Topics of the Week.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 15, 9 April 1892, Page 368

Topics of the Week.

SOCIETY’S SAYINGS AND DOINGS

HIS Excellency the Acting-Governor, assisted by Lady I’rendergast, is entertaining at Government

House in every way that the season of the year allows. A gentleman’s dinner party was given by the Governor the other evening. Amongst the guests were Captain Pike and several officers of the Tauranga, the Hon. Mr Seddon, the Hon. W. P. Reeves, and Colonel Hume.

A few days later His Excellency gave a picnic to Masterton, a special train leaving Wellington at 8.30 a. m., and arriving in town again about 6 o’clock. The journey is rather long for a picnic, but everyone enjoyed it, and the weather was delightful, the scenery being greatly admired. Only about a couple of hours were spent in Masterton. Lunch was served at the residence of Mr and Mrs Beard, relatives of Sir James Prendergast. The guests were, by the way, received at the station by their host and hostess, about thirty being present, including the Ministers and their wives, Captain Pike, Lieut. Pelley, Dr. Hamilton, and several other Tauranga officers, Mrs G. Knight, Miss Knight, Mr C. Knight, the Misses Henry, Miss Richmond, Mrs L. Reid, and others.

The day before the picnic a tennis party was held by Sir James and Lady Prendergast at Government House, Mrs Knight helping to entertain. Miss Knight was dressed in white with salmon pink silk trimmings, and large hat with white feathers. Mrs L. Reid was there, and also Mrs Travers, and the Misses Shaen, Richmond, Gore, Cooper, Holmes, Harding, etc.. Captain Pike, Lieut. Abdy, and Messrs Knight, St. Hill, Anson, etc. Afternoon tea and all sorts of delicacies were laid out under the trees. The garden was looking very pretty. The two courts were kept merrily oing throughout the afternoon. Lady Prendergast wore a handsome black merveilleux gown, a brocaded velvet mantle, and a mauve and cream bonnet.

The welcome given to that preternaturally cool customer, Sergeant Doughty, at the Auckland station was but the beginning of things, and the *A ’ Battery crack is being thoroughly lionised in private and public circles. Amongst other functions held in his honour was a promenade concert and social, this being tendered by his comrades and friends as a species of ‘ triumph.’ The gathering, lam told, was a most sociable and enjoyable one, and was extremely well attended. Amongst those present were His Lordship Bishop Cowie and Mrs Cowie, Captain and Mrs Geddes, Captain and Mrs Miller, and numerous others.

Is it a sign that finis is being slowly and surely written against our summer amusements, that we are beginning to hear of luncheon parties? Mrs Donnolly, of Hastings, noted for her delightful achievements in the art of entertaining—and a charming hostess has the power of making even the smallest affair go off with verve and spirit—gave a very large luncheon-party the other day, and succeeded, as usual, in entertaining her numerous guests with delightfully varied mental as well as bodily sustenance.

Lent is, I have but little doubt, a most excellent and healthful religious tonic, and nought but high respect is the due of those who strictly regard it, but verily it is the very winter of discontent for the society journalist. For the first week or two the change is not noticeable. In the first place the people who observe the Lenten season strictly from Ash Wednesday are not people who usually entertain much. Religion is to them what gaiety is to the more flippantly disposed, and they take their pleasure in ways that offer but little grist to the mill of the chronicler of pomps and vanities.

Another and larger section of the community to whom religion is a seventh part of life—people who attend church regularly and live very harmless lives, not telling more stories than society necessitates, and with a wholesome horror of anything that even savours of the cardinal sins—-

this class, to which the most of us belong, has probably made its fixtures sometime beforehand, forgetful that they would fall in the small part of the year devoted to renunciation, and it is not until the epistles begin ominously to lengthen that the vast majority regard Lent seriously. There is generally some function or other to talk about for the first thirty days, but during the last ten the manufacture of paragraphs is no longer a case of the selection of the fittest, but of what one can get.

Nothing but very real admiration and respect can, as has been said, attach to the good people whose convictions lead them to make this small portion of the year one of special sacrifice and self - denial, but one cannot but secretly sympathise with the scoffers in their contempt for the very largeclass whose Lent consists solely in following theprevailing fashion of the month. Truth to tell, the most frivolous devotees of pleasure are glad of a custom which allows a rest, a recess of retrenchment and reform from which they may emerge with heavier purses (for one can be economical in Lent) rested and restored to pristine vigour. In the colonies, too, Lent usually falls at a most convenient season. It has waxed somewhat cold for garden parties, cricket no longer entices the afternoon idlers, and tennis afternoon teas begin to seem a tribulation and weariness to the flesh.

