Retired Dunedin psychiatrist Dr Bruce Spittle believes he has found the answer to a question that has been bugging the city's Scottish community - when was a Burns club first established here: 1861 or 1891?
And the answer - 1861, according to Dr Spittle - means the club honouring Scottish poet Robert Burns (that almost went into recess last year) can look forward to celebrating a 150th anniversary next year.
While the club's letterhead has always proclaimed 1861 as the starting point, a history published for the "centenary" in 1991 suggested the club was constituted on March 18, 1891.
Dr Spittle said there had been a "divergence of opinion" lately among members of the club.
Delving back into the Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, published annually since 1891 by the Burns Federation in Kilmarnock, Scotland, he found references over 29 years to the Dunedin club being formed in 1861.
He considered that if it was a mistake then, over such a long period of time, it would have been corrected.
The oldest club, at Greenock, Scotland, was formed in 1801.
The Dunedin club was listed as the 15th oldest of more than 300 clubs.
"It wouldn't have had a continuous existence.
"It probably waxed and waned and the people probably died out and there was a loss of interest."
And Dr Spittle considered there were probably several clubs, including the Otago club set up in 1869 on the 110th anniversary of Burns' birth.
His other research showed Otago's first poet, John Barr, who migrated to Dunedin in 1852 and died in 1889, was considered responsible for forming the club.
The club is planning a dinner on Saturday to celebrate Burns' birthday.
Dr Spittle said that last May, club membership was down to 17 and it almost went into recess but had since attracted 45 new members.
Burns was the uncle of the Rev Thomas Burns, a founding father of the Otago settlement.
At the Dunedin Public Library next Monday at 12.30pm, poet Michael Harlow will discuss his year as the 2009 Robert Burns Fellow at the University of Otago, and read his poetry.
Readings from Burns will also be made.
Prof Eric Richardson, an historian at Flinders University, Adelaide, will give a public lecture, "Debating the Highland Clearances", at the Otago Settlers Museum on Monday at 5.30pm. mark.price@odt.co.nz
