A WHALERS' DANCING HOUSE AT THE BAY OF ISLANDS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 45, 13 June 1876, Page 2

A WHALERS' DANCING HOUSE AT THE BAY OF ISLANDS.

A special correspondent of the " New Zealand Herald," who accompanied his Excellency to the Bay of Islands, thus describes a whalers' dancing house there: — After this stroll, I went with my friend to see some of the places where whaling men most do congregate at this hour of the evening—l mean the dance-rooms. I was ushered through a bar, and at ithe end I caught a glimpse of a small-- -room only dimlylighted, and full of- the fumes of tobacco smoke. The room was crowded by the most wonderful assemblage to be found in the whole world. Indeed, it .was a perfect museum, albeit in disorder, of the human race. Here, hi a small department, not twelve feet square, about fifty persons were crowded together, standing upon tables in regular tiers ; the shorter ones hi front, and the taller behind. There was a South Sea Islander cheek by jowl with a real American Indian ; a Spaniard and a Maori; a halfcaste and negro as black as polished ebony ; a Yankee and a Larsar ; a Portugese and an Irishman, and various interesting contrasts. An American '"' red-skin" of gigantic stature and herculean proportions, was dancing in a small space in the centre toweling head and shoulder above the crowd on the floor. The dance was some peculiar Indian one, and it was accompanied by clapping of hands. It was not ungraceful, and the time was very good. The only light shed upon this scene was from a tallow candle held by a Maori urchin. The scene was remarkably striking, and not without a certain wild beauty of its own. The dark eager faces, the black, (lashing eyes, the gay shawls, and the dimness and shadow gave an air of savage grandeur to the scene, which was worthy of the pencil of a Gustav Dore or a Cruickshaiik. For a moment I fancied myself hi the backwoods of Missouri, when a tall, swaggering Yankee exclaimed, "Hear, you big Injun—git," at the same time pushing aside a red skin who stood in his way. I visited another of these dance-rooms afterwards, but the only perceptible difference of any importance was its large size, and more aristocratic pretensions, the ..Indian dancers and break-downs giving-place to fashionable waltzes •aSßTrouu.d dances, to the music of a German concertina.. I observed that the orchestra appeared to suffer most from thirst. And now methinks I hear some nice readers lay down the paper and exclaim, " How dreadful!" Well, then, certes there is nothing afe all dreadful about it. It simply affords some harmless recreation after the labours of "the day to a few people who might otherwise pass then- time in card-playing or worse, and it is never disgraced by drunkenness or riot. Indeed, I may say with truth of Kororareka, that considering the mixed and continually changing nature of its population, and the frequent presence of whaling vessels, it is remarkably orderly and quiet, and scenes of drunkenness are comparatively rare.