WANGANUI: AS IT WAS AND IS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1636, 8 July 1903, Page 12

WANGANUI: AS IT WAS AND IS.

PART 11. (By Our Travelling Representative.) business men of wanganui. On the corner of Market Square is the Wanganui brewery, m, whic^ c . t "^'. 1 well-known popular firm of rew bottlers, Messrs Gibbons and have successfully carried on business foi ovei Eyi I found Mr Gibbons, jnnr on the premises, and he gave me some information about the great expansion S trade since the firm first took the same in hand. The increase of late vears was truly wonderful, and this firm is supplying all hotels embracing a very wide circuit. A large and lucrative trade is done by their bottling department. Mr James Hodson, confectioner, baker and general storekeeper, runs the Silver Grid in Victoria Avenue, where 1 luncheon, dinner and supper parties are specially catered, far, oysters and other delicacies from the sea lending special attractiveness to the restaurant, which is much frequented. Afternoon tea for ladies being also an indispensable worthy of mention. Here yo&i may, 1 bo disposed, have meals at any hour between midday and midnight. At his bakery, in Nibblet street, wedding and! birthday cakes are important features. Attached to the Silver Grid is a commercial room for gentlemen. One of Wanganui’s most fashionable resorts is the Ladies’ Club on Taupo quay, and which is being capitally managed by Miss H. L. Cameron. The ground floor of the building, the interior of which has been beautifully lifted up and furnished, is used for afternoon tea, and extensively patronised by the ladies of Wanganui, the upper portion being set apart for the ladies’ club-room. This popular institution was the first club established in Wanganui. On the western side of Victoria Avenue is the beautiful art studio of Mr David Clark, whose show window, upon the plate glass of which is gold lettering upon a background of gilt Maltese cross, “David Clark, photographic and art warehouse,” looks very attractive to-day. This is the elite art studio, and Mr dark, who is turning out very fine work,~is being deservedly well, patronised. At the Mikado dining-rooms, in Ridgway street, Mrs M. Briggs, the proprietress, has run her restaurant on such popular- lines during the last fifteen months that a very fair and lucrative business has been built up. The “menu” is voted by all patrons good, and the rooms being centrally situated, patrons daily enjoy an afternoon cup of that beverage which®cheers but does not inebriate. The house, which is well conducted, has accommodation for fourteen boarders.

Another popular boarding-house is the Empire Boarding-house, situated at the corner of Campbell and Wickstead Place, and being owned and managed by Mrs B. Smith, whose rooms are always occupied by a desirable class.. The house is well appointed, and in every respect made comfortable for its patrons. The Wellington House, in Ridgway street South-west, affords special 1 accommodation for tourists and travellers, and as a private board and residence is second to none in Wanganui. With its hot, cold and shower baths, its roomy, cosy parlours and comfortable bedrooms, and the popular proprietor, Mr George Moss, to welcome you, you are all right if you happen to land there. As you come up the river, per steamer, or along the track per rail, .you cannot fail to note, in unmistakable Roman lettering on the sign line of a two-storey house on Taupe quay, “Coffee Palace, Wanganui.” It is handy to the railway station, and if your intentions be in the way of finding private hoard and lodging, you might go a great deal further afield before you find better accommodation than, that offered by the obliging proprietress. Mrs Richitrds, whose welcomes are the most appreciable, whose meals the most acceptable, "whose beds are the most comfortable this side of the line. Then, if you happen to be a man of correspondence, your letters and telegrams will be promptly attended to. People who are in the habit of getting tailor-made clothing have long ago discovered that it pays them to go. to the Jjailoring establishment of Mr S. G. Harris,in Ridgway street, where our popular tradesman has toiled and made good work in fit, style and guarantee, from the very best materials in tweeds and West of England clotns. Close to the Wanganui railway station, and also to the Castle Cliff station, is the homely boarding-house of Mrs McMahon, in St. Hill street. She has rooms for ten boarders, but you are lucky if you can get a room, for her accommodation is always let to boarders, who one and all speak of her as ©ne of the kindest of landladies. A visit to the “OR AN CAN ON G A VINEYARD,” in Bell street, owned and managed by Mr Joseph Soler. is bv no means one

