MOONLIGHT EXCURSIONS.

Observer, Volume 9, Issue 532, 2 March 1889, Page 3

MOONLIGHT EXCURSIONS.

MOONLIGHT excursions by water are very delightful things, and when the first trip of the kind took place this season (to St. Helier's Bay, I think) the steamer was crowded, the excursionists being of all classes, from the aristo-

cratic Mrs Remuera Browne and her girls to 'Arry and his young woman. Given a fine moonlight night, oppressively hot on shore, but which is just hot enough at sea, and a good band to discourse dance music, and, what could be pleasanter than a trip down the harbour, to be followed by a stroll along the beautiful s^nds at St. Helier's, or a climb up the cKffs, from whence a magnificent view is to be obtained. Away opposite is the North Shore with its many twinkling lights, looking like a fairy city ; below it rises the round and somewhat grim North Head ; and away to the right again familiar Rangitoto, its triple peak bathed in moonlight, its rugged steeps softened by distance— ' a study in black,' as my friend Brush would say. And nothing to break the silence save the ceaseless plash of the waves as they dash onto the rocky beach below.

A pretty picture, romantic surroundings, delicious sea breezes to fan you after a broiling day in the city. No wonder the moonlight excursions were popular. Their popularity is not quite so great now, however. That is, they are not so generally popular. 'Arry and his friends, gay young city mashers, and loose women all patronise them. Eespectable people stand aloof. Why ? Because the ' goings-on ' at these outings are simply disgraceful. I cannot particularise, but if you doubt my word, try the next excursion and see for yourself. But don't take your wife, your sister, or your ' girl ' with you. St. Heliers is no place for persons with any sense of delicacy or refinement, on excursion nights. Abandoned women, it is notorious, make a point of going, and they are not the only offenders against propriety on these occasions.

When some care is exercised as to the class of persons allowed to attend these moonlight excursions, respectable people will doubtless gladly patronise them once more. At present they are unlit for any respectable woman or girl to have anything to do with.