AUTHORS AND THEIR VIEWS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18565, 24 November 1923, Page 4 (Supplement)

AUTHORS AND THEIR VIEWS

THE TAHITIANS.

"The store manager in crackling white "drills and a luxuriant office, who welcomes you with a winning smile and speeds you with a staggering bill; the schooner skipper, a genial soul possessed of an enviable independence that empowers him to tell his ' owners' to go to' the devil for three months of a hurricane season each year, the while his ship lies in port, and he disports himself and his latest yarn over variegated drinks on the balcony of the Bougainville Club; the French Government official, as awe-inspiring in business hours as he is charming out of them. , ' . " As for the natives, they are a relic of a once superb race. White man's blight has descended upon them. " The half-caste is a power. The accepted idea that he retains the failiugs of the white man and none of his virtues is entirely erroneous. He , possesses a physical and mental virility that carries him further than most to success in the tTopics. He is usually extremely handsome, quietly mannered and industrious, and the women of his species are among the most beautiful in the world."—Ralph Stock.

HIS SOCIALIST VOTE. Vachel Lindsay, a leading American poet, who is somewhat of a cynic, explains " why one . voted the Socialist Ticket" :— ' I am unjust, but I can strive for justice. My life's unkind, but I can vote for kindness. I the unloving, say life should bo. lovely, 'i, that am blind, cry out against my blindness. Man is a curio'brute —he pits his fancies Fighting mankind, to win sweet luxury. So he will be, tbo* law be clear as crystal, Tho' all men plan to live in harmony. Come let us vote against our human nature. Crying to God in all the polling places To heal our everlasting sinfulness And make us sages with transfigured faces.