NEW YEAR FESTIVITIES.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2740, 3 January 1882, Page 2

NEW YEAR FESTIVITIES.

NEW YEAR’S EVE. The advent of another year was celebrated in Timara in a manner that may. be said to. have become customary. Most of the celebration ceremonies wore pleasing enough, but others—one or two —were the very reverse. On Saturday evening, New Year’s Eve, the streets presented an animated appearance, the shops being lit up till a late hour, and crowds of people thronging the footways, draw‘s but by the “ sights ” to be seen and the music of the T.A.V. Band and of several pipers. Vigil services were held in several of the churches. As the town clock struck the hour that separated 1881 from 1882 a pyrotechnic display burst forth at the lighthouse with discharges of the signal gun, and accompanied by tbe shrill whistle and bass bellowing of steam engines in the station yard. From dusk until far into the small hours the small boys kept up an irregular but ihbessant fire of crackers all over the town, and the greatest trouble appeared to be rewarded and burnt fingers fully atoned for if an unwary passer-by could be made to ; start. Some mischievous persons, with a very, rudimentary idea of fun, amused themselves by unhinging and carrying off gates and otherwise destroying their neighbors’ landmarks. At an early hour in the evening one of the lamp posts in Church street was adorned with a couple of white gates hanging on the ladder arms. A great number of gates were removed by their owners to places of safety, a precaution which shows how great a nuisance this gate-lifting is. There are a few complaints also of more malicious damage to gardens, flower beds Ac. On the whole,'however,;the newjyear was ushered in very quietly.