CALICO BALL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 231, 20 September 1876, Page 2

CALICO BALL.

tßv Peeping Tom.] Of course your reporter was at the Naval Brigade's Fancy Ball last night—newspapers wdl neverallow anything to be done quietly, but must drt»g, everything to light, f rok-ttie. proceedings of the City Council to the doings at a dance— but for once I would ask you to put his notes in your waste paper basket, and accept my version of the affair. Arriving shortly after eight I had to force my way through a crowd of Jack Tars, who nofc having yet warmed to the affair appeared ! to be afflicted with shyness, a complaint, I admit, to which they are not often subject, but on this occasion it was perhaps excusable. I had come prepared to find the ball a thorough success, but I was not prepared for the brilliaut scene that the Hall presented. I, hke Jack, felt a little hesitation at first about entering, but having overcome my native modesty I made the plunge. Being very nervous I was naturally a little awkward, and the first thing I did was to collide with a young lady in whose dress I recognised that of a .French peasant. "Mille pardons," I blushingly exclaimed, but was met with the ready reply « Je ne vous understandais pas,?' and with a merry laugh she glided off in a waltz with her partner, the jolly Dick Turpin. A lady in the Court Dress of Queen Elizabeth was the first to attract my attention, and if I j did fix my eyes on her a little more frequently than was in accordance with strict good manners it was excusable, for even the stern Queen herself would have been softened, had she; been, permitted to re- ' Tisit the glimpses of the moon, by the appear-, ance of so charming a representative of her •courtiers. Wending my way slowly up the room I found myself ia contact with an acrobat in tights and spangles busily engaged in whispering . soft nothings . to his partner, a prettty little peasant girl. Suddenly, and without the slightest provocation, he devoted so much of his energy as had been left to him by the last polka to turning a somersault backwards to the imminent danger, as it appeared to me, of his neck. Having thus relieved his feelings and shaken up his ideas he resumed his conversation •as though he had not done any thing-extraordinary. ( Tcrttr ing to my right I', saw -a sight that -would have done old Oliver Goldsmith's heart good. His i conception of the person of Miss Hardcastle, Lam. sure, could never have come up to the reality as it was to be seen last night. In a modest black dress cut short at the ancles, high-heeled shoes, hair worn high and powdered, and surmounted by the jauntiest little cap that ever left the milliner's hands, there was no stooping needed there to ensure victory. On recounting her experiences of the dance on her return home this morning she might have summarised them very briefly-— I went, I wai seen, I conquered. I then elbowed my way through a crowd of Salamander Sams,. Sambos,., gentlemen in ordinary evening dress wearing colored sashes, and volunteers in nniforia, to v/here a fierce looking brigand was dancing with a young lady, who in her costume aspired, I believe, to nothing higher than a lady's maid of the last century. If all the lady's maids of that period were like this lady's maid, then I must say that if the mistresses were not occasionally envious of the charms of their attendants they must have been something more than human. The brigand scowled at me as he detected the look of admiration with which I eyed his partner, and away he went with her, and was soon lost to my sis?ht in the mazy intricacies of the dance. At that moment a fearful apparition approached me in the shapeof a wild Indian that someone had caught and turned loose in the ball room. I don't wonder a bit now at the American troops under Colonel Custer being defeated and slain the other day. The mere look of one solitary Indian in his warpaint very nearly slew me, and what the effect would be of seeing some thousands of them together, I dare not speculate upon. Just as I had passed him I came upon the most attractive little "Daughter of the Regiment " that ever carried a canteen. How to do that for which iiy soul longed, namely to get introduced to her then and there I knew not, when it occurred to me that a part of her duties consisted in relieving the wounded on the field of battle. My mind was made up in an instant. I turned round to the Indiau apparition with the view of asking him to be good enough to scalp me as speedily and as skilfully as possible, hoping thereby to enlist her sympathies, but the rascal was hard at work flirting with a fairy whose charms seemed to soothe his savage breast. Meantime Marie had made off, and I was left lamenting, but with a sound scalp. I wish I could say the save of my heart. By this time I was beginning to feel an inclination to pay a visit to Mr Holmes, to whose care the refreshment department had been entrusted, and who showed that he deserved the confidence placed in him. I was strolling that way when up came a most aristocratic pair, Charles II and Don Ca;sar de Bazan. " Well met, Tom my boy " exclaimed his Majesty, " we were just going to have a brandy and soda, will you join us?" "All right Charlie, old man, I'm on." was my reply, for I have always been on excellent terms with royalty. And having disposed of the refreshing draught we returned to the ball room where a minute or two afterwards Don Cassar was making fierce love to Dolly Varden, and the King waltzing with a piquant little peasant girl. I could go on Mr Editor for ever so long describing the rarious charming characters I met with last night, but I feel in the same position as Mr De Latour the other day when after droniug away for many hours, he said that he should like to make a few remarks on the rising generation but that be feared he might weary the House. So with me. I don't want to tire your readers but to letthem lay down the paper after reading my report in a thorough good humor with themselves, the Fancy Ball, and myself. So I will not attempt to describe the Tyrolese peasants, the Neapolitan ditto, both male and female, the pretty dresses of those who did not appear in fancy costume, the varied uniforms, Artillery, Hussar, Hifles, and, last though not least, Naval Brigade, nor shall I attempt to convey any idea of the mirth and merriment that prevailed until the last tones of the musip died away at four o'clock this morning. One thing J find I have omitted to mention, that is, the crowd of lookerson in the galleries, both of which were crowded to suffocation, the admission fee being balf-a-crown, Anent this, I happened to hear a shrewd practical remark made by one Of the N.B.s to a brother in arms He had been scanning the crowd of faces iv the smaller gallery carefully and, as it appeared calculating^, when he turned round and said— "Jack, there's pretty near enough there to put a couple o' coats o* paint on the Hoarer 1 I suppose in conclusion I ought to say a wppd in praise of the Committee o f Management, but haven't I already said that the whole thing was a complete success? What further comment can be required?

