Untitled

Evening Star, Issue 12928, 26 September 1906, Page 4

The fifth annual exhibition of the Dttnedin Competitions Society will The Dnnedin open next Tuesday, and it Competition*, is pleasant as •well as satisfactory to know that the hopes of the founders of the society have been so generously realised. The coming session promises to be one of the most successful in the history of the movement — not, perhaps, from the standpoint of numbers, but from the more gratifying proof it is hoped that it will afford of a distinctly higher level in the quality of the participating competitors. And this, after all, was and k the chief desire of those enthusiastic citizens who four years since, amid comparativery small encouragement from quarters where practical help was not unreasonably looked for, and the icy aloofness of the superior person, carried through the initial session of the society's programme with exceptional credit to themselves and to that section of the community on whose behalf the society was established. Since then the competitions have- become extremely popular, extending far beyond th<J borders of our own City. This year entries have been received from all parts of the Colony, and that imitation which is said to be the sineerest form of flattery has been paid the Dunedin Society. literary and musical competitiona are now a feature in the social life of other centres. With th» passage of time, also, defects have been remedied, gaps filled -up, errors avoided, and those many small details that can only be ascertained 3/, the result of personal experience carefully noted and provided for. Of the vast amount of routine work at the back Of an organisation of thisi character the outside public can. know little or nothing. All tbey see is the finished product. A moment's thought, however, will bring home to the most indifferent that only many hours of downright drudgery and teli-sacrificing effort could produce the smooth running and admirable order that we have come to look for in the conduct of the society's public arrangements. We have reason to know that in the Ihinedin Competitions Committee the competitors, their parente, their friends, and the people generally have as competent, as careful, and as able a body of citizens as can be found in control 'of similar institutions anywhere. It is therefore with some confidence that they look forward to receiving a similar meed of large-hearted sympathy and active financial aid during the 1906 session an have characterised tlrese functions in the past. The society have no funds and no certain income. Every penny they receive is returned to the successful competitors, less a small amount for the necessary expenses ; and they are wholly at the mercy of the elements and the public. Even the elements may be eliminated from consideration if the citizens make up their minds that the society shall not suffer through want of adequate support. To parents and school teachers we specially commend the work of the CompetitiQns Society. It is said that our public schools are not as enthusiastic or as helpful as they should be. There is a lack of interest, a failure to appreciate the advantages that accrue to the chilldTen in submitting themselves to the training that is essential before a boy or girl can intelligently irecite, read, sing, or play before a roomful of people. How often we have to listen without being rude to these juvenile incompetents, who, at the bidding of parental pride, are made to stand in the middle of a room and entertain us! The best cure for this sort of thing is to let children enter into the hurlyburly of a competition, where they will have to pit their wits against those of others, to learn their faults, to be reproved and instructed, and to discover—most salutary discovery ! —that there are dozens who

are better than themselves. We are glad to learn, in this connection, that next year the society propose to arrange for a juvenile demonstration on a large eoale, and we trust they will not have reason to complain of any lack of aagiatajaea from teach--ers and others. The readers and singers of the future have to be recruited from the ranks of those who have courage to enter into friendly competition with their fellows, and no better opportunity will be found than that afforded by the Dunedin Society. The musical judges have, without exception, been men of mark in their pror fession, and their opinions, properly .regarded, should prove of great benefit to competitors; whilst in that much derided, much maligned art of reading and reciting —the hardest-, ak it is the rarest, of posses-sioneM-the society, in securing the services of Air Baeyertz, have placed at the command of all and sundry one of the most hard-working, thorough, and conscientious judges it is possible to obtain. We ehail be glad to hear that more special prizes, the gifts of individual donors, are to be allotted this year than in previous years. There is, we think, room for improvement in this dkectdom. In some cities, too, it may be noted, the City Council subsidise the prize fund. Dunedin, unfortunately, seems to be in so chronic a state of impecunicsity that help in this direction cannot be looked for. We cordially commend the society and their work to the attention of our readers. ™_u_ in ""-sag