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Otago Daily Times, Issue 19406, 16 February 1925, Page 8

The lofty aspiration of Mr Bavin, Victorian Attorney-General, in regard to the creation of a National Theatre is likely to remain just an aspiration (says the Sydney correspondent of the Melbourne Argus). Mir Bavin has some courage, but he has not sufficient, nor is ever likely to have sufficient to prompt him to make this life-and-death political principle. Wo can rub along without a National Theatre built and subsidised by the Government. Were one existent, there would doubtless be a now department to control it, and the Minister in charge would have to select the plays and possibly the players. It is not difficult to imagine a scene in the Assembly with the Opposition attacking, using every just and unjust argument, and the Minister, supported by Continental precedent, replying and justifying his action even in regard to the ballets. Mr Bavin will be asked about this National Theatre dream. Raucous voices will be raised in open-air election meetings to inquire whether a shelter shed for the unemployed is not more important. His own supporters will ask how he can give forth such schemes while the State still lacks a decent genera! library.

Dr P. H. Buck is preparing a pamphlet in Maori in connection with the diagnosis and treatment of infantile paralysis. There are no such words as “infantile paralysis” in the Maori language, and an ethnological difficulty was experienced in finding a suitable heading for the pamphlet. The author did not desire to coin a word for the occasion. It is well known that the kernels of the karaka berry, a popular Native dish, are very poisonous unless treated by boiling. Eating the green kernel brings about a state of poisoning and a twisting up of the body known to the Maoris as “rori.” Dr Buck has therefore chosen the following words: —“Mato Whakarori Tamariki,” which mean “Tho disease that twists up the limbs of a child.”