LITERARY & DEBITING SOCIETY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 117, 19 May 1914, Page 2

LITERARY & DEBITING SOCIETY

At the fortnightly meeting of the Wellington South Literary and Debating Society,, held in the Trinity Schoolroom last evening, the Rev. P. J. Cossum delivered an address on "The Gospo\ According to Dickens." Mr. C. M. Luke presided over an attendance of a>boul< ii% members. In the course of his addreßS the speaker stated that every great writer may be said to have had a message to bring to the people, and Dickens had his message to deliver He was not a great master of English, but he was a genius in tlie way in wliich he wrote his books. Not only that, but he had a dramatic instinct very strongly developed, and gave himself wholly up to the characters which he portrayed. The speaker referred to tho "hard times" in England during the great writer's time, and stated that Dickens's books were mostly written as a protest against the social evils, cant, and legal abuses. < His gospel was 'hat of kindliness, goodness, purity, etc. In support of his remarks, Mr. Cossum read Beveral passages from Dickens's works. At tljo conclusion the speaker was accorded a hearty vote of thanks. During the evening items were rendered as follow : —Songs, Miss Harrop and Mr. Flanagan ; recitation, Mr. F. Eyres, Miss Pilling acted as accompanist.