HIGHLAND SOCIETY OF SOUTHLAND.

Southern Cross, Volume 9, Issue 23, 7 September 1901, Page 12

HIGHLAND SOCIETY OF SOUTHLAND.

ANNUAL GATHERING. The social re-anion of last Friday (30th alt ) was, by general consent, one of the most enjoyable of these annual events. Ashley s ilall was filled to the doors, and a programme which occupied over three hours went off with gusto from start to finish. The Pipe Band, whose repute is now endorsed, not only throughout the colony, but beyond the Tasman Sea as well, opened and closed the concert with selections, which won the unstinted appreciation of the many present, to whom pibroch is a neverfailing joy. Bard McArthur’s Gaelic songs woke old associations, and voices from every part of the room were fain to swell the remembered chorus of other days. Mrs Fraser’s humorous reading, and Miss D. McKay’s beautiful song likewise, gave much pleasure to all who could follow their clearly uttered Gaelic. The Gaelic element also included an address from Mr John McDonald, delegate from Palmerston, who gracefully thanked the Pipe Band for attending at the late Sir John McKenzie’s funeral, and paid an affectionate tribute to the departed chief. Songs by Mrs Blue, Miss Smith, Messrs Branson, Irving, and Wright, were all in the best style of these approved singers, and were duly appreciated, as were also the violin fantasia by Mr Ferguson and Mrs Stewart-Irving’s pianoforte selection.. Among the speeches, which were a prominent feature,that of Chief McKeilar, who occupied the chair, - proved interesting. Having read a budget of complimentary telegrams from well-wishers of the Society, including cordial messages from the Premier and Sir J. G. Ward, he proceeded to give a succinct account of the Ossianic poems from which the Society’s motto —‘ Cleave closely to the fame of your ancestors’ is taken. He contrasted the unselfish chivalry and the ingenuous frankness of Ossian’s heroes with the more mistrustful, self - regarding spirit marking the life depicted by poets of a later, more complex civilization. Referring to the difficulties of Gaelic maintaining its own as a spoken language, he mentioned hopefully the revival of its tuition in primary schools of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Ho longer ago than his own school - days British educational authorities tabooed the language as a hindrance to the acquirement of knowledge and an encumbrance to success m practical affairs. He recalled an occasion when the tawse was diligently applied to him at school for using his mother-tongue in the playground. In closing, he pronounced a brief eulogy on the late Sir John McKenzie, a cairn to whose memory is about to be erected. .Highlanders and friends of the honoured statesman in Southland would shortly have an opportunity of aiding in the erection of a worthy monument. Addresses from the Mayor (Mr Longuet) and Messrs McPherson and McLennan, delegates from kindred societies in Dunedin, were models of point and brevity. Father O’Neill, of Milton, made a stirring oration. He has a ready flow of choice expression and an impassioned delivery, enhanced by a fine presence and proficiency in the rhetoric art. He knows, too, how to appeal to men of his race, and so he fairly set alight the half-dead patriotic enthusiasm of Celts from both sides the Irish Sea. He told how the native language had been condemned and derided under an Anglicising policy which had dominated Ireland -—the cradle of the Celtic race, original home of the language, and primal source of those racial characteristics which made the Celt a nobis element in whatever other nationality he had been absorbed. Because of the overbearing treatment mated out to a people regarded as conquered, because of the attempt to crush the spirit of independent self-respect and

the pride in their traditions, Ireland s sons had been exiled to many parts of the earth, and many of the best Scottish Celts had left their native glens to return to ‘ Lochaber no more. A tardy admission of the fatal error of that policy was bow_ coming. The Government was fostering from its revenue the growth of a language once, in disdainful ignorance, classed as barbaric, but now recognised as afit medium for exalted thought and lofty sentiment; as a tieasure to every true Celt more desirable than the "oft forced and spurious culture of the dead languages. This reversal of former measures meant that it was now recognised that it was suicidal to national unity and power to rob the Celt of his own cheiished heritages of tlie past, which were embodied in a language in itself worthy of being kept alive. Mr Mehalley and the Yery Rev. Dean Burke had chosen closely related topics, a fact which added interest to their addresses. ‘ Highland Humour ’ and ‘ Celtic Wit ’ opened up rare fields for entertaining and racy treatment. Both gentlemen are excellent raconteurs , and, when they illustrated various phases of wit and humour with telling examples, they simply had to stand and wait while the audience let itself go in bursts of laughter. Good music from the band led by Mesdames Wood and Blue, and occasionally from the pipes, set the bail going with a swing, and put mettle into the heels of the dancfers. Spectators sitting by the wall or looking from the doorways were gladdened by the hilarity ; and grave reflective faces of older folk lit up, mayhap with recollections of good old times. Hot all the veterans, however, stopped at recollections. Some of them in the opening Highland reel cast off the staidness of maturity, and seemed to cancel a couple of decades in the zest and abandon with which they footed this ancient dance. The indispensable Kingsland firm fortified the company with eatables and potables of the best. The chief praise for the success of the 1901 gathering undoubtedly rests with the zealous and tireless secretary, Mr K. Cameron.