RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 66, 10 December 1938, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current Events

(By

Kickshaws).

Considering the fact that there are 234,000 different coins in the world it is incredible the way we seem to get the .pennies. ♦ * * Every sport in the Hutt Valley, it is claimed, should the entitled to a bit of Gear Island. The result, we understand, would produce a synchromesh. ♦, * * Commercial fishermen, it is slated, are being assisted by aeroplanes to catch fish. The amateur fisherman long ago appreciated the advantage of a fly. • * * “Recently an argument developed concerning the new traffic bridge over the Rakaia River in Canterbury. Seeing that you seem to be able to answer any questions raised, I wonder if you will ibe able to give me the following information in your column: “The length ,of the new Rakaia bridge ? “Will it be the longest traffic bridge in New Zealand? “The contract price? “The date on which the contract was let?” [The secretary, Main Highways Board, has kindly supplied the following information :— “(1) The length of the new road bridge over the Rakaia River will .be 5760 ft. "(2) This bridge will be easily the longest road traffic bridge in New Zealand. “(3) The contract price was £64,882. “(4) The contract was let on March 8, 1937.”]

Great stress is laid on the fact that the national song for the Centennial, “God Defend Neav Zealand,” takes second place to the National Anthem. Indeed, folk in England do not seem to possess anything of a national character but the (National Anthem. Possibly, / therefore, they may be surprised to hear us singing something else. ’’Rule Britannia” and “Land of Hope and Glory” compete equally for first place as a national song in England. Nevertheless the songs suffer from the defect that they are British rather than English.- The truth is that England has nothing to set 'beside “Scots AV ha Ha’e” or the “Men of Harlech.” National songs do not drop off like ripe gooseberries. In recent years Canada, Australia, Switzerland and Turkey -have all been looking for a national song. None submitted by competitors have -been considered suitable. Patriotic -songs are not written to order. It is surprising that Kipling did not supply something.

The combination, of circumstances that .produced some of the national anthems and patriotic songs are curious. It is a well-known fact that our own National Anthem originated in a poem written, by the mother superior of a convent in France to celebrate the recovery of a King of France from a bout of over-eating. It is, however, not so well known that from the British point of view it is the tune not the words that constitute our National Anthem. According to a reply in the House of Commons -some seven years ago the words are not the official part of the National Anthem. Indeed, when in 1858 Queen Victoria commanded Tennyson to celebrate the Royal wedding tlie following -two lines were added; Let both the peoples pray , God bless the marriage day. It is -perhaps out of date, even sentimentally, considering that one result of the wedding -war the Kaiser and the World War. Nevertheless, except for minor variations, our National Anthem has remained unchanged for over 150 years. * America’s famous “Star-Spangled Banner” was born under somewhat stirring conditions. This song is the premier anthem of the United States of America, although it shares its duties with “Hail Columbia” and “My Country, ’Tis of Thee.” In 1814 a lawyer who practised in Baltimore was forced to remain on board a British warship until a bombardment of the American shore forts had ended. After the bombardment had been going on for two hours the American flag continued to fly. The lawyer, Francis Scott Key, was so moved by this fact he wrote the words of “The Star-Spangled Bauer.” The tune is an anglicised version of a French hymn of praise to a Greek poet named Anacreon. There is usually little need for a body of civic dignitaries or diplomats to sit to discover a national song. The song discovers itself. Herr Ernst Lissauer's famous "Hymn of Hate” in the Great War was inspired by the rumour that the authorities in Britain were holding up hospital supplies for Germany shipped from America.

Actually, there has been very little in the way of originality in the matter of national antic ms. The tune of our own national anthem had done service for national songs in Denmark, Switzerland and Germany before the Hitler regime. The list also includes an alliance with the words of a song popular in the seventeenth century entitled "My Country, ’Tis of Thee.” The last song takes us to the United States of America. The French have never accepted the tune or adapted it in any way, despite the fact that it appears to have been sung in France before it was sung in England. More curious still, their own song, “La Marseillaise,” was born not as a result of a burst of patriotism, but to supply a marching song for troops at Strasbourg. Both the words and the tune seem to have been composed on the night of April 24, 1792, by Claude Joseph de Lisle, a French captain of engineers. Inspiration followed an evening silent in the company of his friend, tlie Mayor of Strasbourg, who had spoken of the need of a marching song. Actually, there is controversy as to tlie composer of the music.

Soviet Russia's grim song, the “Internationale,” does not seem to have been launched in a rage of revolutionary reaction. It was written by an obscure Frenchman by the name of Pottier. The music was comixtsed by another Frenchman in ISSS. This placid little air was originally sung about the streets of Paris before Russia made it her signature tune. At any rate the Russians have shown no embarrassment as regards the origin of their Internationale. In contrast, it came as a distinct slioek to tlie followers ot Hitler wlien they discovered that tlie author of their "Flag Song” was a Jew. Moreover, tlie "Horst Wessel" song is said t'o be a plagiarism, which is not unusual, as many songs and tunes come under this category. Tlie soug was composed by Wessel who died fur the Nazis ami has become a martyr. The tune, however, is not new. It had been adapted to at least three songs, tilthough tlie German Supreme Court refused to recognize this fact. Incidentally. the absorption of Austria into Germany not only gave the “Deutsch-land-Lied" a new verse, but it settled mice and for all whether "God Preserve Franz t lie Kaiser." "Austria. My Austria." "Deutschland Über Alles." all sung to tlie tune of "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken" by Haydn, should be the official anthem.