AUCKLAND BELLES—PAST AND PRESENT.

Observer, Volume 2, Issue 46, 30 July 1881, Page 518

AUCKLAND BELLES— PAST AND PRESENT.

— : +. No. 6 — A Belle of the Past. — Mrs Heacocke.— Nee Milla Sharland, From Mount Egmont and tlie Sugar Loaves, from fair Taranaki, came the belle I am about to notice. The fresh winds of that stormy western coast straightened her tall and lithe figure, gave the brightness to her large grey eyes, the clear tint of health to the marble of her skin, and rippled in the tawny masses of her long brown hair. She was about thirteen when she came with her family to reside in Auckland. Her father himself, a man of much musical talent, had her carefully educated. She had a correct ear, a charming and cultivated voice, so that it was a pleasure to listen to her singing. Ab she grew up to womanhood, she developed two very antagonistic traits of character. She was at once an accomplished flirt, and a blue stocking. She would quote Carlyle and BroAvning to the men one minute, much to their chagrin and amazement, and the nex£ sing, "If thou but knew," "Si tv savais, and lay them low with magical glances out of those dark grey eyes. " Queen of the Rink " Mr Swainson crowned her, in the days when to be queen of the rink was a title worth bearing. A charming, pert, and saucy page she made in " Chilperic" when our amateurs acted it in the Choral Hall in the auld lang syne. I often wonder why we never now have anything half so good in an amateur way as "Chilperic and " King Arthur." The manner in which she met and captured her husband is worth men, tioning. She was walking on the wharf with some friends when she met him coming out of the boat which brought him to this countiy. Their eyes met, and one long marvellous flash passed out of hers into his. He procured an introduction, but, after a few weeks, left Auckland, and on his return to the old country despatched a letter to New Zealand, which elicited the laconic answer, "Come and see." He came, lie saw, he conquered ; and I admired the quiet, modest, wedding which made Milla Sharland Mrs Heacocke. There were no carriages, there was no parade, no finery, although, she married a rich man. In her travelling dress she went quietly one morning to St. Paul's, attended only by her own family, and was happily wedded. And so Aye lost our belle from Taranaki.