St. Luke's Garden Fete.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XVII, Issue 5206, 12 February 1892, Page 3

St. Luke's Garden Fete.

"The Gilded Fete," as some ready tonsue dubbed the garden fete in connection with St. Luke's Ladies' Guild, was successfully carried through yesterday in the Chelmer-street Gardens, which had been kindly placed at the disposal of the Ladies by the Borough Council. The site is an admirable one for a gathering of this sort, and with that discrimination, tacitly ceded by the stronger sex under the title of " good taste," the ladies pitched upon the prettiest spot in the whole gardens for their headquarters—the little grass bay at the end of the willow avenue. This, with its background of home and foreign trees, —a little triumph of landscape gardening in its own small way—formed an ideal spot for the establishment of a centre of operations. Bright sunshine and a cool fresh breeze tempted the public in numbers to the gardens in the afternoon, and all went merry as the proverbial marriage bell. Those, however, who viewed the scene aright visited it "by the pale moonlight," when the celestial lamp of the harvest moon, vieing with the Celestial lanterns which dotted the scene like fire-flies, shaded away into obscurity all out-lying fringes, and threw the central portion of the bay into a delicate chiaro-oscuro. A large marquee had been erected, whereon were displayed various useful and ornamental articles, which found a ready sale. A refreshment stall occupied the back ot the grass plot, where for a deposit of coin of the realm one could browse at will upon varied cates and confections. A produce stall groaned beneath its homely burden of fruits of husbandry. Across the creek lay the Sunday School children's stall, where the results of the children's ingenuity and energy met with an appreciative sale. Hard" by, in a secluded corner, dwelt a mysterious Sibyl, the crossing of whose hand with silver resulted in prodigies of prophecy. The husbands which were promised should put "heart of grace" into the unfortunate maiden surplus over which the colony grieves, and the fortunes that were assured argues that there will shortly be an unprecedented influx of capital into the colony. Let us trust that the gold which fell from the lips of this inimitable seeress may not, through any sin of ours, be turned, as in the warning fable, to frogs. At a respectful distauce outside the range of the sanctified sibyl were located Mr Gebbie's " Happy Family." Here was a little amateur millenium—an anticipatory picture of the some-time future. One half expected to find the rats lying down inside the cat, or the kitten in the monkey; but instead of this, the various

animals were on the friendliest of terras, and their intercourse and behavior was a reproach to many of their human visitors. There were no raffles, at which many hearts rejoiced ; and it is satisfactory to know that there is at least one body in the town which has achieved the tardy recognition of the fact that humanity and civilisation demand that individuals shall not have their lives wrecked and their grey hairs brought prematurely to the grave by the insidious attacks of the raffle-liouri. Under a spreading Japanese, unbrella, the village [poetical license] bandsmen stood, and discoursed sweet inusic while several terpsichorean enthusiasts made a perfunctory attempt to whirl in the giddy mazes of the waltz —an attempt which was frustrated and robbed of all its charms by the moist consistency of Mother Earth. The fete was brought to a successful close late in the evening. All the ladies worked hard to make the gathering enjoyable and financially remunerative and their reward lies in the achievement of a great measure of success. We are requested to record their thanks to all who assisted, and especially to Mr Gebbie for his kindness in various ways.