HASTINGS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1212, 24 May 1895, Page 19

HASTINGS.

There has been quite a stirring up, and what our Scotch friends would call “ flitting," amongst our business people. One of them vacated a shop, and since then Hannah and Co., P. A. Herman, Ecclcs and one or two others have changed sides as it were. Mr Eccles has got into his new premises, and has a really splendid show. We are having amusements galore just now. Bentley got off his “ Ober-Aminer-gau " show, which was a little disappointing. Perhaps we expected too much. The Scotch night had to be put off owing to the wet, and will b 9 put on again on Tuesday. The Alexander-Blaney-Fisher combination appear on Monday night. At a conversazione last Monday night, His Lordship, Bishop Grimes, of Christchurch, gave a most interesting account of life in " the South Sea Islands, illustrated by a number of pictures, many of which were take by himself. The pictures were shown with the aid of Mr Frank Nelson’s triple lantern, which is certainly the best thing of the sort ever seen in Hastings. There was a large attendance. Selections were given during the evening by an orchestra conducted by Mr A. P. Sheath, and songs were introduced by Misses Bowes and McGuire, Messrs I. H. Loughnan, Sheath and Hunt, : the accompaniments being played by Miss Molonev, formerly of Dunedin, but now teaching at the Waipawa School. Miss_ Moloney’s playing was quite a treat to listen to. The ceremony of blessing the bell for the new Catholic Church was performed on Monday morning. The Fire Police met on Tuesday and re-elected all their officers, which is certain proof that their relations are perfectly satisfactory. The local authorities have been informed that the lighthouse at Cape Kidnappers will be erected as soon as certain materials arrive from Home. The benefit of the drainage works recently constructed was apparent during the exceptionally heavy rains which fell this week. The fellow-employees of a young lady who has filled the position of head waitress at Charlton’s Railway Hotel for

some time presented her last week with a handsome tea service on the eve of her marriage. Several complimentary speeches were made, and the incident was our evidence of goodwill. Our post office, such as it is, is to be erected on the co-operative principle as far as the labour goes, and Mr Louch is now here making arrangements to start the work. We shall have to put up with a single-story building after ail, not half as imposing as the majority of our shops. This is a great mistake I think, as we are surely entitled to a building as good as those at other places of less importance. The front will only be 20ft high with a 12ft stud. We have stables which have a much more imposing appearauce. Why, if the number of people who claim the credit of getting the post office had given a decent cheque each, they could have built a structure twice as good. The Land Purchase Commissioner is averse to taking over the Woburn estate for small farms owing to the cost of roading it. Mr Beecroft’s ’bus to Plavelock is a step in the right direction, and the patronage so far accorded has satisfied the spirited proprietor. Havelock people don’t do things by halves. The other night they had a dance at which there were twelve couples present who gyrated to the strains of a band of five musicians. Crabb, of cold water cure fame, has been here, with the result that more than twenty people signed the pledge. As Crabb addressed people who filled the theatre on three occasions (roughly speaking, 1500 people), the result is not large. Crabb’s personalities do much more harm than his' oratory (sic) can possibly do good. He makes a geat noise and he winks the other eye I Hoes he draw a salary, and how much is it? The following is a sample of the style of oratory (sic) declaimed by Crabb :—“ There is a man in this town who has got a license. He tries to make himself appear respectable by acting as M.C. at a church hop ; and he stands on his front doorstep on Sunday night and uses blackguardly language to passers-by?” Would it not have been more to the point, if Crabbe’s words are true, to have laid an information for using blackguardly language, for which the penalty is imprisonment without the option of a fine ? Then we could have had a chance to satisfy ourselves as to the truth or otherwise of what Crabb said. Bald statements, without proof, don’t count for much with thinking people, a.nd it is a moral certainty that the majority of those present were more amused at Crabb’s peculiarities than impressed by his arguments. Twenty “ converts " out of 1500, and most of them never tasted liquor. There is a chance that the popular opera “ Pinafore" may be performed here shortly by our amateurs. I hear that the allotment of the characters has already been, made and active rehearsal commenced. The orchestra which Mr A. P. Sheath succeeded in bringing together for the performance of so fine a work as Haydn’s Third (Imperial) Mass last Sunday shows that we have any amount of material in our midst for a first-class instrumental combination, which under the baton of so able a conductor as Mr Sheath could play almost anything. It is to be hoped that no effort will be spared to keep the members together, and get them to go in for regular practice.