THEATRE ROYAL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 173, 19 July 1878, Page 2

THEATRE ROYAL.

The Odd-Fellows had every reason to be gratified by the patronage they received last night on the occasion of opening their new Hall, which was crowded to excess, nearly 1000 people being present. The proceedings opened by Mr Thornton stepping before the beautifully painted act drop scene, the work of his own hands, and reading the following Prologue. Friends, hail and welcome, triumph and delight At your fair presence, fill our hearts to-night Within this pretty building, nobly graced With beauty, form, intelligence, and taste, To cheer the city's stiil increasing throng With music, scene, and character and songTo lighten labor's cares at close of day ' With social pleasures 'neath the Muses sway To show by strokes of wonder working art ' The actor's is no unimportant part; That he by imitations on the stage May prove a light and censor of the age, And give by semblances of love and strife A lighter tone to language and to life. In days long passed, when Greece was in her prime, The drama taught the manners of the time And with laudable desire, ' Brought forth new music from the Attic lyre ; And later, Sophocles, by kindred means, Reflected life in all its chequered scenes While actors, charmed in dialogue and verse Aud songs heroic, would in turn rehearse .;. And other minstrels breathed their thoughts sublime In all the splendid rhapsodies of rhyme And tinged the hills of old Tradition's night With roseate colors of progressivejjlight. In this fair province by the sounding sea The home of England's childreu fair and free, Where lie gold and carbon treasures side by side, And law and progress o'er our paths preside; Where marts arise, 'neath beauty's pleasant sway, And happy homes as meaner homes decay; Where stalwart diggers mine each terraced slope, And gardens breathe c£ industry and hope, E'en in this Bijou Theatre to-night, The promise greets us with its joyous light; This cosy stall which bears the stamp of mind, And workmanship of varied skill combined, Which indicates that in this southern sphere lhe drama full of life shall ripen here, And like the flowers that deck the skirts of spring, With imaged joy on its poetio wing,

In all its purer, happier forms shall rise, Led forth by talent, art, and enterprise. E'en now the picture opens on the view And what where dreams are taking shape and hue; And here as saddest memories pass aAvay, Where once the Maori hummed his native lay. This fair assemblage, radiant with delight, Inspires fresh hope of still increasing light. When truth and honor shall advance the age And highest talent dignify the stage, ' The artist acton by his fairy skill, guilds feudal fortress; lake; or sunny' hill; Sequestered glade, seas, ships with pennons to the mast, His magic brush recalls the memories of the past. The drama slumbered long, or but faintly gleamed, In hinds remote where flowers of fancy bfiiimed,Till doomed to rise in Albion's favored isle, Blest in the light of- freedom's genial smile, Where bright-eyed knowledge spread her snowy wings, And beauty blossomed from its myriad springs, And poetry, flower-wreathed, with fragrant breath, Breathed on the throne of Queen Elizabeth. And o'er the nettled grave of hate and strife, It Avhispered sweetly of a purer life, Sweet Shakspeare, like the silver star of moru, Came forth the stage to chastcu aud adorn, And by the power of genius and of art, To paiufc the passions, and unveil the heart.