OUR CHRISTCHURCH LETTER.

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 74, 11 February 1882, Page 344

OUR CHRISTCHURCH LETTER.

Cheistohurch, February 2. The event since the Christmas holidays has been the visit of the English cricketers. There was no match on Friday or Saturday ; the rain poured down in torrents, but on Monday it was a beautiful day, and your humble servant wended her way to the crowded precincts of Lancaster Park. It will be a fine place when the tram makes it easily " come-at-able," but it is not pretty. Hayley Park is very, very much nicer and nearer to town. However, being a public park, no fees for admission can be charged there, and Lancaster Park is sure to do the best. The Englishmen played a slow, sure, and splendid game. I did not go on Tuesday, but was told that their fielding was magnificent. Our own best man was Watson, who scored 24, not at all bad against such a powerful team. I know Mr Watson ; he came here from Tasmania a few years ago, and became second master in a school. Since then he has gone in for reading, and has done well at the University examinations, rising steadily in his profession, therefore he is what is justly considered as one of the best combinations for a young man-^-a man with brains and muscles, and old England need not be ashamed of her Colonial son. Some of the ladies dresses were very pretty. The Misses Wilkin wore pale pink, with toques en suite, cream lace and long cream-coloured gloves ; Mrs Willes wore a brown velvet coattailed jacket, with brass buttons and brown skirt; her sister (Miss Rhodes) was in cream-coloured costume ; Mrs Snow, late Miss Norman, of whose wedding I gave you an account some time ago, wore dress and toques of dark green silk trimmed with dark green velvet (it looked too heavy for a hot day) . The prettiest costume I saw was one of pale blue sateen, with overskirt of pale blue Madras muslin trimmed with cream lace ; Ido not know the lady's name. A pink gingham trimmed with cream lace — which, by-the-way, I was told the young lady had made herself — was very pretty. I may say that a goodly number of our Christchurch young ladies have the reputation of making their own dresses, and the young ladies who do so seem always to look well. They fit and set their clothes in a way no dressmaker will take the trouble to do ; and they can so often hare fresh changes, for gingham* is so

