The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 144, 4 December 1877, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4.

The Anniversary of the foundation of Canterbury will be observed as a general holiday all over the Province on next Monday week. Although abolition has done away with. Provincial Institutions, yet, we trust that the 16th of December will always be observed as a day of festivity and rejoicing, in commemoration •of the settlement of that portion of the ■ colony which has. always been foremost' an material progress. Great preparations : are being made in Akaroa for celebrating the day. The Regatta will • 'doubtless prove very attractive to those who delight in witnessing aquatic sports. The committee have prepared a capital ■programme, and r are using every means to render the festival worthy of the occasion. But the Regatta is not all ; the Horticultural Society purpose holding a show ■of fruit, flowers, and vegetables, and to this will be added a great novelty, namely, the first local industrial exhibition ever held in Canterbury.. All these attractions combined, will doubtless be the means of causing a large influx of visitors, many of whom will, perhaps, for the first time, lpok upon ttie lovely and romantic scenery of Akaroa, and so far as Nature is concerned, we believe that they will not regret their visit, for. scarcely a spot in Zealand can boast of more beautiful scenery, or a finer climate. But when they come to inspect the town, we ./tear that their impressions will be by no means of so pleasing a nature., The broad-leafed dock, and long-taugled grass, although adding to the attractiveness of a forest dell, are by no means sightly objects when growing in such places as gardens and orchards, neither are they suitable to form ornamental borders for our streets, yet, we know too M-ell that these constitute in Akaroa the principal representatives of the vegetable kingdom. Meat, well-kept gardens, bright witU flowers, and trim shrubberies, are the exception, not the rule. Such a state of things ought not to exist, if , we wish to render our. pretty township a fashionable watering-place, as well as a pleasant spot where those in search of health may spend a month or two. .'We well recollect a gentleman on his first visit to Akaroa addressing vis and/saying—"You are an idle lot, for you won't take the trouble to use the gifts which have been showered upon vera, with no niggard hand. You h/five a soil and climate in which the ■fine, the fig, arid the orange flourish /and bear fruit in the open air, and yet you are too lazy to grow your own vegetables, and even welcome the advent of a Chinese gardener. You are a sleepy lot! " We had not a word to say in reply, for we knew that the truth, was spoken. And now we ; ask in all seriousness-— cannot something be done to improve the appearance of our town by next Monday week ? The Borough Council are effecting something by clearing the streets, b'utihe inhabitants could, if they choose, do a great deal more. It is true that there is not time to fill our gardens with flowers, but the weeds and rubbish could be cleared away .•; even this would .show that onr citizens were awaking from -the somnolent state in which they have so long been sunk, and were determined that the beautiful locality where they reside should no longer be known by the soubriquet-of " Sleepy Hollow." .