Peria.

Northland Age, Volume 2, Issue 46, 19 June 1906, Page 5

Peria.

(From our own Correspondent.) A meeting was held in the Oruru School on Saturday evening last to consider the forming of a Debating Society. Although the meeting was not significant in point of numbers, it was fairly representative. Mr. White waß voted to the chair, and concisely enumerated the benefits which should accrue from a debating society. It was eventually decided to form a society and Mr. White was elected president with Mr. Arthur Lambly as vice-president and Mr. Jno. Garton as secretary and treasurer. A committee of management has yet to be elected. A ladies’ committee, for the purpose of providing social programmes, was formed, consisting of Mesdames Berry, A. Garton, J. Garton, White, and Misses Lambly, Wilkinson and A. Thomas. It was decided to hold the meetings fortnighthy

for a session of three months. The membership fee was fixed at 2/6 for gentlemen and ladies 1/6. It was further arranged that the first meeting of the Society be held in the Oruru School on Saturday evening, 30th instant. The programme will consist of an address by the president on the “Advantages of a Debating Society ”; impromptu papers will also form part of the evening’s entertainment and the ladies will have a social programme prepared. It was thought advisable, seeing that tko winter evenings are cold, to provide fuel for a fire during the meetings, and it was further decided that a little light refreshment be provided at the termination of each meeting in the shape of a cup of coffee and a sandwich, etc. Intending members will kindly note that it would prove a great boon if they will bring along a few eatables and say a few cups. At the conclusion of the first meeting a committee will arrange the syllabus for the session ; this will be printed as soon as possible and each member will be entitled to one. I would again ask the friends to think out any subjects that in their opinion would be suitable for debate. The news of the sudden death of Mi*. Seddon came as a great shock to us here as no doubt it did to New Zealand, and indeed to lands beyond the seas, for our late Premier was widely known and recognised as one of the strong men of the world. ' His greatest opponent could never accuse him of apathy, and in the writer’s humble opinion his ideas and politics were sincere, and although some of Lis measures may have displeased many, no public man is free from drastic criticism at times. Yet in my opinion if a man acts as he deems it best, that man is not far wrong. It is not my intention to write a panegyric of our late Premier, as this column is not set aside for articles of this kind, but I should deem it kindest to handle his name kindly. A writer says somewhere : “ Oh, the grave! the grave ! It buries every error—covers every defect—extinguishes every resentment.” Another writer says when writing of a great man who had ‘ gone over the border ’ —“ May tbe earth lie light on his bosom.” I think we might say the same of Mr. Seddon.

The weather has been a decided mixture of sunshine and shower dining the past week; the nights have been clear and frosty, and last Monday morning the frost lay thick and white over the landscape. Still, I think few will complain of the weather for June.