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Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 123, 8 November 1902, Page 14

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KENNEDY MACDONALD'S great auction sale of Miramar sections — the first ever held — has been the sensation of the past seven days. Even that oooksure personage, whom you meet at the street corner'or at your favourite restaurant, and who is always calling attention — after the. event — to tlie fact that he clearly foresaw it months ago, feels constrained to confess tihat it was just a trifle ahead of his anticipations. And yet, a little reflection abates one's wonder. Look at Miramar's olose contguity to the city, Burvey the various easy, cheap, and speedy means bv which it may be approached — steamer, 'bus, motor-oar cycle, or shank's pony, look at its surpassing advaiVoages for suburban residence, and. you realise at once that Miramar could not help booming. It was in the nature of tilings just as hi the nature of things it is bound to be the raanne suburb par excellence of the Empire Oitv. « * * However, we are cycling rather fast away from the auction mart. It is 2.30 on Thursday afternoon, and a phalanx of bikes, three or four deep, outside Macdonald, Wilson and Oo.'s and ranged along the kerb, seems _ to suggest that a cycling corps has just made a bivouac. Traffic along the footpath is impeded by reason of the crowd of late arrivals — men and women with plans in their hands who are trying to elbow their wav into the spacious but congested auction mart. Kennedy Mac — tihe George Robins of these colonies — is in the rostrum, and his sonorous voice is making the rafteis ring as, with poetic fervour and fluencv he paints the beauties of Miramar. It is seven veairs, he remarks, since he last conducted a land sale, but he has iust taken out an auctioneer's license afresh and henceforth he means to look after that department of his firm's bu«.ine«=s • • ♦ He feels a glow of conscious pnde and triumph as he glances along the serried rows in front of him. Plenty of good. solid buyers among them— Alfred Lindsay Harry Price, Wm. Allan, Richard Maudsley, Chris. Smith, M. T. McGratih Tom Bush, Fred Townsend Willie Witt, "Jack" Mills W. Barbei all men Who had already shown then confidence in the future of Miramar. And, in fact, every interest in the cit-\ seems well represented. Clearh Kennedy Mac feels lust m his element and the mellow, confident ring in his \ oice denotes that he is embarked on a lecord performance. ♦ * * The bidding starts bnsklv. It n section 1 of the triangular flat just inside the cutting from the ferrv wharf. A corner lot, upon which, infancy's eve one sees a striking specimen of hotel architecture, bearing the legend of the Miramar Arms, or the Royal Dick or tihe Metropole, or something of that sort. The price is at ner foot and at £2 6s the hammer knocks it down to a

\ouno; man named McLeod, u lio blushes hoth^at the applause which greets him as ho goes forward to sign as the hist buver of a Miramai section J L Bell seemed the next section alonf the main frontage, for 3h& R MaucWev got a leal plum in the next foi^ 34s after which the ne\t three fell to W H Kuiu^ for 3.1s to F. R. Curti® for 37s and to .T W. Davidson foi 41s resoectivoil\ while H. W. Jolly rose to oOs for the corner lot. * * * After that, the competition went on with great spirit for the sections lying deeper down the flat, and further awav from the maun load, the average pricea being about 345. Then, having sold outright the first division of twenty-three sections of the eighty-four figuring on Block B, which is as flat as a table Mr Macdonald made a sudden excursion to Block A. with its upland slopes, its lovely views, and its stretches of flat lying under the hill. An excited individual at the door, who may have been out in the sun, offered some demur to this arrangement, but the auctioneer rose to the emergency, and declared that in his own mart he was as absolute as King Dick. The man in the doorway, after a few Parthian shots, confessed he not a buyer end was heard of no more * • * The most interesting episode of the whole sale was the "run" for section, 25 — the first level section inside ''the cutting " between Mr. ' Jack" Mills and a couple of young builders. It mounted rapidiv by" £10 bids from something less than £200 to £430, at which price it fell to Mr. Mills amid cheers, the auctioneer declaring that a young man "with a chin like iihat" was bound to win. More rounds of cheers as another brisk contest for the acre-lot, just above the ferry wharf ended in Harry Palmer, of oystersaloon fame, stepping forward, smilingly, to sign for £410. Then, came a slight lull, and Kennedy Mao stepped off the hill to deal with the long, nar-row-gutted, level sections Iving at its base. • • • Four of them had slipped by rather quickly at £200 each, when a competitor arose, with a glare m his eye and demanded the name of the buyer. "Mr. Williams," blsundlv answered the auctioneer. "Then please introduce me to Mr. Williams " retorted the would-be buyer, as he scrambled his way through the crowd towards the rostrum. "Softly, softly, mv friend," expostulated the auctioneer. ' vou can see Mr. Williams after the sale But, neither you nor Mr. Williams mind you, is going to have tihin£rs> vour own way here. I'm boss' of this show ." And the man who wanted to meet Williams on the spot subsided # • • Things on the hill seemed to hang fiie, and so with the eye of a general, Kennedy Mac suddenly climbed down from that pinnacle, and, immediately he touched the flat abutting on the "cutting," he struck oil again It was what the crowd had been waiting fox. Pirces went up and up for these level quarter-acres, from 565, and 47s at cno corner until they culminated at £360 for the two sections at the further corner, which fell to ""Willie" Witt amid loud applause The entire lot of eishtv-four quarter-acre tections on the flat went off like hot cakes, and then the auctioneer polished off the halfdozen sections frontins Evans Bav amoii" Messrs. McLeod, McGrath, Mabin and J P Biandon, who bagged the couple nearest to his poultry farm.

