THE FEATHERSTON FETE.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVII, Issue 3382, 30 December 1871, Page 2

THE FEATHERSTON FETE.

TO THE EDITOR OB THE INDEPENDENT. Sib, — In your issue of last Saturday, you give a very interesting aooount of the Featheraton Fofco, but as some portions of your report do not appear to me to be quite correct, I venture to make the following remarks :— You say " the arrangements undertaken by ' the gentlemen were of tbe very worst description." Now, sir, wilh all due deferonco to your assertion, I must give it the most emphatic denial ; and I believe I am right in saying that there could scarcely be an affair of the kind where the arrangement* could be more complete in every particular, which would have been fully proved had the committee of management been able to carry out those arrangements, which they were utterly unable to do in consequence of the exceedingly bad weather which set in on the evening before (he fete. In making suah an assertion I think you must have arrived at a foregone conclusion, seeing - that, as I have already said, scarcely any of the arrangements made by the committee were carried into effect, and therefore could only be really known to themselves. I am very much pleased with your tribute to the ladies, and am sure too much cannot be Baid in their praise for the manner in which • they conducted their portion of the programme ; bul at the same time I feel that you have utterly ignored the exertions of the gentlemen in assisting the ladies to make their arrangements a success. To my own knowledge several of the committee were, for many days previous to the fete, working from four or five o'clock in the morning until dark at night in finishing the room for the evening's amusements, the grand stand and refreshment booth — no one being more conspicuous than the worthy proprietor of the building — and grounds used for the fete ; whose whole time and attention from the first meeting of the committee, until the day of the fete, was solely devoted to the necessary preparations. I could mention several others of the committee who exerted themselves to the utmost to make the affair a cotuploto success, and I could mention others who did literally nothing, after having undertaken to do all they could, not even so muoh as to appear on the ground to assist those who were there ! I fancy ifc was enough to damp the courage of the bravest committeeman to go on to the ground on the morning of the fete, and find that the refreshment baoth, with tables, seats, and every other J convenience which had been erected, literally smashed to the ground j and it was not very encouraging to see theraindescendingallround the country; and during the day several of the tarpaulins (borrowed ones, thank goodness) ' rent into shreds by the wind 1 Had you said that the weather on the occasion was of the vary worst description, you would have been somewhere near the mark, and there would have been some excuse for your facetious reference to crape and long faces. — I am, &c, Okb os the Committee.