ST. ANDREW SOCIETY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 November 1938, Page 5

ST. ANDREW SOCIETY

FINAL GATHERING OF 1938 SEASON. JUNIOR COMMITTEE TAKE CHARGE. The St Andrew Society’s monthly gathering on Saturday evening proved itself a fitting climax to a highly successful season. The attendance was about 250. On this occasion, the gathering was organised and controlled by a junior' committee, under the presidency of Mr Finlay Milne, with Miss Mabel Walker as secretary, and was fully as successful as last year’s similar gathering. With the energy. of youth, this committee decided to dispense with the usual concert portion of the programme, and the evening’s entertainment was confined to dancing, .interspersed with band items. At the beginning of the evening, the Chief of the Society, Mr H. Mackenzie Douglas, apologised, in the first instance, for his intrusion, as he had been deposed for the evening in favour of Mr Finlay Milne. There were, however, one or two announcements, that he wished to make before abdication. He congratulated the members of the dance practices on the success of their recent social evening in honour of their tutors, Messrs Walker and Cruickshank. That night’s gathering, he stated, would be the last of the regular monthly gatherings for the season. Owing to the approach of hot weather, it had been decided to abandon the gathering usually held at the beginning of December, and substitute a Grand Scots Concert to be held on St Andrew’? night, November 30. He went on to refer to the Society’s debt of gratitude to Mr I. I. McGregor, formerly postmaster at Masterton, who had been on a visit to Scotland. Mr McGregor had arranged for a supply of heather, gathered at Stonehaven. Kincardineshire, to be sent out for distribution among the members. Accordingly, every person present that evening had been furnished with a piece of heather. The Chief referred to the regret that all would feel that Miss Mabel Walker, who had acted as secretary to the junior committee, was prevented by indisposition from being present that evening. The Chief then handed over the control of the gathering to Mr Finlay Milne, as Chief for the evening. The guests of the evening were the Wairarapa College Pipe Band, which rendered a number of items during the evening. The band was enthusiastically received, and, after one of its shorter items, was obliged to respond to an encore. The opinion was freely expressed in the hall that the night’s performances were the best given by the band since its commencement, from both the musical and the military point of view. Certainly, the band’s music was a treat to hear, and the precision and accuracy jf its military evolutions roused those present to a high pitch of enthusiasm. The band paraded under Drum-Major Tooby, and Pipe-Sergeant A. Mackenzie Douglas. Eightsome and foursome reels, and other Scots dances filled the greater part of the dance programme, while relaxation from the more strenuous dancing was furnished by an occasional round dance. A set of lancers was also included in the .programme. The winners of a Monte Carlo dance were Mrs Betty and partner. In the course of the evening, the Junior Chief announced that the Wairarapa Highland 'Pipe Band (Carterton) intended holding a social evening at the Band Room, Carterton, on Tuesday, November 15. As the proceeds were to be devoted to the band’s uniform fund, it was hoped that a number of members of the Society would attend.

A great gathering of the Clans is to be held at Wanganui on Wednesday, the first day of the Wanganui Show, at which Mr A. J. Sinclair, of Te Awamutu (well-known to radio listeners through his talks from IZM) is to be the principal speaker. Members who wish to attend should notify the Chief without delay. Double tickets cost 10s each.

The gathering concluded, as usual, with “Auld Lang Syne" and the National Anthem.