THE LADIES

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 64, 3 December 1881, Page 184

THE LADIES

The new steamer lately finished to the order of the North Shore Ferry Company by Bailey, was christened The Victoria in the yards in Custom-house-street, by Miss Quick, the only daughter of our esteemed fellow citizen, George Quick, Esq. Miss Quick wore for the occasion a scarlet skirt, "with polonaise of oatmeal cloth, and oatmeal cloth hat. Near her was her jolly-looking future Captain (Webster, of the Albion), to whom the opening hours of 1882 will see her united in the closest band of all. The employes of the Company wore blue and white rosettes in their button holes in honour of the event. Saturday was quite a gala day at the North Shore. It was literally swarmed with people, not that too many turned up at the lawn tennis in the recreation grounds, for there were never more than six ladies on the ground at the same time. Miss Corbett had on a very pretty dress of pink gingham, trimmed with cream lace, and white liat. One young lady caused much amusement. In endeavouring to catch a ball, her tight dress came so much in the way of her efforts that at last, after several ineffectual struggles to proceed, she fell down and rolled over and over. No one could help laughing, but the laughing was very good humoured. If we might be excused for offering a little advice, we should be tempted to say the Ponsonby Bazaar would have paid much better and been much more attractive if it had been put off a week or two later. Our pockets are still feeling the effects of the St. Matthew's Fancy Fair, and we want a little rest to enable us to get over it. Moreover, a little nearer Christmas, would have had a most exhilerating effect. We are so used to being victimised at Christmas that a few shillings here, or a few shillings there, would not have been thought much of, Christmas conies but once a year ; but until the glimmer of Christmas does actually arrive, we are captious, and apt to answer. " Oh, wait till Christmas." However, we wish the bazaar every success ; but should any hitch occur, let the Ladies' Committee pack away the things till a few days before, or a few days after Christmas, and then let them unroll them with a will. We think it necessary to make a statement about a piece of almost \mparalleled injustice and cruelty now going on in Auckland, and which ought to be seen into without delay. In the Eyber Pass-road resides a lady — a widow. Her husband was formerly teller of the Bank of New Zealand. We knewher well as a child, and even then her temper was so bad that her mother — a most worthy woman — used to say she trembled for her. " She grew up a beautiful girl, and, having also property, married well. But, alas, her husband died, worn out, some said, "by her violent temper. Then she lived with her mother, and at last the poor mother died, also worn out. Now she lives alone with her unfortunate children, who have often to stay away for days to escape the terrors of her anger. Now the real truth of the affair is that temper has led to incipient madness, and the sooner the children are removed to safe quarters the better. Unfortunate Frederick Plummer ! hauled from Ms house at dead of night without a legal warrant — remanded, and remanded without having any proof of any wrongdoing being brought against him, there being about as much visible evidence of his having been connected with the recent burglaries as there is of the magistrate on the Bench. Is this law ? is this justice ? is this religion ? Surely this is the law of might against right, or the strong against the weak. This is the religion of the Devil. This man, born of respectable parentage, whose brothers and sisters, all well to do, respectable settlers, live not very far from our midst, ran in his youth a whole career of crime. He suffered for this ; he also repented. In him there was no criminal proclivity, the result of tainted generations to resist. The man had evidently turned over a new leaf, and wanted to know no more of the wild and wicked escapades of his youth. He lived now in another generation. And all this Frederick Plummer actually effected. He worked hard ; he saved money ; he lived a quiet, harmless life ; he actually emerged from the labourer into the .small contractor ; lie conducted himself like any other peaceful citizen ; — when, hey, presto ! the whole scene changes. There are burglars in Ponsonby. Someone belonging to the police has a conviction that a man living in Brown-street has been at some time or other under the surveillance of the police ; and 10, without a warrant, without a shadow of legal right, they break into this man's house, and assault him, and take him 2Drisoner, because he was once the redoubtable Frederick Plummer. And so the whole future of the man is broken lip and destroyed. For him no more a respectable life, a peaceful home, hope and a little peace, if no more joy, before him. Can a man, then, never recuperate himself ? Once lost, is that for ever lost ? This is not the religion of Christ ; this is, as I said before, the religion of the Devil. How many flourishing merchant princes, how many young and lovely women owe their birth to the ticket-of-leave convict, washed from the foulness of his sins, ■clothed, and set down in his right mind at the foot of the cross. Let us do this man justice. If it should turn out, as in all probability it will, that he has nothing to do with these recent burglaries, let the leaders of religion hold out to him the right hand of fellowship ; let him have something to cling to, lest again his shrinking barque goes down into deep waters ; for, if he joins the criminal class again, it will be through the terrible miscarriage of the sword of justice. The fancy dress ball at Mount Albert on Thursday, the 24fch instant, bid fair to bo utterly doomed by the incessant reign of Jupiter Pluvium, but in spite of this a goodly number mustered in the hall, which was most beautifully decorated by the, strenuous exertions of Mrs Greenwood ; indeed the lovers of Terpsichorean pleasures owe a great debt of gratitude to this lady for the trouble she has taken during the whole past season to provide for their amuse-

ment. A great many of the dresses had been previously worn at Ponsonby ball, and were fully described in the Observer. These were Mrs Masefield as Mandolinata, Miss Evans as the Indian Huntress, Miss M. Eigby as a Bohemian Girl Miss Taylor as a French Milkmaid, Miss Kelly Spanish Girl, &c. Mrs Greenwood wore the dress of a French Lady of the 16th century, which was not so becoming to her personally as her costume of Queen of the Flowers Miss Rigby as Helen Macgregor, in red and black tartan, with glengarry cap and upright eagle s feathers, was selected by many as the belle. Next to her Miss Isaacs, in her page s dress as Satanella, and in the costume of Mrs Sutherland, which was simply a pretty evening costume, ranked next in honours. Miss Dunnett s dress as an Eastern Princess was very much more admired than her costume as Queen Elfrida. Miss M. Kelly had a pretty nondescript dress. The Misses Pluinleys' dresses as Patchwork, the French Flag, and the Union Jack, were strxkingly bizarre. The gentlemen's costumes were none of them of much importance, except of course Mr E. James in his unapproachable Turkish dress, already fully described in the Observer. What, can be said about niggers and cricketers, and pirates and negatives and muleteers ? And so ends, perhaps, for 1881, the last record of the last fancy dress. Sic transit gloria mundi. Ahem !