Dunedin livens up for new year

Waitangi Falls, Bay of Islands, North Auckland. Otago Witness, 1.1.1913.
Waitangi Falls, Bay of Islands, North Auckland. Otago Witness, 1.1.1913.
Tuesday night ''saw the skirts of the departing year'' flit irrevocably away into that region of oblivion which is the burial-ground of so many centuries, and it also witnessed the baptismal rites of the year 1913.

By the majority of people the dying moments of the old year were not made the occasion of any very tender regrets, but the brightly-lighted streets of the city were rendered very much alive by a close-packed throng and it would seem as though the time-honoured custom of ''seeing the old year out'' was still observed with as much gusto and joviality as ever. Youthful high spirits were everywhere in evidence, and for the few hours proceeding midnight the town took on something of the nature of a miniature inferno. The ears were continuously assailed by a wide variety of noises, weird and unmelodious for the most part, but all loud and blatant, while at intervals the general uproar was outdone by the resounding detonation of a well-filled Russian bomb.

At 12 o'clock there was a temporary augmentation of the din by the ringing of the firebell and a number of other bells, and by the blowing of a host of steam whistles and sirens. The night was also illuminated by a display of fireworks, rockets despatched from the hills surrounding the city and from the vessels in the harbour casting abroad their showers of multi-coloured light with an effect beautiful in the extreme. Returning to affairs of a more mundane nature, the police report that the crowds as a whole were very orderly and that there was a pleasing absence of excessive drunkenness, though cases were not wanting of individuals who had indulged ''not wisely, but too well''.

There were very few accidents of a serious nature.

Apiarists as well as the consumers of honey may find the following information of interest: Recently the Orchards and Gardens and Apiary Division of the Department of Agriculture received for examination two samples of honey. No. 1, procured from a shop in Dunedin by the Government apiary instructor, was marked ''Pure Extracted Clover Honey''. No. 2 was received from a private gentleman, who obtained it from another shop in Dunedin. It was marked ''Best Clarified Honey''.

These samples were submitted to the dominion analyst, who reports as follows: ''No. 1 contains approximately 37 per cent of cane sugar. No. 2 contains added invert sugar. Neither of these samples is wholly genuine honey.''

The Southland News states that the ferocity of an eel was demonstrated on Friday evening, when Mr W. R. Ronald, Taramoa, who was angling for trout in the New River, hooked a 5lb trout. He had got his fish into shallow water, and was about to use the gaff, when he observed a large eel, about 4ft in length, making for the hooked fish. Mr Ronald struck the intruder a heavy blow with the back of the hook of the gaff, which caused it to plunge and rearing its head out of the water, the ferocious creature emitted a noise which, in some respects, resembled a growl of a dog. After the fish was landed the eel continued to swim round about in the water where the trout was taken from. - ODT, 2.1.1913.

 


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