COUNTRY NEWS.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13775, 16 July 1913, Page 3

COUNTRY NEWS.

TASMAN

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

The inaugural meeting of the Ta.sman Literary and Debating Society was held on Thursday evening, when there was an excellent attendance. The following officers were elected:— President, Mr. F. E. Nottage; vicepresidents, Messrs. F. Goddard and S. J. Brown; secretary and treasurer, Mr Eric G. Stubbs; committee, Misses Brown and Rumba 11, and Messrs Johnston, Benzies, and N. J. Adamson.. The company then adjourned to the dining room at the Tasman homestead, where about 30 guests sat down to a sumptuous banquet prepared by tho ladies of the settlement. Mr. F. E. Nottage presided, and the following toast list was duly honoured: —"Tho King," "The Dominion Parliament," "Tho Fruit Industry," "Tho Army and Navy," "Kindred ' Societies," "The Ladfes," and "The Press." Several of tlio speeches were of a- particularly high order of merit, and the new society starts out 011 its career with an array of speakers who are well qualified to uphold the dignity, of the club in any contest in which they may engage. During the evening songs were contributed 'by Messrs. Walsh, McKee, and Stewart (encored), recitations by Messrs. J. Adamson and W. Benzies, a humourous reading by Mr. W. Wells, and an original Yorkshire sketch ,by Mr. C. T. Hopkinson. The next meeting, on the 24th, will take the form of "a debate, "Should military training bo compulsory!'"' Tho leaders of tho respective sides will he Mossrs. E. G. Stubbs and W. Benzies.