PORT ALBERT.

Wairoa Bell, Volume IV, Issue 154, 15 July 1892, Page 5

PORT ALBERT.

[MOM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] The Mutual Improvement Class met on Saturday, July 2nd, in the Temperance Hail to hold their weekly meeting-,, the President R. Walker in the chair, the election of officers was to have taken place, but owing to the inclement weather the attendance was very meagre, so the matter was deferred till the next meeting. The following programme was then gone through : Instrumental music, Misses Hartnell and lager; Readings were contributed by Miss Stevonton on the way postage stamps are made, and a very animated discussion ensued ; also by Mr R. Walker on ‘ The advantages possessed by woman ’ which sonic of the ladies present denied in to to ; Recitation, The Monkey and the Nuts, Mr. G. Kkffslier ; Recitation, The Old Salt’s Yarn, Mr. Partington, this gentleman received great praise for the way in which he delivered his piece and deserved all the credit he got ; Speech on Woman’s Franchise by Mr. T. A. Grubb. The outcome of the debate recently held bv the Aratapu Class is that we are to have a debate on the subject of “ Are the Sexes mentally equal to the Lords of Creation. ” The monthly meeting of the Band of Hope took place in the chapel on Tuesday, July sth. Mr Mander. in the absence of the president, took the chair. There was a fair attendance considering the weather and the bat state of the roads. The proceedings were opened by the singing- of a hymn from Hoyles. Musical items wore rendered by Mrs Beecroft and family and Miss L. Tumor, recitations by Messrs Partington, A. Gubb, E. Turner, P. Grice and Miss L..Bi-okeusliire. Mr O. Conell gave a reading ‘ The Orange and the Green ’ in good style, and later on in the evening gave a good sound speech on Bands of Hope and was listened to with great attention. Mrs P Beecroft followed with a reading, ‘Betsy and I ’; Mr T. A. Gubb gave a speech and Mr 13. M. Gubb gave his Temperance lesson Dr. Richardson, and the meeting closed by singing another hymn. The Agricultural Society met on Wednesday, July 6th, at the residence of Mr R. Walker, Mr T. Gubb in the chair. The subject for the evening- discussion was that of permanent pasture,not pastime, as printed in your last issue, The paper was very well criticised by the members and the essayist thanked for the paper which was original and all thought that the subject could not be brought up too often before a Society' of this sort. There was a good deal of time taken up in reference to a disputed prize at the late Show, the parties interested not putting in an appearance, After a lot of talk it was decided that the Show committee retain the prize till the other side prove their light to it. There is great excitement among- the Juvenile members of the community, as the