fashionable, and a most effective gingham cos- ■ tume can be made for less than a pound. I saw ■ one dress, home-made, that I was assured had \ only cost 12s 6d, and it looked equally as well as another costume that had cost £2 10s ; so that our clever young amateur dressmakers deserve to look well. Many Auckland friends must remember Mr J. B. Way, a relation, I think a nephew, of Mr Alfred Buckland. He has been in Christchurch j a good many years. I do not, myself r know his \ daughters, but wo have mutual friends, and I ! often see them, they are graceful, nice looking, young girls, and dress tastefully. They 'drive a : very pretty basket phaeton, and a splendidlymatched pair of ponies. I don't like a phaeton ; drawn by one tall horse, it is ugly and out of . character, but many have it here. The handsomest ; and best appointed carriage in Christchurch is Lady Wilson's, in which one may see any day the sweet face of Mrs Alex. Cracroft Wilson (Laura J Wilson (Laura Munroe) . Mrs Wilson, I believe, -I lives with her mother-in-law in the utmost peace' ' and happiness, and thus accomplishes a task that . <; masculine humanity unanimously declares im- .] possible ! How now, ye lords of the creation ■ I beaten by a girl and a sweet and gentle girl too. jj Perhaps it is because she is sweet and gentle that ; she finds the task possible. We all kno.w the \ fable of the wind and the sun that tried to deprive the man of his coat, ye rough sons of Boreas. : I was pleased and touched by your sketch of 1 Chatty Atkins (Mrs Ruck.) I remember her in ] the very palmy days of her beauty and grace t j Like most young ladies who have left a lasting j I impression as belles, she was as gracious and j winning as she was pretty, and had a kind word \ j and smile for all. I remember one evening at j G-overnment House she was persuaded by Mrs \ G-ore Browne to put on Captain Stewart's Scotch -. \ scarf and bonnet, and brightly the dark eyea j shone beneath the tartan band and eagle's plume. ; Oh, those funny old days when the present •■ Grovernment House was first built. I was talking : over them lately with old Auckland friends. The Maori ladies at the Birthday Bell squatting on the '. floor in a blanket, a new one in compliment to the h ' occasion and a wreath of pink roses and silver!* leaves around her rough shock of hair ! 1 These gentry, whether attired a la blanket or a la mode behaved at table in a most unsophisticated way, taking a whole dish of fowl and eating therefrom , till they had had enough, and then pushing it ■ aside to be resignedly taken away by the waiters . j to be counted as so much loss to Mr Canning, the ] | caterer.. Ah, my old friends, don't you reineinj ber ? and now the costume of our natives is irre* i \ proachable. I was nearly bowing to Mr Taiaroa, M.H.R., the other day in the Ellesmere district ; : thinking he was a doctor of my acquaintance. ••>■ I mustn't dare tell the doctor's name j or he'll never forgive me. And then, at the rail- 1 way station, I was waiting for my ticket next to a \ widow lady in the quietest and most irreproach- 1 able widow's weeds. To my amazement, a very 1 stout lady, all silk and jet — unmistakably a I Maori with tatooed lips — came up and spoke to \ my neighbour, who proved to be also a native. \j One Auckland identity I have seen here is ; Madame Winter. I understood that she had ' some fortune left her ; at any rate, some three - years ago she built a good-sized house — Tavistock i House, Hereford-street — and commenced a school I for young ladies on her own ideas of education, si I. never heard what her views were, but I pre- j sume the experiment was not successful, as ; Madame Winter is selling off and leaving Christchurch, and Tavistock House is to let. " -i Those very clever girls the Misses Edger seem to prosper well. I hear, on all sides, that they '■] are models of energy, perseverance, application, and method. One extremely naughty girl told j] me she would sooner be in the " Sweet bye-and-bye" than be them with never a lover 'and never a lark. Need I say that I frowned down this very frivolous young person whose chief association is a new dress or a ball. One of our assembly balls was held on Monday, 23rd, it was supposed to entertain the English cricketers. I hear, on very good j authority, that the ladies' committee sat on the merits of the team individually, tvith a vieio of finding out how many of them they could conde~ scetid to invite ! The result was that only two , (I don't know which two) were adjudged"" fit to : meet the elite of Canterbury Society. Need I ; say that those two declined the invitation, and have contemptuously remarked that in no other | place during their tour have the team been treated to such a display of snobbish impertinence ? Eeally it is too bad. If these women (one and all) connected in some way with, and ■' drawing large incomes from trade, soidivanfc • governesses, &c, choose to stultify themselves ; of course they are at perfect liberty to do so, but when they behave in a way that throws discredit on our city, it is time' to speak ■ out. They are highly respectable, of course, and if they would only abstain from finding holes in other people's coats, no attention would be drawn to the rents in their own. The attendance at the ball was rather small, and some of the lady \ patronesses say that if the numbers should dwindle down to twenty they will maintain their jj rule. Heaven knows what that rule is, but if it • means that people must be veritable blue-blood, - with irreproachable antecedents, . and quite unconnected with trade, they won't find twenty, I , fear, and must, in many cases, stay away themselves. Mrs Rhodes was in black velvet, her daughter, Mrs Willes, and Miss Rhodes, the one,, in blue and the other in sea green. Mrs Gr. &. ', Stead, however, wore the dress of the evening, : a particularly handsome costume of yellow and -i blue satin. There were several debutantes, Miss . Loughman, in white and silver, looking very well. The Misses Clissold (not debutantes) wore '\ one white and the other cream ; but I have left 3 myself very little space for the dresses this time. ..J I see I forgot to mention in the right place that I ] saw Mrs Mills (Miss Burt, of Auckland) at the cricket match. She was in fawn colour, with straw hat, and looked very simple and pretty indeed. -A Countess Kate. '■