CANTERBURY WOMEN'S CLUB.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20178, 5 March 1931, Page 2

CANTERBURY WOMEN'S CLUB.

"At the Canterbury Women's Club, last nighty the club's first scheduled gathering of the new'year was held and W as very largely attended. Mrs 6. D- Ellis, a club member,, who recently returned from a visit to Britain and Europe, gave an interesting account of a visio to Ober-Ammer-gau in September of last year, when, she and her daughter attented the Passion Play. speaker detailed the principal events of the journey from England to Bavaria, during which she was particularly impressed by the industry, the neatness, and the apparent prosperity of the Germans, who work from 7 a.m. to 6 or 7 p.m., six days of the week, while the neasants cultivate every square yard of arable ground. Mrs Ellis spent a day in the walled city of Augsberg, with its historic Town Hall, in which were read in 1530, the famous confessions of Augsberg,- and its open-air theatre, said to be the finest m Germany,. She next visited Munich, with its' enormous railway station, its fountains and Sues! and its magnificent Cathedral of Our Lady, with its high windows and its dignified straight giving the impression ot. a forest of tall straight tree-trunks. From Munich, a splendid road reaches for-sixty miles to in the Bavarian Highlands where, ini fulfillment of a vow made by the inhabitants during -a plague in the sisteenth century, , tlio Passion Play has, been enacted, with only two or three omissions, every ten years up to the preseet' time. Mrs Ellis and her daughter stayed at the home of a keymaker, whose son was taking part in, the Passion Play. Here the daughter of the house spoke a little c/ngnsn* and amongst the other guests were Belgians and French, men and women. The village was spotlessly clean, -the food excellent, and the sanitary arrangements complete and up-to-date The Passion Play, which lasted from 8 am to 5.45 p.m., with an interval of two hourfcat mid-day, was a nevei> to-be-forgotLen experience. In one tableau m which there were many "adults and sixty children, there was not the slightest movement of anyone 9 f the performers—even a dog Stooci

motionless. It was hard to realise that the people were alive. Though the play is known to have nnocted as earlv as the 12tli con-

been enacieu ab cm* wi V »-■ — tury the present version is the combined work of three men—Daisenberncr a priest, who had lived in tin? village for thirty-five years, Weib, and Dcdler, the latter having composed the music. This version,, built of that of 1662, was completed in 1820. At the performance which Mrs JUlis attended, there were five thousand two hundred people present, and as many more were attending the next perform ance on the following day. . ■ Mrs Ellis's lecture was supplemented by the following appropriate musical programme, arranged by Mrs lv. .» McLaren: Song, ,"Ave Maria" (Angela Mascheroni), Mrs R. J. McLaren, witn violin ahd piano accompamment by Miss Dora Deal arrd Miss Chmtobsl Robinson; instrumental trio, Minuet" from Symphony in G Minor (Mozart), Miss C. Robinson (piano). Miss D. Deal (violin), and Mr Donald Woodward ('cello); recitative and ana from Eli (Costa), Miss Frances Hamerton*,- instrumental quartet. Misses 1 Robinson and .Deal, Messrs Rayjxhjuu Ward and Donald Woodward. Votes of thanks to Mrs Elhs and to the musicians were carried by acclamation.

WEDDING AND ENGAGEMENTS. \** 1 > (VROV OUR OW>J CORRESPOK^SEWT.) LONDON, January 29. The wedding took place on January 26th, at the Chapel of the Spvqy, of Major E. ,F. W. Mackenzie, 0.8. E., M.C., R.A.M.C., elder son 'of Dr. and Mrs F. W. Mackenzie ('Wellington), to Violet May, elder daughter of Colonel and Mrs R. B. Ainsworth, of Monteagle Housed Twickenham Park, Middlesex. The Ijtev. Percy Young officiated. The engagement is announced between James Leighton Breeds, the Royal Sua-