HAPPENINGS IN THE CAPITAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1936, 19 November 1906, Page 3

HAPPENINGS IN THE CAPITAL.

WHEN THE WIND BLOWS,

(By Pionhlonc.l Wellington. Nov, 1-1. After a month of extraordinary calm weather we are now enduring high winds. On Wednesday there was a gale that made walking about under telegraph and

telephone wires dangerous exorcise- It whipped the harbor into waves and clrovo sheets of spin-drift across. Trees tossed and groaned and creaked until one feared they might fall, and about tho lire ruins the air was thick with ashes, dust and cinders. Even sheets of corrugated iron wore lifted and carried somo distance, so violent wore some of the gusts. Wo had

arranged for tea with somo strangers up at tho Jvclburno Kiosk - our boaulilul tearoom that looks so orientally picturosquo

i in day-time, and at night crowns tho hill / with its clustor of lights. Wc gained tho wide glazed verandah with sonic dilliculty, I and there found a gratuitous entertainI mont provided for us with our tea and cakes in watching others who had to run I tho gauntlet of tho galo to gain tho entrance. Thoro was a groat display of pqtticoats and stockings, and much laughter and clutching of malo escorts. Old Indies arrived breathless with their respectable bonnets all askew. Ono girl’s brown veil sailed away to meet tho Sydney boat coming in at the Heads. In tho case I of some fragile creatures tho wind carried them past the iliglit of steps, and they liad to tack to get back. One realised kconly what a handicap skirts and furbelows generally arc to a woman, and what a joy it would bo to walk about on a windy day lin tho costume in which Mrs Brough looked so charming in tho Amazons. While comedy was being acted on tho terrace outside our windows, what seemed a certain tragedy was taking placo on tho harbor. A little yacht was out in that terrible gale. For half an hour wo watched it, and at times it seemed in such deadly peril that escape seemed impossible As tho fury of the wind struck, tho sail lay flat on tho water, and wo saw the tiny human speck clinging to the gunwale. Once an irreprossiblo cry broko from the watchers, for wo thought she had gone, but tho bravo little craft, with its braver crow, righted herself. By dint of careful tacking, she gained shelter, only, to our surprise, to venture out into tho tossing waves again. Mr Wnrburton Gamble, one of the Willoughby, Ward Co., who has himself done some yachting in rough wcatlior, was greatly impressed with tho pluck and the sea-craft of tho man on board. A STEAMER IN DANGER.

Tho gale was responsible for a good deal of excitement among tho shipping, for it caused the Union Company’s Moura, at anchor in tho harbor, to break from her moorings and nearly come to destruction on the rocks some miles away. Had it not been for the heroic efforts of tho big dredge and he.r brave captain, who managed —after hours of labor - to get her into calm water, the Union Company would inevitably have lost a vessel worth •£30.000. W’iicn the Moura first began to drag her anchor, about live o’clock in the afternoon, there was no one on board. Even the caretaker, despite of orders, had gone ashore. She drifted down on tho Jvaiko'ura, a big wool-ship. The captain of the dredge, seeing the danger, got a mate and two men on board the Moura, but even with their efforts, she collided and suffered some injury. Then she, dragging tho dredge with her, began to drift across the harbor, where she just escaped being wrecked, thanks to the clever manoeuvring of tho dredge-master. It was midnight before the worried mauager of the Union Company and the wharf officials saw her lights following her tower nearing the wharf and safety. And oven then in tho tooth of tho gale it was vory difficult to get her alongside.

A HANDSOME GIFT,

Wellington, though it has au art gallery, has no collection of pictures. Indeed our gallery is put to strictly utilitarian uses between our art exhibitions, and wool sales are conducted there. Many efforts have been made to gather together a permanent • collection of pictures, but though a few have been presented, the progress is slow. Mr Wolff Harris’s recent generosity may induce others to give pictures. This gentleman has sent out to Wellington a noble painting, one of the finest ever painted by that well-known artist, David Murray. It is valued at 000 guineas, aud is reproduced in the Academy pictures for the year. By the courtesy of Mr Gore, himself an artist, and one who has always taken a deep interest in matters artistic here, I had a private view of “ The Darewell'to the Forest,” as it stood propped up against the wall of the gallery amid dust and loneliness—a change from tho lloyal Academy, where it had last hung. However, there was nothing to draw away tho attention from its delicato loveliness and its honest*work, which is broad without being impressionist, We have had examples of art hero that reminded us of the description by a heartless critic of one of Whistler’s Sunsets —“ A Cheshire cat smothered in tomatoes and cream,” —But in Murray’s large canvas, though there | aro magnificently broad effects in tho felled tree-trunks and the debris of dead leaves, there is most delicate and painstaking painting. It represents tho cutting down of an English forest. Apparently it 19 what coloniela term " Brnoko ■’ for the men and horses ere resting. An old | woman with a capacious basket is sitting | on a log, and a little child in a pink print frook is in the foreground, Blue smoko from burniog rubbish mists the trees that aro still standing. Bayoni aro wooded knolls Rnd far purple hills and an exquisite blue tky flecked with wonderful oioud?, Two larches, delicately lovely, have been left standing. It is a restful pioturo und one that will repay intent study. A psoaliarity of its framing is tbab although in oi's, it is glazed, and the glass is sot quite two inches away from tho canvas, by moans of an inner gilt moulding.