KIHIKIHI LITERARY AND DEBATING SOCIETY.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 14, 2 June 1911, Page 3

KIHIKIHI LITERARY AND DEBATING SOCIETY.

AMUSING MOCK TRIAL.

It occasionally happens that in a moment of inexplicable reaction, the extremely prim and proper person who has an almost religious regard for the social conventions, will break down the confining barriers of respectable habit and let himself loose upon unusual revelries. When this happens it is generally understood that his “ crowded hour of glorious life ” is marked by an abandon that his usually less scrupulous brethren find it impossible either to understand or emu!a te.

They are faced with a “ reversion to type” which baffles both comprehension and competition. And what is true of the unit is true of the group —the community illustrates the same law as does the individual. So it happened that when the township of Kihikihi, last Tuesday evening, forsook its usual dignified placidity of life, it plunged into its hour of riot with startling enthusiasm. The recently-formed Literary and Debating Society provided the occasion for this unwonted lapse into levity. So far the operations of the Society have followed the only mildly exciting course of that higher instruction for which it is supposed to exist. But, in making a wider and more definite appeal to public attention, it did so from the ground of pure farce.

The Town Hall became the local Coliseum in which sport was made for the multitude by means of a “Mock Trial’’; an otherwise blameless male resident being arraigned for trifling with the precious affections of an equally blameless lady. Damages to the extent of £iooo were claimed; and, for the space of over two hours, bewigged and berobed counsel badgered and browbeat embarrassed witnesses and befogged the stately and judicial functionary who adorned the judge’s bench. The multitude a. ived early, but if, as is said, they saw but did not hear, then from .their point of view the success of the performance must be judged by

its spectacular rather than its forensic aspects. In any case the Society achieved a distinct success.

It is as unnecessary as it would be invidious to enumerate parts or names, real or assumed. Over the disclosures of perfidy, the mercenary motives, the heartless flirtations, the alleged fabrications and incriminating conduct of witnesses and principals, it were well, in the interests of the pairies themselves, to draw the veil of a discreet silence. It is sufficient, perhaps, to note that all the parts were sustained with an. effective naturalness which indicated either an intimate, or well-assumed, knowledge of affairs of the heart. One lady, with a supposed deathroll of 15 husbands behind her, tendered expert evidence as to the pecuniary value of a broken heart.

Another discussed with much insight the peculiar phycho’ogical and gastronomical problems of the Boarding House, and, inter alia, threw considerable light on the precise relations, as cause and effect, of love and loss of appetite, Counsel found most of defendant’s answers considerab y delayed in their ai rival by reason of a pronounced stammer which the strain of the proceedings was understood to have induced.

The part of the plaintiff was sustained with an appropriate and subdued coyness of voice and manner, and altogether satisfied the exacting demands of the situation.

With admirable fidelity to life the whole of the court paraphernalia and procedure was imitated and reproduced, the tout ensemble being considerably heightened by effective staging. While eschewing indiscreet revelations as to the identity of principals and their witnesses, we may be permitted to name Mr Geo. McGhie as the personage who sat in judicial state, and from the elevation of the judge’s seat issued his decrees with a decisive air of impartiality.

Mr P. J. McCarthy, as counsel for plaintiff, interpreted the role “as to the manner borne,” and with gown and wig made an impressive embodiment of dignified learning and legal acumen.

The defendant’s case was in the hands of Mr O. P. Owen, who carried the correct bairistorial air. and impaited to his examinations a spice and pungency which contrasted well with the portly bearing of Mr McCarthy. The empanelled jury, through its foreman, Mr Teague, proved itself curious and even inquisitive in its search for truth. Mr Gill made a splendid court crier. Needless to say, the fun was constant, and at limes boisterous. The society can now resume its normal course in the knowledge that its existence has been well advertised —a fact which should induce an increasing number of residents to indentify themselves with irs more serious and exceedingly valuable work.