After that, Mr. Macdonald went up the lull again like a giant refreshed .sold 'Mr. Williams'" sections, without any protest from that patriot., and then cleared off the remaining twenty sections by one grand coup. They lav under the hill it was nearly 7 o'clock the banquet to the Premier began at 8, and Mr Macdonald (who wnated to be there), with a bright idea, offered the choice of them at £150 each. They were rushed at the price, and tile board was swept in the twmkling of an eye. It was the grea,te6t land sale ever held in Wellington. Crowd too big for auction mart, 132 sections offered, and inside four and ahalf hours everyone sold and price realised, £19,673 15s for sixty acres, including roads. Mr. Macdonald invited all hands to follow him into the Club Hotel, and drink "Success to Miramar." which, of course, they promptlv did. » » « One well-known citizen took his whisky and soda with a pensive an . He had helped to float the company and. on the day of sale, had been asked b v a land agent to name a price for his £500 interest (£6O paid-up) He named £160 and the land agent, after offering £150, left. But, that land agent turned up ao-ain. this time in the auction mart. jusj} as the first section was being knocked dov.Ti at £2 6s. * » * "What lame will you give me to eet that £160?" he asked. "Till 4 o'clock " answered the well-known citizen offhand. Then, he vanished once more, and tihe citizen remained, repenting more and more as the sections went off at high and higher prices, and wishing intently that the clock would hurry up and carry him past 4 o'clock. Hone lived until two minutes to 4. Then, the laind agent stood once more in the doorway, spotted h>is man instantly and, with a significant glance at the 1 clock, he said, "I've sold for vou at £160." * ♦ * The citizens' 1 banquet, to the Premier, at the Empire Hotel last week, to welcome him home again, wa® almost a replica of the valedictory banquet to the Premier at the same hostelry in May or June last. There was one feature absent. No camera fiends wore perched up near the ceiling to take flash-herhts of the oomviveG. But, the banquet was held in the same spacious dining-room. the company was pretty much the same (except that it was more representative owws: to Mr. Theo. R. Ritchey's good care), and the same spirit of warm cordiality and effervescent patriotism pervaded it As before the toast list was brought within modest proportions, and the sandwiched musical items were highly enjoyed. Mayor Aitken handled the loval toasts with his usual sterling good sense, and Sir James Prendergast again had the honour of proposing the toast of the evening It was a far happier speech than his previous effort. Then, he delivered himself with the "deeficultv" which used to mark his deliverances from the Bench. On this occasion, he must have conned his part, for it fell ouite trippingly from his lips, and was overdone neither in style nor length » * • Bang Dick's speech also was one "out of the box." He rose to the occasion anid delivered a statesmanlike oration. Beginning with a comparison between

