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CHILDREN’S ENTERTAINMENT.

The following is the address delivered by W. Johnston, Esq., at the children's entertainment in the Volunteer Uall on Tuesday evening last : Ladies, gentlemen, and my young friends on the platform and in the body of the hall—

I hare been commanded by our respected President on this the first entertainment of a series of entertainments initiated by him for the amusement and improvement of the children of the Temulta district to deliver an opening address. I us® this form of expression “ commanded ” simply because I was not left the usual alternative of declining. I received 1113' orders from my commanding officer, and am old enough to know that the consequences of disobeying the orders of a superior of officer are to be courtmarshalled, and probably dismissed the service. T obeyed orders sooner than run the risk of disobeying ; hut do not mistake me. I do not for one moment wish you to suppose that I am an unwilling or luke-warm supporter of the movement in aid of the children of the district initiated by our respected President. On the contrary, my whole heart and soul are with my respected friend in the effort he is making on behalf of the district, and I am prepared and determined to support it by every energy of my mind and body; but such an address as would bo thoroughly suitable and befitting the occasion demands both time and thought, and I felt that I had not anything like sufficient leisure time at my command to do justice to the subject. These entertainments are got up specially for the amusement and improvement of the children and young people of the district, and, as the mouthpiece of the President, I have to tell you that his creed is, that they shall bo cqully free and equally open in every possible way to all classes and conditions ; equally open to the sons and daughters of the wealthy landowner, the wealthy merchant, the humblest tenant fanner, and the humblest day laborer in the district—merit and merit alone will be the only qualification necessary. I have also to ti ll you that another item in the President’s creed is that these entertainments shall be utterly and completely free from religious or sectarian feeling of any kind. A I religions in the district have been cordially invited to join in the movement, and I am happy to be able to state that all, without a single exception, have promised a hearty co-operation and support. At the second meeting of the general committee arranging preliminary matters, the question arose, “ What shall be done with any balance that may be in band after paying working expenses 1” It was proposed by your humble servant that any such balance should be devoted to purchasing prizes to be competed for by the boys and girls in the Temuka district at a public entertainment to be specially got up hereafter for that particular purpose, the competition to be in reading and recital ion, the judges or mode of deciding the order of merit between the competitors being left an open question to be determined hereafter, and after some discussion the suggestion was unanimously adopted. Now, my young friends, I feel myself called upon in this opassng address to say a few earnest ■ words of counsel and -suggestion noon this branch ox the subject. Yon have now, my young friends, an opportunity which may never occur again of bearing your own voices upon a public platform, listened to, yon may bo sure, by admiring friends and relatives, and therefore you may rest assured that you will be safe from unkind or ill-natured remark; upon any deficiencies or peculiarities or manner or delivery which may possibly at first be apparent amongst some of those who are properly ambitions of improving themselves by coming before a public audience upon a public platform ; but I hope you will allow me. as one entitled, to offer y r ou sound and kindly advice. Be not discouraged if your first appearance, your second appearance, or even your third appearance should not be an unqualified success. Remember the lesson which King Robert the Bruce learned from the little spider—try, try, try again, and allow me to tell you a fact of which some of you may not be aware, namely, that Demosthenes, the groat Athenian orator —I think I may safely say the greatest and most impassioned orator of the olden time—was hissed from the public platform the first time that he attempted to address an Athenian audience; and yet that same Demosthenes, having in the meantime schooled himself and trained his voice by competing for the mastery with the waves upon the sea shore, was in after years listened to by that same Athenian audience which had formerly hissed him with the most profound admiration and attention, and that same Demosthenes could in after years sway a vast Athenian multitude by the powers of his matchless eloquence as if that multitude were but one man ; and, to bring yon down to modern times and show you what perseverance and a determined will can accomplish, allow me to tell you a fact not very'commonly known that the great Sir Astley Cooper, the most accomplished surgeon (at all events in one particular department) that England has ever seen, was rejected by the London College of Surgeons ft his first attempt to pass his examination as a would-be surgeon, and' rejected too in that particular department in which in after years, as a practising surgeon, he became so preeminently famous. My young friends, I call, upon each and all of you as young Irishmen (although transplated to New Zealand as the land of your adoption—l know that the great majority of you are Irish New Zealandei’s) and I call upon yoii one and all by the Irish blood in your veins to remember the old adage, “Faint heart never won fair ladyq” and if you feel faint-hearted when you stand upon the platform for the first or second time look down upon some of the loving eyes that are beaming upon you from some dove eyed maiden in the front benches, and be that maiden sweetheart or sister I tell you that if you do not feel and show yourself as bold as a lion you are no true son of the Emerald Isle. My young friends, in this competitive race for prizes there will be weak brothers and weak sisters amongst you. Allow me with all sincerity and affection to implore of you, as you value your welfare here and hereafter, to hold out a helping hand to every weak brother and weak sister, and if you yourself have reached a high step of the ladder, help the weak brother or the weak sister to stand upon the same step of the ladder and when there throw

