THE VIRTUE OF EXAMPLE.

Southland Times, Issue 19281, 27 June 1924, Page 4

THE VIRTUE OF EXAMPLE.

The Invercargill Competitions Society is to be congratulated on its perspicacity as well as its enterprise in 'bringing to this town such a talented orator and elocutionist. as Professor J. C. Newlands, who comes here with an impressive reputation from New College, Edinburgh. There is no better way of wakening into life a love for the great literature of our language< than to have it presented through the art of the elocutionist. Poetry, it has been said, reaches its fullness of beauty when it is adequately spoken—the written word is deficient in music—and we may n therefore, expect to find a quickened interest in English literature as a result of Mr Newlands’s visit. A critical examination of the writers of English or an acquaintance with the praises of those who have discovered the beauties of poetry and prose cannot carry young people very far unless it sends them to the works themselves, and this, of course, is the aim of the Competitions Society. Mr Newlands in the northern centres has made an impression deep enough to make safe the prediction that lasting benefits will be conferred on both young and old by his brief visit to Invercargill. Action of this kind shows that the Competitions Society is alive to its responsibilities, and it is to be hoped their efforts will be generously supported.