OUR AUCKLAND LETTER. (From our own Correspondent.)

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 673, 12 September 1876, Page 2

OUR AUCKLAND LETTER. (From our own Correspondent.)

oomi'pondent.) "There's going to be a crisis ; that's what there's going to be." These were the wor.li addressed to m« at tba close of last week by a very •mall, thin faced, nervous gentleman who is engaged in small oommero al undertaking!, lie baa lately earned for I>ims4f the name of the growler- Whether it is dus to bile, or liver, or that in bu domestic relations he is made subject to a •ncc^ition of snubbing on the p irt of one Mrs G I don't pretend to cay. I kuow that he is always prognoatioitUig evils to come which have not yet ronciie i vi. "What m»rt of crisis i* it to be thin time? I ask«d"and from what quartern « ho to look fir it. You ace, " I «aid, in my ig'ioranoe, I doii'c quite kuow what a crixis h. Of ecu rue it is tomethitu very dreadful or jou would not be the man to have auythiua to do w.th it." 8 Oh, "ho said." it's all very grand to \w>U on tht» plo««.ias si le of ihiogi • Lug you m»rk roy words if we dou't soon oome to a /rand smash 5 a general burvt. Rum is coming upon us with the de«truciive force of a whirlwind in the desert. There will, as th<3 B.iymf.' is, ue the devil to pay and no pitch hot. A coll-pse «ir; a general and total com meroial demolition. We are going down a steep gradient with no brak« on. You II tee it all, or tell me X don't know » 'ything. We b*ve lit off all our lire, wo ks and there i* nothing left but the. empty cases. Then my littl. friend having given utterance to these propheoie» released the butt a of my coat and hukeneJ onhij vrav.

