A VETERAN JOURNALIST

Evening Star, Issue 15065, 23 December 1912, Page 9

A VETERAN JOURNALIST

AFTER FIFTY YEARS,

[Special to the Stab.]

AUCKLAND, December 21

A unique function, probably the first of its kind in the Dominion, took place at the 'Star' Hotel yesterday afternoon, when members of the literary staffs of the Brett Publishing Company entertained one of the proprietors (Mr T. W. Leys), the occasion marking Mr Leys's entrance into his fiftieth year as a journalist. Mr A..S. Reid, sub-editor of the Auckland ' Star,' presided, and in proposing the toast of the guest paid a tribute to the sterling qualities possessed by Mr Leys, not only as a journalist, but as a citizen. The toast was supported by Mr Hayward (editor of the 'New Zealand Farmer'). Mr Carpenter (editor of the 'New Zealand Graphic'), and Mr Doidge (chairman of the local branch, of the New Zealand Journalists' Association). Mr Leys, in responding, said that half a century's active newspaper life was certainly something to look back upon. Ho dwelt interestingly on the history of journalism in Auckland in "tho early sixties, when, as a boy still in his teens, ho joined the 'Southern Cross.' The speaker concluded with some useful advice to young Pressmen to realise the' responsibility of their work, to remember what was" expected of them in providing thousands of people with their daily reading matter, j and to aim at tho achievement of the highest traditions of journalism. - Mr Leys was presented with an enlargement of a croup photograph of the literary staffs of' the °Siaiu' ' Graphic,' aj:d ' Farmer.'

THEQSOPHICAL SOCIETY

Mr D. WV M. Burn, M.A., delivered an address in tho Theosophical Society's Rooms last evening entitled 'The Salt of the earth.' He pointed out that the Sermon on the Mount was the teaching given by the Christ to His disciples "in the house," or " on the mount," technical terms in all tlm world mysteries signifying a super-physical state above the warring vibrations of the physical, emotional, and concrete thought worlds. To those who believed in reincarnation any religion which was to be of practical and" lasting use to man must have food for the babe, for the youth, and also for the sage of humanity. Tho great teachings of the Christ were for all. To the multitude He spoke in parables, but for His disciples there was the inner interpretation. The Sermon on the Mount was a mystic document, the reflection in earth language of teachings given on superphysical planes. . . . The disciples were those- who had passed through the normal life of man into the supernormal, and were treading the ancient narrow way—those who had realised their own divinity, and therefore could show forth more clearly tho Light of Christ, the Light which lighteth every man wdio. cometh into the world. For all shared the Ono Life: all were divine, but through those whose lives were based on the knowledge of this fundamental truth the light of God shone as it could not shine through the less perfected souls of ordinary men. To such we owed a great debt. What they had done we could do. It was well to recognise our debt to the great men of the world—be they saints or scientists—our debt to those noble souls who were pressing steadily forward towards some grand ideal.

"Aunt Martha spends all day hiding her silver in 50 different pfaces to defeat .the burglars she is perfectly sine are coming here." " Goodness!" "' And she spends all night hunting for it and gathering it into one pile in. case of fire." At Pa lbs, in Spain, some old account books have bean discovered among the town archives, from which it is possible to compute the expenditure of Christopher Columbus on the expeditions which' resulted in the discovery of America, The fleet of three ships "cost approximately £628.' For the officers' stores £BO suffice. The men -were paid 6s a day,, but had to find their' own food and drink. This works out to a total of about £I,OOO, to which there- has to be added about £6OO for guns and. munitions of war. Altogether, therefore, ■ the' cost of discovering America was £1,600.