CAPTIVATED BY WANGANUI.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12881, 8 April 1913, Page 3

CAPTIVATED BY WANGANUI.

ANOTHER VISITOR'S IMPRESSION. AS OTHERS"SBE US.

Last week we published an article written by a Woodville journalist en impressions which ho formed of Wanganui during the Easter holidays. Another pressman, this time uaillivg from Eltham, writes to his paper, the "Taranaki Herald," as follows: — "Probably there will be many readers of this who are well acquainted with Wanganui, and the writer is not, but a few impressions of a short stay in that town may be interesting to the general reader. The first thing that strikes one visiting that town is the love of music. I was there during Easter and the two bands and the Salvation Army were all out in full force. Everybody seems to ooze music and even the sirens at sawmills and breweries and the alarms on motor-cars ha/ye been tuned up, whilst there is an artist at the railway station who tries a tooral-i-addity on the five-minute caution bell. The City Band has many followers and admirers of the other sex—a proof shown by the fact that a bazaar gathered in, £68 0, and that couldn't be done without the ladies. This band was at tiie Wanganui College" sports, and much interest was created by the action of the side-drummer, a 13-year-old boy, who rolls the drum, clashes the triangle, works an anvil, and introduces other actions into a selection that makes it very realistic. With regard to the sports a noticeable feature was that large fields contested each event;I counted 28 in one race, and every competitor finished, and it was rare sport to see the last pair sprint home trying to save earning the place of last. The old boys were too good for the present boys in a tug-of-war. If you could get into conversation with a Wanganui man he will tell you that the town is going ahead splendidly—our shipping is improving, the tramway receipts - increasing, the business of the town expanding; and there is no reason to doubt it. The Wanganui man takes ■ a great pride in his river, justifiable no doubt, but a quiet walk through the cemetery there shows that the river demands a heavy toll on the inhabitants, and two plots record the drowning of eight on Easter day three years back. They possess a fine hospital—and also, unfortunately, have full use of it. Outside the town there ai-e many fine residences, and also there are some remarkable sections. Out Gonville way they seem to perch houses on top of sand heaps and then give a layer of cement at the bottom to prevent the foundation -trom skedaddling during the breezy weather. One can be prepared next to see a Gonville resident build a house having an umbrella stick at each corner as foundation. There are three line clubs there, and one I visited—the Cosmopolitan—was elaborate in every sense of the word. 'Everything on© could desire, was there. Three- picture shows' aro running each evening, and they all seem to be doing well. One. -house showed* "The Fatal Wedding," and had an orchestra of nine instruments and were securing crowded houses. During my stay I put in some time at the Steel Pipe Works, and the work there was most interesting. The firm are big manufacturers of sewerage pipes, etc., arid just then were on an Eketahuna job. The manufacture of the pipes was shown in detail. One £aw the steel as received from England in long rolls like gigantic cotton reels. It was then fed into a machine, all the same the butcher's sausage. Here it was rounded up and riveted. Wheeled out, it was scrimmed and tarred, and then subjected to an enormous pressure to detect flaws. For welding the steel together a very powerful light was used. The heat was secured by some electrical means, arid the light was so powerful that the workers had to work behind dense coloured glass shields to protect the sight, whilst the heat was so fierce that holes were^bitten or eaten through the, solid steel in a remarkably short time. A light of this sort, would prove a boon to William Sykes, as if seems to melt steel like butter does at a boarding house. Wanganui has a Labour member, and it looks as. if the workers are well looked after there. They possess a coming man in Mr. Veitch's lieutenant, a young man familiarly called "Wally" Grey, who repairs boots for a living and in his spare moments goes on school committees, etc., and studies up . political economy from a labourer's point of view. The newspaper business there must be a profitable industry, if outside appearances are to be taken as any criterion. Tho "Chronicle" looks most majestic with a three (or is at four?) storey building, whilst I had a look through tho "Herald" and found much of interest. Round Wanganui, there seems to bo much fruit and many residents have their "trees, beside the potato patch, whilst excepting a terrace of houses across the river, the town seems extremely flat and a pleasure for travelling. In this matter one Sunday morning, I noticed one horse and trap, 4 0 motor-cars, and lost ! count of bicycles .during'a.short spell. In a short stay one could not see to.o much, and I cut my stay short for fear the desire to stay would become a permanent one.