the state of things in the Empire at his previous banquet, and now, he claimed credit for fulfilling his promise then that he would do his best at Home. And the ready cheers that followed assured him heihad. He hoped he might never become egotistical. If tihe personal pronoun oame in rather often, let tihetm please remember he was speaking and had acted as tih&ir representative. H© had bad the assistance and goodwill of every New Zealander in tihe Mother Country. (Cheers.) Oh, how he wished that feeling would ever prevail, so that they could give credit to each other for the best, intentions. * • Then, the Premier proceeded to tell of New Zealand's standing at Home. "There is no spot so respected, revered, and beloved as is New Zealand. Cheers.) .... When I was twitted with tihe fact, that it was but sparsely populated, I said 'Tim 3 will cure that ; you leave that to the New Zealanders.' " Here Fred Townsend exclaimed, "You &r© quite right there!" and led off a round of applause "on has own." "When they told him some of tihe cities of tihe United Kingdom were more populous tlhan New Zealand he (King Dick) challenged tlhem to produce the city that had sent 7000 men to South Africa to fight footsie flag, or that had a governing body equal to the New Zealand Parliament, or that had a Mayor as big as its Premier " (Loud cheers.) • * • Then, we had Mr. Seddon's comparison between New Zealand and South Africa. Tho latter was not a poor man's country at all. It moant either a big thing, or nothing at all. King Dick reached high-water-mark when he started on the Imperial Conference and the Imperial questions that were discussed thereat. His grasp was firm ; has outlook broad and compreJhensive. And 1 , at last, he sat down amid ringing cheers followed by musical honours. • * • Just a. word or two about the music. Mmine's string band played a fine programme of selections. Mr. John Prouse brought down the house with "There is a Land" and "My Fairest Child." Mr. E. J. Hill scored heavily iw "Mv Pipe" (Planquette), Mr. J. W. Hill gave "Alice, Where Art Thou" in his refined artistic style, while Farquhar Youn^, from Dunedin, with his mellow and resonant baritone, raised a perfect furore with "The. Admiral's Broom," and capped it with his couple of humorous recitations one of which was "How I Envied McGinty." The company got away just before mi'dnieht, after the Mayor had shown tihem how "Auld Lang Syne" ou^ht to be sung. » • • Interesting military item from the Hawera "Star" . — "The combined foot and infantry corps of Pahiatua have decided to erect a drill-hall, at a cost of £1000." Wonder why they did not combine the mounted men and the horsemen • • • The ancient cat sits on the fence, And sings of other days ; His thousand children roam the earth And wend their devious ways. His throat is sore, his voice is cracked^ And sad is his "meow" ; Not one of all his prosperous sons Will recognise him now.

Curio maniacs, to whom nothing is sacred, have gone so far up North as to desecrate Maori graves. The idea of digging up an entombed person m 01 der to get a mere or a tomahawk as a keepsake, is eminently brilliant, and the person who gets the keepsake ought to feel proud. It seems that a couple of Maoris watched a pakeha curio idiot, who was digging on "tapu" land, a week or so since, and that the genteel person discarded the bones of their defunct relatives for a handsome mere he found. Then, they chased him, and gave him a "merry" time. He summoned the Maoris for assault, but the magistrate held that, although a grave desecrator's skin might be white, his heart was black, and dismissed the case against the Maoris, who are instituting counter proceedings. » * * A Wellington Gitv tram-car had been waiting the usual five minutes at a stop-ping-place, when a man with a parcel under his arm got on the back of the car. and, looking at the smokers standing there, said "One advantage of these trams" — (then the said smokers thought that they were goine to be inflicted with one of the usual tram-car jokes, add yawned submittingly) — "one advantage of these trams." continued the stranger, "is that vou can do vour shopping on vour wav home." and he tucked his narcel under his arm as the tram glided on at the usual rate of a mile a second One of those education correspondence schools organised a competition among its pupils a while ago. The subject for essay was "Mountains and their Beauty," and a wily pupil copied out an essay in competition. He wrote it in the beautiful, stiff, civil service hand, with all the letters joined in the middle he punctuated it carefully, and made it in ©very sense, a creditable production. He was awarded per cent, for English. He was told that his English was rather stiff, and that his descriptions were not lifelike, and were too "journalistic." Also, his sentences were too long, and his ideas lacking in originality. It was a very sad reflection to think that it was an extract from Buskin's "Modern Painters" on "Mountains and Mountain Beauty" ' One candidate got 9 per cent., being twice as r -ood as Ruskin, apparently » * • Funny thing that some of the Coronation Contingent men complain that the £20 graituity was doled out to them. We asked one Coronation man hovr he got on for pay. He said, "Well, we got the twenty 'quid' right away, and, ) of course, spent it as soon as possible. He also added that it really did not matter much if a colonial had money or not. Everybody who was anybody at all "shouted" for the New Zealanders. and they practically had the freedom of the railway lines of the United Kingdom. In point of solid fact, the Coronation Contingent lived at the rate of about £100 a month aaad most of the £100 was voluntarily withdrawn from aristocratic banking accounts.

