PASSING NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22374, 22 September 1934, Page 6

PASSING NOTES

A vexed question indeed is this “ freedom of speech a real “ vexata quaestio.” “Vexed” is it because “ tossed up and down,” “ bandied to and fro,” and raising a turmoil all round. And it is a real “ quaestio “ a torture and a torment.” i So will it always be when mankind sets out to solve the ihsolub 1 ■problem of fixing the bounds of freedom. What is freedom? For untold ages man has demanded it, has fouglit his battles for it, has. sung his songs and written his. poems . about it. Yet no two men will agree on it. Man heard its shrieks when Kosciusko fell. He saw the -arrows that Leonidas and William Tell shot for it. He watched Boadicea and Joan of Arc, Sylvia Pankhurst and Mrs Amelia Jenks Bloomer in their struggles for it. Yet all these varied freedoms combined are but a pale and partial memory of what mankind once had. Man had it once, and once only. He had it when he roamed as an untutored savage in his woods of oak and pine, getting his meat from the deer, his shirt from the bear, and his corn from the woman who tilled his ground. Man then was free as the air, free to do what he liked, free even to make his captured woman a slave.

Hot with the point of spear or sword or edge of battle axe was man tom from this blissful state of primitive freedom. He surrendered it voluntarily and gladly, rejoicing that at last he could live freely. The process? Is it not contained in the famous “ social contract ” ? This independent existence of perfect liberty exposed man to dangers by field and flood, from the wild beasts around him and the wilder beasts within him. And the time came when his most pressing need was combination and the formation of a social community. Part of his liberty he surrendered to the common stock, receiving in exchange the great “quid pro quo ” of security, peace and added personal comfort. No longer could he steal his neighbour’s cattle or wife, burn down his neighbour’s hut for firewood, or tip his refuse on his neighbour’s corn patch. These cherished liberties were his no longer. Of this Asocial contract” ~ no documents exist as, evidence of . the horse-sense of the signatories. Lost also, are the terms that were carried in, the assembly by formal motion and legal majority. But the cheers and the hand-clapping have been ringing ever since down the ages. With a greater 1 measure of civilisation have come a progressive curtailment of our privileges, a multiplication of our restrictions, and an immense increase of our security, our law and < our order. Parliament and municipality the world over spend weary .hours and days bringing the “contract” up to date,, and balancing what they, take away * with what they give. Theirs is the task of drawing the line that divides liberty from license—a line as faint as that famous phalk mark which separates partiality from impartiality. But on the question where to draw this line will men argue for ever. Some men. ignore the “ contract,” but continue to enjoy the privileges it bestows.

' Inevitably, and by.no roundabout way, mention’ of “ freedom of speech ” leads to the subject of noise in our city streets. For a license is always a nuisance and a nuisance always a license, whether it be political street oratory or Post Office rivet-driving. The fiery cross of a crtisade has already been raised against the nOise of cities. Even in Dunedin, this enviable abode of peace, where “the inaudible and noiseless foot of Time ” is supposed to steal by on tip-toe, where to-day and to-morrow are as yesterday, Time is the only silent thing sbout the place. Yet the noise of our own city streets is a mere lullaby compared with the roar of London and New York. Who can estimate the mental, moral, and physical damage done to- city dwellers by the “ bornbalio, clangor, stridor, taratantara, murmur ’’—the booming, clanging, whistling, trumpeting, buzzing—which is the curse of modern progress! Said the New York Health Department recently:,' /"• .; ,■ :-.v The community ■ which becomes noise ; conscious is at last becoming civilised. It is ready to, recognise the claims of serene and humane liv!imr. • . ■'/: • v

And its. list of noisesome abuses, includes many familiar acquaintances:

' J ■ Such noises as the use of loud speakers outside shops and in the home; the screeching of brakes; the unreasonable playing of musical instruments in homes at unreasonable .hours; noises from milk cans, ash .cans, etc.; riveting work after a.reasonable hour at night; and all the rumbles, clangs, honks, shouts, screeches, clutters, ' and roars of a city. »

An anti-noise crusade has dificulties manifest and manifold. “I do not like noise unless I make it myself,” says a French proverb. And a man is usually as “deaf ” to a self-made noise as he is impervious to his own smell. Noise, too, is strongly entrenched economically, and the advertising loud-speaker of the barbarian music shop is probably making money. Liberty in our day has come to mean liberty to be noisy. And the wear and tear of oft-repeated noises is appalling., We are faced with a species of 16ng-drawn-out shell-shock, working slowly but surely. The constant dropping of little drops of water on the crown of the skull is infinitely more painful than a merciful single blow from a sanchbagger. Screams of agony may be drawn from a man by long continued taps on a muscle by a, common lead pencil. But not with ordinary skin and muscle is noise concerned. Among all the works of the Creator no tissue or fabric is more delicate or more easily injured than the human nervous system. Rightly says a contemporary scientist; Noise has a greater effect on brain-pressure and on heightened metabolism than drugs. So that between the drug traffic and vehicular traffic there is not much to choose.

