SCOTLAND’S NATIONAL BARD

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 104, 26 January 1939, Page 13

SCOTLAND’S NATIONAL BARD

Burns Club’s Anniversary Dinner PRESIDENT’S TRIBUTE TO POET’S GENIUS An eloquest tribute to the memory of Scotland’s national poet was paid bv the president of the Wellington Burns Club at its anniversary dinner in the Empire Hotel last evening. Some HO members and guests attended. among those present being Sir James Elliott, patron; Mr. R. 11. Nimmo, president, and Mrs. Nimmo; Mrs. C. Stewart, M.P., and Mr. Stewart, Mrs. A. McVicar, 0.8. E., Mr. John E. Hunt, president of the Royal Society of St. George, and Mrs. Hunt, Dr. J. McLean and Mrs. McLean, Messrs. I. Lothian, I. McKenzie, W. Gray, B. O’Brien, lan McKay, G. Boyle, Mr. and Mrs. Adam Black, Mr. and Mrs. I. C. Newton. Mr.'and Mrs. D. A. Stratmore, Mrs. D. Basham, Mr. and Mrs. AV. Dutch, Mr. and Mrs. Paterson, Mr. and Mrs. Lennie, Mr. and Mrs. AV. Boyd, Mr. and Mrs. A. Smith, Mr. and Mrs. I. AV. Sinclair, Mr. and Mrs. Lister, Mr. and Mrs. Wright, Mr. and Mrs. S. Blow, Mr. and Mrs. P. Gourley, Mr. and Mrs. H. AV. McLeod, Mr. and Mrs. Laurensen, Mr. and Mrs. Anthony, Mr. and Mrs. Coulter, Mr. and Mrs. Weir, Mr. and Mrs. I. McLean, Mr. and Mrs. I. McCallum, Mr. and Mrs. G. Wilson, Mr. and Mrs. Campbell, Mr A R. Hislop, Mr. and Mrs. Buckland (Auckland), Mrs. McMillan (Rotorua), Mrs. Anderson, Messrs. D. Wright, Stark (Dumfries, Scotland), A F. Dickson, I. I. Clarke, R. Johnston, P. C. Watt, D. McLaren, Hardie Burt, Niven, Powell. Dick, Mrs. and Miss Stirling, Mrs. McQuarrie, Mrs. Heaps, Mrs. Muir, Mrs. Short, Mrs. Andrews, Mrs. Bagnall, Mrs. Stark, Mrs. Gardiner, Mrs. Ogilvy, Misses Basham, McLean, Pirie, Hume, Donkins, Irons, Allen, Atkins, Porter, Blair, Cameron, Watt, Gillespie, Maciver, Lugton, Ha.'-, per, Bennett, Downie, Spence, Wilson, and Halcrow.

“The luuuojtal Memory?’ In proposing the toast of the evening, “The Immortal Memory of Robert Burns,” Mr. Nimmo said that no poet ever held the people of his country in the hollow of his hand as Burns did, moving them to tears or laughter, and inspiring them to highest thought and noblest deeds. The distinguishin H characteristics of Burns’s genius were his directness of touch and sympathy with nature and human experience in all its thousand moods and passions. The sterner virtues of Burns’s genius were his patriotism; his manly independence, his intense hatred of social injustice and oppression in every form, and his unquenchable love for intellectual freedom and civil and religious liberty. Burns proclaimed the dignity of true manhood as it had never been proclaimed before in Scotland. His genius awoke' her people from a lethargy of indifference and depression that had too long darkened - its life, too long hampered its energies, and too long hindered its upward progress into that freer and fuller manhood and liberty now go much prized

and enjoyed. Mr. Nimmo said that it was surprising to find that quite a number of people, who presumably had failed to study Burns’s life closely, did not appreciate the fact that he was a profoundly religious man. On the contrary, these people looked upon Burns as one who exercised an influence against religion, as a scoffer against holy men and sacred things. This view was probably based on his way of life and on the satires which he directed against certain ministers of his time, against the too rigid morals and the damnatory creed which the church attempted to enforce. _ “It is fitting tonight, in the capital citv of New Zealand,” Mr. Nimmo concluded, “that w e and other New Zealanders throughout the length and breadth of the land form living links in the chain of fellowship that encircles the globe, and drink tonight in the fullness of joy to the immortal memory of Robert Burns.” Other toasts honoured were ‘ Our Adopted Country,” proposed by Sir James Elliott, and “Kindred Societies. The haggis was piped in by Piper J. McKenzie, and Mr. J. Lothian recited Burns’s “Ode to a Haggis.” Burns’s Songs.

The following songs written by Burus were sung during the evening:—Mr. Owen Bonnifant, “Afton Water’’ and “The Lea Rig”; Miss Kythe Mpelver, “Bonnie Wee Thing” and “Ca the Yowes to the Knowes”; Mr. Alan Pike, “Mary Morrison” and “To Mary in Heaven”; Miss Nora Green, “John Anderson my Jo” and “Ye Banks and Braes”; Mr. Owen Bonnifant, “O’ a’ the airts the win’ can blow”-and “My love is like a red, red rose”; Miss Kythe Maciver, “My heart is sair” and “Cornin’ thro’ the Rye”; Mr. Alan Pike, “Scots Wha Hae” and “O’ wert thou in the cauld blast”; Miss Nora Green, “Robin Adair” and “Angus McDonald.” Mr. J. Lothian recited “Tam-o’-Shau-ter.” Miss Dorothy Spinks was the accompanist. Proceedings opened with the singing of the National Anthem, and concluded with "Auld Lang Syne.”.