PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2849, 21 October 1908, Page 5

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday's Daily Times.)

" Have we the grit of our forefathers ?" the title of an article in the Nineteenth Century, introduces a jeremiad^ which makes mest unpleasant reading. Then why read it 1 * For the very reason thatreading it is a question of grit, — the modern Jeremiah, with his jeremiad of lamentations and forebodings, being the least endurable of prophets.' - We do not 6tone the prophets that fail to please us, imitating the Jews. Possibly it is because -we. haven't the grit. But never shall it be insinuated that we haven't the grit to hear what they have to say. Let us listen, then : The- German works longer hours, takes fewer holidays, and often spends his leisure in perfecting himself in his business, -with the result that he is cutting out our men in many spheres of life. Whilst the young Englishman's head is filled with thoughts of sport, and that f*r too often from the point of view of the spectator rather than of a participant, the German is gaining 1 knowledge which will avail to advance him in his profession. Whilst other nations commence work at five and six 1 in ihe morning, and even earlier in summer, in the West of London no business can be transacted before nine cr ten a.m. These are sample facts — a fair sample, with bushels more behind them. Everybody is in quest of a softer ar.d easier life — everybody, from the labour multitude upwards. In the interest of a softer and easier lffe, the duties of paternity and maternity are shirked ; people haven't the grit to be fathers and mothers. The British are following in the footsteps of the French, who are already a dying nation, — 20,000 more deaths than births ;n; n France last year. What but invasion can bo the fate awaiting a country capable of supporting 80 million inhabitants and kept for half that number? — asks one patriotic Frenchman, a voice crying in the wilderness, unheeded. On the same argument, what of Aubtralia and it* approaching fate? What of New Zealand':

Of the soft and flabby in English character I have myself just hit upon a choice illustration. Mr G. K. Chesterton, by profession a fabricator of ingenious paradoxes, is or should he, nevertheless, in the last analysis a person of sanity «n<l reasonable common eenso. But in the columns of the Daily Xews, a leading organ of the soft aivd flabby, just now preaching a policy of scuttle from Egypt and from India, Mr Chesterton is expanding himself on what he calls the Sin of Torture, by whkh understand the practice of flogging in English piuons. Now a flogging in English piieons is about as rare as a hanging. In most piitons, there has been no flogging for year? ; at Portland, with 800 prisoners "of the lougher sort, there ha.s been no flogging for 16 months. It is a punishment inflkWl only for attacking a warder, and i& usually from 12 to 18 lash«s. Yet Mr Clie.-tei-ton and th? Daily Xews people cannot sleep in their beds for thinking of the Sin of Torture practiced r.n helpless English piisoncrs. In th-r imagination of Mr Chesterton, "the English prison cat is one of the most frightful instruments of toiture. so frightful that medical arrangements liave to bo mado to prevent a man dying imcUr it." In reality it is a harmless make-belie\e. A handle of light 'wood about IS inches long, with lashes about twice Si long, of pliable scftish hemp, about as thick as a stout quill. The material is somewhat loo&ely twisted, and of a rather wcolly and yielding texture, neither tarred, starched, nor stiffened with brine (as in books) There is n«ot one knot to any cf the lashes; they end bluntly and aro bound for about half an inch with unwaxed thread, like a child's bat handle. Each cat is to pattern, and is passed for u c e by the Home Office, its total weight 8% ounces. People who write hysterically of this toy as a frightful instiument of torture ■would lack the n«rv« to cane a schoclboy or to shoot a pheaeante

Mr James Alien -was reported the othe*^ day as remarking in the House that "there was one question which was interesting to many, and which had not been answered — viz., w_hy did the Government not spend the money voted by Parliament?" It is . indeed a question deeply interesting to many, in particular to many in Otago. The House v votes - money for an Otago railway, which* money the Government spends -or- keeps, according to its own 6weet -will. Not uncommonly the Government keeps, back money voted for Otago t<T- spend it elsewhere-. To emphasise the iniquity, this money is spent elsewhere on railways in excess of the amounts voted for those railways. We go short that others may abound. Is there any answer to these things? It is marvellous that any Government candidate has the face to meet an Otago constituency. According to Mr Massey — and Mr Massey is usually trustworthy on matters of fact — the Government is working the elections by gramophone. .Dealing -with tie speech of the Govern... nient candidate for Eden, Mr Massey said all the candidates had been supplied from Wellington with speeches, and he precluded a copy- which hadr been secured by him. This' samo speech 'bad been delivered, by a' number of tHje can- - didates already. *-.-—• - I suggest that in the gramophone record for use in this part of the country a .passage will be necessary supplying an answer to Mr Allen's question : Why does not the Government spend the money voted by Parliament, and , spend that money on the public? works for which it' was voted, — in particular the Otago money ?

