NORMANBY

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 26 May 1932, Page 7

NORMANBY

FOOTBALL CLUB. ' (From Our Own Correspondent). On Monday evening a meeting was held by the football enthusiasts in order to form a club, and make preparation for the coming season of IV ednesday football. There was an attendance of about 20, Mr. H. D. Hughes presiding. The following officers were elected: Patron, Mr. C. A. Wilkinson, M.P.: president, Mr. C. J, Preston; vicepresidents,' Messrs AY. T. Hair, J. Hickey, T. J. Hurley, A. Galloway, G. Galloway, F. Pidgeon, AY. Palmer, H. Mullholland, D. J. Hughes, J. HoweGiles, A. H. Hills, J. Forbes, T. Corrigan, J. Minnhinnick, I. H. Jacks. B. O. Gibson and P. Linn; executive committee, Messrs J. Minnhinnick, J. Hickey, H. AYaitai, B. Hughes, P. AVhaka, H. Thomas and H. D. Hughes; delegates to Wednesday Association, Messrs J. Hickey and C. J. Preston; selector, Mr. J. Hickey; coaches, Messrs J. Hickey, A. Preston, and T. Hickey; secretary and treasurer, Mr. I. H. Jacks; auditor, Mr. H. D. Hughes; dance committee, Messrs L. Franklyn, H. Thomas, P. AYliaka, J. Haddon, W. O’Oorrall, T. Hickev, B. Hughes, A. Preston, J. AValden and J. Magill, with Mr. Preston as cove nor; club captain, Mr. H. T. i Thomas; field captain, Mr. B. Hughes. It was decided to hold a dance at a date to be arranged by the commitEach player is to be urged to insure j under the Taranaki Rugby Union s policy and an endeavour is to be made to collect prior to the next match. Mr. J. Hickey’s offer to arrange conveyance to the match at Ohangai was accepted with thanks. Mr. J. Minnhinnick was accorsdeti a vote of thanks for dying the jerseys.

THE ART OF MAGIC. LECTURE AND DEMONSTRATION. At the social hall of the Normanby Presbyterian Church on Wednesday night" Mr. E. K. Cameron, of .Hawera, entertained a large and attentive audience to a lecture and demonstration on the art of magic. In prefacing his talk Mr. Cameron said that magic was a hobby and to ; every person a hobby of any kind y as. something very precious, as m a hobby a. person obtained that recreation so much needed during the ordinary stress and strain of life. Throughout the ages men had many and varied hobbies, in many cases these being very far removed from tbe walks of life. He quoted examples where professional men had .for hobbies such interests as building model trains and engines, and other occupations involving manual labour. Be himself had always been interested in the study oi magic and he, assured his audience that there was great pleasure to be derived from the study and successful prformance of these various tricks and sleight of hand. To the amateur the difficulty was to procure the necessary properties to assist the illusion, and also to obtain the time for practice in order to reach proficiency. The professionals, who often gave as many as three performances a day, had all accessories neessarv for their success and with such couldj make even a simple task appear as quite miraculous. Throughout the world’s history the working of marvels and the practice of magic had played an important part. earli<jsi> times, supeniuturcii 01 diabolical powers had often been attributed to these seeming mysteries and among sayage races in particular, magic had existed in conjunction with religious powers. There was in olden days, almost an universal belief m “white” and “black” magic, the former being more or less innocence, but the latter the result of diabolical powers. . -. ~ The old practice of sorcery and the practice of conjuring began to take the place of ancient magic during the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, until in the dawn of the eighteenth century -conjuring began t-o rise to the dignity of a stage performance, and magic began to be shorn of a lot of its charlatonism. . In magic there was a certain amount of sleight-of-hand and an equal amount of deception. The public was most gullible and it was a known fact that it was mudi ha-rde.r to deceive an audience of children than one of adults. Conjurers all admitted that their best tricks were generally downright takedowns. The art of performing tricks to deceive the observer was ofteu assisted by the use of apparatus and such tricks as fire eating, sword swallowing, etc., were a £Ollll of trickery. Great ad-, van-cement h.ad been made in modern magic by the utilisation of science, electricity, for instance, making many tricks passible-. The great illusions were not so great, however, as the small sleight-of-hand. Quickness of the hand, deceiving the eye was the old method, but magic now relied on many elaborate meqns through modem methods to achieve its ends. Robert Houdin divided magic into feats of dexterity, quickness of hand, and illusion. There were experiments in natural magic, derived from science and devices of mental tricks, such as pretended memorism, second sight and clairvoyance. There was spiritualism or pretended communications with spirits, and table rapping. On the subject of spiritualism Mas-cal-in challenged Miss Mary Beyant and

produced so-called spiritualistic phenomena by the aid of the magic art alone. The American Society of Magicians challenged and .exposed many fake mediums and the mediums in their turn gave away many of the secrets of magicians.

The mental iste, as they were known to-day, were getting a great hearing in America* and all over the world. Anglo Lei I ,vs, an amateur, wrote one of the greatest modern works on magic, this work being of great assistance to amateur performers. The works, of Dr. Evans were also mentioned in this connection and Mr Cameron stated that some of these magicians used fictitious names, as in the case of one who was a barrister, the publication of his hobby would not be of assistance in his business.

The element of delight in a magical performance could not be measured by the fascination of the audience, there was a distinct delight to the performer. The advent of the “talkies” gave a temporary setback to the stage performance of magic, but there had nowbeen found ways and means of giving entertainments' 1 even by radio and gramophone records. In fact the speaker said he bad received a . record only recently giving such a demonstration.

It was not generally known that the Prince of Wales was a keen amateur magician and spent quite a lot of time practising. All walks iQtf life were interested in the performance of magical feats and in the drawing room and on the stage illusion, coin tricks, handkerchief and card tricks were always popular. Ai performer was never at a loss if he had a paey of cards to hand as the tricks with these were innumerable.

Mr Oameron then amused the gathering with numerous tricks, and as the Rev. J. Watson said in thanking Mr Cameron for his attendance, the audience, although highly delighted at the instructive address and demonstration, wais ais far as the tricks went no wiser than When the demonstration started. Mr J. A. Archbold also added his tribute to Mr Cameron’s skill and the gathering joined in a hearty vote of thanks.