ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1482, 3 January 1882, Page 3

ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

fPPIfefTO had- th« ordering of the weather ||p:we could ruSt have selected anything P||. better : than that we had,, on Monday wm observed as a holiday in lieu g|iseofChrutmaB Day. The pun shone in a K^ clear sky,- buVhis heat was tempered by fir"'-'* cool southerly breeze. The conse{B^quence was .that " hundreds of happy Xp t funilies"went'out by steamer, by boat. m?" by rail, by carriage, by coach, by buggy, itV by omnibus, by carfc, on the backs of ¥hj liowes, or on "Shank's pony," and enIp?;- joyed themselves. Among the steamer j|^ excursions were some to Kawau, and jg§|- those, /who went thither would see Sir %j§ George Qvegin the place in which he is to Though I firmly be£S. Ueve hi^jp^politically, a great humgj bu^, an|ESßß^Mitic failure, I as firmly pf^ believgs^BJH^' doing the honours oi $.„__ Kawau, Wsgju a great success. He is jfp. . very polite to all comers and is ever willt ,< ing to allow everyone to see his museum "■' .and library and to afford the curious in- _ formation about their contents. Yes ! >\ I really, think that the electors of City \ East would have acted kindly to him, as . well as wisely for themselves, had they given him the opportunity of retiring from political life and spending the rest <• of his days peacefully at Kawau. Either the " Observer " has been hoaxed or it has-been trying to hoax its readers, as on Saturday last it contained the announcement that R. A. A. Sherrin (the author of 1 , the pamphlet which was intended to shake the Bank of New Zealand to its foundations, but which proved nothing but that that institution could 'not meet its' engagements in bullion if suddenly calleci upon to do so, as what bank could from the Bank of England downwards ?) is engaged canvasting for capital fe to start a penny morning paper on liberal ■band Greyite principles, (I am glad that Bf people are beginning to see that there is a jr difference between the two), that £5,000 \r has been already subscribed, and that . Messrs Sherrin " and Sheehan leave for Waikato shortly to persuade Rewi and , Tawhiao to subscribe £5,000 more. It is -. quite unnecessary for Mr Sherrin to go so far as Waikato to seek the subscribers of _ that other £5, 000 1 . Within a few miles of Auckland there are a number of gentle- : men, who, according to theirown belief, are possessed of unlimited means, who would be the most suitable subscribers of the necessary capital. The gentlemen . in question live together in a large brick , building erected for them at the expense of the colony, in that beautiful and I fertile locality known as the Whau. *" That would be a most suitable i^lace in which to seek for subscribers to such a paper. The class who would be expected toibuy it do not care for a morning paper, while most of those who would take a morning paper certainly do not want one ■with "Liberal and Greyite principles." There can be no doubt about the affair being a hoax, though who has been the victim of it, or whether anyone has been, does not appear. The Montague-Turner Opera Company have been playing to good houses thu fc-.week, aud they deserved good houses. for, 1 though the chorus is not good, the principals are first-class, and the orchestra is much above the average. The great >„.. drawback to the performance* is the p- scenery, or rather the want of scenery || for that which does duty as such is not [i deserving of the name. The way iv - which one piece of so-called scenery has L. ,to do duty for a room in a cottage, a lady's boudoir, a drawing room, a dining- | room, a library, a smoking-room, a kitchen, and I know not what besides, is a source of wonder, though not of . admiration to the beholder. The dropscene, too, is, in the language of the poets, "a caution to snakes," and the sooner the place that knows it now knows it no more, the better for the Auckland playgoers. However, "opposition is the thief of time," as Mrs Malaprop says, so, as the new Opeia House will be finished in a few months, we will *• assuredly soon see a great improvement 'in tin's and in other respects at the Thertre Royal. The manager, I think, missed a good opportunity of making an excellent hit when "Faust" Was played. In the garden scene the principal object was a cypress (suggestive of a cemetery rather than of a garden) tree in which a number ol flowers were iuarstistically stuck. If I had been arranging that scene, instead of a cypress, I should have had a pohutukawa. It would have been quite as appropriate in Marguerite's garden as the ' dismal, flower-decked cypress, and would have had a much better effect. By the way, pohutukawa is a good word to ask a "new chum" to pronounce, and even an " old baud" finds it rather difficult to grapple with when he is in a hurry. The weather, which was so fine on Monday, .changed early on Tuesday moming, when that close, muggy rain, which is the most unpleasant feature of our Auckland climate, set in and continued almost without intermission throughout the day. Any casual observer would have supposed, that it would have put a stop to everything in the -way of outdoor sports. Not so, however. The newly formed Takapuna Jockey Club had advertised their Summer meeting for Tuesday, and they determined to carry out their arrangements, weather or no weather. Of the thousands who had made up then 1 ' minds to see the races, some hundreds put in an appearance and enjoyed themselves as well as the circumstances would allow. The feature of the meeting was a steeplechase, which proved a most exciting race. How the horses managed to negotiate the -jumps seeing that they had no proper foothold from which to take off was a puzzle to the spectators, but they did it, and the meeting passed off without any serious mishap. "Will it evermore be thus?" Year after year, the Auckland Racing Club's ' meetings take, place at Ellerslie. Year after year, hundreds of people go thither train. Year after year, they are II 'crowded like cattle in carriages and trucks. H Year after year, there are numerous coins' plaints of the mismanagement of the railS v way authorities/ Year after year, there "'seems to<be no attempt to make better arrangements. " Will it evermore be thus? ? ' .. ' < Next week the renowned violinist, the ' second Paganini; Herr^ August Wilhelmj (I can spell the name but dare'not,at- ♦ -tempt to pronounce it) is to make his bow , * before an Auckland audience, He is to.be the best living violinist, r'f'.trut I believe that none but a' thorough m, musician can, appreciate him. '.> He plays Vt'high^class musio, such as ordinary' people |?vcan neither understand nor appreciate. KstiU,"for those whose musical educatibn Ills been so ; well attended to that they Ip-can understand and appreciate high-class i^mtisio I belive there' is a great treat in |fiPsEM&vo Auckland ! The -Taniwha and ||i|§lisgret ; both built by the "Messrs Nicoi,' of ||f£ejtforth" Shore, won the first .and second I ftoopprs at the First-class Yacht Race at pMelbourne, beating the Janet, the VicWos2&£™k y^ht and others. Hip, hip, lllPißlßfe ' . St ' mung °-

ILM6NG extraordinary measures adopted the Turkish Government against a ret grasahopper invasion' Was an order pen'ding^all^other- business - for three itat Angora, and requiring, the people nirch W tKo Mdi'and cntch, kill and [f er to the i ofßJoials about SOlbs of the teojing^ia'iedW for etch individual.