GORE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1981, 11 February 1892, Page 20

GORE.

February !).— Dull by day and pretty lively after nightfall has been the order of things in our streets for some time past. Country people have been all so busy with grass seed work that bar Saturdays, when the fanners make their regular appearance, the township only wakens up when the R,M. comes to do the fortnightly wafah of dirty linen. This he did last Thursday in the cases of some half dozen litigants, who might have saved themselves much trouble and some money by the exercise of a little soft soap mixed with tome commercial morality. Particulars are not worthy of mention. Amusements.— Scarcely an evening has, passed of late without a public entertainment of one kind or another. No .sooner had Professor Ma.son (the word professor should be in italics, I presume) electrified his audiences by gratis admission, electric belts, and dentistry, than tho Payne family with their bells awoke tho echoes of the Town Hall. These in turn wore succeeded by Mr Tennyson Smith, of teetotal fame, whoadopted the professor's dodge of baiting the fish by free entry, and only hauling in the net at the finish. Nothing takes in Gore like a cheap article. The bills are up for more to follow, but where all the shillings come from to keep all the pots boiling nobody seenib to know and nobody cares. The money so freely spent must be easily come at. Nothing can beat a thriving up-country township for the free circulation of the current coin.

Farming.— Harvest has commenced in the immediate neighbourhood, but will not be general till the end of this week or beginning of next. The small birds have played sad havoc in the patches round the town, and in many cases what they have left is of no account ; in fact, to sow grain very early and in the vicinity of the houses with their hedges, trees, and shelter looks like courting the destruction of the whole affair. Farmers' Club.— The Gore Farmers' Club held their annual meeting last week, at which there was a large attendance. Little change was made in the selection of the office-bearers, Mr Bell, of Wantwood, bavins been reappointed president ; Mr M 'Queen, of Knapdale, vice-president; and Mr D. Dun secretary and treasurer. The report for the year showed the thriving state of matters in a good balance of cash in hand and a bteadilymaintained membership. One member who avowed himself a believer in the theory of one John Adams that "all men are born equal" objected to the re-election of the tame president,

insisting that the honours should go round. Tho club threw the " born equal " notion overboard— almost contemptuously, it may be said— by voting for Mr Bell with one consent, excluding the unit referred to, who voted alone. Business having been despatched, the club's annual dinner took place in White's Railway Hotel, where over 30 members and friends put in an appearance. The Church.— The Gore Presbyterian Church, which has recently undergone extensive additions, was reopened on Sunday last. The management secured the services of the Rev. DrStuait, of Dunedin, for the occasion, find gave their venerable friend a fair clay's work to face in the hhane of three separate meetings to conduct, The grand physique of the G.O.M. enabled him to put it in without " turning a hair,' and it was only a pity the weather was so unfavourable ; for rain fell more or less the entiic day, materially reducing the attendance. It is an open secret that the cost of the enlargement of the edifice has been already provided for by the results of the late bazaar, the proceeds of the opening day collections, soiree, synod grant, and private contributions ; so that the Presbyterians may be cor. gratulated on having re-opened their handsome and comfortable church virtually free of debt. For a year there has been a feeling expressed by a few elderly ladies resident on the west side of the Ma tau ra that the distance to walk across the bridge on Sundays was too great for them, and that a church on the west side of the stream was requisite. This project, it is understood, is likely to be put in execution some time or other. A commanding site is reported to have been acquired in James' square, and there is only the title of the church to be decided on, a difference existing as to whether it is to be known as the Mackay Manorial Church or St. James.