LAN McLAREN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 307, 29 October 1910, Page 5

LAN McLAREN.

Lecture ir\ Te Kuiti

On Tuesday night 'he Rev. Isaac ; Jolly, M.A., lectured in the Town Hall Te Kuiti, to a very fair audience (eon- j sidering the weather), on lan Mc- : Laren: Stories in Scottish Life and j Character. The Rev. W. Woollass, of j Te Awamutu, presided, and in intro- ; duciug the lecturer as the Moderator , cf the Presbyterian Church in New Zealand, said that they were very glad ; to find their friends so loyally consist- , out in their support of the Pre shy te- ' { rian Church in Te Kuili. A new , church was to he ereetcd shortly. 1c '■ was simply impossible, to carry on the ; work under present conditions, and he sympathised with any man who tried j to work mi lor them. They were not there in a spirit of rivalry with any church, but solely <; > heip the people, those who attended no church and to care for their own people, in the town. Mr Jolly paid there had been a revival of"the Scottish school of distinct interest in the history of our literature. First came Barrio, with "A Window in Thrums"; then Crockett, who wrote "The Stickit Minister"; and lastly they had lan McLaren, who had made a considerable impression en the English-speaking world by his keen studios of Scottish character and by his truth of portraiture had won his way to the heart of the English-speaking ™ec> in England, America, and the Colonies. He did not claim [an McLaren produced work of the highest rank--and he was not comparing him with Shakespeare or Scott. But when we read McLaren's stories, we seemed to know his people as if we had met and loved them. McLaren's work was intensely human. Of the author the lecturer said his real name was the Rev. John Watson. He was born in Stirlingshire and educated at Edinburgh gaining his M.A. there. He was ordained a minister and had a church in Ferthssbire —the most beautiful county in his Majesty's dominions, said the speaker'—"l was born there myself" --McLaren did not write prematurely and it was P>r Robertson Nichol, editor of the "British Weekly," who first led him to write for that religious and literary weekly. There was much wonder as to who the new writer was, and an old friend of Watson's, Dr Geo. Patrick Smith, fancying lie traced his friends' hand in the sketches wired him "Well done: lan McLaren." Dr Watson . replied, "Well done: Higher Criticism," the reference being to the work his friend engaged on and famous for. "Beside the. Bonnie Brier Bush" and "In the Days of Aula Lang Syne" were the be si of his works. McLaren had given us pictures of Scottish peasants of striking individuality, and he, above all. admitted true Christian character. The Scottish type was literary, artistic and patriotic and keen in the interests of education as evidenced by the parish schools of Scotland, which had contributed to making Scotland, two generations ago, the mo-t intellectual country in Europe. Sir Robert Stout, New Zealand's Chief Justice, had once said that the only school he ever attended was the parish school. Another of McLaren's types was the village schoolmaster. He was often a gifted teacher, one perhaps not cut out for the ministry, and who appreciated the clever hoy, and was bent on making him a genius. That was why Scotland had provided such a large number of eminent men in every walk of life. We had read of fathers and mothers pinching themselves for the clever lad of the "family, anil the lecturer mentioned James White Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform, as an example. His father was a labouring man. and look with admiration on his son with his "big brain box," as he termed it. The mothers of most of these lads honed to see them some day "wagging their heads in the pulpit. He identified Professor Black, of Otago University, wtih one of the characters painted by McLaren. The church like the parish school, had a deep place in the life of the people. The church stood for liberty and for an educated ministry. McLaren knew the. Scottish church better than anything else. The men and women of Scotland depicted liv McLaren were usually serious. The climate had its effect on them. Life was a struggle. They had no eight hours day and few holidays and few luxuries. Above all they were a religious people and had something of gloom in their make-up aiong wtih a strong sense of humour. The lecturer told the story of the would-be lover, who took his intended to the graveyard, where generations of his forbears lay, and said to her, "All my folk lie there. Would ye like to lie there?" He hardly quoted it as a typical way of popping the question, but it illustrated one type of character. Scottish humour had nothing in common with Irish or English humour. It was quiet. Max O'Roll said the Scotch were artists in humour and always laughed at the right place. A Scotsman's feelings were intense hut not on the surface. This repression arose through a fear that sacred things might become a matter for joking. He"had a reluctance to show strong feeling as was illustrated in the old

"Hut >h,\l> mo a look o' your bonaie Mack oon 'Hut louk a:- if you v,< re not looking Tli..' U-iM.'irrr, who read 0.-imuplo:' [ruin lan M'H;m oi;'; ; hook?, i-oneliuU d by a hopo that thiu Uritain o'i' 1 !:<. iiiuitlvvii !>a. : : rnipht ro;u ;:i '.'P ;.!!.,•! -\ ;.;/•('!! f !V!)!t ill (. IP.'i. ; t i'ill ill.'' IK' ' to-' and with a love I'or litoi'iiUnv ami mU'llooUnil pursuits.