LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24875, 22 April 1944, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Cockayne Carols Sir, —Deploring a decline and fall in King's English, writers may feel their flesh creep over Cockney mother tongue heard in London's East End, as, j say. in "Round the Town":— Rhand ther tahn, up and dahn, Anyfing to earn a 'onest brahn; When our 'armony is good, then they finks we're sorin' wood. Ho, ther 'appy days we're 'avin' rhand the tahn. "Brahn" is brown, a penny. Begging barred, mendicants may sing m the streets, and music lovers throw them browns. PEiiqr Lindley. Giant Pumpkins Sir, —In the Herald of April 20 is an account of a splendid crop grown from seed sent from Egypt. G'ood, no doubt, but still a long way to go before beating Gisborne as regards weight, I remember in February or March, 1886, on my first visit to Gisborne from Auckland, seeing a very large pumpkin placed alongside the doorway of a seed shop in the main street and labelled as weighing 1751b. and grown on the Kati Beach, Gisborne; and doubtless there are many people in Gisborne today who, as children, remember seeing that pumpkin. From a resident in Poverty Bay afterward I found that in large crops grown for stock on the rich flats pumpkins of the round variety were common at 801 ! i nnd 901b. each. 11 Wanklin The Call Subsidy Sir, —I should like; to make a lew comments on the proposed calf subsidy. Once again the small man is to be exploited by the big one. A farmer milking 30 cows will have to rear two extra calves in order to get his own money back. Replacements for a herd of 30 would be five calves. That would leave about 20 bobbies. There are always a number of calves born dead or underweight, so that 20 is a fair average. The bobbies are levied 2s per head, £2, and the subsidy on two calves is £2. If for any reason only five heifers are reared there is a loss of £2. Take the case of a herd of 60 cows: Replacements, 10 heifers; bobbies, 40; subsidy on five heifers. £5; levy on 40 bobbies, £4. This means that, whereas the small farmer with 30 cows shows a loss on replacements of £2, the farmer with 60 cows makes a profit of £1 on ordinary replacements without rearing a single heifer more than usual. Two pounds are to be taken out of the pocket of one to put into that of the other. The small farmer usually cannot roar more heifers, as his farm is small and fully stocked, whereas an extra few calves are hardly noticed on a largerplace. A fair thing would be to pay the subsidy on all heifers reared above the number required for ordinary replacements, which would be" a figure very easilv arrived at. Anotithu Smat,l Fatimf.u This English Sir, —-The interest shown 111 the subject of degradation of certain words in oiii' language is a healthy sign. Few Saw Zealanders, conscious of their heritage of sound and well-spoken English, would deliberately defile the well from which our forebears drew their speech, but carelessness causes some to accept usages against, which our education system has, apparently, provided no proof. Of words which are misplaced and degraded, the latest is "residential," which, used as a noun in instructions to country voters, came over the air in connection with warnings on enrolment for the local body elections. This official use of this word as a noun is new to this country, though in Australia it has for several years been so used to indicate a house let in apartments. One wonders who starts these new uses for old words and, without authority, imposes them on the undiseriminating, casting them here, there and everywhere, till they are heard ad nauseam. Even words used nowadays correctly tend to become overworked; take, for instance, "global," now heard) and seen in almost every reference to j the extent of the war. Apart from the j fact that it is ugly in appearance, I have nothing against it, but its too frequent use is making it sound and look like a sign of linguistic impoverishment. Surely we can expect that our national broadcasting service, directed by a professor, would safeguard our language from rulgar innovations rather 'than assist in its degradation. M.B.S,