Now I have been somo tbirtv~snd odd year, in our Colonie. s at one time in one? at Mother m .nother, , a d ia VM ™* 9 portion, of each at d,fferent ti me - »" d J •nay My that during mlljthis long period not » season ha, passed over without growler, .nd croaker, who wer. ever but he who told me wu eating of "tout of fettled *le, and I know he fared of the growler date that did not do the «ne; nor that made any difference ia And although j knew, upon the Tory ™t WW h ° t Mt ? *" **~ UTfaJVE ™!f £. d i ffer *.n. no * with regard to myself upon my diet, and partook of • littl. «tra drink m people do when a fever or tome "infectious epidemio U raging around them, in order to be the better •We to withstand iti attack!. I don't believe in them evil forebod. inga. I kno*r;that if a pecuniary pinch doe. com. Xt it only a pinoh after all, and that we .ball «unrive it in a very little i, times and all will come ont will. With a colony of gold aud »ilwr, and fertile ■oil, and timber, and coal, and iron, and valnable- earths, and clays, with fisheries, navigable river* and lakes, what It that can happen to our hu.t na 10 that it ■hall. endure for any le..th of time a lheae croakeraarean intolerable nuaanoe and 1 wi.h there could be an Aor of Parliament to put ihtm down. • 9 UI> ££* ce * f » hM been well patroa15? 1 1. , one m] r J ust middUng. We like t.oveltjr, mnd uhliough Mr Do Lua feela that hi* p,»,t ffforta ore forgotten and that people go to another placo of amusement when bethinki thpy ahould attend that which he provide! for theJL' he has seen, I .hould UuVk. enou f h of human life to know what the naturety it is coujpoaed of. B>.kera hare been aetting their louve* of bread at, w« wUI aay, fourpence. We'l, iomu one of the body redueaa the price to threepence halfpenny when he drawa a very much larger auare of custom. Competition act* in and another baker reduces the price of hij loaf to threepence, nnd ho in hi. turn .ecurej the largest share of the pitrounge of the public. People will hare bread at threepence in preference to threepence halfpenny, aud they don't care ona iota whether the lowest teller is baking hit war Ins nay into the luaolvent Court. That's bis look. out. And to it it with theatras. People K o to where they «re lik.lj to meet with tha best entertain-aent where in fact they get mo*t for their money, fa human nature, and no doubt waa designed fjt tome wise purpo.e. The nigger Min.trelay which once drew aucb crowded houses ia now, aud haa been for aowo time past fading out of exiataeoe. What haa become «f •• tka only original Christy Troupo"? How in»oy troopa. have we had coming and go ng in Auckland under this atyle and title, duriug the.c la.t ten or a dozen ytar.? The haira on my head would scarce!/ count them. Mired up, or alternating with Chri.ty Mmatreiy (with never so muoh aa a Chri.ty member amoug them,) we have had Etheopean sorenaders, Caroliua scraamere, and Okio niggar delineator*, not ono of whom, had ever aean C^roliaa, or the big Ohio. But the«e all inent th*t eight or ten, or a doKda men enter into combination to Waken their face* with burnt cork and stale beer. To sing solos with a choru., to play ou banjo*, with a Umbourineist at one corner, aud a " boos*" at the other, whose busine-s it waa to do the aide «plitun« dep.v unen ta, by the telling of droll utone. piopoundmg far-fetched-very far-fftched indeed- conundrum., daucmg nigger dances, and delivering aturap oraviona. Many of the.c were pos.f Bsed of maguifioaut and fiuely cultivated voices, ottiera were highly akillad iuitrumeuuliutt, while a few— but«nly a faw, mveuted their own cumio busintaa, and apuu yarua from their own mental material. What now baa becomo of the graafeat of those. Among those of the .able brethren there waa poor White, who composed the word., and himvelf set to mus c that beautiful ballad called Ben Bolt. When White sun* that aoug in Victoria for a aucceaaionof fifty nifcjh a, Aapinal the great wit and eloquent barrister, accompanied by Ireland, a« eloquent a barrister, .but not so- great a wit, used each to pay their seven ahillinga and drop in juat aa White waa announced for Ben Bolt, never missing so much as one nighc of the fifty. And now what of White? Too great a success had put him off his head. He became reckleaa and extravagant a yaubt ; took to gambling. Then to drialtiag. Then he lost lit. .weet ringing voice, clear aa the aounda of a ailver bell. Theu he went down the ladder *tcp by step until ha became a. cecoad rate waicwr iv a flash hotel, where he died aud from where he was taken to the grave yard, and buried by subscription. What of Charley O'Neill oneof the most marvellous step dancers and contortionists of his day. He ia dead— died deserted by all — died in poverty in a lunatic asylum after squandering £5000 in the coarsest debauchery. What of youDg Bell, said to have been the illigiumate son of a moat noble £>ake ? Nightly, for two years he kept hundieda spoil. bound by the soft duloet atraiua he brought from concertina and accordion. He sailed for California, and juped overboard during act of deliruama tremens. There was John Wells, who in a "break down" responded to a third encore one night, and was lmmidoately after carried to hi* hotel with both hia legs paralysed, from whioh ha never recovered. He addresses envelopes for a newspaper office now. I cannot say ti»t 1 know or have heard of a Minstrel who ha* retired on even a mo lest competence to the quietude of domestic life Late bourn, hot theatres, much knocking about, and strong drink have worked their all potent charms. And now there ia leaa of JUigaet Miu.trelay every year. lam not aorry for it. In the days when it was aa nwitutum 1 "did" the *ammu.emeuti for a mornin^pap r. What 1 had to eodure in being compelled to listen night after night, to tho same stale y»rm ; to look upon the name breakdowns ; to hear the same songs, none but mo and the like of me can tell. Years have passed away since that time but even now when I call baok nic«* tntertamments to my memory the blood begins to curdle in my veins. 1 remember well asking poor White of what use was the blacking of facea and Jauds. Would not their voices be at full and|ai nwert ; their ohorunea aa good, inst um<:ntation as effective without the burnt cork and .tale beer. He said ?°'i a r, * x P« rilD « I »' had been tri.d and failed. Of oourae he kuew the entertain, uu.t wte of the aamequj.ty, w k,tber done xv black or white; but white wouldut draw a bouae, and black wonld and tint was all .bout it. He did not < kD0 * t . h « ro " 0 ". .Put it waa ao to a dead

Itm '"II th»- hlO {•!•• t'.r. e •h'p. M>t ■<iita >» ■ <-ii tti. ir *.»y f m T«-»'» '"♦• c •'■'i-nc-i to Ai'o i>gi I H»w, tl|( { w h «fo «'■ 'b thi-P Ir. ihoold n>it *«»• A inrgi qn»utiry of potted hniter it also on t!j« w«y. Cannot you people of Waikato keep these things out or <>ur market There ia something wrong somewhere and it should bo seen to.