HAPPENINGS IN THE CAPITAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1939, 22 November 1906, Page 4

HAPPENINGS IN THE CAPITAL.

OU.U RE WEST HOTEL,

(By PknelomO Wellington, Nov, 11

Tliis lingo building, the Grand, has been getting liighor and higher tor mouths, until it now dwai'ls all tbo other eclilices One gets a crick in one’s neck even trying to see the top from the narrow width oi Willis street, and from the hill above it looks a monstrous structure, the roof garden being almost on a level with the cliff dwellers on the terraces. The Grand is owned by Mr Gilmer, brother of the owner of the Royal Oak, and is managed by Mr Jie veridge, 01 stwhile the most popular of Union Co.’s stewards, J. went an Islands trip onco. The weather was atrocious, tho passengers cantankerous, the captain peculiar, and the vessel like a eoik on tho ever rough sea Rut Mr Roveridge was a perpetual comfort and source of cheer, and certainly—though we had some title on our passenger-list, the most important man on board. Whatever he arranged was well dono and difficulties unravelled before his tact and foresight. The splendid new hotel ought to do well under his management. Tbo furnishing and decorating are exquisitivoly artistic the beautiful odd-shaped dining-room, with the red panels set in ivory scrolls on tho fawn walls and the graceful carved white Louis Qualorze ceiling and fireplaces, and tho peacock smoking-room, with its.many nooks and cozy chairs, be ingtwo of the loveliestinteriors imaginable of bedrooms there are 120, and the draw-ing-rooms in cool, soft-tinted chintzes, are most charming. Rut the roof-garden is the feature of tho building, and from it the Empire Hotel, itself of no mean height, looks quite insignificant, while the people in the street with the innumerable wires above them, looked like tiny automata running along strings, l'rom the roof at the back, one is on a lovel with the terrace above, and can observe the quaint and pitiable attempts to gain a scrap of garden. These patches of lawn and flowerbeds, with an occasional depressed tree, it is to bo hoped are not owned by folic of a suicidal tendency, for they arc perched on the edge of a tremendous and perpendicular cliff.

On Saturday a reception was given at the Grand Hotel, and a large number of guests admired, climbed up and down, and had tea in the beautiful dining-room, Un tho roof the sunlight streamed down, and the part that is glazed was quite tropical. Tho guests were shown everything, the wonderful bath-rooms with the very latest inventions, the huge kitchen-range, where the chef can cook for a thousand people, and the wide curtained corridors, on one of which a string baud played all the afternoon. It is certainly most luxurious. Whether it will pay or not is another story.

WARD, WILLOUGHBY AND EALOTTA.

The trio arc still delighting ’Wellington, and a new play—Tho Talk of the Town —has been staged. Like the man from Mexico, it is absolute fooling, but full of fun. It is difficult to imagine anyone more absurd than Mr Ward -under hypnotism—bathing a big doll which ho supposes is a baby, lie has a scientifically correct mode ol' operating that is most diverting, and particularly prides himself upon the knowing way lie finds a pin in the baby’s clothes and slicks it into tho lapel of his coat- Miss l’alotta is absolutely fascinating in a red and white golf costume in which she dances with Mr Ward. Mr Willoughby as the heavyweight boxer is excellent. As a curtains raiser Miss Ralotta and Mr Ward played a most pathetic little American play called tho vagabond, in which the latter is a broken-down soldier. It was responsible for tlio appearance of a number of handkerchiefs in the house.