REAL ICE SKATING.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1610, 7 January 1903, Page 13

REAL ICE SKATING.

So far as the general public is concerned, real ioe-skating in season and out of season—and the season for natural ice-skating is too* fickle and unreliable to count for much in this country lias but lately taken the rank of a national pastime. It has been practised in a peculiarly exclusive form at Knightsbridge, and in a open-handed manner —with the present King as a frequent patron in Westminster, but the opportunities afforded to the votaries of a most fascinating art had' been even then too few, until, by a mist-urn of the wheel of Fortune, one of the .best of the opportunities wlas rlemovqd, literally, from under the feet of the lovers of the art. One day, not so many months ago, the rumour went forth that "Niagara in London” would, all too soon, be Niagara no longer, and that the song of the skate would be superseded by the whirl of the motor. ' Unlike most rumours, this was true in fact, if not precise in detail, and almost before real ice-skaters realised, their loss Niagara was snatched from them to make a vast "garage” for motors, and many skaters were homeless.

But necessity knows no law, and as the smooth clear ice floors of Niagara ceased to sway in fascinating rhythm, to the demands of Society the thought of another home occurred to the original founder of the Westminster rink, and in the course of many, and sometimes tiresome, negotiations, "Hengler’s Circus,” with its ample floor-space (being nearly double the area of Niagara), its central position, and its general suitability, came within th© sphere of possibilities. The occasion was too opportune to be lightly disregarded, and now we hear that on the 27th October Hengler’s too long disregarded Circus will have been entirely re-modelled and reconstructed, and will offer itself as the convenient centre for real ice-skat-ers under the title of the National. Skating Palace. The project is of no small social in« terest. Hengler’s offers many advantages. It is near "the Tube,” it has ample space for club-rooms, its construction is of a solid character, and the facilities for speedy ingress and exit are ample. The latest form of reliable ice-generating machinery has already been successfully installed. Not the least of the attractions will be a firstclass restaurant on the premises, and a staff of instructors for the benefit of the less proficient, which will compare well even with the high record of the former home. * An influential club is being farmed in connection with this new National Ice-Skating Palace, and it is being officered by the best-known supporters of the art, and- facilities are' offered to suburban clubs desirous of using the rink between “sessions.” But in addition to the somewhat exclusive afternoon "sessions” —though how skaters came to adopt this term passet-h understanding!—the mornings and the evenings are to be given over to enterta.ijnments of various descriptions, and the evening fetes especially will, with the aid of a carefully-selected orchestra, be conducted upon popular lines and upon a somewhat less prohibitive scale of charges than has sometimes been the custom. The scheme has been enthusiastically taken up, and almost before the lament of the skater over Niagara has died out of the land the National Ice-Skating Palace will be ready to embrace all so recently dispossessed by the ever-present motor.—" Public Opinion.”