SIR HARRY LAUDER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23130, 4 March 1937, Page 10

SIR HARRY LAUDER

FOURTH VISIT TO DOMINION AN ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION The visit of Sir Harry Lauder—his fourth to New Zealand—is a reminder of the force of personality. This sturdy Scot was born with no silver spoon in his mouth. He commenced work at eight years of age, picking fruit in the autumn, and at 12 was working in the coal mines of Scotland, with no outlook save a life of grimy toil. Then, as he developed, he found that he could sing a bit; then he found himself composing little melodies and stringing words to them. He sang them, and the people liked them. He sang at Band of Hope meetings, and temperance " bursts," and eventually he became a music hall performer, soon rising to the " top of the bill" and world celebrity. Sir Harry's arrival at Wellington was something in the nature of a mild national triumph. He was met on the Awatea by Mr R. H. Nimmo and Sir y James Elliott, amongst others, arid a special welcome had been arranged by the Scots community in one of the wharf sheds. He was piped there on disembarkation by a band in charge of Pipemajor J. M'Callum, being greeted vociferously en route by fellow countrymen. Taking the platform before a crowd of some 200, it was some time before he escaped the

handshakes of many countrywomen, the general appreciation of his perfect health, in spite of his 67 years, being "Ye are as guid as ever." With his personality as magnetic as at any time, enhanced by the national dress, it was clear (says a Wellington paper) that Lauder's popularity if anything increases with the years. ACTIVITY ON THE CLYDE "It is not now distasteful or discomforting to take a walk, through the industrial parts of Glasgow," said Sir Harry in an interview. "After six or seven years of very hard times, of cruel idleness and semistarvation, they are, thank God, back to the hammers and the rivets again. Glasgow is beginning to look like her old bonnie self. Aye, thanks to the Government's timely rearmament scheme and the natural emergence of trade and commerce from the slough of the depression, we are building ships—to create peace, not war. "We hate warl" Sir Harry continued. "We know what war is—it is hell; and we build for peace so that there will, we hope and pray, never be another hell like that of 1914-18. " What do you see when you walk about Govan and Parkhead nowadays? " asked Sir Harry,' "Well, at least the people are better dressed and better fed, and there is a happiness of expression on the faces of the people, born of hope and better times. Mind ye, they had a bad time, a bad time. "I have been seeing th« same thing in Australia," said Sir Harry. "It was a tonic to come out even if it were only to catch the energising effect of the golden sunshine; and the sunshine that one catches in the smiling, happy |aces of the people over yon. There is without doubt great prosperity in Australia, and the air of it has been transferred to most of the people I met. It was, at all events, the best of evidence that they are getting out of the muddle. "Let us think good of ourselves," said Sir Harry. "As Robert Louis Stevenson said once, 'A man who does not think much of himself is usually right.' Now, we don't want to brag, but it is good to have a guid conceit of oneself, and I think the same spirit nationally helps. Mind ye, I saw the same thing here in the faces of your folk as I came down the gangway this morning. The people looked so happy and well dressed—you can usually tell the condition of a country by the way people look and how they dress—and I said to myself 'New Zealand's all right again.' Anyhow it is worth coming all this way to get a helping of this sunshine." A LAST FAREWELL TOUR

Asked whether he intended to visit the country professionally again, Sir Harry said his health had been so mightily improved by his visit to Australia that in all probability he would make another professional tour of Australia and New Zealand next year. That would be his last farewell tour, he commented with a twinkle of the eye. He would not say; however, that it would be his last visit to these countries, for deep down in his bosom he had a great love for both New Zealand and Australia where he had so many dear friends and the sunny skies were reflected in everyone's face. Incidentally, Sir Harry mentioned that his old friend, Mr Donald Macdonald, had come all the way up from the south to meet him, and right glad he had been to see him once more, this fine man of Edendale, in whose company he had spent so many delightful hours. Another old friend with whom he desired to renew acquaintance as soon as possible was Mr John Smith, of Invercargill. LITTLE AUDREY AND THE DENTIST. SHE WASN'T SCARED. "I suppose you are scared of every dentist you see," a dentist friend asked Audrey. But little Audrey just laughed and laughed because she knew that by using Q-TOL Toothpaste regularly she was saving herself from any trouble with her teeth. Q-TOL Tooth Paste not only polishes the teeth to sparkling whiteness, but also protects the precious enamel, penetrates to the danger points between the teeth, and actually prevents decay. It's 'a gum tonic, too. Stimulates and strengthens the gums—essential for sound, strong teeth. Delightfully refreshing, too. Economy tube, Is 3d. Advt.