The S.M. at Hawera is not likely to spend a florin on having his hand read by a palmist. He remarked in Court the otlheir day you mie-ht as well attempt to tell a man's character by the creases in his trousers as the lines in his hands. * * * There was a slight disturbance last week in a fashionable suburb under the depression "Pianoforte." A lady, making a call on a friend, was told by the maid that her mistress was "not at home." As the caller heard the piano going, she naturally put this announcement down as untrue. Happening- to meet the lady she tried to call on, at a wedding, she gave her a "bit of her mind." "I knew you were at home,"

she said, "as I heard you playing the piano." Having assured her friend she was Really out, on returning home she inspected the piano keys, and found them slightly blackened in places. Next time she went out she locked the instrument. On returning, in the evening, she found both maids gone. They had properly resented the stoppage of their musical exercises. * * * Quaint remark of a twelve-year-old youngster on a Corporation oar bound to Newtown. "My word, it's no wonder tfhe car drivers suffer from torpid liver. The Corporation ought to let 'em get off and lead their horses, or give 'em liver pills free."

How weary one becomes-of the continual newspaper paragraphing of women. A woman does tliis, a woman does that, women as the sunshine of home, women our comfort in adversity, and so on ad innnitum, ad nauseam. Why does not some enterprising writer occasionally dilate upon the virtue* and charms of men ? —mam as the consolation of weary hours, man as a "ready relief" from boredom, main as the sender of flowers, as the escort to tihe theatre or concert, a® tihe wide-awake enteav tainer. Poor fellow, he has been hit hard! These tailors are artful. A youths well-known in Wellington for his faultlessi attire, and his faulty method of paying for it, was astonished to find that a recently-arrived tailor's bill was overcharged two pounds. He rushed around to the tailor with blood in his eye. "X say Mr. Snip®, this bill is over-charged. n "Oh, indeed," he remarked, comparing it with his books. "You are right. FII take it off. How much did you say you were paving on account?" And the youth blushfully handed over the first pound of the year. * # # A local youth, who has but recentlyeast aside his slate for a more respon»ible position in the waste-paper department of a local soft-goods emporium, worked steadily for a fortnight. Then, he went to the white-beareded, benevolent, and bell-toppered individual, whoa© name appears above the door. He wanted a holiday. What for? Funeral to-morrow week. "But, they don't keep deceased persons above ground for a week," said the "boss." "Oh, well," answered that bright youth, "The doctor said father could not live more than another week and I thought I'd let you know so as to give you time to make arrangements for my absence." The youth has been erfven a cheque for tihe whole of his salary, amounting to 10s, and another gentleman is filling his t>ositiom.

An advertisement of special interest to syndicates and capitalists is that announcing the sale by auction by Messrs. Macdonald, Wilson, and Co., on Thursday, 13th inst., of that property at Karori well known as Mr. W. J. Monaghan's, containing 48 acres. The block is situate in the centre of the suburb, with frontages to the main road and the county road, and is most suitable for subdivision. It is best known as lying between the properties formerly occupied by Mr. C. Christie Graham and the late Mr. Lancaster. The terms of sale are 10 per cent, cash deposit, and arrangements can be made for the balance. We refer our readers to the advertisement for further details.

Do not bet on your favourite candidate for the elections. Should you do so the law will step in and fine £20. You are confined to betting on horses, and the legitimate way is to put your money on the Government subsidised totailisator. You see, horses always run straight. Candidates may be influenced by your bet. Again, under a new section' of the Electoral Act you dare not publish anvthing that may

hinder anybody from romping home easy winner down the election "straight." That is to say, you will get fined £50 for saying that one man ie Lower in the betting than another. It is a kbell, and this country looks upon such as one of the most heinous crimes in ,the catalogue. Truth is exeat, and it will prevail — against you, if you Say it about such a sacred thing as a Parliamentary election .