of the least attractive sights of the town of Wanganui. Besides his hothouse grapes, the spirited proprietor has for years manufactured those rare and popular wines which have won so many gold medals in London, Australia and New Zealand, and owing to the increasing sale of which he has been compelled to purchase two hundred acres of land at the No. 3 Line, Wanganui, for vineplanting. I had the pleasure of sipping, by invitation of the hospitable owner, some seven-year vatted vine, and! it is superfluous to say it was “all right.” As I am to give shortly an extended report on this up-to-date vineyard, I refrain from saying more at present than that if you can get a peep at the hothouse, even in midwinter, it is worth seeing. ~At Aramoho, a pretty suburb of Wanganui, I found our old friend, Mr David Barrett, running the Barrett Hotel comfortably enough. He used to own the Manchester Hotel at Feilding, where ho did well, until he leased the house to its present occupant, Mr Wilson, who is also maintaining the popularity of the same. Mr Barrett’s present venture has twenty rooms, commodious diningroom, cosy parlours, and outside is capital accommodation for horses. The hotel is a rendezvous for cyclists of the statutory half-holiday, who wheel in here to dine or assuage their thirst at the amber fountain of the Barrett bar. He was just as hearty as when I first saw him at the Colyton Hotel, some five years hack.

Returning to Wanganui, I would have been stone blind if I missed the establishment of Mr John Allen, who, in St. Hilll street, right opposite that fine pile of brick buildings (Messrs Hatrick and Co.), is carrying on most successfully his business a mechanical engineer. A stroll through the shops, and a friendly chat with the principal, informed me of the interesting fact that Mr Allen owns a fine plant-, turning, punching, welding and brass casting being done here to perfection, all work of that description giving clients infinite satisfaction. Besides this, Mr Allen has won enviable notoriety as an expert in the repairing of guns, typewriters and sewing machines, whilst as a blacksmith he is second to none in the province. At the Wanganui general blacksmithing and horse-shoeing establishment, well managed by Mr Henry Hooker, I found that gentleman himself np to his eyes in the real earnest business of his splendid calling. He having had over thirty years’ experience in the trade, during which he gained golden opinions from all he came in contact with, he is burning out work creditable alike to the establishment and to the man who orders from him. Thirty years ago he commenced serving his time, and eighteen months later he signed articles with Mr Joseph Street, of New Plymouth. In 1879 he came to Wanganui, where he has since succeeded in business remarkably well. ARMSTRONG’S SHOEING FORGE. I visited one of the oldest established industries of the line —Armstrong’s shoeing forge—in the town of Wanganui, and situated in Ridgway street. Mi* James D. Armstrong, so long and favourably known in the town and all around the district among the farming, agricultural and racing public for his excellent work, was at the forge superintending the manufacture of that most invaluable implement, the Armstrong slasher, the excellence of which is gaining such favour. Hitherto the trouble has been a weakening at the neck or where the haft and iron join, but this' difficulty has been successfully overcome by the Armstrong slasher, -which has been, made especially strong in this particular, and they are in such demand as to nearly exclude all other makes from the market. It is said that- given fair handling, this implement will outlast any three others. Mr Armstrong has been thirty-three years actively engaged in the useful trade of general blacksmith and horse-shoer, and it was while in the exercise of the latter calling that he has had many a stop-watch put on him, but without dismay, for he proved himself, as far as ability and despatch went, an adept among the lightning shoers of the colony. An invaluable feature of this branch is Mr Armstrong’s admirable method of “race-horse-shoeing by post,” and he thus explained it—“ The owner of the racehorse, living at a distance, merely sends me the measure of his horse’s feet or hoofs, on which I guarantee to manufacture him racing shoes that will fit his animal.” Another specialty is Sir Armstrong’s system of smoothing and clearing the mouths of young horses of broken teeth and laanpus without apparent inconvenience to the perhaps sorelydistressed animal. Down in Wickstead Place, I found in Mr John McLean a man of more than ordinary genius, for in addition to carrying on for years worthily his trade of boot and shoemaker, lie has invented and patented the celebrated “Maclean patent horse and cow cover,” the excellence of which is becoming recognised. This cover is manufactured of canvas, fastened with soft leather straps, and buckles over the animal’s brepst. It has two traces or straps underneath, attached to one end of the cover, each extending between the hind legs of the animal diagonally towards the corner of the cover interlaced, and moving

