WAI-ITI.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVI, Issue XLV, 19 June 1911, Page 6

WAI-ITI.

LITERARY AND DEBATING SOCIETY;

(From Our Own ljul ; rl:spondent.) The vVcflii.y hieeting of the Wui-iti Literary and Debating Society wat, i'.cld in the State- Schoolroom on Thursday evening last. There was t. fair attendance. Mr Alf Citipp was voted to IhP Chair. The business of the evfening was what is ltnown as "I'iV'ture G:illti V; '' A number of pictures iii'e hung around i..e room, Thbfe present chose one on which to wVite an essay. The res-t of the x>ietures are then removed, members are then allowed 20 minutes in which to write their essays. When finished they are collected and a non-eoinpeti-tor is .chosen to read them. On this rccasion Mr Kdridge wn«t iippointed reader. There were prizes offered by tlus Soclfty, first, second, and third. The paper, s are all. nlimbered, those present awarding the marks to each a s they are read out, the maximum number for any one Weing- 20. Twelve essays were handed in. and the result ■Was as foj'o-'-t; First, Mfs T. TunniclilTe. sci'.n.d M r 1. TunniclifTe; third. Mr s .J W. Eves. The majority of the essays were good. and there was very little dilierence in the number of marks received by each. This way of spending an evening has always ,proved interesting; it is also useful from an educational point of view. At next week's meeting Mr P. Battey will give some reminiscences of the life of .Tames B. Garfield. This should also attract a full house.

Mr Arthur BourchLer has abandoned, for a time ?.,t least. the famous beard lit grew for "Henry VIII." He declares, however, that his experiences of wearing cue—so un/~->mnv>n -a thing f (W - a.iv actor —was so piecsa.nt that he will have recourse to it on the fiivt tempting onnortuinity a dramatist .may offer him. He does not yet fee*', he says, that 'he has C[u:te recovered from: the Jess the barber inflicted' on him, and if he had) time would go to sea again to grow another, and so repair the damage dc>ne to hif. comfort and a-ppearance. If Professor Tucker, the well known cccupa'.n.t cf the chair of Glassies at Mel-bourr-a. lectures to the public a® entertainingly as he writes about- hi.s experiences cm the platform, he must be uncommon;', y geed to listen to. A-it article by him in» the "Argus."' called "Concerning Po7>ular Lectures." snarkles wi.' h humorr and interest. Of all the .stories we like he„-t the one of the gentleman who moved a vote of thanks to Professor Tuckor after a lecture on, life in Athene when the -city was in its prime. The At.lien iam citizen.* of that period wore the n.cst cultivated', the most intellectiual comm'U'nity tl>->, world hos ever seen. and Professor Tucker tried hard to d.raw a- graphic and inviting picture of the tiroec?. The mover of the vote of thanks thanked the Almighty "that we a.re not as tho.e poor benighted 1 heathens of whom we have been hearing this mght." Nea.r'y as ffood is the reason given. for the poor attendance at the tlrrd of a. writs of lectures in a lar<re Victorian town. The fecretarv apolot?.isod ; a circus had' arrived. and "we so re'do-m Jiavo a circus. " Chairmen provide Professor Tucker with some excellent an'ecdote?. There was the chairman who read up the fw.bject of tho lecture, atnd talked' for a time about it—"Professor Tucker wi'-l tell us. etc., etc." It happened that none of the information thus thought fully conveyed to the -audience in. the Professor's lecture, so he obtained his revene9 vcrv nea.tlv bv commencing his lecture with : "Mr X. has dealt mo exhaustively with certain. topics that T will not venture to compete with his ilearned expo? it ion of thc.m. I ca.n onlv •rejyve that in the limited time left at mv d.iiF.nrf.nJ I shall be- the better able to develop smc-h considerations as remain." Votes of thank?'the Professor would retain as a pleasant courtesy, in ypite of the fact that thov encourage insincerity. It is nr'posfib'e to tell the truth when; one has be-ea bored bv >a lecture, and l it is rot everyone who has the Professor's cleverness in dealing with seme tiling worse than dullness. He was asked to mow a vote of thanks to a lecturer who hrd l taken all his knowledge. and a'.li his rational criticism wholesale, and. without acknowledgment, from Matthew Arnold. Professor Tucker feid': "Had it not been that Matthew Arncld'is dead, and that we are quite certain as to the identity of Mr X., w<e mrglit almost have thought that it was Matthew Arnold himself who was a ddocedne uis." &ir« of the audience t-hor-gnt this ' rather fni'siome praise, but we may lie pretty sure the lecturer did not.