KIPLING’S WITTY ADDRESS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2645, 13 October 1923, Page 3

KIPLING’S WITTY ADDRESS.

ON BEING INSTALLED AS RECTOR OF St. ANDREW’S.

London, October 10. Amid the familiar scenes of “nn- . dergrads” stripping off the boots and socks’ from each other daring the .installation and throwing them into the air and other escapades, Mr * Rwlyard Kipling was installed a* Lord Rector of St. Andrew’s in succession to Sir James Barrie. Honorary degree graduates included Mr Baldwin, who is Mr Kipling’s cousin. Mr Kipling, in a witty address, based on Bums’ lines on the glorious privilege of being independent, . said independence meant “to let every herring hang by its own head,” and signified the blessed slate of hanging on to as few persons and tilings as possible. The desire for independence was one of the earliest human instincts. Not until man abandoned his family tree and associated himself with others on the flat for predatory or homicidal purposes, did he sacrifice personal independence in action. “Science tells us that man began life as a monkey—like creatures among the tree-tops. It is interesting to recall that when speech was born, the first use man made of his new power of expression was to tell a frigid, calculating lie. Conceive his pride when the first liar found that by mere word of month, he could send his simpler companions shinning up trees in search of the fruit he knew was not there. The success of his early lies showed man that he was a miracle-worker. Can yon blame him for thinking himself a god? He was only kept within bounds by the discovery that this art of lying was not confined to himself. Apparently, too, the first liars were of opposite sex, married and had numerous progeny.” Mr Kipling concluded by urging the under-graduates at all costs to remember that one thing that stands’ outside befit tlement through all change's is the guidance that drives a man to own to himself that, no profit a man makes by concessions to public opinion can justify his disregard of that principle. “Yourself is the only person you cannot possibly get away from in this life, and maybe, in another. It is worth a little pains and money to be good to oneself.”