Old Time Echoes.

Southern Cross, Volume 14, Issue 30, 22 September 1906, Page 10

Old Time Echoes.

INVERCARGILL THIRTY YEARS AGO. (By "Rambler.”) No. VI.

Politics and forms of Government occni-tied a good deal of attention in .Southland thirty years ago. At Flints Bush the settlers held a meeting to support Air Macandiew in his efforts to secure local administration for Otago when the provincial system was about to be abolished. Among the speakers was Mr John Mclntyre, who is still with us. •He expressed the opinion that while the Provincial system was not quite to his mind, the county system w a s not the thing t Q replace it, and was further of opinion that the settlers would be swamped by Invercargill. Mr J. W. Hamilton, a great lighter for the rights of the farmers, also took part in the meeting, which passed a vote of confidence in Air Macandrew, and expressed appreciation of the manly course taken in the House by Dr. Hodgkinson, M.H.R. The great musical centre of those days was the Philharmonic Society. 'At a meeting of the committee, attended by Dr. Yorath and Messrs Tapper, Dickenson, Peldwick, and Bush (secretary) arrangements were made for the first concert of the seaand at a later date it was decided to repeat the Christmas concert. Mr William Conyers, general manager of railways, was calling for tenders for the sole rights to advertise on the Southland lines. Air Conyers is now in Australia, and recently petitioned Parliament for an allowance on account of an accident he met with at the opening of the Invercar-gill-Dunedin line. Air T. Brydone was declared 'duly elected for the Waihopai Riding of Southland County, the returning officer being Mr J. G. Smith, who had a school at Long Bush, and for a time in Invercargill in a building standing just about where the present Education Board Offices are. He was afterwards secretary of the Board, and will also be remembered by many as the writer of graceful verses. Not a few of the men and .women of to-day passed through his hands, anh we are sure they retain kindly recollections of their old 'dominie, who ever tempered justice .with mercy. Air Neil Ferguson announced that competitions would be held for educational prizes under the auspices of the Caledonian Society, of which he was secretary. A man of fine physique, he was also able to take his part in the athletic field. On loth November Air C. Broad, gardener, Gladstone, visited the News office with some ripe strawberries, and, we are told, made the mouths of the staff water. Powell and Co., auctioneers, intimated that they would offer by auction the gross proceeds of seven entertainments by the Hegarty troupe —the sale to take place on the stage of the theatre. Formal notice was given that the path forming a short-cut from the jetty to the railway station would be closed, which led the evening paper to express a hope that Leven st. would soon be formed. Simonson’s Opera Company, to whom local play-goers owed many happy hours, was visiting the town, and some excitement was caused when it became known that one of the members, a Air Steinback, had been lost in Seaward Bush, whither he had gone in search of ferns. He was "bushed” all night, but turned up next day little the -worse for his exposure. Christmas day passed off very quietly and decorously*. There was then no hint of sports gatherings on the holy day, but the Good Templar Lodge, in order to cater for the strangers in town, held a social and concert. Services were also held in St. John’s, the Rev. W. P. Tanner officiating, and in St. Alary’s, where the services were taken by the Rev. Father O’Leary. On Sunday evening (Xmas Eve) a party of carol singers from St. John’s headed by Air Ha-utrie West, were out through the town from 11 p.m. till 4.30 next morning, and the report adds that they would have visited the suburbs also had they not lost the run of their omnibus and its driver soon after setting out. I have now exhausted the old file, but some other day, with the editor’s leave. I may return to the subject, dealing -with a slightly later period.