OCCASIONAL NOTES FROM THE METROPOLIS.—(No. III.)

Cromwell Argus, 13 July 1870, Page 7

OCCASIONAL NOTES FROM THE METROPOLIS.—(No. III.)

i | —oIMud ! mud ! mud ! ankle-deep, knee[eep, and of every other conceivable depth -andconsistency : sticky mud, like baker's lougli ; liquified mud, like molasses. Mud n the highways, and mud in the by-ways, rom Princes-street to the Town Belt. In hort, I feel inclined to repeat an aged witicism : " It's all over the city, Jane !" , -" What is ?"—" Mud !" Dunedin always leld a reputation for its muddiness, and t certainly does not seem to be on the ,v.me. Pedestrians, generally under huge mibrellas, perambulate the streets with jespattafed nether garments, and boots the reverse of ' Good morning ; wretched weather !" is nterminable. I have just returned from i ride of a few miles into the country, . knd I can safely say that the Southern ;runk line of road is no exception to the general appearance of the city streets, except on the newly-metalled portions. The :>oor horses, especially those unfortunate iorses through whose exertions you county people are conveyed to and from your listant abiding-places in Cobb's coaches, lave weary times of it, and are daily creaking down, thoroughly baked with the leavy drag over either newly-metalled or to use an expressive Scotch phrase) "soft" •oads, as no doubt the pockets of the en;erprising coach proprietors will demonitrate before the winter is over. To give I a some idea of the roads in the Tokomaio district, I cannot do better than quote 3 following conversation, which is re-L-ted to have taken place there recently : " A to B : | Did 'you see anything of r team of bnllocks up the road there V B : ' No, but I saw some homs moving Dut amongst the mud.'—A : ' Oh, it is right then; you didn't see the flag V B: ' No ; what flag V A: " The amcher" sometimes has to erect a flagff with a red flag on the bullock's horns |o let him know whereabouts they are ; so pong as the horns are visible there is no langer.'" Glancing out of my parlour gpndow as I write, however, I perceive fhat the dull, liquid-looking clouds which lave been persistently obscuring the sky for the last month or so, give evident sign's If speedily vanishing, so that we shall no (doubt soon have a decided change for the tietter in the weather, and a corresponding rise in the spirits of the community in general. Crabbed and irate drapers, who ' m present pace their deserted shops with gloomy facos, scowling at the unfortunate Snploycs, ,ts if the lack of trade was their iaulfc, and not caused by the wretched state of the roads aud the heavy rainfall, will iio doubt assume their wonted cheerful asBecb aud the bland persuasive manner ■which tine weather and a constant influx ,<jf their best customers call forth ; the gentler sex will ba relieved from the ne'feessity of remaining cooped-up in their parlours, and kitchens; Email newspaper boys, who perambulate ' the city, intimating in shrill treble voices that they are disposing of the " Evening ■Starr or the "Echo —penny paper!" will e'ursue their calling under more favourable ; wharf-carters and cab-driver, With their horses, will not have such a wet, muddy, and intensely miserable appearance ; and the aspect of animate and inanimate nature generally will tend to have a beneficial effect on the spirits of all and sundry. let us hope the clerk of the weather is not practising a small deception upon us mortals, by giving us a peep through the leaden coloured clouds at the tighter looking space beyond them merely r the purpose of deceiving us into the bepef that we are going to have fine wearaiex', and then showering down upon us Ipother drenching dose of what is now reoked upon as a common enemy. 1 Notwithstandingthe depressing influence || the weather, artistes of all descriptions te crowding into the city, and pleasureekers are supplied with amusements to No sooner is it announced that jf is " positively the last week of So-and-ip," than some one else is advertised to • ftpear in something more wonderful or jptertaining than has ever before been t resented to a Dunedin audience. Dr arr, who has been performing wonders Kith mesmerised humanity—even going so Br as to stick pins through the ears, noses, Bid tongues, of aspiring individuals from Hie audience, previously mesmerised into Istate of insensibility to pain—has latterly, ft a entertainments at the PrinBss Theatre, been devoting his attention H Spiritualism, and badgering the devoted jjlherents to the new faith with his arguments and scepticism : and between ourglves, Mr Editor, a remarkably paying jf me it has been—the subject being one jjhich the Doctor rightly calculated would |raw full houses. He has given place to Hiss Rose Evans and Mr George Clareflonfc, who are announced to appear in Ben* " great dramatic entertainment." At je Masonic Hall, a popxilar place of fmisement, Mr and Mrs George Darrell jjhe former better known in Otago as Mr J- F. Price, and the latter late Mrs Heir) -■gpvl} a "their " entirely original vocal and k7dramatic entertainment," while at the new ■'Post Office Hall, the members of the Dun- ■ edih Private Musical Society are going to I repeat the successful concert which they I gave on a recent occasion. So, you see, a there is no lack of amusement, notwith-

standing the hard times and the cry of the unemployed and the badly r .paid, to which we are at present, and I am afraid with only too much reason, compelled to listen. There can be no doubt that great distress at present exists among both mechanics and the labouring classes. This is a subject upon which I should like to enlarge, but as I anticipate that I havo already exceeded my allotted space witli my rambling remarks, I must defer doing so for the present, and promise you a few facts which have come under my notice, for a fut\ue letter. Arcanum.