MARLBOROUGH.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 39, 26 September 1891, Page 418

MARLBOROUGH.

Dear Bee, September 10. The last hunt of the season, which always takes place at Mr E. Paul's property at Spring Creek, is over and done with, and the indefatigable members of the Hunt Club have to content themselves for a few months by relating most wonderful adventures ‘ of moving accidents by flood and field ’ to any of their friends whom at any time they can manage to buttonhole. Professor Anderson has lately paid us a visit, and exhibited some of his really wonderful talent as a conjurer to a large and admiring audience. His skill in obtaining money by simply waving his hands has inspired many a youthful soul with fervour. Many are the disappointed millionaires amongst the rising generation whom the professor has tempted to borrow silk hats for the purpose of working a charm and causing half-crowns to rain into them. In the matter of egg-raising, the process was so simple that I, for one, am greatly surprised that anyone having any regard for their neighbours’ feelings or their own pet gardens should keep fowls at all, when they can procure eggs a la Anderson at any time by twisting a silk bag about. I found out one of his tricks, though, when he gave me a box to put a lady’s watch in. He left the key with me too, but there are ways of getting a slide out of a box without opening it, and the box was long enough in my hands to prevent any surprise on my part, when on opening it, I saw a canary instead of a watcli, which appeared rising up out of a bunch of flowers on the stage. Mr L. Allen, who has been promoted as accountant to the Bank of New Zealand, Hastings, was interviewed by his bachelor friends previous to his departure from Blenheim, and after some congratulatory and valedictory speeches, was presented with some valuable volumes. He was also the recipient of a handsome gold horse-shoe scarf-pin, which was presented by Mr Snodgrass, Manager of the bank, on behalf of the Bank-stall'. Mr T. Monat, of Gisborne, takes his place as teller here. The last of Miss (A. P.) Seymour’s sessional assemblies successfully came off, and was attended by most of her usual clients, who spent a very pleasant evening. There have been so few dances this winter, that these monthly assemblies have been almost the only thing to look forward to, and will be greatly missed. Society people in Picton, though few in number, are much more energetic than their Blenheim neighbours, judging by the number of events which ‘come off’ there. The Excelsior Club (the members being the teachers and pupils of the borough schools) gave one ot their periodical socials. Quite a number of young people outside the society were invited, but no chaperones, the teachers, Miss Hay and Miss Gilbert, doing duty in that capacity. Games, to please the little ones, and dancing, including a lively kind of square dance, called here ninepins, for the elder ones, passed the time away all too quickly till eleven p.m., when the party—to use the children’s own expression—‘broke up.’ The Picton borough schools, under the conductorship of the headmaster, Mr Howard, and assisted by a few friends, gave an entertainment in aid of the school library fund. These entertainments are always popular, and draw a large house, all the town being, as a matter of course, interested in the doings of the little folks. The very tiny ones, under Miss Gilbert, went through their Kindergarten performances, and sang their Liliputian choruses correctly and sweetly, to the wonder and delight of their parents and friends, who all feel grateful to Miss Gilbert for the kindly care and attention she has bestowed on them. The ‘ Imitation Song,’ ‘ Mother’s Little Maid,’ ‘ The Dairymaid,’ and ‘ The Little Sailor,’ were all nicely sung by the mites. ‘Mrs Nickleby’s Courtship’ was acted by Miss Howard, Miss Rackley, and Messrs M. and H. Greensill. Mr H. C. Seymour sang a comic song, which elicited a vociferous encore. Two charades were acted, and a comedietta, ‘ ASurpriseParty.’but owing to the incessant undercurrent of conversation carried on in the hall, it was impossible for the audience to hear the plot of the surprise party, but judging merely from what one could see, it was a case of surprise all round. Miss Greensill kindly acted as accompanist, and Miss Lily Falconer played the overtures. The sea-serpent may have been accounted for, but another curious fish lias come to light from the waters of Queen Charlotte Sound. It is called a ‘ porotaki ’ by the Maoris, and is about five feet long. It is a tapu fish by the common herd, and only fit food for the highest chief in the land. Its resurrection—it is many years since one was seen—portends some great event about to take place. Picton was cn fete yesterday, on the occasion of opening the waterworks for the town. Eveiybody was in holiday attire, and everybody capable of walking two-and-three-

