CHAUTAUQUA.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 March 1919, Page 6

CHAUTAUQUA.

CONCLUDING SESSIONS, The concluding sessions of the Chautauqua took place yesterday, and drew large audiences. The programmes were given principally by a combination of six young ladies, styled the Southern Seas Sextette, who appeared i"ostly in orchestral numbers, the combination consisting of two violins, a viola, 'cello and double bass with the piano. The young ladies presented a bright and sparkling programme, tiie instrumental items bein» interspersed with vocal and elocution selections. All the items were unthnsiastically received. At night the tent was crowded with the largest audience for the whole season, and the young ladies were accorded a flattering reception. Tiie early part of the evening session was given over to the juniors, when a very clever ".Mother Goose" pageant wtts presented, representative of a great many nursery rhymes, acted in a most creditable manner by the little ones, who appeared to enjoy the performances as much as the audience.

Before the concluding number of last night's programme, Miss Carson, who has superintended the Chautauqua, thanked the public for the support given and the local committee and others for the way in which the visiting Chantauquans had been entertained. She led cheers for the members of the committee, and in turn cheers were given for the Chautauqua, and the final chapter of the "glad book" was brought to a close by the sextette playing the Na- 1 tional Anthem of France, America and England. IMPRESSIONS OF A VISITOR. In the course of his address at the Chautauqua tent yesterday afternoon, Mr. C. Earle Miller, who recounted his impressions of Australasia, drew some interesting comparisons between certain phases of life in America and in these dominions. He admitted that in some directions New Zealand was ahead of America. The speaker said he had come to Australasia with an open mind on the question of Government ownership of railways. He thought after his experience of the system here that there was ample room for improvement, and he more than ever convinced that the railways should be run on sound lines, as business propositions, free from political influences. In Australia there was a system in practice which he very much dis-liked,-as it played up to the large centres in a way that was quite unfair to the smaller towns of the States. The distributing rates for freight were three times as high on goods going out of the large centres as they were on inward freight, and that, he thought, was wrong. He told how, in companies built their lines far ahead of the demands of districts and populations, and the directors then initiated campaigns to induce settlers to go out into the districts to which the railroads had been laid, giving them liberal concessions, not only in the matter of the carriage, but also in the purchase of their stock. Mr. Miller explained that he had found some striking misconceptions as to private ownership of railroads, the commonest being that they were owned by a few magnates who worked them in their own interests entirely, without much consideration for the public. That was entirely wrong. The fact was that the systems did serve the public and paid dividends also. Many of the large companies had big shareholders' lists, and Mr Miller mentioned several companies whose shareholders were numbered in hundreds of thousands. Proceeding on these lines, Mf. Miller stated that many of the public services were privately owned, but the directors always strove to induce their employees to take up shares in the undertaking, realising that the element of personal interest meant better business and increased efficiency.