LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION STONE OF THE CLYDE TOWN HALL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 366, 30 April 1869, Page 2

LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION STONE OF THE CLYDE TOWN HALL.

One of the most important events tha# has occurred it Clyde since it has risen to the position of a Municipality; the laying of the foundation stone of the Town Hall took * place on Friday, the 19th instant. On the occasion a public holiday was proclaimed, and in honor of the auspicious event, the Town was decorated with hunting of every hue. and representing nearly every civilized nation. From early morn all were busy in making preparations, and as high noon drew nigh excitement was at its height to witness the ceremony. Visitors from the neighbouring Municipal Towns and representing every grade and description of craft and fellowship were present, the most prominent being members of the Mystic Tie, upon whoso shoulders rested the whole affair, the P.G.M., brother Vincent Pyke having consented at the request of the Town Council to perform the ceremony. The arrangements being compdeted, a general muster of those who were to take part in the proceedings took place, the School children mustering in their play ground, the Foresters at their Lodge room, Hawthorne’s Clyde Hotel, and the Freemasons at the School House, the spectators lining the street on either side. At about

half past eleven, the Foresters headed by theC.E. Brother Barlow marched two and two to the School-house, from whence a procession in the following order marched to the site of the New Town Hall Highland Piper, School children, Members of the Ancient Order of Foresters, Members of the Masonic body. Upon arriving at the site of the New Town Hall, a halt was made, the children and Foresters opening out to allow the P.G.M. and Brothers of the Mystic Tie to walk through and take the lead to the spot whore the foundation stone was to be laid, arriving there, the Masons and Foresters formed into square on the place allotted them, the children their position on a platform the accomodation, of them and the lafMfcjtqrs. The Mayor and Council who tilting the arrival of the procession welcomed the strahgets in a few appropriate remarks, to which the Worshipful Master of the Masons, Brother Pyke. and Brother Barlow, Chief Ranger of the Foresters, responded, the children then sung several versos of the National Anthem, after which the Rev. C. S. Ross offered up a prayer. The ceremony now fairly began by Architect Brother Petrie, who brought up the "plans of the Building wdiich were examined by the Right Worshipful P.G.M. and returned. The Town Clerk, M. Marshall, next read the scrolls, which were put, with copies of “Dunstau Times,” “Wakatip Mail,” “ Waikonaiti Herald,” “ Tuapeka Times,” “Tuapeka Press,” “Daily Times,” and ■copy of the Bye Laws of the Municipality, in a bottle, and sealcl with the P.G.M., Brother Pyke’s, signet ring, and afterwards deposited in the cavity prepared for their reception. The atone was then lowered into its place with three stops, after which the Provincial Grand Master lai 1 the mortar with an elegant Silver Trowel, made by Mr, Robert Barlow, of Clyde, and presented for the purpose by the Municipality. The Substitute Master, Brother Feraucl, by direction of the Provincial Grand Master, instructed the Wardens to do their duty who proved the stone in due Masonic form, ami declared it to be properly set in its bed.

The P.G.M. then said ; Brethren, having full confidence in your skill in the Royal Art, it remains with me to finish this 'our work, lie then gave three taps with the gavel, and declared (with the following invocation) the foundation stone of the Clyde Town-hall to he well and truly laid —May the Almighty Architect of the Universe look down with favor and benignity upon this our undertaking, and crown the edifice of which we have now laid the foundation

stone with every success. The Deputy Master, Brother Jack, then scattered corn on the stone ; the Senior Warden, Brother Ilazlett, sprinkled it with wine; the Junior Warden, Brother Neill, poured on oil; and the Provincial Grand ■ Master, Brother Pyke, added salt, each pronouncing an appropriate invocation. The Rev. C. S. Ross now offered up a prayer. The Right Worshipful Master of the Dunstan Bodge, Brother Vincent Pyke, then said : Brethren, Ladies; and Gentlemen.—Whether regarded from an architectural, a Masonic, or a purely municipal point of view, the ceremony that has just been performed is one of importance. No small credit was due to the town of Clyde for being the first (I believe) of the municipal towns of Otago to erect a stone townhall. It is not wise, it is not right, for Such institutions to stand on a parallel with gipsey encampments, flitting from place to place, so 4s to almost render themselves amenable to the charge of having no known place of abode—now occupying a back parlour, and by and bye taking lodgings on the first floor over the way. In fact, a Corporation without a town hall is a burlesque on Corporate Institutions. As .Masons, it is with unbounded gratification that we have taken part in this ceremony by levelling the footstono in accordance with our old-esta-blished usage. Thus in by-gone times did our brethren of old assemble to lay the foundations of those magnificbilt buildings which are the pride and glory of the past, and none can fix the date in most remote antiquity at which such observances wore not used. It must be a matter of sincory satisfaction to every well-wisher of New Zealand to see commenced a structure of so durable a character. At present our goldfields towns are mere encampments of iron, timber, calico, and canvas, which, in the event of a conflagration, would leave not a wreck behind, save a few sheets of corrugated iron, and may be a vast mass of black bottles. One swallow' does not make a summer, nor will one stone building make a city ; but lot us hope this will be the prelude to many buildings of a similar dcs/iThtion. The savage may be content with covert of the forest, the miner iWT his hut or tent, but civilization demands and expects something more from the dwellers in municipal towns. “ The Wizard imagination calls up to my mind’s eye a vision of the past, and I look back through untold centuries, to that remote period, when lofty mountains, clothed with forests, and covered with eternal snows, rose high around the inland lake, around whose loamy shores gigantic Moas stalked with solemn stride. Through the lapse of ages, the hoary mountains crumble and diminish, in obedience to the laws of Nature’s God, and sinking down, they bury deep their forests in the rivers, there to form coal beds for succeeding generations, and the waters cutting deeper the lips of their rocky channels, fragment by fragment, drain dry the lakes—such as once covered the ground whereon we stand. Then, this work clone, man appears on the scene, clown this very valley by the Clutha, then known to the ownetsof the soil as the Matau river. Here we have the first known effort at Architecture in this vicinity. Years pass by, and thejmoclcrn patriarchs come forward

with their flocks and herds, and the rude huts of the shepherds mark'the white man’s advances to civilization. Presently two figures appear, with swags on their backs, and carrying all the appurtenances of goldmining life. The one hails from the United States, the other from old Ireland, and as they pass up the river bank they halt here and there to wash the golden sands. Immediately afterwards there comes an army, whose snowy tents cover the plain and line the river banks. This is the true advancedguard, the pioneers of civilization, in whose wake follow all ranks, professions, trades, and callings, and settlement becomes a fact. That settlement is crowned here, in Clyde, to-day, by the work now completed, and may it prove to be to the future progress of the district all that Hartley and Riley’s prospecting expedition has been to the development of the country. Brother James Hazlett, Mayor, was called upon andsaid: Ladiesand Gentlemen, after the elaborate speech by Brother V. Pyke, I feel that I have nothing further to do than to return thanks to you for your kind attendance, and with the hope that when the building is finished, I shall have the pleasure ef meeting you again. In conclusion, I have particularly to thank the ladies for their attendance, whose bright eyes far outshine all our jewels, and whose smiles shed welcome radiance on our proceedings. The proceedings having been brought to a close, the Rev. C. S. Ross again offered up a prayer.

Cheers were then given in the Masonic, Foresters’, and true British fashion, after which the procession re-formed, and returned to the school-house.