POPULAR READINGS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 60, 3 April 1869, Page 3

POPULAR READINGS.

(To the Editor of the Tuapeka Times.)

Sib, — Many of the supporters of the Popular Readings movement in the country districts have been much chagrined at a letter published in the ." Otago Witness " (on the 19th inst., I believe), wherein the writer condemns the Readings, as usually conducted, as having rather a degrading than an elevating tendency. Now, if the writer of that letter alluded to some particular place, he should have

named it, and not stigmatised the taste of the whole Province (especially the country districts) as depraved and void of. refinement. From what I know of the population ot Otago, I doubt if the assertions made in the letter alluded to can be truthfully ap- 1 plied to any one case ; and I know for a fact that if applied to several localities with which I am personally acquainted, they 'are utterly false. I send you herewith a specimen of the Switzers-Beadings, which was written and delivered by Mrs. J. N. Wood on 1 Monday last, and request you will do your country readers the favour of publishing it. I forbear to comment on its excellencies, but would simply state that one such original piece has been produced here by the same lady every week Bince the movement started, about three months ago. There are generally about ten readings in an evening, and the selections made have been from the very first authors in the language — irreproachable in point of taste, and, as a general rule, far better rendered than could be expected at these the very confines of civilization and refinement. — I am,

A Readeb. Switzers, March 29, 1869.