ROBERT BURNS, THE POET.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 22, 26 January 1914, Page 5

ROBERT BURNS, THE POET.

STRATFORD'S CELEBRATIONS.

The committee of the Stratford branch of the Taranaki Provincial Scottish Society reports that everything is in good train for the Society's third' annual Burns supper at the Town Hall this evening, and that everything possible has been done to ensure an enjoyable evening.

"The Immortal Memory" will he in the hands of Mr J. Craigie, M.P. for Timaru, who has an established reputation as a Burns scholar, and who ?an be relied on to deal thoroughly md interestingly with the toast. Dr. Paget and Mr W. G. Malone will speak to the toast "The Imperial Forces," Messrs W. L. Kennedy and J. B. Richirds "The Land We Live In," and .Messrs D. S. Maxwell and J. McAllister "Caledonia."

In the musical section of the programme songs are to be contributed by Messrs Wilkie and Douglas and others, and there will be a sufficiency of pipe music by the local pipers. Mr W. H. Hawkins is set down for a recitation. Items will also be rendered by the ffawera quartette, whose singing is r "airly well-known to local residents.

The catering is in the capable hands )f -Mrs Brooking.

"I have little belief in reading our modern, misty, dreamy poetry, of which we are afraid to guess the meaning," said Mr J. Craigie. M.P., in his lecture in Wellington on Friday night. "With Burns there is no such uncertainty." The speaker dealt fully, in the course of his address, with the open and direct character of the work of the Scottish national poet. A leading member of the St. AnI row's Society, at Whangarei, is the assessor of a faded sheet of manuscript which has been proved to be the original, or a copy in the author's vriting, of "Scots Wha Hae," Robert Burns' famous song. Photographs of the manuscript were sent to the curator of the Burns Museum, at Ayr, in Scotland, for identification. A reply ha.s now come to hand, stating (says the Auckland Star), that the manuscript is genuine, but whether it is the original, or a copy in Burns' band writing, cannot be ascertained. The letter states that it is known that the Scottish poet made several replicas, and that the Ayr museum ourchased one some years ago for £3OO. Above the poem, in the case of the Whangarei manuscript, is written "To my Sister-in-law," but nothing is known in regard to this particular 'ink with the past.