THE CHAUTAUQUA

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 123, 17 February 1921, Page 9

THE CHAUTAUQUA

WELLINGTON SEASON OPENED

The third visit of the New Zealand Chautauqua to ' Wellington was opened in the Farmers’ Institute Hall last night. The programme presented was the first of five programmes announced for the visit. The proceedings were opened by Mr. J. B. Harcourt, the chairman of the local Chautauqua committee, who explained briefly the objects and the scope of the organisation. He assured the audience that the Chautauqua was not a money-making body, and that its objective was the entertainment and the education of the community. Miss Agnes Bristol, manager of the tour, mentioned that all the profits of the toui, after paying expenses, were to be placed In a fund for the strengthening of the Chautauqua movenlent in New Zealand. The first part of the evening’s programme was provided by tho lonians, a combination of vocalists and instrumentalists. Mr. Geoffrey F. Cowley, a pleasing baritone; Miss Lalla Knight, a capable soprano; and Gertrude Heber, a talented violinist, were the performers, and they presented an entertainment that was thoroughly to tho taste of tho audience. Captain Norman A. Imrie, of Canada, occupied tho second part of the programme with a lecture on British-Ameri-can "political ■ problems. Ho treated his subject broadly and interestingly, and introduced into it an element of snappy humour that obviously pleased the audience. After tracing four centuries of British history in ten minutes, for the purpose of showing how the English language came to be scattered all over the world. Captain Imrie referred to some of the problems of to-day. Tie said that “Uncle Sam - ’ was facing “the problem of the melting-pot.” Tho doors of the American republic had long been opened wide to tho surplus and unwanted populations of Europe, and as long as the bulk of the immigrants came from Northern Europe all had been well. But since 1880 eighty per cent, of the immigrants had come from Eastern and Southern Europe and Asia. These people had entered the United States in millions, and they had not assimilated the thoughts and institutions of their adopted country. They returned their own languages and their own customs, and constituted indigestible masses in the 'American cities, some of which were 70 per cont. foreign. ’the rush of people from Southern and Eastern Europe into the United States was continuing, and wae carrying with it revolutionary and Bolshevik elements that were, a peril to tho republic. Turning to British problems, tho lecturer mentioned Ireland, “the most difficult, the most provocative, the most dangerous, and the saddest of Britain's problems. Why was civil war proceeding under tho British flag In Ireland? The Irish question was full of explosive menace to the relations beflween Britain and the United States. Captain Imrie touched briefly on the racial and religious differences that separated tho northern Ulster counties from tho rest of Ireland, and shower! how those differences had been emphasised by economic factors. He named the parties that had taken part in Irish affairs during tho lost half-century, and compared tho moderate programme of the Nationalists with the separatist demards of the Sinn Feinera He summarised tho critical events of the last three yean*, and showed how the British Government had made succeesivo efforts to devise a settlement that would Ire acceptable to both parties in Ireland. He saw a ray of hope for Ireland in tho latest legislative proposal, which would give (lister a Parliament and the rest of Ireland a

Parliament, with power to join hands io a Federal Government when they could agree on the terms. The second number of the Wellington Chautauqua course will be given Friday evening. Lula Root, contralto, formerly of the Washington Grand Opera Company, and William Lowell Pat-ton, composer and pianist will appear in a classical concert. This will be followed by a lecture by Mr. Joel AV. Eastman.