DUNEDIN NOTES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4899, 12 October 1901, Page 3

DUNEDIN NOTES.

[Own Cobbespondent.j In a multitude of counsellors there ought to be wisdom but there never is. Individually each person may be a very decent fellow, but when he gets along with eleven more decent fellows in a Cit>7 Council, or shrfcy or seventy in a House of Representatives he generally makes a nuisance of himself or else merely helps to waste time. Take Dunedin— city of smells, horsecar trams and religion. We have, so far, made an awfni botch of two out of these and are not likely to redeem our reputation yet awhile. Citizens who might fairly have hoped to live to see the day when Dunedin had the ordinary modern appliances of- civilisation, are dying off in dozens and departing amid the same malodorous scents as they had known for many yearß. The puff and snort and " get up there " of the horse, the horse tram and the -horse tram .driver are still heard in our streets and the abominably villanous subject of the disposal of nigbo soil is still a fruitful source of comment in the Fress, at council meetings, in police courts, and the most exclusive society circles. Now, however, we are going to make one of those mighty efforts that I have witnessed many a time and oft in Dunedin, with sarcastic smiles and sneers, I regret to say, and try to get rid of the smells. That is we are going to borrow £250,000, and we are going to elect a Board to administer it and we shall, in the sweet (at least 1 hope it will be " sweet ") by-and-bye, have a drainage system. As a preliminary we are to elect a board, and as a farther preliminary 22 citizens, comprising doctors, contractors, and herbalists, have come forward to offer themselveß as martyrs to the cause of decent homes and reasonable sanitation. Only nine, however, of these can be elected, which is, perhaps, not to be regretted. Twenty-two men all firing away about destructors, septic tanks, evaporation, manure, filtration, deodorization, and Mrs Maloney'a back yard and its relation to the last case of tuberculosis would be too much even for Dunedin, the city of many and varied counsels. And so we propose, or rather the Act proposes for us, that nine are \ sufficient. Eren this appears, to some, ho he eight too many An American businessman would run the whole affair, if he thought it important enough, from a financial standpoint, to ocoupy hie at* tion, much better, more expeditiously, and cheaper. Labor Day dawned bright, sunny, windy, and threatening. There was just sufficient of the doubtful about the elements to warn people to be on their guard, and to carry umbrellas and waterproofs — if they had them — otherwise that they should commandeer their neighbors. The procession was an excellent advertisement for the butcher and baker, the tinker and lolly-shop man, whilst the colored and beribboned tails and manes of the horses excited a feeling of envy in the gentle bosom of the young lady who bad been to the opera the night before and couldn't, for the life of her, get her trout bang to carl even after curl papers, curling tongs, and hair pins had been brought into play. So.me hair won't curl. However, the horses' tails looked fine, just like a

horse's tail should 100k — full of lumps and knots and braids and bands. Some people say that the horse's tail is meant to flick the flies off its back and shelter its hind legs. TMb is a mistake. Horseß tails are meant for object lessons in the art of curling, hair, and the most fit time to teach the lesson is on Labor Day.

The sportß, I am glad to say, were well attended. I was sorry to see the men who ran the affair were running so many risks of making it a failure. Although I think the labor traders are often foolish and go the wrong way about their outside work, I carry my feeling no further. Others, I regret, do, and ohuckle maliciously over the workers' blunders. This is absurd and unworthy of any decent person. Labor is entitled to all it can get, only, 1 contend, the leaders would do better if they went about it in a more reasonable, leas aggressive way. At present they are creating antagonism where there should only be genuine sympathy. Anyway, 1 hope the financial resales of Wednesday's meeting will turn out alright as I the workers' committee have rendered themselves liable for a big expenditure and, unlike Mr Seddon's bills, the country can't be called upon to pay it. To-night (Thursday) marks the last of the grand opera season in Dunedin. It has been a wonderful success. Do man anticipated that Dunedin, a town tbe 6ize ot Bendigo, could keep a grand opera company going for four . weeks at 6s, 4s and 2s a seat. But it has done it, and put up another record that will make all the other centres look around and wonder where they are. The management did not anticipate it, old stagers did not think it could be done and everyone agreed that after the first; week things would quiefc down. Well, so they did but not to the extent, anticipated, and Mr Musgrove preferred a fourth week in Dunedin to a doubtful venture into the remote and lonely splendors of Invercargill's wide streets, and be was justified in the results. The company stayed and it paid them to stay At every performance there was what could honestly be termed *a good house and some of the nights witnessed a packed auditorium. The question arises : Where did tbe money come from to keep the company going ? and the answer is hardly reducible to one single statement. In tbe first place the operas were finely staged and came as a revelation. Few could have imagined that so much and so many at a time could have been put on to the Dunedin stage ; good arrangements made tbe latter appear double ito own size. Then again everyone talked about tbe grand opera, and whether you loved music or not you felt bound to go and, then, Waggner was new to this part of the world and the new, if much discussed, is always bound to attract. I question, however, had Waggner been played here as often as Faust and Trovatore and Maratina have whether he would have drawn so well. Personally I prefer the life and passion and melody of the Italian school and its imitators.

But the question still arises after all is said and done : Who paid the 6s demanded for 'cbe circle and the stalls P T tbink I a. en right in sayinpf that, so far as the circle is concerned, it was the Jews, the professions (law and medicine) and the shop girls and domestic servants. Don't be surprised at this last for it is an absolute fact. The Jewß patronised the circle well. It is the only place the gaudy colors their women folk delight in could be seen to advantage, and I noticed that the lawyers and doctors were always about. But the servants.and shop girls were immense.

Down in the pit, where the charge was 2s, night after night merchants and business men with their sons and daughters were to be seen. They meant to hear all the operas and the cost for two or three at a time soon mounts up. But upstairs you would find Mary Jane and her " young man," or Sophronia Edina who works in Messrs — ■ workroom in all the glory of cloak and silk waist. The puzzle how to avoid sitting next your own servant was only safely avoided by goin# to tbe pib. One lady of my acquaintance who bad sat up to let servant, or, as Mr Barclay would say, " house assistant," in, remarked to the latter as she entered at five minutes past twelve, " You are rather late ! " " Oh, yes," as her ladyship gracefully let fall her pink-lined cloak, "we were not out till ten minutes past eleven, and then we had to have supper." How I envy that " young man " his future wife !