PIGEON MATCH DINNER IN WAIKATO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4460, 29 February 1876, Page 3

PIGEON MATCH DINNER IN WAIKATO.

After the pigeon shooting match at Hamilton, on Wednesday last, about 40 gentlemen sat down to dinner, A. Cox, Esq.,- M.H.R. for the district (the President of the Waikato Gun Club), * acting as President,' and Mr. Claude as Vice-President on the occasion.—Captain Dawson returned thanks for the army, and Commander Newell, of the gun-boat now in Auckland, who was present, returned thanks for the navy.— Mr. Cox, in proposing the toast of the evening, " The Hamley Gun Club," said he was one of those who are always glad to see better men than themselves, and it pleased him to welcome Aucklaud men coming up in the spirit that the members of the Hamley Club had evinced, aud he hoped that in I future Waikato would be better able to rei ceive them at the traps. There was always a little due to luck iu such matches as the one of that afternoon. The Waikato men had not done badly, though beaten, and he hoped that they would be encouraged by what they had done to do better. —Captain R. Wynyard, in returning thanks for the Hamley Club, said they should always be happy to meet the Waikato Club in Auckland or anywhere else, and prop®sed the health of the Waikato Gun Club. — Mr, McGregor Hay returned thanks, and proposed the health* of the scorers and umpires. Nothing need, he thought, be said of the scorer, everyone knew his excellent judgment. As to the umpires, especially Mr. Marks, no greater compliment could be paid him tliau. the fact that he was appointed year after year to this position, and that yet no fault had ever been found with his decisions. Compliment in such case was superfluous. The other umpire, Mr. F. Wliitaker, had worked ably also, and they had both done much to bring about thesuccessof themeeting, especiallyin arranging the difficulty of the Hamley Club bringing a man short upon the field.—Mr. Marks said: The Waikato Club had always received them kindly, but this time more kindly than ever. It was very flattering to them to think that with a club of some fourteen members, mostly all shopkeepers and business men, they were able to beat a club whose members were resident in the country, and might be supposed to be continually practising with the gun. The small number of their club must be also an excuse for the fact that they arrived a man short of the appointed eight. Mr. Jas. Russell had been detained on important business, and Mr. Aitken and another of their shots were detained by illness. It was no fault of the club that they did not send ,a full complement of competitors. It gave him pleasure to acknowledge that the shooting of the Waikato Gun Club had improved since last year, and where such friendly spirit was shewn between competing teams, as between the two clubs, to be umpire was a work of pleasure not of trouble.—Mr. Whitaker, with a melancholy expression of countenance, simply rose to say that after the event of the afternoon, his heart was too much broken to allow him to speak.— Before",breaking up, the President said there was just one toast he wished to give, and that was their visitors, who were neither members of ono club nor the other, amongst whom was his friend Mr. O'Rorke, M.H.R. —Mr. O'Rorke, on behalf of others included in the toast, returned thanks for the very kind hospitality shewn to them. He had scarcely stepped ashore from the steamer that evening, when he was pressed into the very agreeable duty of being present at the convivial meeting at which he had thoroughly enjoyed himself. It was ten years since he had previously visited the Waikato, and he was forcibly struck with the altered aspect of the country. Perhaps there was no better evidence of civilization than a good iiiiiuur, sucn an" ono, nidood, —iu-j. which, in the very heart of the Waikato, they had just partaken of. From the rapid strides the district had made of late years, from the impetus which would be given to settlement liy the opening of the railway, and from the superior character of much of the land, he could not but think that a happy and prosperous future was before the Waikato men, a sturdy and energetic class of settlers who richly deserved the good fortune which had fallen to their lot. 1