THE RET. H.R. HAWEIS AT THE CITY HALL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2164, 15 August 1895, Page 37

THE RET. H. R. HAWEIS AT THE CITY HALL.

" Garibaldi."

The Rev. H. R. Haweis lectured at the City Hall on Thursday night on " Garibaldi," there being a very fair attendance upon the occasion despite the wretched weather. The lecture occupied over two hours in delivery, and appeared to be greatly enjoyed by the audience, who not only give way to loud outbursts of applause at intervals, but were al;o frequently moved to laughter by the humour of the lecturer. Mr Haweis gave an account of the Italian revolution of 186G and some of the stirring incidents that led up to that memorable event. He commenced by pointing out that the revolution was the work of that extraordinary band of patriots — Garibaldi, Mazzini, Victor Emmanuel, and Cavour. He had. seen all of these except Mazzini, whom he characterised as the greatest of them all. They were always at loggerheads with one another, and yet each one, he said, wag indispensable to the accomplishment of the great work they all had at heart. The people of this colony had no notion of what bad government really was ; and the lecturer contrasted the extraordinary amount of liberty that we possessed in New Zealand with the Btate of the people of Italy before the revolution, when a man might be taken out of his bed at night, stuck up against a wall and shot, without his knowing the reason why. This was the kind of thing that inflamed the imagination of Mazzini, and was overturned by him and his co-patriots. The lecturer alluded in a humorous way to a romantic episode in Garibaldi's life, when the great patriot, on meeting for the first time a woman with whom he had fallen in love, "greeted her by saying " Thou shotild'st be mine." The terrible siege of Rome, in 1848, was touched upon as well aa the various engagements in which Garibaldi afterwards took part up to the time of hisentry into Naples, when he rode in a carriage right up to the mouth of the cannons directed against him, and achieved a bloodless victory, the soldiers, who had received the command to fire at his approach, throwing up their caps and shouting with wild enthusiasm, " Viva, Garibaldi ! " The lecturer concluded by referring to »om» of the persooal traits

of Garibaldi, who, he said, was regarded as something divine by most of the degraded Neapolitan population.' The great patriot did uot care for money ; he did not care even for fame ; he did not care for his own life. He loved his country better than his life, and seemed above all sordid aims. During the evening Mr Haweis played " Garibaldi's byrnn " as a violin solo, in a masterly manner, the stirring strains of the music eliciting from the audience a warm outburst of applause.

"Violin Makers and Violin Platers."

The Rev. H. R. Haweis's Qnal lecture in Dunedin was given in the City Hall on Friday evening in the presence of a fairly numerous audience. The lecture was of especial interest to musicians in general and to violinists in particular, inasmuch as it dealt with violin makers and violin players. It would be difficult to convey in a limited space an adequate idea of Mr Haweis's discourse, for, as he himself sta f ed, the subject is a wide one, and the difficulty that presented itself in order that it might be brought within a reasonable compass was not what to say, but what to leave unsaid. Evidently the subject is a favourite one with Mr Haweis, and it is at once apparent that he is not only brimiul of information upon it, bub that in his ramblings about Europe he has visited the birthplace* of famous violin makers, and witnessed the scenes of the triumphs of many great artist*. ' His skill as a player, moreover, enables him to illustrate his remarks, not on'y when dealing with the qualities of the instrument itself, but in speaking of the peculiar traits in the playing of noted performers, and the marvellous effects they produced. Mr Haweis spoke at length of the wonderful skill in the art of violin ' making achieved by Atnati aad Stradivariu*, as for many years they assiduously worked at their catliug in their little shopsin the Squareof Siu Dominica in the City of Cremona, and who realised and united in their work the three great principles of sensibility, sweetness, and power constituting the perfect violin. Theoe priceless gems of art mostly found their way to cathedrals and monasteries ; but an Italian carpenter, by the exercise of no little ingenuity, managed to at cure a gr«at number and disposed of them in Paris. After making detailed reference to the construction of the Amati and Stradivariu» violins, Mr Haweis stated that a locally made instrument had been placed in his hands. He had forgotten the name of the enterprising maker, but it may be mentioned that his name was Mr J. Lee. The lecturer expressed his gratification and surprise at witnessing the product of a New Zealand nuker. It showed, he added, amidst Uughter aad applau> c, that the country had taken time by the forelook, and if not a little too previous was quite "up to date." The violin he had in his hand had an agreeable tone, and was very creditable to New Zealand. Of course the Now Zealand school, said Mr Hawaii, with renewed laughter from the audience, could not quite attain the standard of the Cremona school, but it wa3 on the road. The speaker then went on to speak of noted violinists, and especially singled out Paganini, who transformed the art of violin playing, and whose performances everywhere astounded and impired with enthusiasm his listeners.

August 9.