This relic of early Dunedin is about to be pulled down for the purpose of securing a site for new and commodious premises for T. E. Shiel and Co.
The old building has an interesting history, as many of the diggers who frequented it in the sixties could tell.
Originally erected as a private residence for the late Mr John Hyde Harris, it subsequently passed into the hands of the late Mr John Flanagan, proprietor of Tamora House, in High street.
In 1859 Messrs Crowhurst and Inglis secured a lease of it, and under the title of the Union Hotel, carried on business for a time.
Accommodation during the gold rush was at a premium, and prices were high, and it is on record that the early proprietors would not stoop to pick up anything less than a sovereign!
With the hotel came the theatre or music hall; indeed, no hotel was complete without this additional attraction for the diggers.
The City Casino, as it was called in the early sixties, was built on to the back of the Union Hotel, and there it stands to-day one of the early houses of entertainment in the city.
The miniature stage on which some of the stars of the period used to strut was pulled out a few years ago, but the ''dress circle'' and the ''grand staircase'' are there as they were 50 years ago, while on the walls, now faded and torn, are masterpieces of the decorator's art.
There is no evidence that the City Casino was used as a regular theatre, but was more in the nature of a music and dance hall where the diggers fraternised at ''free and easies''; but it is on record that the ''Inimitable'' Thatcher, who came from Victoria with a reputation as a composer and singer of comic songs, appeared on its boards.
• Rumour is very busy in connection with the settlement of land for fruit-growing at Earnscleugh.
It is said that a syndicate is endeavouring to obtain from the Land Board an option over certain land and water rights at present held by the Crown in order to develop the resources of the district, but opposition of a very strenuous nature is likely to eventuate.
Up to the present the syndicate has not made public its views and reasons for the request, but doubtless the Land Board will defer action until it ascertains the feelings of the residents contiguous to the land in question.
It is thought that the Crown (holding the land and water rights) could allow the district residents the choice of a ballot for the sections, after having cut the land into suitable divisions and developed the water rights to their utmost capacity without the intervention of a third party.
• As the Wanganui excursion train was moving out of Palmerston North station on Wednesday night a young couple just managed to board the last carriage, a crowded first-class smoker (says the Chronicle).
Such an incident is by no means uncommon, and would have passed without comment but for the fact that, as the latest arrivals started to move through the carriage for the non-smoking compartment, a handful of confetti was thrown in through the open window.
Then the secret was out.
''Three cheers for the bride,'' said one jovial-looking commercial traveller, and the cheers were given with gusto.
The bridegroom, who was somewhat embarrassed, replied, ''Thank you, gentlemen.''
The bride smiled sweetly, and then, with her husband, hurried away from the vicinity of the telltale confetti. - ODT, 30.5.1915.
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