WHERE THE SUN NEVER SHINES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 281, 21 November 1908, Page 3

WHERE THE SUN NEVER SHINES

MtefcA GREAT ADVERTISEMENT FOR CANADA. Music speaks all languages. It is understood by every nation. It is a temporary leveller of society. Everybody meets on the same plane when listening to it. From heaven it eaine direct; direct to heaven it returns. The communion of spirits which hovers over the assemblage in which there is good music brings people nearer to God, and Nature. Judging from the talent of this great Kilties Band and their physical qualities, Canada must be' a grand country. We have heard that she is one of the greatest advertising colonies in the world—but we feel perfectly confident in stating that the Kilties' tour is proving the greatest and most extraordinary advertisement that Canada has ever had. In every town visited ill Australia the Kitties'have simply carried things by storm. They have tripled all previous records of gross takings. Everywhere they have been received with open arms, deceptions on fi monumental scale liave been tendered bv all the leading bodies and personages of every town they have visited. In innumerable cases the local town coun-

KXOWX IX ALL COUNTRIES. The whole of the illustrated papers of France, Germany, Italy, and Spain have devoted considerable space to picturing the wonderful combination. Jt seems that the extraordinary boom in ■Australia has been cabled lo all the leading cities of the world, aud no doubt owing to this, Australia has had a line advertisement. 1" .some cities ot the world, where there are (people who had never previously heard of Australia -'as a civilised nation, they know now it is a country where the Kilties have been received and appreciated—and inu-

It is to be hoped that Die sixty colonists who sailed from the Tyne the other day for Kerguelin Land, in the ; Indian Ocean, are .sturdy, hardy folk, used to solitude and roughing it. For of all places on eajth, outside the Arctic and Antacrtic regions, this is the niost isolated and inhospitable. Indeed, , it is generally known to mariners, not i by its ollicial title, but as Desolation ' Island.

Host nations have twnod it l>y turns, hut it has LiL-oji sooner or later abandoned hy tlioni all a.s worthless, and this although it covers an area variously estimated at from 1,500 to 2,000 square miles. At present l'rance is in nominal possession of it, she having annexed it in 18D3.

Tlie]'! l are no inhabitants, nor is it I easv to see how tile eolonists altove mentioned are going to exist. The soil is utterly barren. Practically the whole of the 'interior is covered with snowfields of unknown depth, whence glaciers llow down to tiie .sea. Where there are no snow-lields, there are morasses, and hidden, treacherous niud-lioles.

Tlie climate is probably tlie worst in the world. Terrific tempests follow one another practically without ceasing, and arc accompanied hy torrents of icc-cold rain, hail, sleet and snow. The Challenger 'expedition spent a month there, during which time there were only three Que days. And this was in DecemberJanuary, when it is midsummer ill those latitudes. Its discoverer, jr. KcrguelenTreniarcc. although at first he professed to be en--1 raptured with it, lived to confess that it was unfit for human habitation. ''Xot even Eskimos,'' lie exclaimed, "could exist there." Yet tlie present expedition, we are told, intends taking there thirty negro labourers from Africa. yoor, deluded cliildrea of the tropics!

cils have decorated tke streets, put out welcome banners of every description, and requested the residents to fly the Canadian and Australian tlags side by side to show honour to the fellow colonists who are engaged in the same struggle of building up the sinews of a great nation. A MAGNETIC PERSONALITY. People wonder how it is that the Kilties have created such a phenomenal sensation in Australia. The opinion of one of the leading Australian poets is that the personality of the band is so magnetic and strong that their performances simply hold one entranced, and when, at the termination of the concert, the spell is broken, one regretfully wakes up to realise that one is an ordinary evcry-day mortal after all. Night after night tliis powerful magnetic influence draws back to their concerts the same .people over and over again. Never in this country has there been .such a big organisation with such a large percentage of remarkable individualities. Another great feature is that the company can suit themselves to all nations. The Scotsman is thrilled

with the musie of his own laud, which is loved. Mr. Cook, I'ie conductor brings bail; tile memories of heather of the band, lias a very high opinion of and tlu> wild grandeur of the Highlands the hands lie lias eonie in contact with The Irishman mil have his soul stirred in Au-tralia, and thinks tiiat if a hv the haunting melodies of liibernia representative band was selected from played as they have never been played the whole of the bands ol' the C'ommonbefore. And the Englishman can enjoy wealth, within a very short time they the beauties of that great school of ~'ould be able to hold their own with music so dear to the Anglo-Saxon .race, any musical organisation of its kind in the world.

Til K KILTIES AXI) THE C'ZAU. The Czar of Russia mid tile Kinpcror of (iermanv have both notified the Kilties' management that they will only h<» too delighted to give the Kilties an oilicial reception if they will decide to tour the band through their dominions. Mr. l ; red Shipnian has acknowledged, with pleasure, the receipt ot the communication from those mighty potentates, and has notified them that the Kilties will visit them within the next twelve month*.