The Hawera Star. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1925. THE NEW ZEALAND SPEECH.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 9 February 1925, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1925. THE NEW ZEALAND SPEECH.

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock in Hawera. Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, 11. (ham. Mangatoki, iKaponga, Alton, Hurleyville, t’atea, Wnverlev, Mokoia, hakainara, Ohangai, Meromere, Fraser Hoad, and Ararata.

Possibly it is one of the fruits of his knighthoodpTnit the Minister of Education, always brim-full of ideas in regard to the work of the schools, has broken out. in three new places in the past month. Quite early in January lie set himself to reorganise the teaching of history—a move which we applauded at the time. Then Sir James decided that he would build a nation of songsters, and he assured a deputation of professional musicians that school singing was to be placed on an improved footing. Doubtless the Minister has his own methods for popularising the singing periods; some teachers have found that an effective means of securing hundred per cent.’attendances is to prescribe extra arithmetic for those pupils who “can’t sing”: it is wonderful then how much latent musical talent develops all of a sudden, especially among the boys. It would be unwise, however, to hazard an estimate of the extent, to which the effects are lasting; and the schools have a long road to travel vet before we have been made the musical people of the earth. Now it is the nation’s speech that has roused Sir James Parr to action. He expresses concern as to the purity qf the English spoken in the schools of New Zealand. This, he says, should be the best, in the world, and he is asking teachers and inspectors to devote special attention to the question this year. The Department is to do its share by publishing a text-book. The Minister started the ball rolling when lie put two direct questions to the school inspectors in conference assembled: */ “Do you observe any tendency to a deteriorated English accent in the schools? If so, what steps are you taking to cure the mischief?” The observations of the inspectors, as recorded in the answers they offered, were by no means all in one direction. One gentleman from Auckland found fault, especially in the pronunciation of some of the dairying districts, where the children might be rather tired. He went the length of saying that the accent. in the East End of London, where he was recently doing exchange duty, was purer than, in some parts of New Zealand. On. the other hand the Director of Education, quoting from his experience as a headmaster in Christchurch, declared his belief that in no Jther British country was the speech as sound as in the Dominion. Speaking on the authority of an exchange teacher from England, the senior inspector for Otago said that speech was purer in the South Island than in the. North, and that, it improved the farther south one went. This announcement was greeted by loud North Island laughter; but it has long been said that the traveller must go to Inverness to hear the King’s English at its best, and, if Inverness lias its counterpart in this country, certainly it lies south of the Waitaki. But for the most part the inspectors were not. greatly alarmed by

the state of our speech. There does not j seem anv real reason "why they should j be, although, if the Minister can impress upon his teachers the value of stressing the distinctive vowel sounds, he and they will be rendering a valuable service. While the spirit of the pioneers remains —and may it stay with us all the way! —there are bound to be traces of the foundation speech in various parts of the country. It is not unknown for young colonials from the south, whose parents before them were New Zealand born, to be asked in Canterbury how long they have been “out” from Scotland; and mannerisms in speech betray the ancestry of children front other stock as well. A realisation of this will bring the Minister and his experts back to the fact that it is the home rather than the school which is the fountain head of the nation’s speech, just, as it is the mould of character. The opportunity offered to the earnest and conscientious teacher of directing the child’s life along right lines is one too often not appreciated; but at the very most the teacher has his charges under him for only twenty-five hours a week, and unless the work begun in the class-room is continued and consolidated in the home the teacher ’s time may be largely wasted. The boy will always ape the man, and in the home “were” the parents “ain’t pertickler” in their wav of “speakin’” the child will grow up to an equally slovenly use of his mother tongue. Of course, the parents themselves are the product of the schools, but not to a. greater extent than of their own homes, and so errors are perpetuated. It has to be admitted, too, that schoolboys are prone to employ one standard in class and quite another in the playground. Slang always has been and always will be, but, apart from slang, boys in their games use grammatical constructions and pronunciations—mostly slurring of vowels which they know would never pass muster inside the school doors. Theii homes must accept the blame for that. It. ‘is a lofty ideal that Sir James has set himself- —that New Zealand English. should be the. purest in the ivorld— -but the policy of hitching even the waggon of our everyday speech tc a star is one to be commended; and, with greater emphasis placed upon phonics in the- teachers’ training colleges, something may be accomplished in ridding the New Zealand tongue of those stray impurities which undoubtedly are present, but not yet to any alarming extent. It would not. be out of place were the Minister to make a free issue of his text-book when the eighty learned gentlemen of the electors’ choice reassemble in Wellington next June. . .