ESPERANTO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 May 1941, Page 3

ESPERANTO

■ MASTERTON CLUB MEETING. OPENING OF 1941 SEASON. The Masterton Esperanto Club open- ' cd its 1941 season of weekly meetings in the Municipal Buildings last night, Mrs W. J. Beresford presiding over a satisfactory attendance of members, j The president extended a warm welcome to all present and expressed the j hope that substantial progress would 1 be made in the study of the international language, despite the war condi- • tions obtaining. The secretary, Mr W. H. King, presented correspondence received and displayed recent numbers of Esperanto magazines to demonstrate that the Esperanto movement is firmly placed in the Dominion, in Britain and internationally. In an address to members, Mr King referred to the outstanding success of the eleventh New Zealand Esperanto congress held at Wanganui at New Year and to the pleasure he had derived in meeting Esperantist soldiers at Waiouru Military Camp, with several of whom he had not previously been acquainted. Despite the war a large number of Esperantists in New Zealand were pushing on with the work of spreading the language and were looking forward to the new order predicted to follow the cessation of the present hostilities. In an international

membership competition arranged last year, and judged on a percentage basis, New Zealand had occupied eleventh place in a list comprising 30 countries. The club congratulated Mr and Mrs N.’ A. Lamont on their success at the fourth translation test arranged at the end of last year by the New Zealand Esperanto Association. It was decided to utilise the all-Esperanto gazette, “La Interna Ideo,” published monthly at Wellington, as a club reader: to introduce a short session of “Che” (direct) method of instruction at each meeting; and to meet each Monday at 7 p.m. at 10 Cambridge Terrace. Following a presentation of a short but instructive article of “idioms” by the secretary, a conversational circle was formed for the purpose of employing Esperanto in direct practice.