NEW YEAR'S DAY.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXIV, Issue 2785, 16 January 1869, Page 3

NEW YEAR'S DAY.

Amidst sacred cbantings, solemn Te Deums, religious services, the strains of martial music, singing; and dancing, a display of sky rockets, the firing of cannon, the huzzas of the people in the streets re-echoed by our seamen in harbor, and under a full moon and clear sky, the year 1869, in this good city of Wellington, was yesterday ushered into existence. New Year's eve was celebrated with the usual divine services, while at the Odd Fellows' Hall there— " Lads and lasses, in their best, Were dre33ed from top to toe" — who merrily danced " the old year out and the new year in," probably hoping and believing that a change in the year would bring a change for the better. There were others, their tastes, feelings, and aspirations being of a more serious nature, who, either at one or the other of our churches and cathedrals, or at their own family altars, with music and singing, or thanksgiving and prayer, returned their Heavenly Father thanka for the mercies of the year about to be numbered with the things of the past, and who invoked His blessing on the year which was about to succeed it. The morning of the New Year was as bright, calm, and promising as could have been desired. It was a day for holiday making, for picnics, rural excursions, and rural sports, and right merrily it was kept. The Caledonian Gathering was of course the event of the day, but the jelc at Johnsonville had its attractions, while kiss-in-the-ring, by the young of both sexes, was an amusement which its votaries indulged in in a paddock by themselves, and was most extensively patronised. One corner of the paddock in which the Caledonian sports took place was occupied by a swinging boat which constituted a great attraction to the children, while the Maoris, not to bo outdone, occu pied another corner, where war dances and native songs predominated.