centrally in a loop or keeper under, the animal, and going towards its shoulders through apertures to be fastened to the buckles on top. In the contrivance there is nothing to cause abrasions, nor can the cover be readily displaced, the give and take being only about five inches. Many owners have found the advantage of using the Maclean horsecover, and knowing something of the difficulties under winch covered Horses labour in tho way of enduring ehafings, and having seen the patent, I have little hesitation in recommending it to the notice of our horsey readers. At the Red Lion Hotel, in Taylorville, which is over the nver by way of the City Bridge, and well-nigh in front of the Victoria Avenue, I found Mr and Mrs Cameron, the new lessees, in charge of this comfortable hotel, which has lo bedrooms, five parlours, dining-room, billiard-room, all well equipped. At the rear is commodious stabling, largely m demand at the periodical sales of Messrs Baddley and Furlong. The tion for man and beast here is good, fare excellence, and from a tourist point of view, the look-out on river and surrounding scenery is capital. FURTHER UP THE RIVER, and on its southern bank, our cheery friend, Mr William Godso, the popular toy manufacturer, is at home, and right amongst his numerous toys, made expressly for the children, girls and ooys, too. He leeks as hale and hearty as when he came from clear old Birmingham, and whilst he tells me that he makes tovs for the young and rising generation all around, he does not forget to add that he also sharpens and sets saws for the sterner adult. As a young apprentice, he served his time in the great works of Nettlefold, Birmingham, and drew me a graphic picture of some of the ways of the shops. “You’d see rows and rows of fine-look-ing girls, in tight tie-back dresses, standing up to the lathes at screw-turn-ing, and all the time the shop-walker would be walking up and down. I hey were very strict, I can tell voii; nothing like talking was allowed during working hours, and if any maid did happen to transgress in that particular, why, vou’d see the Svalkert come along and turn off that maid’s pulley-belt and out she’d go, never to return. But it also had its compensations, for no sooiiei did you hear the bell go, than all me lads and lasses would make a rush o the 'changing’ rooms, and then you cl heir the noise and the larking going on they’d do must as they iked. Heie the old man paused to laugh heartily over some recollection, he leco. menced: “We think a lot o’ Mr beddon and once I heard a funny thing about him A New Zealander was going home to the Old Country, and while in the act of telling a fellow-passenger that he would be seeing the Queen, was interrupted: 'The Queen? Why, the Queen is dead !’ 'Dead ?’ echoed he, surprisedly; ‘and who has got her billet?’ ‘Why, her son, of course.’ ‘He must have big influence with. Dick beddon to get that billet,’ quoth the New Zealander. Wasn’t that a good ’un?” laughed Mr Godso, laughing heartily himself. “It is,” replied I, “and I will put that in the ‘New Zealand Illustrated Mail,’ and Mr Seddon will see it, and doubtless enjoy the laugh, too,” concluded 1, a statement which vastly pleased the old man, whose photograph and shop of toys appears in this issue. In St. Hill street, opposite the Opera House, is the model shop of Mr Walter Armstrong, mechanical engineer, whose specialties are as locksmith, gunsmith and machinist, repairing also sewing machines, guars, typewriters, saws, etc. His agencies comprise the “White” and the “Standard” sewing machines, and he is as happy as any sand-boy in his office, workroom cr forge. In the former are some beautiful articles in sewing machines, Yost typewriters, cash registers, and stands of guns. A glance at his workshop shows it to be plentifully supplied with up-to-date turning machinery, punching, drilling, sharpening and polishing machinery. Mr Armstrong is an enthusiast in draughts and chess and bowling, and for the first and the last he has won champion, gold medals in the district of Wanganui. He is wealthy, knows how to enjoy life—and does it.