Since the announcement that packets of Vitamin C may shortly be sold over the grocery counter for a few pence an ounce no further news lias come from the Congress of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. There is a breathless bush in the close of science to-night. For on last New dear’s Day a prophetic promise was made of gigantic achievements to be made by science in this, its “annus mirabilis.” Professor Haldane has said of what science was going to do before the snows came again: This year will see the discovery of the influenza virus confirmed or disproved. Another vitamin wall probably be obtained pure. The public will hear more of the experiments which haveßapparently succeeded jn immunising J animals against certain types of 'cancer..'. . . So little serious work is being done on human heredity that few great discoveries in this field are likely. But other branches of medical science are forging ahead. In most branches of science Britain and the United States are now leading. Germany has dropped out of the race, since half her scientific elite, not all Jews, have lost their positions. Germany probably now ties for third 'place with Japan. But in plant and animal breeding much of the best work is being done in the Soviet Union, and it is there that most of the great advances of 1934 may be made. In fact, the state of science is in remarkable contrast with that of other human affairs. Even the humble pig is coming in for his share of scientific progress ;

Danish scientists are introducing central heating into pigstyes because pigs. require 20 per cent, less food if kept warm, and the cost of the extra food is more than that of the extra fuel. Already the Danes are having to turn superfluous pigs into soap, > Dear “ Givis,” — In his Epistle to Titus, in speaking of. the Cretans, St. Paul says, “One of themselves, even a prophet ,of their own, said ‘ The Cretans are always liars.’" Could you tell me to whom Paul referred as “a prophet of their own ”? One might think that he referred to Cicero, because Cicero said on one occasion: “I will say this of the whole race of Greeks: I grant their literary genius, I grant them skill in various accomplishments, I do not deny their elegance in conversation, acuteness of intellect, fluent oratory. But the sacred obligation that lies upon a witness,to speak the truth is what that nation has never regarded.”—l am, etc., Cunious. Why, where, when and under " what provocation Epimenides the poet and prophet of Crete made his famous outburst against his' fellow-countrymen is not known. “The Cretans,” ho said, “ are always liars, evil beasts, and slow bellies.” St. Paul himself has no high opinion of them. They were people “ whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.” To-day Epimenides is more famed as a record-breaker in the world’s sleeping contest: One day, when a boy, he was sent out by his father in search of a sheep. Seeking shelter from the -heat of the mid-day sun, he went into a cave and there fell into a deep sleep,.. which lasted 57 years. On waking' and returning home, he found to hig amazement that his younger brother had in the meantime grown into an old man. At Athene about 596 b.c., he cleaned up a plague by mysterious rites and sacrifices. As a reliable witness to the , lying of the Cretans he was himself probably no great shakes. Great is the ingenuity expended in anagrams and letter-transpositions. Deserving of an Art Union prize or a windfall from Tattersall is the man or woman who transposed “ Dressed in a brief authority ” into “ I see dear Adolph Hitler strut by in it.” Beside this triumphant success all other anagrams must hide their diminished heads. But cleverness appears in them all. What of the following? Revolution:. “Love to Ruin.” Radical Reform: “Rare Mad Frolic.” Catalogues: “Got as a clue.” Presbyterians: “Best in Prayer.” Penitentiary: “Nay, I Repent it." Lawyers: “ Sly Ware.” In the reign of William the Fourth: “Then "frill I gain reform, thou thief.” _ * , Florence Nightingale: “Flit on, , cheering angel/’ Horatio Nelson: “Honor «st a Nile.” Cleopatra’s Needle, London: “An old lone stone replaced.” More elaborate is the following—a meal of anagrams: ! “Mute Hen.” Your Posset One solid Lamb. - ; Try our steak. Steamed or tossed. Mince Sole. Of which the interpretation is: “The Menu.” ' Oyster Soup. ~ Boiled Salmon, Roast Turkey. Dressed Tomatoes. • • Lemon Ices. For those who remember the Tichborne case:, , 1 Sir Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne, Baronet: “You horrid Butcher Orton, biggest rascal here.” Civis.