.ACqpatabJe Styroifoof theHutfc (says $he\Pose of Saturday), brought into town 'this morning a Maori named !Hakopa!TeTum,,a son of the famous jljuttjctiief of tljiat name, on a charge vof- having fedincditted; almost atrocious, assault on another Maori named Watine Kotuku. It appears that Te Puni went to Kotuku's house last night and attacked him with a tomahawk. On information of this reaching Constable Stewart, he proceeded to the scene of the outrage, where he found Kotuku lying in bed with a frightful gash in the left side of his head and another on his, left shoulder, almost severing it from his body. He at ouce sent for Dr Hilford, who arrived with all po3a ible speed, and dressed the wounds of the injured man. Then he proceeded in search of Te Puni, whom he succeeded in arresting and bringing into town, when he was brought before Mr Crawford, 8.M., and remanded until next Thursday. "We have been shown the weapon with which the murderous assault was committed. It is a large strong tomahawk, in good repair, such as is generally used for splitting wood, and as Te Puni is a young, and seemingly active, man, ifc is probable that JCotuku's wounds are of a very serious character. It is said, however, that, as the wounded man was in bed at the time, the assault was committed, a Maori mat which covered him contribute^ ,a good, deal to breaking the force of the blows. " Sugars is rial" Bad news for our young friends who like plenty in their tea and pudding. During the last two or three days ifc gradually oozed out •that one or two Wellington firms were up every particle of sugar they could lay hold of, and some of the shrewder possessors of the commodity, suspecting the motive of these unusually large purchases, declined to sell, and waited for further news. This arrived yesterday in the shape of telegraphic intimation that the price of sugar in Melbourne had increased to the extent of no less than £5 per ton. We understand that one local firm has some 500 tons on the way hither from Mauritius. The increased price represents an additional profit of some £2500 on this shipment -r-Post, ■ The Grahamstown Star states that it has been informed that a scheme has been mooted by a number of capitalists to go into competition with the Government for the purchase of the Aroha block, including Kaimai, and that the said, .capitalists are prepared to offer the natives three or four times the price offered by the Government ; also that they are prepared to test the validity of the proclamation under the Immigration and Public Works Act, even to an appeal to the Privy Council. As it is understood that the purchase of the block by the G-overnment will soon be completed, this attempt will materially obstruct the completion of the purchase and opening land for settlement The whole taansaction is said to be a nefarious and mischievous effort of selfish Europeans, and if persevered in will seriously affect the welfare of the district, and raise complications which wiil take a long time to overcome. In the interior of a lo^ recently enwn afc a sawmill at the Upper Huit, was found embedded a horseshoe, which we need scarcely say offered considerable resistance to the saw, and, no doubt, particularly injured it. How the shoe found its way into the heart of ihe tree seems to have led to various conjectures at the mill, and one man appears to have solved the problem. He expressed himself as being of opinion that the shoe waa embedded in the bark oi the tree when very youog, aud that it had got bo covered in the course of the growth of the tree fur many years as to have been found in the centre thereof when it was cut down for the sawmill.

(For continuation of Newt see fourth, page.)