THE COMMON ROUND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24832, 4 February 1942, Page 2

THE COMMON ROUND

fey Wayfarer Our R.N.Z.A.F. poet celebrates the fact that before the Man-power-Com-mittee recently a magistrate's appeal for exemption was allowed. Still down the austere nose that icy glance will go, With Justice blindfolded—remote and stillWeighing the evidence at hand, with "Yes "—with " No "-rTo varied litigants who foot the bill. Not his the joyous freedom of the barrack square? The. happy comradeship of battledress; Chained to his legal throne for sundry cases where The law alone can solve some civil mess. ; Not his the outward symbol of a warrior bold, With, maybe, stripes to flaunt, when soft eyes speakNot his to join, when tales of camp and field are told;. Sans thrill—sans glamour—he'll remain " The Beak." 41835. One who has been communing with the sad short-waves provides a passing note from a United States broadcast: In a laundry window in San Francisco is displayed this notice: CHINESE WILL GLADLY IRON THE SHIRTS OF JAPANESE FREE OF CHARGE IF THE OWNERS ARE INSIDE THEM. It is a fair offer, but we suspect it is going to require more than a flat-iron to smooth over the difficulties in the Western Pacific.

A literary sort of bloke provides a poetical parallel for the times:

Dear " Wayfarer,"—There a.re>certain passages in poetry which lose'none of their dignity through association ,witt» a false train :of ideas. Such a passage is the following from " The Hound of Heaven ": I pleaded, outlaw-wise, By many a hearted casement, curtained red. *'■•■•'• Trellised with intertwining' charities; (For though I knew His love Whq followed, ; ' Yet was I sore adread Lest/having Him, I must have nought beside). But, if one little casement parted wide, The gust of His approach would clash it to. It is not the fault of Francis Thompson that a concept of ah air-warden intent on his duties obtruded itself into my consciousness as these lines revolved in my mind. The test of such passages la that one returns very. readily to the original arid authentic concept;—Yours attentively. l Discipllcus. • There is a pertinent imagery here, as any whohave had the temerity to .open casements wide upon...the black-out will' have discovered. .; - < '

History frequently illumines and makes profound the pages of poesy, and vice versa. Did. Milton,; for in-' stance, with the pre-visional percipience of genius with a penchant for politics, know that.in the year 1942circumstances would ordain that a light-bearer from New Zealand would wing to the people of. the older New World of the Americas; with, news .that they would not be alone in their struggle for freedom? We cannot with (certitude answer that question, but study carefully and*; 1 imaginatively this from "Paradise Lost'':.,

Upspringing light . . . He speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky Sails between worlds and;worlds, with steady wing ■'■ • 4 Now on the polar winds; 'then With quick.fan .-*■:. .■;,'.:;-,'";- ; '..'■ '•,: ■', Winnows the buxom air. , '"".' '.A'

This looks uncommonly like Mr; Walter Nash, making (we quoteAfrom the \yell-infprmed. newspaper press) the first southern-'.Pacific:::crossing in a British commercial aircraft, on his way toWashington.'

i On a slightly lower plane, ■ (excuse lit, please) we, mayrwith .some justification credit. v Dry den with a glimpse' ■•into thjei'fuMre in his " Don Sebastian." jThe scene, as he envisages it for us, is St. Clair beach, on any fine holiday afternoon of this .uncertain and 'unconscionable summer " : Quotha::

How the warm Planet ripens and sublimes .■;.'; ;• > ...;' ~ The well-bak'd'beautles of the.southem climes. •■ ' *, ' • .... And if the sub-district oil fuel controller (in simple parlance, the guy who keeps all the petrel locked:away from us) is wanting to introduce some variety into his ready: refusals to make an allowance to some holiday suppliant ;he has the,form to his hand in the epistles of Horace. Perpend (to be spoken in a tone of grave reproach): ' "' What active inactivity is this To go in ships and cars to search for bliss! No; what you seek, at Ulubrae you'll find, If to the quest you bring a balanced mind. - ' ■ . ■ For "Ulubrae" substitute "The Foreshore," or "Prospect Park," and we doubt if the "most case-hardened cadger.. .would 'durst aporoach ■him again with specious plea for spirits.

And passing now from prosody, to prose, what price Plato as an early critic of a very familiar manifestation of unfamiliar, noises (unfamiliar in connotations of musical expression)? He is referring (or he might well be) to the exuberances of the Messrs Benny .Goodman. Tommy Dorsey, Bob Crosby, Ellington the Duke, et al:: ■. ■

They were 1 men -of genius; but, they had no perception of what ';■ is legitimate in music; raging like' Bacchanals and possessed, with inordinate' delights —mingling lamentations with hymns.

and paeans with dithyrambs; imitating the sounds of the flute on "the lyre, and making one general confusion: ignorantly affirming that music has no truth, ; and, whether good or Bad, can only ,be judged of rightly, by the pleasure which it gives to the hearer. This, it seems to us, is one in the eye for the hep-cats, from a very superior person. ... This letter, we fear, comes under the definition of the local acclimatisation organisation as.." ill-natured criticism." But let it speak for itself: Dear ," Wayfarer,"—What's in -a name? With your flair for the, humorous, no doubt you have observed the latest instance; In the Daily Times we see ■ that the local rod and guri people have decided to adopt the title " Otago Wild Life Protection." Is it that, in view of its acquaintance with decoys and camouflage (in the bulrushes) the society desires that its title should be properly representative? Be that as it may, from an Hitlerian point ■of view the title is excellent. Herr Hitler is " protecting" almost the whole of Europe just how—with powder and shot, making ducks and drakes of it. This fashion in nomenclature may spread. We may soon see the Sheep Farmers' Association amending its title to " The Fat Lamb Protection Society," and the Bush-fellers and Sawmillers' Association as " The Native Bush Preservation Society." Clearly the correct title is " The Acclimatisation Society Protection Society."—Yours, etc., Pateka.

Into this controversy we do not wish to impinge our angelic footsteps. But facts speak for themselves. Ourself when young sat,without hurt upon the knee of one of the shobtin' gentlemen who first introduced red deer into the southern portion of this island. The original shipment was, as well as we recall it, a Mormonesque .contingent of two husbands and three wives. Today the ceaseless slaughter of their descendants is necessitated in order to keep the native forests remaining from disappearing even before the sawmillers have time to cut them down —and, in truth, to keep the Dominion itself from trickling away into the surrounding seas. That is one instance only of. the tragic results of an enthusiasm for acclimatisation among our sportive ancestors. But we do not indict the Otago Acclimatisation Society for errors which were committed by previous generations of office-holders, or we must indict ourselves also as a community for possessing foolish forbears. A change of name may betoken a change of heart.