CLUB LIFE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2191, 15 May 1908, Page 2

CLUB LIFE.

WHAT IT SHOULD BE. INTERESTING REMARKS BY A M.P. During the speeches at the opening of tiie Cosmopolitan Club last evening, Mr. A. L. D. I raser, M.P. for Napier, made some interesting remarks upon tho influence oT clubs on the life of the members and the people among whom those members mixed. The visitor said that ho was ploaeed to ho present at the opening of tho club, and to congratulate the members upon tho palatial building they had erected. They had built their club and formed their membership, but their duty was only beginning. The Hon. James McGowan had recently said that clubs were amongst tho finest social institutions it was possible to got, and he, in agreeing with that opinion, thought that club life should bo a lesson to the outsido world. They would soon have to face another general election, and it would be for tho people to say whether they would have licenses or not. He hoped the club would let the people feel its pulse working at that time, for he felt sure every member would work for the good of tho town of Gisborne. It should bo a pleasure to be a member of a club, and their influence .should be far reaching. The members should not be selfish, but should let others share their pleasures, and, aB time went on, provide in the club buildings afternoon tea rooms, reading rooms, and such places to which they could take their wives in comfort and honor. The older members of clubs had a duty to the younger members, not to let them see the evils of tho curse of drink, to encourage them in sports, music, and educational advancement, and so make club life hut exaggerated home life. Away hack in the past, the residents of Gisborne had been too faithful followers of Bacchus, but that should be forgotten, and with a new club to the front a new order of things should arise out of the past. Ho wished the club every success, and hoped all the members would live long to enjoy tlie advantages it had to offer.