The effect of the ‘ seaside brown ’ is wearing gradually and unbecomingly off, and both girls and men look like the summer frocks still seen about, to a certain degree passe. Nobody cares to invest in new frocks with winter looming up, and the neglige style of dress which men adopt in summer, and which once struck one as looking cool, begins to appear untidy. So it happens that to even the most religiously thoughtless Lent is not unwelcome. It is agreeable to be able to recuperate without feeling out of what is in modern English called, * the swim.’

The new generation of Prussia’s gilded youth evidently does not relish the paternal methods of another more or less inspired drill-sergeant. Herr von Greisenau, a rich officer of the Guards, has resigned his commission because the Emperor objected to his driving to parade in a carriage and mounting his horse on the ground. As the penalty of not mending his ways he was ordered into exile, which, for a German officer, means regimental duty in Alsace. Herr von Greisenau was not going to stand that, even from a Kaiser. So he sent in his papers and turned the whole affair into a joke by advertising his carriages and horses for sale •owing to unfortunate circumstances.’ It is to be hoped this smart young gentleman will not discover that Emperors have long arms.

I hear that it is now definitely settled that the Napier amateurs will, as their next venture, produce • Princess Ida,’ and that the dresses, etc., are to be purchased from the Auckland Opera Club. If report speak true—and I see no reason to doubt it—the good people of Napier will see an opera mounted in a most lavish style. The dresses, etc. made for ‘ Princess Ida ’ were most costly. About £BOO, I think it was the club spent over the production. Certainly they were exceedingly handsome, and if they are sold anyway reasonably the Operatic Society of Napier will secure a bargain. The opera is, moreover, an easy one to act, though a decidedly difficult one in point of singing. Who will be cast for the Princess, I wonder?

The prospects for the dancing season, which will open very soon after Easter, are, I think, brighter than they have been for years. Even the most inveterate croakers are bound to admit that we are now fairly round the corner, and our feet well established on the highway of returned prosperity. Money is decidedly more plentiful, and though people cannot be expected to be as prodigal in the spending of their own earnings as they were some years ago over other people's. I imagine there will be more and smarter

entertaining than there has been for several winters past. Lord Glasgow will arrive in the very middle of the season, and will make a rapid inaugural tour of the colony. He i/ considerably richer than our late governor, who was, as most people know, far from wealthy for a man of his rank. Earl Glasgow has, moreover, the reputation of an open-banded, indeed a lavish entertainer. A good many hard things are said about Scotchmen because they prefer to get the full worth of their money, but anyone who has visited Scotland knows that not even in the colonies is hospitality more prodigal than in a Scotch country house. A reception and a ball will be, I am informed on good authority from Home, given in each city, and if my London correspondent is not much mistaken, no smarter functions will ever have been held in our Government Houses.

A coach load of picnickers left Napier about half-past four and proceeded to the Western Spit, where they got into the boats and made for Poreite, or thereabouts. When supper was being prepared it was discovered that a large hamper, containing a number of roasted fowls, cream, salt, sugar, milk, and champagne, had been left behind at the Spit. The news of this disaster was, however, very goodnaturedly received, particularly as there happened to be plenty of other eatables, and milk and salt were obtained from a house near by. The return journey was delightful, and everyone agreed there never had been such a picnic before. Amongst the ladies of the party were Mesdames Logan, Dewes, Hamlin, and the Misses Cotterill, Taylor, Lascelles, King, Duncan, Hamlin, Heath, and others. Miss King looked very charming in a blue gown, white sailor bat.

The weather is getting somewhat chilly for picnics, but that held at Northcote, Auckland, on Saturday was a most cheery affair. The chaperones were Mesdames Masefield, Upton, Dufaur, and J. R. Hanna, and the younger members of the party were the well-known and popular set who usually foregather under the protection of these ladies at dances, etc.

The result of the recent examination for the last of the Auckland Amateur Opera Club’s junior musical exhibitions has just been announced, the successful candidate being Mr Eliot R. Davis. Miss Bridgewater and Miss Cochrane, who are equal, come second, and Miss Honan and Miss Thomson, also equal, third. The value of the scholarship is £l5, and is tenable for one year. Mr Wood acted as examiner.

Napier is surely endeavouring to take the lead in New Zealand fashions. Some altogether chic and new white tan shoes are being worn there by les belles dames. Where else will they be adopted ? But recollect, oh ! venturesome fair ones, chassure of any colour but black has a fatal tendency to make the wearer of a No. 2 shoe appear to be encased in the giant proportions of a No. 3.

Great has been the speculation as to what Princess May would do with the numerous wedding presents which had already arrived for the young couple, when one of them so unexpectedly took that lonely journey to the distant country where there is no marrying nor giving in marriage. Princess May has decided to return all her presents to the different donors. Many of these would like to urge her to keep their gifts, but do not quite like to do so.

