with picnics here, there and everywhere. Friday—Second day’s trots in Victoria Park with a number of extra horses that were too late for first day’s entry. Hence the second day is likely to bo even better than the first. Sports are held at Hokitika.

Saturday and the following Monday ara the Hokitika races which winds up the carnival season. Surfeited with pleasure and relaxation, all again are but too anxious to return to their every-day vocations.

POST AND TELEGRAPH OFFICE. “Christmas greetings” are already coming along, reminding us that amidst the friction, appo.-ition and strife of life, kindly feelings lie deep in the human, breast that require but occasion to appear uppermost. A very handsome card from the office of the general Post Office Wellington reaches us. The front page depicts “Coronation night at the Post Office Wellington” The building illuminated with thousands of electric lamps shows the words ‘King of all the Britons’ and ‘Goi save the Zing’ standing out in bold relief. The inside page supplies' interesting statistics regarding the work done by this most capable department of the public service and which may be summarised as follows : Employees ... ... 3,715 Post and telephone offices... 1,782 Letters posted ... ... 30,185,045 Letter-cards posted ... ... 1 230,183 Leters registered in colony 404,030 Newspapcrsposted 12,347.374 Books, packets, etc, posted... 16,111,221 Parcels posted 199,220 Post-cards posted 1,858,004 Telegrams forwarded ... 3,898,128 Miles of telegraph line ... 7,249 Miles of wire 20,082 Telephone exchanges ... 48 Telephone subscribers ... 8,210 Miles travelled by mail con-

veyauces... ... 5.020,. i04 Money orders issued £1,214 852 10 5 Postal notes issued ... 154,434 1 0 Money orders paid ... 1,042,348 4 5 Savings Bank deposits 4,170,428 15 3 To credit of depositors 5.809,552 5 3 Revenue 503,835 19 5 Expenditure 418,271 16 11