INDIAN IDEAS OF DANCING.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 189, 10 November 1876, Page 14

INDIAN IDEAS OF DANCING.

In some parts of India a bitter feud is raging between the AngloIndian and native portions of the community on the subject of inviting the latter to balls given by the former. At first sight, it would appear a mere prejudice of race to exclude educated native gentlemen from these festivities. They would not be likely to behave less decorously, it might be imagined, than British officers and civilians. Then, too, there is the patent fact that when any members of the class visit England they are freely invited to such entertaintments. One very important difference exists, however, between the two'cases. When these gentlemen are on their travels they rarely carry with them female impedimenta, and it cannot therefore be justly urged that if they desire to take part in the social amusements of Europeans they must first conform to European usages by introducing their wives and daughters to society. Herein lies the gist of the objections raised by AngloIndians to the presence of their Aryan brethren at dancing parties. If the latter would bring with them their female relationsj and thus show that they regarded balls as perfectly moral institutions, no European of sense could possibly object to meeting them. It is the suspicion that native gentlemen look upon such entertainments as nautches which really causes Anglo-Indian society to hedge its entertainments round with exclusiveness. Nor is this suspicion groundless. Educate the Asiatic mind as you may it will nevertheless continue to regard dancing as a performance, and not as an amusement. To the Oriental who has not travelled in Europe, it is very much the same whether waltzing takes place on the public stage or in a private house. Trained as he has been from infancy to associate the exercise with a certain amount of immorality, he cannot conceive the possibility of really reputable ladies indulging in it for the mere sake of amusement. As this scepticism is well known to Anglo-Indians, their objections to the presence of native gentlemen at dancing parties are, after all, only natural.

At a meeting of the Congregation of the Propaganda held in. May last, it was decided, at the urgent request of Mgr. Petitjean, Vicar Apostolic of Japan, to erect a new Yicariate in that Empire. The Japanese mission will therefore for the future consist of two Vicariates; the northern Yicariate will include the northern portion of the island of Nippon and the island of Yesso ; the southern Yicariate will comprise that part of the islands of Nippon lying south of Lake Bivua, and the Islands of Kiou-Siou and Chikako.

Mbisbs. Clifford and Morris continue to deserve the high estimation in which the photographs taken by them are held. The likenesses obtained by them are admitted to be uniformly perfect, and the difficult matter of dress and attitude having been made a particular ■tudy by the talented artiets in question, they are in a position to produce the best effects. They are constantly in receipt of all the newest improvements, and nothing is left undone by them to sustain the reputation of their establishment and insure the complete satisfaction of all who patronise it.

The Paris correspondent of the London ' Telegraph ' writes as follows : — "The idea of making this city a seaport — in other words, of rendering the Seine navigable for sea-going vessels — is again coming to the surface. The river at Paris is only between sixty and seventy feet above the level of the ocean, and the distance in a straight line one hundred and twenty miles, although, following the course of the stream, it is two hundred and ten miles. The problem is how to lessen the hitter number and make a greater depth of water. It appears that to dredge out eeven feet would need an expenditure of thirteen million francs, and an additional three feet would l-equiie eleven million francs more. It is stated, moreover, that the average of French vessels is under three hundred tons. The Minister of Public Works and the Prefect of the Seine made an exploring expedition the other day to Bouen, and the journey is to be repeated by the Municipal Council. Of course, no decision has been arrived at, but the lower estimate will probably be adopted.