PASSING NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23203, 29 May 1937, Page 6

PASSING NOTES

The Prime Minister has kept his promise and disappointed our hope. The words that we thought were more rhetoric than truth have turned out to be more truth than rhetoric. In the Dunedin Town Hall in January he said:

When 1 visit London 1 will speak at the Imperial Conference as I have spoken to the people to-night. I will tell Britain what I and the people of New Zealand think about modern problems and the way they think the situation might be solved. Not of purely New Zealand concern were these problems—not New Zealand trade with Britain, not the New Zealand exchange, not New Zealand immigration. On these topics he might have spoken with knowledge, authority and dignity. But he chose for his display of sturdy independence precisely the problems where a little knowledge is the most dangerous of things, "necessitating some delegates who are more experienced in European affairs having to explain that the position is not quite so simple as some imagine." A dramatic contrast, with all its artistic effects, was presented when* fate set up against him the sense and wisdom of his neighbour, Mr Lyons. Says the cable:

It is believed that Mr Savage considered that sanctions should have been pursued, and that Britain had displayed weakness in this connection so far as Abyssinia was concerned. It is gathered that Mr Lyons turned on Britain's critics, emphasising the difficulties and complexities with which Britain was faced. He also vigorously defended the calm and balanced handling which, he averred, if it had been otherwise, might have ended disastrously. The man on the spot with most to lose sees most of the risks. New Zealand and Mr Savage, with a detachment of mind and place of 12,000 miles, back a stronger policy to the last drop of blood in London and Manchester.

Convenient is the rough-and-ready division of humanity into high-brow and low-brow. Likewise divided are city councillors, Sunday concerts, Dunedin suburbs and readers of the daily press. From the low-brow council discussion of the high-brow Sunday concerts, high-brow readers of the press will elevate their brows still higher, and low-brow readers become almost high-brow. A lowbrow deputation from South Dunedin came to the Council Chamber on Monday last to complain of the high-brow interference of a special council committee that never interfered at all. The low-brow South Dunedin Unemployed Association had produced the high-brow Sunday programmes which drove the lowbrow people of South Dunedin to prefer the low-brow streets. The proof of a high-brow pudding is in the eating of it—and this test South Dunedin is a low-brow suburb. So desperate is its_ lowness of brow that the City Council washes its hands of it, and it can now be as low-brow as ever it can be. Now, a low-lying suburb like South Dunedin should by nature be high-brow, lifting its eyes and its brows to the hills whence cometh its help. And high-lying suburbs like Roslyn and Mornington should necessarily be low-brow, looking down along their noses at the plain whence cometh their daily sustenance. A member of the South Dunedin deputation said: Most of the people who attend concerts do not appreciate highclass concerts. ... I can see no harm in young people coming in off the streets to concerts. They are better there than running round the streets getting into mischief. It will, of course, depend on the concerts and on the streets. It may be—to quote Holy Writ—that "wisdom crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets."

B# ' anl implacable«peaceful penetration by the high-brows, the lowbrows are daily; losing ground. Increase: in sophistication helps the process, arid the Director of Broadcasting will, carry it along. Mere chronology, too, plays its part. What our forefathers applauded we would not to-day 1 cross the street to hear. Songs and musical snatches that set the whole Victorian Age a-singing are now bewilderingly meaningless. In the first half of last century music-hall songs filled London streets with such sayings as: "How Are You Off for Soap? " "Is Your Rhubarb Up? " " Jim Along Josey." "Has Your Mother Sold her Mangle?" "Who's Your Hatter''" "Go It, Ye Cripples," "You Don't Lodge Here, Mr Ferguson," "Do You See any Green in My Eye? " These are forgotten, they vanished into the chinks that time has made. Later Victorian musichall sayings are better known: "Keep Your Hair On," 'How're Your Poor Feet? " " Get Your Hair Cut," "Where Did You Get That Hat?" "Whoa, Emma, Mind the Paint,". " 'E Dunno Where 'e Are," "Mind the Step," "What Ho, She Bumps," " Now We Shan'.t Be Long," "Let 'Em All Come," "Pip-pip," " Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay.' - These seem to have no descendants. A higherbrowed generation sees nothing in them.

