CAMBRIAN NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17346, 29 September 1924, Page 3

CAMBRIAN NOTES.

THE PONTYPOOL EISTTDDFOD. After the initiation of the Prince of \S ales as a Bard at the Eisteddfod, he assisted at a similar ceremony when the successful young Bard Air Prosser Rees, editor of A Baner ac Amserau Cymry, an Aberystwyth paper, was initiated. He is only twenty-three and unmarried. The subject of his poem was ‘‘Recollection.” He was greeted with great applause, and formally seated in the Bardic chair, and experienced the honour of being crowned. by the newly-made Royal Bard lorwerth Dywysog, who quickly “( hummed up” to him and asked him if lie were one of the mischievous Aberystwyth boys who took away his umbrella there. The newly-crowned Bard adadmitted he remembered the incident, but disclaimed all connection with it. Being satisfied that this Taffy was not a thief, the Prince asked him how long it took him to write the prize poem. The whole ceremony was most warmhearted, and was fittingly closed by Aliss Alair Jones’s rrlagnificent rendering of the crowming song, in her Bardic robes. As in the competitions here a wonderful voice is often discovered at the Eisteddfods in the soprano competition for boys under sixteen, a boy competitor sang Mendelssohn’s “Oh. for the Wings of a Dove” and “Yr E’os Lais” with great purity and sweetness of voice, and much musical power and intelligence. Another interesting competition was the singing of Welsh folk-songs by the children’s choirs. They had to start without any guiding note of music. A new and attractive item was the girl guides’ choir contest Each choir in uniform marched smartly to the strains of a military hand and sang brightly in Welsh and in English. Their singing was judged by Dr Alary Davies, whose beautiful voice and charming personality may be remembered by Welsh folk in Wales about thirty years ago. When staying at a country house at Chirk for a concert arranged by the Welsh composer and Bard s Owain A law, sh© encouraged the young people forming the house party to sing, helping them and sinking with them in a way never to be forgotten. Ladv Brittain adjudicated the harp solo competition and said that, though the wet weather had a prejudicial effect on the national instruments, the performances had been quite good. This reminds one that at an Eisteddfod held at Caerwys in the sixth century the presiding Prince maintained ihat vocal music yr as superior to instru-

to bards who would swim across the river Conway to test his theory. Alany competed and the Prince held that his contention was proven, because the minstrels on reaching the other side of the river found that their harps had been rendered useless by the water, while the voices of the bards were uninjm ed For the first time in the history of the Eisteddfod broadcasting apparatus was used and by loud speakers those at the furthest end of the huge pavilion could hear the most pianissimo passages on any instrument, and even the softest voices were distinctly heard. THE LATE DR HOPE LX REES. It is curious to think of a Welshman being a Professor of Chinese. There is no connection between the two languages, but it is often said that if one can master Welsh one can learn any other language. The lato Dr Hopkvn Rees, who died recently, was born at Cwmavon, Glamorgan, in 1859. He was an enthusiastic and typical Welshman of the old school, a powerful preacher and writer in Welsh, and when, at the age of nineteen, he went out to China for the Church Alissionary Society, li is forceful energy and charming personality soon made his name known throughout the country. He lived in China for thirty-seven years, and for a time edited ‘‘ The Chinese Recorder ” at Shanghai. After his return to England Dr Rees was appointed Professor of Chinese at the London Universitv. He was a master of colloquial Chinese and one of the finest preachers in that language ever heard in China. In 1816 lie had been made secretary of the Chinese Christian Literature Society, and for his services to refugees during the Boxer rising received the Order of the “ Blue Button ” from the Chinese Emperor. Three of Dr Rees’s daughters married missionaries, and the fourth. Aliss Gwendoline Rees, of Tientsin, also a missionary, travelled home by way of Siberia and was with her father when he died. A man whose influence for good was great, a raconteur ot good stories, a lover of his fellow-men—and of his pipe—Dr Rees was in his person and his life an important link between the peoples of the M cst and of the East. „ CELTIC LITERATURE. Professor Gwyn Jones, of the University <* College, Aberystwyth, lately gave a series of lectures at Cork, on Celtic literature. He spoke of the similarities in the language and literature of the Irish, Welsh and Breton people, and traced in early poetry the attempt of the mind of the early Celt to explain the mystery of existence and the continuation of life alter death. The Celt developed the idea of the immortality of the soul and also of its transmigration from body to body, and of a beautiful place, innocent of evil, where the immortal soul would dwell in perpetual youth. The Celts’ philosophy seemed to distinguish clearly between good and evil, right and wrong. The study of Celtic literature showed the following characteristics a philosophical state of mind, a keen love of Nature, and of an open-air life, with a disinclination to live in towns and cities, a. love of learning widely diffused among the classes, and a democratic spirit ami a communal co-operation amongst the various classes. The love of learning showed itself in attachment to poetry, storytelling, music and dancing. THE CHILDREN’S EVENING. The special evening arranged by Alesdames Bowden, H. Williams and James is fixed for October 11, in the Durham Street Schoolroom. For weeks the children have been rehearsing, and >ve may; .expect an enjoyable evening.