REUNION OF PASSENGERS EX GEORGE CANNING, 1857.

Otago Witness, Issue 2284, 9 December 1897, Page 30

REUNION OF PASSENGERS EX GEORGE CANNING, 1857.

This being emphaticilly the season of annivenraries, it recently occurred to Mr Butler, of the Union street School, ttat it would be & pleasant thing fco reunite the passengers by the <Jeprge Canning, which arrived afc Port Chalmere on November 29, 1857, or 40 years ago. He promptly put the idea into practice, and by advertisement convened, a preliminary meeting, at which the xnatter was enthusiastically taken up, and the result was an extremely enjoyable -reunion on the evening' of St. Andrew's Day, November 30, *t the Union - -street School Hall. During the day 16 of the original 'passengers were photographed in a group at the Botanical G-ardens, and the pho- , tograph, together with another of 35 descendants of passengers taken at the same time, will serve ac a pleasant memento of the occasion. In the evening 150 person?; -including 25 of the original 98 who landed 40 years ago, were pre- „ sent. The hall was. admirably decorated" with >J banners, the name of the • ship 'florally di«- ' pTayed,- and photographs of -passengers and old identities. There-was abundance of good cheer. . Pleasant nrnsic from violin and piano was produced by Messrs Allen and a number of willing ' volunteers/ Happy faces- and cheerful songs and. conversation made the oocasion & memorable one. Mr Butler occupied the chair, and made a few remarks, contrasting the condition of things now -and when they landed, when the ground on which they were standing was ' a peat beg. Mr E. B. Cargill (mayor-elect) Was present, and contributed a number of

reminiscences, among them being the oircum- ] stance that he himself was the author of the"! famous pEr*se "Old 'identity." During the I evening it was resolved that cordialhelp^ should be given to any project having for its object the oelebration of the provincial Jubilee, and it was" suggested that among the events of that time be a gathering of " old identities "—" — arrivals from 1848 to 1861 — in the* Agricultural Hall, - to which adminion should, be charged and the surplus given to the library fund. The reunion was mdsfc snecessful from every point of view. Shipmates met who had not ~ seen each other'-since .the day they landed, and the prosperous appearance of the passengers and their descendants showed that the 'good ship George Canning had brought to the colony the right- class of passengers. A ooiumendable feature in connection with the gathering was that the superfluity of good things was handed over next day to the inmates- of the Industrial School. , .