In the New York Times appears a report from its Berlin correspondent telling of Nazi troubles with Schiller. Now, Schiller is long since dead, and dead men surely tell no tales. But of Schiller it may be said that "though dead, he yet speaketh" His plays are still popular on the German stage. A scene in his "Don Carlos " puts into the mouth of the Marquis Posa an entreaty to Kins Philip to abolish the Inquisition Says Posa. " Sire, give us freedom of thought." At normal times ar audience'wnniri reserve its merited aoDlause till the end of the seen" or set. In these Nazi days the word? of the Marauis "Posa are sufficient to cause storms of annlause to interrunt every performance. So fervent and nroloneed is it that the Government has be°n compelled to sit un and take notice The nress is forced to admit that <he applause " renre sents a political dnmnnsfralinn af*nin«:t thp intellP nf u-' ll and oniritua' regimentation of thp Nnfional Socialist repime." Anrl it the annlause according Th/» Npw Yoi't- -Timpp wUw— The Frankfurter Zeilung accuses the person who " in the darkness of a theatre gives vent to his possible bitterness over the course of events" of cowardice similar to that displayed by persons spreading political witticisms It pleads with the demonstrators to square idealism with reality. They should love Posa, but should also understand Philip and the necessities of the day

That is, the necessities t'oi the Inquisition. The Voelkischer Beobachter, official Nazi newspaper, attributes the applause merely to the skilful acting of Ewald Balsar. The Hitler Youth publication, Will and Might, accuses the demonstrators of being unable to feel and think politically. Only when the lights are down is it that anti-Nazi courage is up.

With a vigour worthy of a much more momentous cause, and an hysteria unworthy of a less, my friend the albatross correspondent in last Saturday's Daily Times displays his expert knowledge of the albatross and his impulsive intolerance of argument. Of the former I had said nothing, knowing as little about the albatross as I do of the auk or moa. Questioning the supreme claim of sailor-practice to establish a dominance in the King's English, I mentioned the use of the plural "albatrosses" by Chambers's Encyclopaedia. Only this and nothing more. Whereupon the floodgates of a three-quarter column were opened, condemning this column and every column in- Chambers's Encyclopaedia by bell, book and candle. A second three-quarter column may be excited by the mention of another encyclopaedia—Cassell's Modern Encyclopaedia—which also "makes no bones" about the use of "albatrosses." Not a first-rank authority this, I admit; but something to go on with. True it is in these days that a man may quarrel more about linguistic usage than even about religion. Now, all the world loves a sailor, tempestuous though he may be as his own element. But it is "on land that most of us live. This column has not abandoned the golden rule that the only true guide to English speech is usage—the often-quoted "jus et norma loquendi" of Horace. Never did Horace or anyone else put it as " jus et loquendi maris." If seamen were accustomed to say, "This bay is full of octopus," would landsmen be wrong in saying "octopods" or " octopuses "?

It is claimed by this verbose correspondent that sailors coined the naihe'of the albatross So be it, since nobody knows. Portuguese and Spanish had a ready-made word, "alcatruz." English sailors mutilated it to 'albatross," bringing their Latin to bear on it with "album" (white). Similar jolly Jack-tar mutilations, sometimes double, litter the realm of salt-water words. In Portuguese early British sailors found the word " bitacola" —a corruption by Portuguese sailors of the Latin " habitaculum" (a dwelling). They mutilated it to " bittacle," and for no apparent reason, except that of playfulness, they maimed it further to "binnacle." They heard Dutch sailors speaking of the delights of " op-zee-zober," (a strong " over-sea " beer): the natural result was the English " half seas over." From the Persian town Damaghan came a wickercovered bottle called by the same name. English sailors called it not a " damn-again." as we should have expected, but " demijohn "—probably after one of the crew who always carried one. And there is "Davy Jones's locker." Among the West Indian negroes a " duffy " was a ghost or spirit. A deceased boatswain or cook with the name of Davy Jones—there were some such —would at once have called forth the metaphorical sailor touch. Why again did sailors change "shootanchor" to "sheet-anchor," or a "jonk" (French jonc, a bulrush) to " junk," or " jourymast" (a mast for the day, French jour) to "jurymast "? What has a jury to do with a sailor? Was "jury" a familiar word among them? The fact is that the use of " albatross " for the plural is a well-established mistake of the early word-coining sailors. They heard the final "s" —the same familiar " s " they heard in sails and yards and ropes. And they could get no further. Dear "Civis,"—How does . attached strike you? Is this a case , of malice aforethought, or a subtle \ form of victimisation in advance .:• on.the part of the questioner?—l ■ am, etc.. ■•■-'' " •■'>■ ' Honi soit qui inal y pensc. The " attached" relates to the meeting of, the City Council this week: ' ■ An assurance that there would - be no ! : victimisation of tramwaymen who would be called to give evidence in a Supreme Court case to*be held'in the near future was given'by Cr Batchelor (chairman of - the Tramways Committee) in . reply to Cr M'Millan, who said he> "would like an assurance, although he felt it was not necessary, that there would be no victimisation in connection with the evidence tramwaymen might give in the case. "I can assure Cr M'Millan that there will be no victimisation," Cr Batchelor said. "In fact, the tramways manager has asked everyone who has had experience with these brakes to give evidence at the court." A question which, in the words of the questioner, was not necessary was asked unnecessarily? Victimisation? The only victims in the picture are the fellow councillors who treated the question with gravity, or the tramway officials against whom it was a threat. The officials can, make no protest. But the councillors who could and should have protested didn't. The serious element in the incident is just that. s Civis.