PRESENTATION TO MR. G. B. ALLEN.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1763, 27 August 1874, Page 2

PRESENTATION TO MR. G. B. ALLEN.

A presentation of, a very interesting nature took place yesterday at the Eoyal Mail Hotel. The members of the orchestra and chorus of the Eoyal English Opera Company, who hare accompanied j Mr. G. B. Allen during the tour of the Australian colonies and JNew Zealand, took the opportunity of presenting Mr. Allen with a very handsome baton as a mark of the estimation in which they held him.—ln presenting the baton, Mr. Stoneham, on behalf of the orchestra said: —" Mr. Allen, on behalf of the ladies and gentlemen composing the orchestra and chorus of the English Opera Company, I have extreme pleasure in presenting you with this token as a mark of the esteem and respect in which you are held. During the six months we have travelled with you, we have found you in every respect a perfect gentleman. Your kind and genial manner has endeared you to us, and we can with sincerity assure you, that in your future fortunes, be they good or bad, you will always find in us a body of men who will stick to you. As a lady, Mrs, Allen also commands, in an equal degree with yourself, our esteem and affection; feelings which have been inspired no les« by her agreeable and affable manner than by her kindly consideration for all who have had the pleasure of associating with her' during your provincial tour. In, presenting you with this baton, we trust you will accept it with the same good feelings with which it is given."—Mr. Benham, the oldest representative of the chorus, endorsed the good wishes of Mr. Stoneham, and trusted Mr. Allen would live long to wield the baton. —Mr. Allen said he was not an eloquent speaker, but he was deeply gratified at the compliment that had been paid to him. It was no less valuable as. a mark of respect and regard from the ladies, and gentlprneft who had presented it, than it was interesting from its association with New Zealand, the gold and silver of which the baton was made both being the product of the colony. It would always accompany him wherever he travelled, and he hoped not only bo familiar in the principal cjties of the Australian colonies, but likewise in the greas European capital of the world. H>, on behalf of Mrs. Allen no less than himself, accepted the baton as a proof of the good-feeling that existed towards him by his company.-— The health and prosperity of Mr. and Mrs. Allen were then drunk with bumpers of phampagpe, which terminated the highlyplepsing cpyempny.—The baton i 3 a very handsome specimen of workmanship, -being composed of silver, and mounted with colonial gold, a wreath of the metal running round the length of the staff and ornamented with a delicate filagree work. The butt of the staff is ornamented with a

piece of Thames cold-bearing quartz. Th<S baton was manufactured by Mr. Isidore Alexander, jeweller, Queen-street, and bears the following inscription:— " Presented to Mr. Gr. B. Allen, by the members of tho orchestra and chorus of the Royal English Opera Company. Auckland, August, 1874."—Cross. '