iidustmi Exhibition takes place in Deember, It is now two years since the last one was held which was a great success. Mr Reid the head teacher is President, Mr G. T. Hartnell Secretary, and Mr Charles Judd J unr., Treasurer, which is a sure sign of it being a credit to the district. Vv o are pleased to see the genial face of Mr Manners who has returned from his trip to Australia, and has also brought his family with him. *1 'TJotBALIT" Saturday' Inst was not a pleasant day' for our footballers for although the rain held off duringthe afternoon the grounds wore very wet. The s.s. Kopuru conveyed both the Aratapu and Kopuru teams up river ; the former to meet Maropiu at Mang-awhere and the latter to meet Darguville on Mr Moros’ ground. The Aratapu boys under fifteen also went up in the steamer to meet Lie up-river youths for the return match, but were unable to put such a strong- team in the field as on the first occasion. F. Molloy and Tidmarsh were absent from the Kopuru team. The BOYS’ MATCH. was played on the Mang-awhare Race-course and the Umpires were Messrs McLeod and and the referee Mr T. Day. The home team was somewhat stronger than theirs of the previous Saturday- while Aratapu had to include some small boy'.s. The game was heartily enjoy'ed and well fought out by the young Tins who were evidently filled with patriotism for their respective localities and a desire to show what they could do. Victory again rested with Aratapu but the score was much smaller than in the first match. The Mang-awhare lads were unable to score, whereas 13, Leudrum secured three tries for Aratapu, none were converted and the game was won by' 0 uoints to nil. ARATAPU and MAROPIU met on the Mang-awhare ground and as the steamer was late in arrival only an hour’s game could be played. A t half time sides were changed and play continued without an interval, Maropiu appeared satisfied with their selection but did not play with the same spirit and dash as they aid in the early games of the season. Aratapu scored early in the game and peihaps this made Maropiu’s game more hopeless. They however stuck \ o the game well and in the second half hour only allowed their opponents to secure two tries. In the first spell. Morgan and A If Keane secured two tries each, and Leu Kitching one making ten points as no goals were kicked ; in the second spell Bassett and Morrison each scored a try and Len Kitching- converted one making the score 17 points for Aratapu. Maropiu did not get over the Aratapu line and failed to score in any other way. Rutland made a g-ood pot at goal but the ball struck an opponent just under the bar, Bassett however secured and got his try from it. The old Aratapu players worked well with a. little weakness in one or two directions, lie Him, Ngakuru and Willie were the pick of Maropiu. the first named being specially good, and”the last showed great pace when wanted. Messrs G-. Norton and A. .Tones were the umpires and Mr A. Leg'ge the referee, El iott and Woollam kept well on the ball and dribbled nicely. Veaie was not in good form, they say that the day was too kind to him. Morgan scored two tries on Saturday, but it would do him good to see Albie Braund play at centre half, Lionel had plenty of work on Saturday and did it fairly well, but Maropiu ipiuned him dangerously' on one occasion owing to his dodging instead of punting smartly, He wants a try at three-quarter. "Willie Mititai seemed to rapidly overtake Boneila on Saturday, he must be fast. Te Him did good forward work on the line out, the Selection Committee want to watch him. Alt' Keane was well worth his place amongst the Aratapu Firsts : he wiped out the sad memories of last year by' scoring two tries against Maropiu. KOPURU v. DARGAVILLE The Dargaville Club do not seem to be able to raise a team to play against Kopuru ; in the first round they only mustered 13 players and last Saturday in their second match with Kopuru they started with nine and never had more than 10 including boy's The match consequently' was somewhat of a farce and resulted in a win for Kopuru by 3-1 noints to nil, no goals being kicked. Matthews secured three tries, Elliott, Johnston, Keegan, Cunningham, Jjowrie and Ross two each and Flavell and O’Neil one each. The score seems formidable but considering- the odds the Dargaville two-fifths team did well in keeping- it under 60. Absolum played up well against odds and at one time all but scored. The ground was very' wet and greasy. The Auckland Cup matches last Saturday were remarkable for smaller scoring and closer finishes than has been usual. Grafton 5 points to Suburbs 2 ; Ponsonby' 7 to Newton’s 5 and City onlytwo to North Shore's nil. The Auckland-Taranald match is fixed for August 6th and tomorrow and two followingSaturdays are to be devoted to practice matches, The Taranaki team will be a strong one, R. B. Lusk and Rab McKenzie, old Auckland reps, are amongst them also Thomas The Otago full back whom the Englishmen spoke so well of. Our old comrade, Harry Coutts, will also probably' be amongst tucin. W. 13. UNION MEETING. A meeting of the local Rugby Union was held on Wednesday evening at Dargaville, when the following delegates were present: Messrs J, Boss, 0. Matthews, E. Bassett, A. Smith and Furore. Mr Nield, being engaged with the Band at the Rink was unable to attend, A letter was rood, from the Secretary of the Auckland Ruby Union saying that the Kopuru- Maropiu Seconds match, which was claimed by Koput-n should bo pluyedover again

as the notice given Maropiu was not sufficient. The Auckland Union intend sending a renresentatiye team to the "Wairoa this -ea«o- wit are yet unable to fix the date. In view of this Messrs A. Legge, Parore and Stall-worthy were appointed a Selection Committee for the Union, it was decided to ask the Auckland Union to "end up a referee for the Kopuru-Aratapu match on 23rd mst, one-third expenses to be allowed out of gate money, the two Clubs to find balance. The referee to be assisted by two line umpires only. The Secretary was instructed to write the Port Albert Club asking their wishes and intentions. The Aratapu and Kopuru] Seconds play tomorrow afternoon on the Aratapu ground. Fine day', good game. The following will represent Aratapu.—Moses, Paki, Kemp, Hammond, Keane, Jamieson, J. and E. Harrison, McLeod, Watakina, C. Heywood, Higgins, Masefield, Mihaka and Sutherland. Emergencies, t. Bassett, T. W. Nield, C. Nield, Barbour 'and Beasley.