“ESPERANTO” IN NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1775, 14 March 1906, Page 27

“ESPERANTO” IN NEW ZEALAND.

(To the Editor N.Z. “Mail.”)

Sir, —Most people have heard something of Esperanto, which aspire© to bo a universal language, and a recent article in the “Review of Reviews” describing the Esperanto Congress at Bologne, at which three thousand representatives of all nations were present, has done a great deal to advertise the advantages of this easily learned language. Many of your readers will doubtless bo interested to learn that a New Zealand Esperanto Association lias been formed with objects similar to those of the British Association “for the purpose of spreading the international language. 0 t association proposes to assist learners by the distribution of literature to encourage correspondence between members of the association, to promote the formation of local societies, and to generally help the movement.

A language that is absolutely phonetic, in which the grammar has been reduced to the simplest possible form, that is more than half English, and which can be learned sufficiently well for correspondence in a few weeks, and can be spoken fluently after ©ix months, is certainly worth investigat-

ing. There are, at present, hundred© of societies in every part of the civilised world, including Japan. Numerous journals and magazines are published in Esperanto, and it is estimated that there ar<f over a million Esperantists at present, and this number is rapidly increasing. Max Muller, Sir William Ramsay, Zangwill, Tolstoi, and many other well-known men speak in the highest terms of Esperanto, and it is being taught in many of tlie Continental schools, and is being adopted as the official language! of numerous societies. The address of the New Zealand Association is at present Box 597, P. 0., Christchurch. —I am, Sir, etc., CEDRIC F. WHITE, Hon. Sec.