CARNIVAL TIME AND TOPICS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2716, 3 April 1924, Page 2

CARNIVAL TIME AND TOPICS

King'! Bu-r-r-r!! ‘‘Hello there! Is that the Herald? I say, shake up (hat Carnival man. We want to get going!” Ring! Bu-r-r-r!! and the same message readied us again from another quarter. So we went out to see what the trouble was. No sooner had we got outside than we ran into our old friend Hone Heke: “I tay, Aliter paper man, wafor te taihoa for te carnival ? Te Maori waJiine. he wana male a te win for te (|ueen. Py korry!” “Yes, Hone, we are on our way now to shake things up.” “I lay, what for tat carnival man he got te dice box on his eye?” “Ha ! Hone, you make me laugh. That’s not a dice box, that’s an eye glass used for intricate watch work."

“By kripe! I frighten for my ,-ioek". 1 leave him there. Might he’s glass eve not look too well all my clock. Wcrra, but Hone be te worry goora man. isn’t it:

Bidding Hone adieu, we wended our was to the carnival man. There wi- found him engrossed in his work laying the foundation of a very fine carnival that is going to he a Red Letter Day for Foxton. “You see,” lie said, looking up from his pile of correspondence, “a carnival of this description cannot he lett to shape itself. See this.” And we saw an engenious scheme for a shopping week during Carnival Time, the whole design to he printed in souvenir hook form, and distributed broadcast. His slogan for shopping week is “Sunshine and Business.” Among the attractions of a shopping week are: The opening ceremony; free gift scheme: one penny art union; spotting competition.; boys and girls toy balloon competition; ladies walking race; mothers’ pram or push cart and babies walking raee; ar li-s-ease competition and a most a muring spectacle, a children s dog parade and a dog serenade with hand accompaniment. Four huge concerts are. being well mapped out. featuring respectfully, a very clever: Queen tableau, Queen ankle parade, and arrangements are being entered into for a lady band conductor. A big orchestra is also being arranged for the opening ceremony. It will be quite a fortnight before a proper start will be made. The ingenious organiser is “up to his eyes in it” and is battling bard for a band quick-step competition which yvill be. v a tine thing for Foxton. r " “Look, here,” he said, delving through a stack of dusty books, “I am trying to find the derivation of tho word ‘carnival’ to make the Souvenir Booklet as complete as I can and then he handed to us the following introduction matter of his quaint souvenir booklet programme. which reads: ‘Pendants tell us that I lie wold ‘carnival’ of Italian parentage and Latin descent, means a period of festivity preceding the self denial enjoined upon the adherents of many creeds during the season of Lent. It is, in fact, traced hack to the Latin phrase ‘carnein leva re,’ meaning to renounce meat. Participators in the revels to be staged during Foxton’s carnival time will not impose upon anyone the duty of going without anything. That is to say, unless gloom is to he a part of his make-up. He will be required to put that away from him. For the purpose of this event the word carnival conies from the English word carnival, meaning a carnival. And it is going to mean a great deal to those who taste its delights. To us, the origin of the word was beside the point, we saw sufficient to enable us to point out that flic carnival committee lias got tlie right man in the right place as their organising director. The ripened fruit of his labours will soon he placed in the hands of many willing workers and the issue of a successful carnival passed from hands who first, laid the plans. ’ ■ [Published By Arrangement.]