ROTARY CLUB.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 232, 31 August 1937, Page 9

ROTARY CLUB.

ADDRESS BY MR 0. N. GILLESPIE.

“The Serious Need for a Little More Flippancy” was the unusual subject chosen by Mr 0. N. Gillespie, the New Zealand author, m an address to the Palmerston North Rotary Club at its weekly luncheon, held yesterday. Mr A. A.‘ Langley (the. president) was in the chair, and there was a good attendance of local Rotarians, together with the following visitors: Rev. L. M. Rodgers (Christchurch), Messrs L. Lovcday and A. Sutherland (Palmerston North) and Mr F. T. Vaughan (Wellington). Although one might think the title of Iris address to bo ridiculously selfcontradictory, said Mr Gillespie, it had to he borne cn mind that it was all right to be smug about things that did not matter much, but when politicians introduced solemnity into everyday life, things were getting pretty bad. There were risks in a more flippant attitude, but not so many as in that of ordering people about. About 3000 years ago on a European peninsula, a race of herdsmen had invented a new thing. The people were the Greeks and what they had discovered was democracy, which, added the speaker, was In rather a mess to-day. The Greeks had been candid in their criticism of plays and politics alike. It was the enforcement of authority that was the ugly thing in life, and the most obnoxious form of authority was to bo found in the realms of music and painting. The speaker dealt with the political attitude of the times, education, and entertainment, and went on to deal at length with the psychological effect of the enforcement of authority in Germany. “Take care of your own minds,” the speaker advised, “and suspect every statement made by anyone in authority.”