ON PRECEDENCE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 70, 23 March 1940, Page 2 (Supplement)

ON PRECEDENCE

TT appears from a speech made by a Maori at a recent.banquet that the Maori order of precedence in addressing an assembly is the opposite to ours. We begin at the top and work down. Waiting speakers have many an anxious moment as they go over in their minds the proper persons to mention at the beginning of their speeches, and the right order—"Mr. Chairman, Mr. Nash, Mr. Mayor, lad:es and gentlemen. ' But according to our Maori authority, the Maori, not wishing to be like the crayfish, which is referred to in a Maori proverb. as walking backwards (I wonder if this is scientifically correct), uses the reverse order. "Fellow pupils, ladies and gentlemen, the Hon. Sir. Barnard, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Chairmaji"—so this Maori speaker began his speech at the banquet, starting, as he said, with the simple, and rising by degrees to the most exalted. I don't know that it matters much, just as it is no proof of the superiority of the West

ByCyrano

over the East that the West writes from left to riglt and the East from right to left. In both cases the respect is there, but it is approached from opposite sides. Working to a Climax It is perhaps worth noting, however, that the English method of proceeding from the exalted to the lowly resembles the modern newspaper handling of news, while the Maori method is the general practice in literature. When you write a magazine story or a novel you work up to a climax, whether it is wedding bells, the scaffold, or an 0. Henry surprise. Tho beginning and end of stories and plays are the most difficult parts. You must catch your readers' interest and hold it, without —in most cases— giving the' ending away. It has been said, with some degree of actual truth, that many people can writo a good first act, but few a good last act. And of course in sectional construction climax is one of tho commonest and most effective forms of literary art, just as its opposite, anti-climax or bathos, is one of the deadly literary sins. I seem

to remember from my schooldays a horrible example, in the form of a nobleman who was' Clod of War and second cousin to the Earl of Mar. No, in literary expression tho English order of precedence won't do. No r.nle, however, is absolutely unbreakable. In '"Tho Bridge of San Luis Rey" Thornton Wilder killed off all his characters in the first chapter, and then proceeded to tell us about their lives. Important Facts First In the handling of news we get the other order—the most important tilings lirst, and embroidery afterwards. The accounts of the voyage of the Queen Elizabeth to New York, for instance, did not begin with the passage down tho Clyde and go on to the crossing of the Atlantic. They began with the central fact that the ship had reached New York; after that came the account of the reception and the details of her departure and voyage. Similarly, in home news you do not read in an account of a motoring accident how the cars collided and then proceed to tho .result of the collision. You read that one person was killed and two injured (names ' given) in an accident at such-and-such a spot at such-and-such a time. Then you pass on to the details of the accident. It wasn't always thus. Newspapers of ' bygone days are calculated to make sub- ' editors laugh and cry. The news of ' Trafalgar was printed in "The Times" ''

! " <S> just as it was contained in Collingwood's disijatch, without, if I remember rightly, any more display tlmn the heading "Gazette Extraordinary." The reader had to dig out the facts for himself, and, as it was a more leisurely age, perhaps it didn't do him any harm. Today such news would he set out in essence. "On October 21 the British Fleet under Lord Nelson crushingly defeated the French and Spanish Fleets under Admiral Villeneuvo." "Nineteen enemy ships were, captured and one blown up." "Lord Nelson died in the hour of victory." Something like this, paragraphed, under banner headings, would be the beginning of the story! There are two reasons for this treatment of news. It enables the reader to grasp quickly the essentials of a story and it may therefore claim to be a branch of literary art. The reverse side is the laziness it induces in some readers. They read only what is called in newspaper ollices the "lead," and don't bother to go to the details, or perhaps they don't read further than tho headings. But there is another reason for the use and refinement of tho "lead." It helps the sub-editor to make up his pages. That a newspaper page is a very rigid thing tho ptdblic is slow to understand. Those who make it up —and last pages have to ho made up in a great hurry—must produeo a page that is full and even. If thcro is too much of one story and the last paragraph or two are unimportant it is easy to make even by dropping these. If, however, tho essential facts are distributed through tho story instead of being placed at the top, cutting down is more diflicult, and on some papers ■tho staff is working to seconds. No, 1 fear tho Maori order wouldn't do in newspaper work. This order, however, prevails in some ceremonials. Take a procession. The most important personages don't ride at tho head, no moro than does a star singer with touring support open a programme. "As embarrassed-looking as tho first man in sight in a procession"— a good figure of speech. Social Precedence Every country has its orders of precedence. In some societies there are men who do nothing else but regulate ; (hem. Insistence is strongest .where , there arc clearly defined strata of society and power and privilege are hereditary. ' In England it would never do for a mere ' baron to precede a duke. In India the honours accorded to ruling princes must ' bo paid most punctiliously; if a rajah gets one gun too few in a salute someone hears about it. Tho British community < takes its cue from this carefully , regulated system, and a senior official's ' wifo _ takes caro that she goes in ' to dinner ahead of a woman whose l husband is a grade lower. In a t country liko ours, though precedence is c properly observed in the official world, few people are bothered about such tilings. There was once-a Now Zealand ( M.P., deeming that he hadn't got his 1 rights, appealed to Burke—the "Peerage'! , not tho genius of political theory—but I , don't think ho got much sympathy. Sir J Robert Stout had a difference with Seddon on the subject, but the public f wasn't excited. There is some comfort in belonging to " i social circle where all you have to I worry albout is that women and elderly f people como first, and you can summon li i company to dinner with no risk of li setting your little community by the a ears because Mrs. X ■ went in before f Vlrs. Y . All you have to do is to 'J iee that you go last and that the dinner b s hot. This second care is sometimes f yorry enough. t