MUSIC from MAURICEVILLE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4736, 2 June 1894, Page 3

MUSIC from MAURICEVILLE.

Ik Bull and Bombardon,

A correspondent from Mauticcvillc scuds us the following !

"It's conic at last! I always said it was only a matter of time, ana now ray predictions arc fulfilled! Mauriccvillc, ui cpnjaqctjflnjritli Hastwcll, has started a Band— Brass Band. And now, when iSattirday evening comes round, residents who wcro onccpcacablc and law-ahidiug, may be seen with brazen instruipeuts of torture strapped to their shoilfsers, all converging to ono spot for practice, This delightful rendezvous is situated somewhere in (he centre of the Hastwcll Villiage Settlement, and nico little homesteads—more or less improved—can now be picked up at a sacrifice!

To say that these musical amateurs make night hideous would he putting it very mildly. Ono unfortunate resident, who reads Shakespeare, told mo the other day that neither Poppy, nor Mandragon, nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, would ever medicine him to that sweet sleep which he had enjoyed before this "cussed" Band commenced operations. . But that is not the worst! The Sat-) lirday night pandemonium is as nought compared with the individual tootling every day of the week. It is generally the case with all now crazes that its devotees burn with enthusiasm, and every minute they have to spare is wholly given up to their brass idols, heedless of the pain and suffering they inflict ujpou those uufortunatc enough tabo within hearing. One baudsmatfifwho has the mama very bad, and who blows into a large andwonderfully complicated machine', called the "Bombardon," narrowly escaped with bis life through liis intense love for music. He was performing round his instrument in a paddock close to Ids residence in the dusky twilight tio other evening, when, during an eight bars rcstin his selection—ho was playing "Verdi," I think—he heard an 9mjno,us;6,pi(no;iflt It w aj

noiso resembling a cross botween the rumble of aucarthqunko mid the hod of ft lost soul, A hasty glnhco in tho direction from whenco it enmc, revealed the unwelcome presence of a savngo bull in full charge, with lowering head and (ail erect. To disengago himself from his musical horror, aim gain the fence—which ho cleared at a boundwas the work of an instant. He was not a moment; too soon, for the infuriated animal crashed into the fence almost at the same time.

The bull, after a futile attempt to get over the barrier and take tlio gore of that athletic musician, walked leisurely back nnd took possession of tlio" bombardon," worrying that monstrosity with excellent effect. This little incident serves to show what a soothing effect good music bus on the brute creation in general, and bulls in particular. However, I suppose w'c must put up with the inevitable, and after all it will be nicc-in tlio days to come —to hear the soul-stirring strains of a local ]3and. Wo are, upon tlio whole, a music-loving community, and the mellow tones of the time-honored accordcon arc scarcely sufficient to satisfy our aspirations in this respect. " Pence ho to its ashes." i