HARRY LAUDER AT PRISON

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3942, 14 May 1929, Page 1

HARRY LAUDER AT PRISON

MESSAGE OF HOPE TO CONVICTS. “You have no need at all to feel ill at ease, for if some of us were found out more of us would lie here. That’s your first laugh and I want you to know that I’ve conic here to cheer you up.” In these words Sir Harry Lauder opened a talk to the prisoners at Ml. Eden Gaol at the An/.ae Day service there. Then followed a story of a man whom the speaker had met in a penitentiairy in another part of the world at the age of ID. There had been a slip, a slide, and a fall. A life sentence had followed, hut because of his good conduct the prisoner lTTtd (been informed at the age of 38 that in three years’ time he would be set free. Thrilled with the prospect he no longer felt lie was surrounded by grey walls but. instead he saw fields of waving corn and gardens of beautiful flowers. On receiving his liberty he found that some of his friends were not as kind as they might have been and so he set off to a nmv country. In three years he graduated from a university and now was a minister with a church, a wife, and a home. “All his past is behind him,” said the speaker, “and only God before him, and if can be the same with you. I care not how far a man may have slipped, he still has it in his power to make good.” 'Story followed story, one evoking laughter, the next stirring deep emotions.