A Row at the imperial Institute.

Manawatu Herald, 31 October 1896, Page 2

A Row at the imperial Institute.

Mr Draper, secretary of the Trausvaal Geologioal Society, delivered a lectura at the Imperial Institute the other evening. A minority of the Fellows objected to his being allowed to lecture, owing to his having sided with tha Boers in regard to the Jameson raid. Throughout his address Mr Draper met with great interruptions, and he was continually called "traitor," «• cur," and " ruffian." Almost all the evening he was subjected to insult, and he was frequently hissed. The expulsion of the ringleaders in the interference from membership of the Institute is imminent. Mr Francis Hart, an Australian, was prominent among those who pro* tested against the line of action taken by the minority. During the evening flags were waved, and cheers given for the Empire and for Dr Jameson. A melee was narrowly averted. Very pretty this, reminding one of Bret Harte's scientific gathering which broke up in a somewhat similar manner, the writer remarking :— " Now, I hold it is not decent for a scientific gent To say another is an ass, — at least, to all intent : Nor should the individual who happens to be meant Reply by heaving rocks at him to any great extent." The mete* did continue, as 11 Then Abner Dean of Angel's raised a juoint of order — when A chunk of old red sandstone took him in the abdomen : And he smiled a kind of sickly smile, and curled up on the floor, And the subsequent proceedings interested him no more. For, in less time than I write it, every member did engage In a warfarfare with the remnants of a palotozoic age ; And the way they heaved those foaßils in their anger was a sin, I Till the skull of an old mammoth caved the head of Thompson in .' ' MoKee and Gamble, Photo Engraven and Lithographers, Wellington. Send (or po. tattoo,