CHAUTAUQUA

Hokitika Guardian, 22 March 1922, Page 1

CHAUTAUQUA

A SUCCESSFUL OPENING,

Chautauqua opened yesterday a brief season of four days very successfully. There was an attendance of about 400 at the afternoon session at which his WorsKip the Mayor (Mr Perry) presided, ’pie entertainment was very much enjoyed. The performers were the Fine Arts Trio, and hero was a humorous lecurette by Mr Pearce, entitled “Getting There.” Chautauqua made quite an auspicious opening.

At night the Opera House was well filled. Mr D. J. Evans presided, and Miss Noren was the directress. The performers v r ere again the Fine Arts Trio. Miss Gwendolyn Spanawick delighted all with her soprano voice. Her numbers were well chosen, and every item was encored. In Miss Dolly Stuart there is a - very capable entertainer. Her accompaniments were good, and her songs at the piano quite a delight. The dramatic sketches by Mr Norman Pearce were .given with a finished rendition. He interpreted some well known characters of Dickens with great power, and his appearance was all too short fir the quality of his entertainment. Private Peat was the lecturer, his

subject being “Problems of the Do-

minions.” Mr Peat is n Canadian and proud of it, but he is more proud to be within the Briish Emp re. He

spoke of his great country, and the

difficulties ahead in moulding national character, because of the large foreign element wnthin its borders In many provinces of Canada the British element is a small proportion of the total population, but Canada is true

and loyal to the Empire. At the call of w r ar Canada responded, and Mr Peat was among the volunteers for service. He and many of his comrades were anti-English at the time because

of the opinions formed in their own lands of the type of Englishman most familiar to them. A visit to England

ajnd a close association with the true type of Englishman soon disillusioned their minds, and they became warm admirers of the English and were mode profid than ever to be themselves of British stock.

j Mr Peat spoke of the enthusiasm, of ‘ their American neighbors and gave examples of their ideas of boosting their home towns and country. He

spoke further of the good feeling exist ing between Canada and the United States, divided as they were by an imaginary boundary line. Yet despite that slight division the best relations subsisted, and there was no occasion to he alarmed about frontier troubles. Canada would continue loyal to the 1 Empire, and within its borders there was (growing up that fine national spirit which he noticed flourished in

New Zealand. i This Dominion said Mr Peat, had a great advantage, a great treasure. It was not, he remarked humorously, their railway system! Nor was it their scenery or their parliament. It was the fact that in this country of a million and a quarter, ninety per cent of the people were of the Anglo-Saxon traditions and characteristics. This made their task easy compared with Canada in building up their nationhood. But the New Zealanders were too modest. That was their chief failing. They required to have faith in their country—as the Americans had—and to boost it. He showed how Switzerland by its boosting drew .300,000 people to its borders every year, yet New Zealand had scenic treasures stored within its confines which to see the like elsewhere it would be necessary to tour the world. Mr Peat felt that the people were supine in the matter of advertising abroad the glories of their country and the nobility of their people.

The problem of the Dominion was to avoid war. On this phase of the subject, the lecturer spoke with burning eloquence about the honors of war, and all that it carried in its train. He wished that the Disarmament Conference at Washington might be succeeded by a Conference of world Educational authorities to revise the histories of the world, and eliminate from the stories all those references to war which glorified it and fired the imagination of youth with the splendour of war. There was no splendour in war. The wooden crosses now marking the graves of the fallen in every clime told the true story of war, and he pleaded for co-operation among the people to avoid war, to abhor it, and to embellish history with other matter of interest, less harmful than the recounting of deeds of daring bound up with the awful story of inglorious war. Mr Peat was roundly applauded at the close of his address. He is a rapid, interesting speaker and rivetted the attention of the large audience throughout. He supplied food for thought in an acceptable way, telling stories and anecdotes here and there which brightened the subject and helped to impress on all minds some phase of the message he had to impart. It was an elevating and entertaining lecture, and supplied a memorable opening to the Chautauqua seagon.

TO-NIGHT. Chautauqua, was attractive ogarn this afternoon for crowds of patrons. To-night’s programme will he supplied by the McKenzie Concert Coy. In this trio we have Miss Lo Desea. Loveland, a dramatic soprano of unusual range and power, Miss Ella McKenzie, a pianiate of marked distinction and Mr Warwick McKenzie, an Australian violinist of well-known fame. This brilliant company will be followed by Mr St Ledger, ex-member of the Queensland Legislature. Mr St Ledger is a powerful speaker and quite ai finished orator. His address and delivery should be a. treat.