SONG-LECTURE AT HERBERT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10515, 25 July 1910, Page 2

SONG-LECTURE AT HERBERT.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) The song lecture, ''Burns," delivered j by Rev. P. C. Reunie on Friday night, in aid of the Manse debt extinction fund, was a notable success. The hall was crowded with an audience that was not slow in making its appreciation of the quotations used in illustrating the various phases in the life of the great poet and the aptness of expression in his delineations of Scottish peasant life. The lecturer showed that Burns restored to. Scottish life and literature the sentiment of nationalism; that his sympathies were singularly broad and extended not only to iiniversal mankind and to the animal kingdom, but also to the devil, for whose — Aula Clootie's salvation —he expresses hope. Mr Reunie is an enthusiastic Scotsman and an ardent lover of Burns, and in his concluding sentences lie displayed a power of oratory that stirred his Scottish hearers and made them feel proud-to belong to the. "Land of brown heath and. shaggy wood, Land of the mountain and the flood.'' Even those who were not so fortunate as to claim Auld Scotia's "rugged strand" for their own, were convinced that Burns' universality made him equally theirs, and \ "That man to man the warld oe'r, Shall brithers be for a' that." • Mr Rennie's lecture was given under the following heads: —Introduction; the poet's humor; his ijathos; his homeness; his emotion; his pensiveness; I liis patriotism; his descriptiveness; his tenderness; his independence; his humaneness. Each head was followed by. an appropriate song. Mrs Kelly (Weston) gave very artistic renderings of "Afton Water" and "Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes." For these she was recalled and delighted the audience with her rendering of "Gin a Body" and "My Heart is Sair." Captain Marshall sang very feelingly "My Manuie's Awa'," and put a good deal of verve into "Green Grow the Rashes." In response to encores he contributed "Craigielea" and "John Grumlie." Mrs J. A. Ross (Dairy) recited in her characteristic way "The Cottar's Saturday Night," and Mr Rennie's rendering of "Man was Made to Mourn" was very impressive. The choir's contributions to the entertainment —"There was a Lad," "Duncan Gray," "Bonnie Doon," "A Man's a Man for a' that," "Scots wha hae," and ' "Auld Lang Syne"—were effectively rendered, and merited the hearty applause bestowed on them. Miss Drakley (organ) and Miss Winnie Diehl (piano) made efficient accompanists during the evening, while Mr J. Fleming conducted. Mr Alex. Forbes moved a, hearty vote of thanks to Mrs Kelly, Captain Marshall, Mr Rennie, the choir, and others who had assisted, and this was carried by acclamation. After the entertainment the singers and friends from a distance were very hospitably, entertained to light refreshments by some ladies of the congregation.