NOTES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 342, 1 May 1928, Page 4

NOTES

Mrs. X. Clayton is an Auckland visitor to Hamilton. * * * Mrs. C. B. Wake has returned to I Hamilton, after a holiday in Auckland. Mrs. X. R. Chapman, of Auckland, is visiting Hamilton. Mrs. Q. Wright is an Auckland visitor to Hamilton. Mrs. J- Williams is an Auckland visitor to Hamilton. Mrs. D. Gorrie, of Takapuna, is at present in Hamilton. Mrs. .T. S. Williams, of Cambridge, is , on a visit to Auckland. Mrs. R. C. Scott is a visitor from Wellington to Auckland. Dr. and Mrs. Pezaro, of Auckland, ; are at the Hamilton Hotel. Mrs. .T. Passmore is an Auckland visitor at the Hamilton Hotel. Miss B. Winter, of Christchurch, is spending some weeks in Auckland. Guests at the Central Hotel include Mr. and Mrs. 1-1. Wilson, of Wellington. Mrs. W. Taylor, of Ohaupo. has returned home after a holiday in Auckland. Mrs. Dolan has returned to her home in Wellington after a visit to Auckland. Mr. and Mrs. A. McMurray. of Dunedin, are spending a holiday in Auckland. Mr. and Mrs. Alexander McKenzie, of Auckland, are at the Hamilton Hotel. Miss I. Ansenne, of Takapuna, is at present staying with her aunt, Mrs. H. Douglas in Hamilton. Mrs. J. Hawkins, of New Plymouth, and Miss Beere, of Ohaupo, are staying at the Ro3 r al Hotel. Miss McLeod left by Sunday’s express on her return to Blenheim, after a visit to Herne Bay. Miss Barr, of Auckland, is staying in Christchurch as the guest of Mrs. D. E. Hanson, Opawa. Mrs. Cooper, of Auckland, was staying with her daughter, Mrs. P. G. Russell, for the Te Rapa races. Miss Gladys Herbert is a visitor from Wellington to Auckland, and is the guest of Mrs. Carr, Epsom. Mr. and Mrs. C. Clabburn, of Wellington, who have been on a visit to Auckland, left for home by car to-day. Mr. and Mrs. C. Trengrove are visitors to Auckland from Sydney and are staying with Mrs. P. Webster, Herne Bay. Mrs. E. M. Horrocks and Mrs. A. Horrocks left by the Hinemoa on Saturday for Norfolk Island, where they will spend some weeks. Mrs. J. A. Frogley and Miss G. Frogley, of Stratford, left by the Hinemoa for Norfolk Island, and intend taking up their residence there. Mrs. Grace Butler, who fo.r some months has been staying with her sister, Mrs. F. Howard, in Epsom, will return to Christchurch this week. Miss Nikau Kaihau, daughter of the late Henare Kaihau, former M.P. for Western Maori, danced before the Governor-General and the Lady Alice Fergusson yesterday at Princess Te Puea 'Merangi’s reception at Ngaruawahia. A DREAM OF A LAKE There is a cameo of a lake in Campagna, within easy distance of Rome. Its name is rather cold and forbidding, and gives no idea of its beauty, fo.r who would attempt to weave beautiful things into anything called ‘'Nemi.” A few years ago tourists used to go there. They would sit at the ironlegged tables on the hotel verandah and piece together the few dim historical fragments they extracted from the none too loquacious landlord. “Some demented Roman Emperor or other had sunk his red-sterned barges into the lake.” And elderly ladies would throw frightened glances at the perfectly immobile deep blue surface and declare that they had always felt the lake was—oh “rather uncanny—you know.” When I chanced to be at Nemi some few years ago, I had already heard the story of the sunk barges but I refused to let the memory prejudice me against the tiny lake. Can you imagine an exquisitely-wrought, agate, sapphire and turquois© tiara, laid very, very low amidst mauve and violet distances, broken here and there by impertinent strawberry beds and golden challenges of orange and lemon trees? Would you not love it just for itself? I remembered the legend as I sat and sipped my coffee on the verandah and watched th© pale violet spaces turn into darker and still darker purple. The sunk barges, with their splendid golden sterns and imperial emblems broidered boldly on their snow-white sails; the purple hem of the Emperor’s toga, as he sat on this very shore and watched the ripple of the waves run over the glistening decks. . . . There came a gentle tremor over the waters! A green-streaked prow, with a Roman eagle perched on it, came out. Another tremor! A barge flashed, golden and magnificent, in the ! violet air. A thing of perfect beauty, ! from mast to mast, from sail to sail. A thing of perfect strength which somehow helped me to span the bridges of centuries and grasp the certainties of Rome’s world-conquests. Golden deck, white sails, a purple tent on the stern, where a fair giant stood, talking . . . There was another tremor over the ; waters. I looked again, but Nemi was j quite still. Not a ripple, not a wave, ' as though no secret of an Emperor’s ! mad whim lay hidden in the depths. . . . ; It was such a hot day you know!