SPILT INK CLUB.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 172, 24 July 1933, Page 11

SPILT INK CLUB.

The monthly meeting of the Spilt Ink Club, Auckland branch, took place at the residence of Mrs. Sydney Smith, Epsom, when Mrs. Boswell occupied the chair. Mrs. S. Smith contributed an interesting paper on "Life in- the West Indies." "Wherein lies tho charm of Trinidad?" said tho speaker. "Was it in its hills, clothed with verdure, blazing with colour and flashing sunlight? Is it on its high woods, where tropical v-egitation and animal life is so varied that it defies description, or its plains covered with tassels of cranebrake. Or does the magic lie in the brilliant moonlight, or with the myriads of scented flowers." In few parts of tho world can mankind be better studied than Trinidad, continued the speaker. On its hospitable shores are nearly all nationalities. East meets West. Owing to a beneficial system of immigration, there is a large industrious Indian population, and the canny Scot and almond-eyed Celestial match their wits. Mrs. Scott gave an illuminating paper on "Pioneering," and stressed that the club, as pioneers of literature in New Zealand, should study the history of the early settlers. As they read of their trials and hardships, and their ways of overcoming almost impossible odds, that their children might enjoy the comforts and conveniences denied to their parents, our difficulties in the literary world and the fight for recognition as a country with a literature of its own, would then seem more hopeful. They fought, overcame and conquered; so shall New Zealand writers. Mrs. Scott graphically described the story of the Albertlandcrs. Among those present were: Mesdames Carr Rollett, I. M. Cluett, Scott Young, Sydney Smith, Doust, Craig, Court, Scott, Richmond, Boswell, Ponder, Spinley, Misses Spurling, Carr Rollett, l)ulcay, Bowman, Joyce Smith.