your strong and shielding arm. around them to steady and keep them there, if you would be spoken of as the noble, the generous, the kind boy, the hoy who is the ornament of his lather and the pride of his mother, help the weaker brother or the winker sister to stand upon the step of the ladder above that upon which you yourself are standing. My young 'friends, allow me to give you an affectionate warning upon one topic which comes prominently forward at the present day —avoid books of light literature whoso morality is doubtml, or whose religions doctrines are tainted, as you would avoid a serpent with hissing tongue and poisonous fangs. My young friends, it is a lesson oftenor learned than loved. All knowledge is not nourishment. The mind may pine upon its food. In reckless thirst the scholar kneeled beside the stream polluted by the lepers of the mind. The sceptic, with his doubts of all things good, and faith in all things evil, has been there. And as the stream was mingled, ha hasstrown the shore with bright flowers to tempt the eye. and sloped the banks down gently for the feet. And genius like a fallen child has filled tlie place with magic, and changed most beautiful creations into forms and images of licence, and they come and tempt you with bewildering grace to kneel and drink of the wild waters, and behind stand the strong passions pleading to go in. And the approving world looks silent on, till the pleased mind conspires against itself, and finds a subtle reason “ Why ’tis good. “We are deceived, though, even as we drink, we taste the evil. In his sweetest tone the lying tempter whispers in our ear, Though it may s'ain, it will strengthen your proud wings. And in the wild ambition of the soul \s e drink anew, and dream like Lucifor—to mount upon onr daring draught to Heaven. My young friends, if there be one law above the rest written in wisdom, if there bs a word that I would trace as with a pen of fire upon the unsunned temper of a child, if there be anything that keeps the mind open to angel visits, ’tis human love. God has made nothing worthy of contempt. The smallest pebble in the well of truth has its peculiar meaning, and will stand when man’s best monuments have passed away. My friends, the leading feature in these entertainments being vocal and instrumental music, I think I cannot more appropriately close this opening address than in the beautiful lines of the Poet Watts on music— Mysterious keeper of.the key That opes the gates of memory ; Oft in thy wildest, simplest strain, We live o’er years of bliss again. The exile listens to the song Once heard his native bowers among, And straightwap in his visions rise Hopes, sunny fields, and cloudless skrs. Enchantress sweet of smiles and tears, Spell of the dream of vanished years : Mysterious keeper of the key That opes the gates of memory, ’Tis thine to bid sad hearts be gar, Yet chase the smiles of mirth away ; Joys sparkling eye in tears to steep, Yef-makc the mourner cease to weep. To gloom or sadness thou erms’t suit The chords of thy delicious iufcc-S For every heart thou hast a tone. Rendering its sadness all thine o .vn.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TEML18790913.2.5

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Temuka Leader, Issue 175, 13 September 1879, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,714

CHILDREN’S ENTERTAINMENT. Temuka Leader, Issue 175, 13 September 1879, Page 2

CHILDREN’S ENTERTAINMENT. Temuka Leader, Issue 175, 13 September 1879, Page 2

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