The lovely weather lately enjoyed in Napier prompted various aquatic diversions, water-picnics holding the premier place in this sort of entertainment. For those who have no qualms of mal denier, a moonlight picnic such as that given by the Misses Peacock and Lascelles is most thoroughly enjoyable. On this occasion the fates were propitious, the night all it should be, a ‘delicious’ moon, as one young lady, thinking of the well-filled hampers, called the evening lamp in the sky, the water delightfully calm, and the arrangements perfect.

Out here we often see strange instances of the coolness of the British globe trotter. I heard the following funny story anent the Argentine revolution. On the 29th of July, when the fighting and bombardment were at their height and shells bursting in all directions in the Plaza Victoria, an Englishman and his wife were seen quietly sauntering across the Plaza, about as much concerned as if the troops there were merely on parade. At the Congress Hall they stopped, and each turned a big opera - glass upon the squadron and watched the shelling. Then, sauntering back across the square where shells were falling,

to Government House, they advanced towards the President, who with many others was seated there, and each shook hands with him. The gentlemen all raised their hats and were too polite to allow a muscle of their faces to indicate their amusement at this sang froid. But when the eccentric couple were out of earshot, one of the deputies exclaimed in Spanish ‘ Good God ! What a race! No wonder half the world belongs to them.’

The wretched weather spoilt what would have been one of the most enjoyable outdoor fdtes of the Wellington season, the rain pouring too pitilessly for Dr. and Mrs Grace to give their picnic in the Mana. It was put off once, and the second day also being wet, an afternoon tea was given instead at their house, when the medical profession was well represented, both by themselves and their wives. A pleasant afternoon was spent, Dr. and Mrs Grace and their daughters all entertaining. Miss McClean charmed everyone with her artistic singing. Miss Grace also sang, and Miss Henry played a violin solo.

Everyone who has ever had anything to do with the getting up and arrangement of tableaux knows how much work it entails. This work is doubled when the affair takes the shape it recently did in Wellington, where excellent singing tableaux have jnst come off at the Theatre Royal. The object of the entertainment was a good and worthy one—viz., St. Paul’s organ enlargement fund, and the Wellingtonians rolled up in such numbers the first night that many people stood all through, while others could not obtain seats, and therefore could not go, so Miss Johnson decided to repeat the performance, which was again crowded and greatly enjoyed. Miss Katie Johnson is the energetic lady who originated the tableaux, and she is greatly to be congratulated upon the pronounced success of her labours.

The Autumn Races at Dunedin were, I hear, miserable so far as the weather was concerned. A lady correspondent says moodily :—‘ On the first day it poured with rain, and no new dresses were worn, so that I have none to tell you about. Everyone was warmly wrapped in cloaks and ulsters. The second day was fine, but fearfully cold, and only the very bravest could venture out of their wraps. The race meetings seem to have followed very quickly this year, but I suppose they are at the usual time.’

It is but rarely a weekly paper is enabled to spring what is known as a sensation on its readers, but my Picton ‘ special ’ sends me this week an item of news which, if substantiated, is serious and startling indeed. It may, however, turn out that those who furnished my correspondent with the particulars exaggerated somew hat, and that things are not so sensational as they would appear at present. The contributor who sends the item is a trusted and valuable purveyor of paragraphs anent Picton and the Pictonites, and though I can find no mention of it in our daily press, which is strange, I feel constrained to give it on that authority :

‘ PICTON has always been noted for its port, and the clan like sociability of its families, but now, like larger places, it has its little pilferers, its incendiaries, and a poisoner. A family, whose name is suppressed for obvious reasons, ate some scones made by the housekeeper, and all —including herself—were violently sick. Investigations pointed to the flour in the storehouse having been tampered with, and it is reported that even the pans were smeared with arsenic. Some of the neighbours’ fowls were found dead, but, fortunately, the family had taken too much to kill them. A profound sensation is the outcome, and a story of love and jealousy has eked out, but so far nothing else.’

The Canterbury cricketers had a good time in Napier. The luncheon at which they were entertained was of the most sumptuous description, and Mr E. H. William came out quite strongly as an orator. In the evening an entertainment was organized in the Theatre Royal. All the local favourites sang, Miss Iris Fulton's fine cultivated singing of the 1 Venetian Love Song ’ and Ruth’s song, * Entreat me not to Leave Thee,’ being tbe great ‘ hit ’ of the evening. The comedy or farce ‘ Barbara,’ a trifle from the pen of that modern humorist Jerome K. Jerome, of • Three Men in a Boat ’ fame, went off with great spirit. The Misses Hitchings acted very capably, and Mr C. D. Kennedy and Mr Dinwiddie were both fair. The play is by the way an excellent one. The same quaint humour that runs through all this author’s work is very patent in the dialogue.