ST. ANDREW SOCIETY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 July 1938, Page 7

ST. ANDREW SOCIETY

♦ CONCERT ON SATURDAY NIGHT. SUCCESSFUL'AND ENJOYABLE GATHERING. That the national spirit of the Scots in the community is a very live and potent factor of their being is made more and more evident from, the continued and increased success of the Saint Andrew Society gatherings. This is, of course, to be expected among those actually born and bred in Scotland, but it should b'e a source of great gratification to the society that its efforts to cultivate the same spirit in New Zealand-born Scots are crowned with marked success. This success was particularly evident at the society’s gathering on Saturday evening. The Scottish concert, with which the gathering opened, was received with great enthusiasm. During the dancing that followed, the great number who took part in the foursome and eightsome reels, and other Scots dances, and the evident enjoyment of the participants, were sufficient evidence of the popularity of these dances among the society’s members. The increasing number of participants in these dances is no doubt in some part attributable to the society's policy of holding practices, at which the uninitiated are able to acquire sufficient knowledge to enable them to overcome the diffidence that might prevent their endeavouring, in public, to take part in dances that they had not previously attempted. These practices have this season been very well patronised, so much so. that it has been decided, from tonight, to hold them weekly instead of fortnightly. Saturday night’s concert was opened, as usual, by a pipe selection, the performer on this occasion being Piper Allan Mackenzie Douglas. Miss Heather Douglas’s sweet young voice delighted her hearers in “Smile Again my Bonnie Lassie,” and her song was followed by a duet with her sister Joan, “The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond,” which was equally well received. Joan has a contralto voice truly remarkable in a child. Mr W. McMichael, who was in splendid voice, sang “My Ain Folk,” and in response to an encore, “Scotland Yet.” Miss Grace Gaudin’s contributions, sung with great charm and taste, were the old Hebridean song “To People Who Have Gardens,” the truly Celtic lilt of which greatly pleased her hearers, and, by way of encore, “O’ Can ye Sew Cushions.” The pleasing blending of the voices of Miss D. Jamieson and Mrs Milne assured them an enthusiastic reception of their duets “Flow Gently Sweet Afton,” and “Will ye no Come Back Again.” A novelty item was furnished by Mr T. Price, whose blackboard sketches, with his humorous comments on them, made him very popular with the audience.

The concert programme concluded with a community sing of old Scots’ songs, led by the society’s concert organiser, Mr W. Mann. Dancing, in which about a hundred couples took part, followed until midnight, the gathering concluding with “Auld Lang Syne” and'the National Anthem. Music for the Highland dancing was furnished by Chiefs Piper Thos. Pickett, and for the other dancing by Barnes“s Orchestra.