LONG BUSH.

Southland Times, Issue 1642, 1 October 1872, Page 3

LONG BUSH.

• (from a correspondent.) Number five of the series of our w*nter evenings entertainments came off on Friday, 20th. Being the concluding entertainment of the season, it was previously announced that it would be followed by a ball, and that the proceeds would be in aid of tbe school funds. The schoolroom being considered too small for the exI pected gathering, Mr James M'Kay, with a kindness and consideration which do him honor, placed, at very great inconvenience, bis large barn, lately erected, at tbe disposal of the committee. Shortly after the hour of meeting — 8 o'clock — the barn itself and a portion of tbe adjoining old barn were well filled. The assembly both [as regards num bers and respectabili t y was certainly far above what one might expect in a strictly rural district. Precisely at the hour advertised Mr John Gr. Smith took tbe chair, aud opened the proceedings by reading a welladapted prologue and an original parody on Tennyson's famous " Charge of the Light Brigade," both of which were exceedingly well received. The programme was not a long one, as the committee judiciously resolved to reserve some of the songs to be sung- in tbe intervals between the dances. The readers were Messrs J. G. Smith, M'Kercber, and Edgar ; and the singers Messrs Christie, D. Neil, R. Neil, and Cronin, the school choir and Herr Graff, wbo gave both a Scandinavian and an English song. All the performers did ample justice to their parts, and received the well-merited applause of the as-

-Bembly. Space forbids me from giving a list of tbe pieces read and sung — suffice it to say that " No silly idle tales were maundered o'er Which everyone has heard or read be r ore ; No nur^erv rhymes or schoolboy's lessons e'er Hare formed an entree in our bill of fare.' The season's entertainments were verj gracefully brought to a close by the chair • : man, who read an epilogue, in which, with i a few humorous and sentimental touches, J he reviewed the past and pointed hopefully to the future ; at the close of which I the applause which burst from tbe large ■ assembly was deafening. A vote of thanks to Mr Smith, proposed by Mr M'Kercher, was unanimously passed— ' which tbat gentleman acknowledged in suitable terms, and concluded by pro- ! posing a complimentary vote of thanks j to all the amateurs who had so willingly i and ably contributed to tbe success of the entertainments. Tbe Queen's Anthem i followed, given by the whole audience ' with right good will, and so brought to a ' close a series of entertainments which many will remember as the most successful -which bas ever been given at Long Bu.._. "On with the dance, let joy be unconfined," was now the cry, aud soon the floor was cleared, and old and young — married and single — were whirling round, poussetting, crossing hands and down the middle, waltzing, polkiug, quadrilling;, strathspeying, aud reeling, till one's head began to reel at the si«ht, and I had to get a drop of something hot at M'Phee's bar in another apartment to restore my equilibrium. The something hot, however, was rather cold oh tbis occasion, as nothing but temperance liquids were allowed. A most harmonious and happy evening was spent, and up to the time when the sun intruded his rising beams — a good while before his hour it was felt — not a word or deed had occurred to mir the joy which animated the whole assembly. lam proud to say tbat there I was no disunion — no squabbling — no i fighting — no wa-fare — and that the serI vices of a Florence Nightingale were i not required in nursing and attending to I the wounded. j Iv the course cf the evening, a vote of thanks was given by acclamation to Mr Roger Hart, who discharged the difficult duties of M. C. to the entire satisfaction of everyone.