NAPIER.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 105, 15 November 1873, Page 3

NAPIER.

[I'BOM OUB OWN COBRESPONDENT. J November Bth. The Anniversary of the Province falling on a Saturday and Sunday, the 3rd and 4th days of the month, were observed as public holidays, but a sentence of 48 hours enforced abstenance from business was rather trying, and many of the shops were partialy opened on the second day. Monday was set apart strictly as a holiday, and all the town went into the country, where the point of attraction was in one of Mr. Tiffin’s paddocks, at Turadale. There everybody who could hire a buggy', get a seat in a trap, or borrow a horse, proceeded, and joint-food associations were formed to enable all to enjoy an al fresco meal. At least 600 persons feasted on the ground, in the most approved yet most uncomfortable fashion adopted at pic-nies. The “upper ten” provided themselves with all the delicacies obtainable ; the * lower fifty ’ displayed less ostentation, and appeared to enjoy themselves more. Cold beef-steak pies, and beer in stone bottles apparently contribute to the spread of joviality, and the * fifty ’ amused themselves with dancing to the music of the Volunteer Bund, and “ kiss-in-the-ring,” while the exclusive fashionables, after regaling themselves with cold fowls, jellies, salads, and claret, seemed more like fish out of water than human beings out for a holiday. There was a cricket match on the ground detween the town and country clubs, but the playing was very indifferent. The fact is the young men of Hawke’s Bay are not over given to athletic sports. We are too lazy in the pursuit of pleasure to care going in for any amusement requiring much exertion. Our tastes are more in the direction of music, and the drama, and though we are execrable actors and indifferent singers, we have sufficient audacity to attempt anything that has been sung by Sims Reeves or Mario, or acted by Charles Matthews or Buckstone. The members of the town cricket chib occasionally have a practice on the disgracefully neglected piece of ground called Clive Square, but, as a rule, they depend on passers by for their fielding. If a ball eludes stoppage by a cricketer, it is not uncommon for the energetic members of the club to lie down till a goodimttired stranger comes along, when the shout of “thank vou” intimates that he is expected to send up the ball. Mr. Tiffin has recently presented thy club with a piece of land at Taradale, so very shortly the members will have to learn fielding for themselves. In the way of amusements we have now visiting us a company calling itself the Vivian Electric troupe. They have given two entertainment s to very thin houses, and their stay here is not likely to be a pecuniary success. Low class entertainments do not. go down at all in Napier, and if the Electric troupe becomes entirely wrecked, its members will not be the first “ variety troupe” to discover that this is not the place to come in which to give performances suitable to the inhabitants of the back slums of large cities. Napier is liberal enough to first-class talent, but we are a trading community, and like value for our money. On Tuesday next the Harmonic Society give a concert which promises to be a success. The society secured a talented conductor in Major Withers, whose military education admirably fits him to command a couple of dozen lady and gentlemen amateurs, all having determined views of their own as to what constitutes time, tune, and harmony.

Mr. Seed, inspector of Customs, visited Napier by the last trip of the Rangatira, the object of his visit being to investigate the late alleged attempt to defraud the Customs, an account of which I recently sent you. The result of his investigation was the restoration to Mr. Jacobs of the forfeited goods on the payment of a further fine of £lO. The funny manner in which the law has been earned out, from first to last, in this case is remarkable. Of the two local newspapers, the Telegraph only appeared capable of understanding the merits of the question involved ; the Herald totally mistook the bearings of the ease, and taking a moral view of the subject, ignored the fact that the law had been broken bv the Collector of Customs, when he accepted an import entry from the unauthorised clerk of an unauthorised Custom House Agent, and that the magistrates, though refusing to take the entry as evidence convicted Mr. Jacobs of causing the entry to be passed. It is said, at least it is reported both by the Herald and Telegraph, that the Government returned the goods to Mr. Jacobs, because, had he appealed to the Supreme Court, the judgment of the magistrates would have been reversed. “ A bird in hand,” Ac., the Government did pretty well out of it, and perhaps, Mr. Jacobs congratulates-himself it was no worse for him.

The resuscitation of the Hawke's JI ay Times was finally accomplished on the sth instant. This new series of that journal has been rather anxiously looked for in some quarters, as the public w*cre led to believe that by it the province would secure a really first-class newspaper, and the Herald a formidable opponent. The first number dissipated the fears of the one., and shattered the hopes of the other. It does not appear to be at all well supported by advertisements, nor does it, apparently, aim to supply any field of intelligence that is not already occupied bv the morning and evening dailies. Perhaps, when Mr. H. Russell returns to the province the Times will improve, at present, however, it is

a melancholy exhibition of wasted energy and capital. The ship Hovding, with Scandinavians from Christiana, sailed from that port on the Bth August for Napier, and as that vessel made the passage last year in 108 days, we may very shortly expect her arrival. The immigrants by the Hovding will be a very welcome addition to our population. Both public works and private enterprise are almost at a standstill throughout the province through want of labor, and consequently, a large amount of money that should be diffusing its, If, is practically locked up. Shearing operations too are seriously interfered with, from the same cause —want of working men; and woo], that should ere this, have been awaiting shipment in store, is still on the sheeps’ backs. Only a very few dray loads of our staple produce have as yet come into town, and what with the variable character of the weather, and the scarcity of labor, I think I am safe in predicting a long delay in the roadstead of the first wool ship, the Excelsior, that is expected daily from Wellington.