quarter miles wended their way up Esson’s Yalley under the viaduct, which crosses the valley just beyond the Esson’s homestead, up the track made for the convenience of sledging plant to the reservoir, and which winds round the hills above a romantic stream, which in places becomes a ravine nearly a hundred feet below, and is here and there bridged across so as to get at the easiest gradient for the track. The processionists stop here and there on the bridges, and look down on the stream, which rushes and tumbles over its rocky bed, and admire the crisp-looking asplenium bulbiferum below, and then they look up to beds of trichomanes reniforme (the kidney feiu), which grow so abundantly in the neighbourhood of Picton. Undeterred by the mud on the track, or the sharp rocks which metal it in places, our indefatigable party proceed to the end of the track through a short tunnel, which was left, I presume, to add to the romance of the situation, an idea of which you will obtain from your travelling artist, whom I met in Picton yesterday. At the end of the track we go down a ladder, and stand on the concrete, where the Mayor makes his speech, and presently Mrs Fell (the Mayor’s wife) breaks the orthodox bottle of champagne, pours the contents into the reservoir, and after turning on the water, declares the Picton water works open, and hopes the water may be a boon to the townspeople. I couldn't tell you half the people who were there, for many had scrambled up the hill, and were sitting about wherever they could find a spot level enough to hold them, but on the concrete I noticed Mrs Fell, Mrs H. C. Seymour, Mrs Allen, Mrs Duncan, Mrs Andrews, Mrs Beauchamp, Miss (A. P.) Seymour, the Misses (H. C.) Seymour, Miss Nellie Allen, Miss M. Fell, the Misses H. and E. Dart, the Mayor (Mr Fell) and councillors, the engineer (MrDartnell), the Inspector of Woiks (Mr Johnston), thecontractor (Mr Carr), the Press reporters, and many others. At the far end of the dam stood the inevitable keg of Picton beer, in which, I suppose, everybody’s health was drunk after the ladies had started on their homeward journey, and what was left was used by the bearers, who marched in procession down the track, and caricatured the proceedings at the dam by christening the bridges after the principal families in the town.

In the evening a public social was held, and never before was such a crowd of people seen in the Public Hall. The management of the affair had been left in the hands of Mr H. C. Seymour, and he, ably assisted by several lad.es, who in turn weie supported by generous donors of provisions, so that there was plenty and to spare for all the three hundred people. The supper-table was laid out on. the stage, and it speaks volumes for the Picton boys, of whom there were a goodly number present, that not one single thing was touched on the tables till the ladies sat down to supper, though to get a view of the proceedings in the body of the hall they had to stand on the forms surrounding the supper-table, and the fruit and other good things looked very tempting. During the evening several songs were sung. Mrs Litchfield sang, ‘ For You and Me,’ splendidly—if that is a proper superlative to use in regard to any lady’s singing. Miss Speed, ‘ Love’s Young Dream ;’ Miss Howard, ‘The Song That Reached My Heart;’ Miss Lily Falconer sang, ‘ Within a Mile o’ Edinboro’ Town,’ and received the only encore of the evening. Miss Allen and Miss M. Philpotts sang a duet, * The Cousins,’ very well indeed, though coming in, as it did, at the end of the programme, after dancing all the evening, their voices sounded rather tired. Mr Howard also sang * The Powder Monkey.’ Everybody seemed bent on enjoying themselves, and there was not a sour look or a sad face to be seen all the evening. A set of Borough Councillor quadrilles were down on the programme, but when the time arrived for the City Fathers to seek their partners, the City Fathers were non est, and the City Mothers had to content themselves with more juvenile partners. Dancing was kept up till 2 a.m. There was no formal opening, and no question of precedence, and no Mrs Push deliberately jumping Mrs Wright’s claim, and so, in consequence there were no black looks. Mr Seymour had settled all that by letting the young people take the lead in a polka. I saw Mrs Fell, in black'lace ; Mrs (Capt.) Kenny, Mrs Duncan, Mrs Cragg, Mrs Oxley, Mrs Fisk, Mrs A. P. Seymour, Mrs Aitkens, Mrs Falconer, Mrs FGodfrey, Mrs Scott, Mrs Miles, Mrs O Donne), Mrs Card, Mrs Blaymires, Mrs Hows, Mrs Mclntosh, Mrs Jenkins, Mrs A. Price, Mrs Carlton, Mrs C. Western, Mrs Jackson, Mrs Gillies, Mrs Bartlett, Mrs H. C. Seymour (in heliotrope cashmere and chifion ruffles), Mrs McNab (Blenheim), Mrs Andrews, and Mrs Allen, the Misses Philpott, Webster (2), Carlton, Speed (3), Seymour, Pasley (Blenheim), Lloyd (2), Smith (2), Fuller, Allen (2), Seymour (H.C. —3), Scott (2), Howard, Young, Greensill, Falconer (2), Linton, Hunt (Wellington), Waddy (2), FellWhite, Hay, Gilbert, Kenny, Carrol, Jenkins, Price, Compton (Blenheim), Western (2), and Divens. All the old celebrities were present from Old Worser (Mr Hebberley), who acted as pilot for Queen Charlotte Sound fifty years ago, down to some of the first white residents in Picton, who all remained to see the very last dance.

Jean.