Chronicle-1931

- J.U March 7th; Dr. G.B. King gave an interesting and instructive lec ture on Vivisection, supplying many of the gaps that had been apparent in the previous debate on tlie subject. He con vinced his hearers that medical science owed nearly everything to the knowledge gained through experiments on animals. March 14th; The following motion was debateds "That Natal is the best Province in South Africa". Burdon led off in a breezy speech that owed its effectiveness more to enthusiasm than to neatness of style, and was ably seconded by K. Balcomb who, though speaking impromptu, painted a vigorous and remarkable word picture of the beauties of the Province. His speech vras an exceed ingly effective and praiseworthy bit of work. Michell and Ellis led the opposition, but their subject did not rouse in them any thing to approach Balcomb's lyrical mood, and after a general de bate, v/hich was rather one-sided, the motion was adopted by a huge majority. The repetition of argiuaent among the junior members especially, showed that if they are to get anything of value from the Society, they laust take themselves more seriously, and endeav our to do a little more hard thinking. March 21st; A programme of music was enjoyed with the aid of Mr. Ilara-ison's gramophone. It was found exceedingly diff5.cult to satisfy both the lovers of the better sort of music and of jaza, but a programme reflecting the wishes of both camps was much appreciated. The best item was Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No,, , and the vrorst was undoubtedly something vile entitled '"3'Malche" .Yodel. March 2oth; In order to satisfy the rule that each member shall make at least three speeches per Quarter,those v;^ho had not been as eloquent as desired were given an opportunity o f making up their deficiency by a three to four minute speech on any subject of their o;vn. V/hat might have been a very interesting meeting was utterly ruined by the speakers' reading word for word what they had copied from an encyclopaedia or other books, and so one of the chief purposes of the Society vms frustrated. It is sincerely bo be hoped that backvrard members will show more courage and more intelligence in the futvire. It would be wrong to conoluda these notes with such a pessim istic remark as the e.bove, for there is no doubt that the Society has done good work during the Quarter, and has retained the genuine

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