DUNEDIN BURNS CLUB.

Otago Witness, Issue 2412, 24 May 1900, Page 8

DUNEDIN BURNS CLUB.

The monthly meeting of the Dunedin Burns Club, held m the Choial Hal 1 , on the 16th, was very largely attended, despite the wet weather. A very enjoyable programme of musical selections, interspersed with recitations and addiesses, was gone thiough, and so delighted | were the audience with the performers that not a single one escaped an encore. After a ! brief address by Dr Gordon Macdonald, who I occupied the chair, the choir, under the con- ! ducior&hip of Mr W. E. Don, sang '" Draw the j sword, Scotland with much acceptance. "0, I open the door, ' and "' Hurrah for the land " \ Viere also contributed by them during the course ■ of the evening, both these selections, like the first-mentioned, being highly appreciated. Mr J. Maekay sang a couple of descriptive songs, | Mrs D. H. Thomson - The Scottish blue bella " ' afid " lioch Lomond,'' Mr A. Wright " Morag's ! fairy glen ' and " Mary of Argyle," Mrs H. S. [ Valentine " "We're a'noddin' ' and another solo, and Mr J. Jago " Scotland yet," the second j named songs by each of the singers being eni cere numbers. The Dunedin Meistersingers, | under the direction of Herr Paul Sonderhof, sang "Ye banks and braes, ' and being vociferously recalled, favoured the audience with j " Far away over there." A flute solo by Mr ' Stewart, and a recitation by MI3S Allen, weie ; received in the same way as the other contributions had been. During the evening Mr J. J. Ramsay gave an address on '' Patriotism," taking as his text, " A man's a man for a' chat." In concluding he said : I had thought to speak of what Burns had done for patriotism. Wo ktiow that perhaps in no country in the world is there a deeper or warmer love of country than in Scotland; and woven with that 10-\ c of Scotia's hearthery hills is an admiration of Burns that is founded, on the fact that he wrote concerning the life of Scotland just as it was. He appealed to the heart's of his fellow men because he voiced the feeling 3 and aspirations of the people. He elevated Lodden Grey into a rival position with broadcloth, and he voiceel that desire for freedom which has grown and spread to all corners of the earth. I think it was Mr J. J3. Thomson who told us some years ago that ho once hea-rd Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, say that Burns' " was a world's poet." And one thing is true, that in Burns's poem " A Man's a Man for a' That " we have every sentiment expressed that is necessary to make mankind free. And the spirit of freedom which Burns wrote and sang abcut has permeated these colonies and found expression in our laws and customs; and although we still have even our false snobbery oncl upper ten select circles, it will generally be found that those who ape the "birkie" are people of little brain and heavy purse, and not, as a rule, Ihe men who mould our destinies. Tt was to this spirit of freedom that we owed the spontaneous burst of patriotism which was witnessed in Dunedin when our contingents departed. It was that spirit which caused our young men to leave home and kindred, and volunteer for service in the Transvaal. It is in 'pursuance of that love of freedom that they are now opposing the tyrannical oppression of the Boers, and the lesson that Great Britain is teaching the world is that the spirit of freedom contained in the text " A man's a man for a' that " is such that eventually the whole civilised world must and shall adopt it. — (Applause.)