SCOTS MAKE MERRY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 757, 2 September 1929, Page 10

SCOTS MAKE MERRY

NEW ZEALAND’S DEPRESSION EXPLAINED ONEHUNGA ORPHANS The president of the Onehunga Orphans’ Club, Mr. Robert Buchanan, at the club’s fortnightly meeting on Saturday evening, referred in terms of profound sorrow to the loss which has been suffered by Orphans in Auckland by the death of Mr. James Dawson Crawford. A vote of appreciation of Mr. Crawford’s services and sympathy with his family was carried in silence. The meeting was in charge of the vice-president, Bro. J. E. Green, and a successful programme of Scottish song and story was given bv Scottish artists. The chairman referred to the influence the Scot had exerted on the destinies of the Empire and pointed out that ever since Scotland had taken her place in the British Parliament, the Empire had never looked back. During the war Earl Haig. Earl Beatty and Sir William Robertson had control of the Army in France, the Grand Fleet at sea and the Imperial General Staff at Home, while the Lord Chancellor, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Foreign Secretary were all Scots. Today the Church and the State were both ruled by Scots—the Archbishop of Canterbury, a son of a Presbyterian minister, and Mr. Ramsay MacDonald. The Prime Ministers of Canada and Australia were both of Scottish descent, but New Zealand could not claim such a distinction, which accounted largely for the existing depression, he held. Mr. Green also quoted Mark Twain’s opinion that the Scottish nation was the most humorous, because it could appreciate a joke against itself. “More than half the jokes against the Scot.” he said, “are manufactured in Aberdeen.” It was announced that the next chairman would be vice-president Bro. Len Bray, and that the executives of the Takapuna and Tamaki Orphans’ Clubs would be the official visitors. Also that the annual Ladies’ Night was fixed for September 11 in the Foresters’ Theatre, Onehunga. The orchestra, under Bro. J. Lighton, contributed the overtures, “Bonnie Scotland" and “Peter Small,” and Bro. Rob MacGregor, former pipe-major of the Black Watch, played a selection on the bagpipes. The following contributed vocal items: —The “Broomielaw Quartet,” Bros. Dr. Kirkwood. John MeDougall, E; Telfer and J. Walker; Duncan Black, Jock Bruce, A. McSkimming, J. Mackay. Alexander Brown, and J. McDougall. Bros. Len Elliott and Richard Sutherland played the accompaniments.