CANTERBURY COLLEGE DIALECTIC SOCIETY.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9990, 21 March 1898, Page 6

CANTERBURY COLLEGE DIALECTIC SOCIETY.

The first of the fortnightly meetings of the Canterbury College Dialectic Society was held in the English lecture room on Saturday night. There was a large attendance of students and visitors. The chair was occupied by the president (Mr A. E. Flower). The election of officers for the ensuing year resulted as under :—Honorary K resident, Mr J. P. Grossman; president, [r J. H. Smith; secretary, Mr J. S. Cooper; treasurer, Mr J. Parr; General Committee, Misses Kirton and E. Gibson and Messrs J. Glasgow and H. P. Richmond.

The retiring Honorary President (Mr 0. T. J, Alpers) read a chatty and interesting paper entitled " Impressions of Denmark. Denmark, he said, though to a great extent known to Englishmen merely as " the place where the batter comes from,'' had much alike in its art, its literature and its social institutions to repay observation. ; As re-

gards the title of " Melancholy Dane," with < which hia countryman had been dubbed, he was bound to state that though Denmark held the world's record for suicides it wag yet a pleasure-loving country, and a country moreover ia which the idea of pleasure was not a funereal sports meeting or race meeting, but a gay romp in the woods and parks of Copenhagen. In the winter tho Danish world lived on skates by day and": in the theatro by night, and the actor equally with the clergyman was an. honoured servant of the Crown. The mos*} striking feature of a Danish crowd was its' invariable courtesy, noticeable alike in nobis 'and in mechanic. In the matter of drunken-, ness, though all Danes drank their whit, brandy and lager beer, and though Copenhagen had 400 distilleries, there were yj.' few drunkards, and a prohibition lecturer: would appear to the inhabitant- amusing but quite harmless. The Copenhagen " 'Any," moreover, was a distinctly Iq w species of humanity, not unlike his English-; brethren in some respects. Hia method ol fighting was peculiar as it consisted of a! butting contest in which the object of the combatants was to strike each other not! with their fists but with their heads, Th« sturdy democracy of the nation at largo; arose mainly from two causes—from conscription, which engendered obedience, smart, ness and selirespect, and from education, which was thorough and universal. In th« University of Copenhagen, all lectures, with few exceptions, were free to students and to the public, and, since 1894, women had been placed on an equal footing with nien, with the one exception that they were notallowed to graduate in theology. As regards Danish drama Professor Edmund. Gosse, of Cambridge, and William Archer, the eminent critic, agreed that the Danish stage was the home of the highest dramatic art in Europe, and the people's devotion to. the drama was undivided. Coming to the social and political condition of Denmark, a remarkable contrast was noticeable between an apparently conservative devotion of the people to their king and awidespread socialism, which in many respects ran before the advanced legis.lation of New Zealand. Thia waa perhaps due to the large number of peasant proprietors. In a country of 15,000 squar. mile 3, with a population of under 2,000,000, there were some 70,0Q0 of these peasant proprietors, the vast majority of whose estates were under 150 acres in extent. Payment of members, manhood suffrage, and an elective second chamber had long been established in Denmark. The State owned the railways and the telegraph and postal systems, and had charge of tho education, the religion, and the amusement of the people. State factories were numerous, and State life insurance had existed for many years. The legal system of Denmark was a model of simplicity, and "The General Code of Laws for the Whole 1 Kingdom" was contained iv four small quarto volumes. But for all hei intellectual activity and high national spirit the glory of Denmark lay rather in the past than in the future, and she would never again win laurels on the field of battle. In the deepest dungeon of Elsiuore, so the story runs, sits Holyen Danske, the myth-, ical champion of Denmark, of old a Paladin of Charlemagne, his aged head lying on his breast and his long white beard rooted iv the stone floor at his feet. When the crisis comes in Denmark's fate he will rouse himself, and the shock of his expiring wiU " thrill the land and light with leaping flames of patriotism the people's blood." The crisis, however, must needs bo a greati one, since all the disasters of the last century have failed to awaken him from sleep. On the conclusion of his paper a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Mr Alpersj and also to the retiring officers. . The next meeting will be held on Saturday, March 26th, after which the society will meet every fortnight.