A DELAYED ADDRESS

Southland Times, Issue 21430, 26 June 1931, Page 8

A DELAYED ADDRESS

CONTRETEMPS AT MEETING. SIR TRUBY KING LATE. “Once, when he was absorbed at a meeting transacting public business, his wife rang him up and asked him, in her own quiet way, if he did not think he had better attend to the young couple he had promised to marry an hour earlier!” This was one of the stories the Mayor of Christchurch, Mr D. G. Sullivan, M.P., told against the ex-Mayor, the Rev. J. K. Archer, at a public meeting. The Mayor was forced into the position of entertaining a large gathering of citizens until Sir Truby King, who had been advertised to address it at a certain time, but was detained, could arrive. It must be a long time since such a situation has arisen in connection with a public meeting specially convened to give a prominent figure the opportunity to deliver an address, says a Christchurch paper. The meeting was under the auspices of the Sunlight League, and there were 200 people, mostly women, there. A quarter of an hour after the advertised time of starting the Mayor, who was in the chair, announced that Sir Truby King had been detained and would be a little late.

Then the Mayor, to keep the waiting gathering interested, gave an address. It ranged from stories about the Rev. J. K. Archer to the life and work of Sir Truby King, and on the necessity for everyone doing a “daily dozen” in the mornings. The Mayor’s effort lasted nearly half an hour. It was quite interesting, delivered without a falter at any stage. It was a better impromptu speech than nine out of ten people could make. Incidentally it served to give some slight indication of what a stonewall must be like. But the praiseworthy effort failed to achieve its purpose, for when the Mayor finished Sir Truby King had still not arrived. Dr I. C. Macintyrc, of Cashmere Sanatorium, was down on the programme to propose a vote of thanks to the chairman at the end of the meeting, and he was pressed into service to carry on the business of entertaining until the chief speaker should arrive. Even he ran short of material before Sir Truby King came, but it happened that Mr L. F. ,de Berry was set down to propose a vote of thanks to Sir Truby. The Mayor summoned him to the central position and he carried on for another quarter of an hour. When he finished the meeting seemed to run short of speakers. Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson declined the chairman’s invitation to explain how it was he was “young at 90” when a deadlock threatened. Progress reports had been coming in, and it was indicated that Sir Truby King would soon be arriving. The Mayor, with great strategic skill, proposed that afternoon tea should be taken. This seemed to be carried unanimously, and everyone was busy with tea cups and cake plates for some time, long enough, in fact, for Sir Truby King to arrive. He soon got into his stride on the subject of the sun in relation to health, and kept an audience interested for over an hour. When Sir R. Heaton Rhodes, seconding the motion extending a vote of thanks, said that the address had been well worth waiting for, there was general and sustained applause.