RED CROSS LECTURE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 17 March 1917, Page 5

RED CROSS LECTURE.

LIEUT. MORTON’S EXPERIENCES. The lecture and concert at the Town Hall last night, in aid of Red Cross funds, was well attended, the audience being discriminating and appreciative to an extreme. The lecturby Lieut Morton, of Feilding, was rather in the form of a narrative of his personal experiences during his fighting career in France, particularly in the Somme offensive. This gave nis utterances an' added value; his descriptions of th e various phases of warfare, more especially at the taking of Flers and High Wood, where the now famous “Tanks”‘.played an important part,, were listened to with rapt attention. It was not the retailing of what had been acquired by reading, but a recital of what he had seen and had accomplished alongside our own boys from Taihape that rendered his words so deeply interesting. Lieut Morton is an exceedingly modest man; he makes no effort at scoring points by exaggeration, and it was indeed most enjoyable to follow the recounting ,of his earnestly told story. The lectur e was punctuated with many instances of dare-devilry and good humour, and when the lecturer resumed his seat the applause was loud and long. The concert portion of the programme was an inspiration, and who will say that Taihape audiences do not appreciate good music, both vocal and instrumental. One could have listened to such singing for the whole evening without the pleasure flagging. Mrs. Loughnan was in splendid voice, and her items were full of life and were rendered with excellent musical feeling. There was no question about the genuine- ' ness of the encore that was demanded of her. Many would be glad to renew acquaintance with Mr. Prouse; bis ■v c-ice has lost none of its cunning and • very little of its charm with years. His items alone were worth goin a long way to hear. The audience only desisted from further enneores in consideration of ordinary human limi- ; tations. The accompaniments were ' artistically played by Mrs. Plummer, -her presence on the concert platform j is a guarantee of musical pleasure 1 froih the accompanying standpoint, j The Taihape Orchestra played" the j Overture “Caliph of Bagdad,” and the j Scotch overture “Prince Cuarlie,” and thereby added much to the success the concert.