NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22719, 4 May 1937, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

WELL-BEING IN MARRIAGE Sir Walter Langdon-Brown, Emerifitus Professor of Physic in the University of Cambridge, and consultant physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, said in a recent speech that nothing promotes physical, mental, moral and spiritual well-being so much as a happy marriage. "If," he said, "I were asked to point to one thing which above all others might be taken to prove the existence of an overriding force which is beneficent in intent, I should unhesitatingly point to a successful partnership between man and woman."

BRITISH WILL FOR PEACE There is no more peaceful democracy in the world than that of Britain, declared Sir Thomas Inskip, Minister for Co-ordination of Defence, in a speech at Cambridge University. "Some people forget that we in this country are a great democracy," he said, "The day is past when war'could bo declared by the King against the will of his nation. Wo are not under a dictator who can dragoon and drive a population into some adventure over which they have 110 spirit. I believe there was never a nation with its miud more set upon peace than tlio British people to-day." The Government had achieved that position for Great Britain by insisting, amid all the difficulties of the last year, upon the compelling duty which it felt of rearmament for defence and peace.

DECLINE OF GAELIC It will bo something of a shock to Gaelic-speaking Scots to learn that the University of Oslo is organising an expedition to Scotland to record the various dialects of Scottish Gaelic whilethere is yet time. Professor Marstrander and his assistants fear that the language is doomed and are determined that it shall not, like .Manx and Cornish, pass without leaving full documentary proof of its existence. The Norwegians propose to spend three years on their work, making phonetic transcriptions and gramophone records and preparing the way for a dictionary of Gaelic. They will meet with hearty cooperation from all in Scotland who can help them, says the Manchester Guardian, but their mission will cause some heart-searching among the Gaels. Unfortunately, on a long view, the apprehensions of the Norwegian linguists would seem to be justified. Gaelic is still spoken by some 130,000 of Scotland's population, mainly in Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland, Inverness and Argyll, and in many villages in those counties church services are held alternately in Gaelic and in English. But ten years earlier the number was 150,000 and to-day it makes a poor showing in Scotland's population of 4,500,000. In Wales and in Ireland the Celtic tongue is in no danger. Wales boasts 31 per cent of Welsh speakers, and the Free State claims that 17 per cent of its citizens talk Erse. Various cultural movements have lately aimed at reviving Scottish Gaelic, but without much success.

NEW SENSE OF DESIGN "It is now possible to purchase pleasant and often beautifully proportioned and coloured articles at tlie popular stores, and the more exclusive shops are, as we know, making such things more accessible for the (vell-to-do," said Mr. Holbrook Jackson, in a recent broadcast. "A new sense of design, born of a demand for convenience, is replacing the good old traditions as well as the bad old habits, and with the breaking down of class and comfort barriers it is not perhaps extravagant to hope that the British Commonwealth may one day become a Commonwealth of Taste. The origin of these changes can be traced to the influence of an artist who became a shopkeeper. The revival of the decorative arts is- the result of tho practical imagination of the poet and craftsman, William Morris. He was striving to restore the principles of handicraft. He failed in this, but he opened the door for those modern artists and craftsmen who are now bringing design within the range of mechanical operations. Recent improvement in tho design of so many of the common objects of the shop is the result of a compromise between artists and technicians. Tho inevitable result of mechanical production is uniformity, and, although uniformity may lead to monotony, it need not lack beauty. In fact, modern improvement in popular taste is mainly the result of better design in standardised goods, and the average shopper is buying better-designed goods because those goods are accessible, because the problem of taste has been solved for him."

WORKING TO MUSIC The modern world holds many monotonous jobs, and tho processes of mass production tend to multiply them, says tho Manchester Guardian. To sit before a moving platform and treat similar items in the same way over and over again is a task vastly different from that of tho craftsman who completes a job from beginning to end. If it means boredom and staleness for the operator, that is a source nofT only of weariness to him or her but of possiblo anxiety to tho employer, for weariness brings down the output. Music has been tried as a stimulant, and, according to a publication of the British Medical Research Council on "Fatigue and Boredom in Repetitive Work," it works well; as tho music goes round and round (from gramophone records and amplifiers) the output has risen in some of the experi-

mcnts by nearly 4i per cent. Apparently the music lias to bo spaced out and inquiry must be made as to the tendencies of the workers. Waltzes made some of them languid, and quicker melodies were liable to disturb the rhythm of the actual job in hand. It would seem, therefore, that melody as an aid to industrial output is a problem that requires careful approach, and there may be some who will smile to see it considered at all. They should remember, however, that the mechauical and monotonous job need be no hardship if the mind is either at case or ripely occupied. Spinoza polishing lenses and perfecting philosophy is an example ot the richer process. But if music eases and interests the mind of those who are not philosophers it may yet come to rank as an industrial lubricant for dull jobs.