WOMEN’S MISSIONARY UNION

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 42, 12 May 1927, Page 5

WOMEN’S MISSIONARY UNION

WORK AMONG INDIAN PEOPLE Over 200 members of the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union were present at a meeting in St. David’s | Church hall yesterday afternoon. Mrs. Gray, wife of the Rev. J. L. Gray, a missionary from India, gave an interesting account on the work of the Presbyterian Church in India. She paid a warm tribute to the Bible women, without whose co-operation it j would be impossible to reach the homes and hearts of the lonely women J of India. With the aid of girls dressed in the native costume of four of the religious Mrs. Gray added considerably to the interest of her address.

SHAKESPEARE’S ART

W.E.A. LECTURE In his lecture at the old Grammar School on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” last evening, Mr. Jellie took as a title “What Is Art?” This is the first play to be studied by the W.E.A. literature class. * We live in two worlds, said the lecturer, the actual and the ideal, and art is the representation of the ideal. Those who thought of Shakespeare as a plagiarist showed complete ignorance of the art of the dramatist, whose function it is not to create, but to exercise his art upon, the raw material of human emotions, aims, and aspirations. Shakespeare’s supremacy in dramatic art lay in hi* marvellous power of characterisation and in his ability to awaken, intensify. and satisfy our interest, j The first play selected by the newlyformed Shakespeare Reading Circle, which meets on alternate Saturday j evenings, is “A Midsummer Night’s Dream ” which promises to afford much pleasure to both readers and i listeners, and pleasure in its highest sense, according to the lecturer, is the 1 aim of all art.