The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and The Morning News. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1875

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1748, 21 September 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and The Morning News.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1875

Wot th« cause th»t lacks asaistanca, ITor the wrong thzs needs resintaiaq, 9or th» fsturo in the distance. Aad th» ffeod thirt ~o cv i»

We had no inconsiderable share in pressing the American " Spelling Bee" on the attention of the people of this city, and it is therefore with some regret that we observe that this harmless pastime has somewhat degenerated in this new climate. We give credit for the very best intentions to those who have instituted the various contests, but several errors have been committed, which have caused ill-will among competitors, and are fast sapping the popularity of the game. We do not hesitate to say that whoever conceived the idea of admitting youths and children to compete with adults, failed to understand the true spirit of the Yankee game, and struck a deadly blow at its permanence and success. For it is the bizarre aspect of bearded men competing, that constitutes the secret of its catching popularity; evoking that quaint feeling which people would have at seeing a number of greyheaded grandsires playing marbles or leapfrog. Adults in such cases are willing to unbend for the sake of the novelty of the sensation; and the semblance of intense anxiety assumed by such, as if they were carried away entirely by the spirit of competition and the desire to win some trifling prize—it is this that gives to it that broad extravagance which is so great an element in American fun. But now it has degenerated into a veritable struggle for success and reward, and children are induced to come forward and exhibit their abilities, m

which being all very well in the nursery or the school-room, is wholly alien to the true spirit of the Yankee "Spelling Bee." We scarcely think it possible to restore the institution to its original position. It has run riot and exhibited unpleasant results which were never contemplated by those, we are sure, who first set the Bee a-wing. v\ ith the best of intentions, adults of excellent educaation have descended into the arena and have been beaten accidentally by prigs of boys, whose priggisbnees is not lessened thereby, and, who we are informed, have made it their boast that they have beaten so and? so. When we know how the very best education may not be proof against an occasional error in orthography, and. especially when the test applied is in that oral form to which adults have not been accustomed, since their schooldays, we reassert that there should no discredit whatever attach to such a mistake. But when, contending with youths, a man of years and experience makes a lapsus in his letters, there is a humiliation, to which no man should subject himself, and more than this, which the conductors of these Bees should not induce. We speak of this matter from a perusal of the angry correspondence which the Bees have elicited, and from rumours current; not having had opportunity of seeing the actual proceedings. But it is very apparent that the spirit of the genuine Yankee Bee has been lost, and that Auckland has gone in for simple spelling - book exercises wherein we defy any man to see any element of humour. It is evident that America is the only home of the grotesque paradoxical type of fun. Our clime is ungenial; the " Bee" doesn't buzz naturally here ; and if we may form an estimate from the irritation consequent, we feel inclined to think that in our murky atmosphere it has degenerated into a "Wasp."