The dukes and duchesses who, as the cables relate, assembled at Matlcck in the Derby Peak Country that one of them might receive a presentation, were not aware that they were about to promote the, gaiety of nations. Yet it ie impossible to take a serious view of the catastrophe that befel them. An improvised platform gave way and precipitated 43 leading members the British aristocracy into an empty bath, — the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, the Duke and Du.cb.sss of Rutland, Lord and Lady Kerry, the Ladies Manners, with others unnamed, two score all told. The cables do not cay in so many words that the bath was empty, "but in charity -we may assume as much. Anyhow nobody was drowned, or the circumstance would have been mentioned. As-^it does not apnear, either, that any bones were broken, the illustrious victims of this mysterious accident may be congratulated oix getting off lightly, nothing damaged but their dignity, though thie, alas, would, be their tenderest point of all. The whole story reads queer,—^a duke getting a preseiita1 tion, a ducal party on an improvised platform like a Sunday School at a prizegiving, that platform improvised over a bath, and improvised £O flimsily as to let them all 'in, — these facts need looking [ into. An informal crowner's quest is doubtless already in cession all over the country. I don't suggest Anarchists, nor even Socialists, but certainly a blow b.as been sti-uck at aristocratic institutions. Let trade and commerce, laws and learning, die. But leave us still cur old nobility! The o!9er a nobility the less it can afford to be laughed at.

Dear " Civis," — I venture io commend the enclosed happy juxtaposition to your notice, and remain, sincerely yours, Country Parsox. "In the Auckland Diocesan Synod the R-ev. E. C. Budd, referring to the position of the home mission clergy, taid that many were receiving only £150 a yejr, which was equal to the wage paid to ordinary labourers. He made a plea :ci- increased stipends. The stipend of B>hop Nehgaa was increased from .£BSO „ to £1000 a year." The "happy juxtaposition*' is not without a k.ind of lo^ic, the logic of non sequitur, where it follows that it doesn't follow. Moved by compassion for the inferior clergy pinched on £150 a year, the Syncd raisea its one superior clergyman from £850 to £1000. Well,— compare the immortal Williams : "We cannot weigh our brother with oureelf: Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them; But in the less foul profanation. - That in the captain's but a choleric word, Which in the soldier is fiat blasphemy. As with sins, so witli salaries : That in the bishop's but a paltry pittance, "Which in the curate -were rank luxury. A curate on £850 a year would be an offence to men and angels. But no one grudges capo and affluence to bishop*. Yet it may be that there are bishops who live the simple life, — like President Roosevelt, who has written a book about it. And, like the President again, they contiive to do it on a big income. It is easier on £3 a week: which consideration v. ill doubtless help the Auckland clergy. "Courage, brotheis, do not falter !"' they will sa\ ; "think of the poor bishop! — his moial pc-rllp, his financial embarratsliiintt. — hard up on £850, only able to make end-, meet on £1000! Sit we tight at £150. The early Christians had lees." In my Notes of last week I imparted to the public an item of information which has not attracted the attention it merits : " Ignoramus" though used as a noun, is third plural, present indicative active of Latin " ignoro," " I do not know," and has come to mean exactly what " agnostic " means, — on© who does not know. Apologising for this display of learning, etc., etc., I emphasise the word "third" because it should have been the word " first." I wrote it not because hard-driven, belated, terrorised by Fate— in the person of the' boy for copy — knocking at the door. I must have written it mechanically, influenced perhaps by a sing-song echo o£ boys long ago parsing in class : " third plural, present indicative active,"— _w hi; li^

sounding all right in itself, availed t'b" cheat the unheeding -riTind. The joy of it, -when I saw it in print, almost restrained me from correcting it for the Witness* The word under treatment, you see, was, of all possible words, the word " ignoramus " ; and I go on to apologise for " this, display, of learning." Nothing could be neater, or completer. Yet I have not had out of it the fun to which I was entitled.^- Only one protesting letter, and that from the inevitable " Schoolboy." _ To " Civis " : Dear Sir., — I do not know whether you' "profess to be a Latin scholar or noi-. but in your '" Passing Notes '' of to-day's issue you make » statement which would not be worthy of the duiles't schoolboy who' has. been but six months at Latin. I advise you to r-ead up Allen, or Bradley, or some other grammarian before you attempt to expound to "Agnostics" the meaning of the word " Ignc<ranius." You say; that " Ignoramus " is third plwraJ, preeen't indicative, active^ of Latin " ignoro." I would excuse you 'if you" said that '" ignorant " was originally" that part of the verb, for, judging by appearances alone, it is. Even _if you substituted " Ciyia " for " ignoramus " in your .original statement? I would '■excuse you. Hoping „tliat y<ju,iwill revise your, first "' conjugation Latin yerb». — I remain, yours trufy, Schoolboy. He would excuse me for this reason or for that ; but he would the less excuse mo if he knew to what extent in bygone day* I laboured and suffered teaching dullards to parse the Latin verb, young agnostics, some of them — like himself, perchance-^ knowing notning and wanting to know nothing. To know nothing and to want to know nothing, that is the typica 1 agnostic.

A Question in English Gsavmae. Dear " Cms,"*— There- has been a great deal of communication with the Postal Department over the interpretation of the following regulation : — " All letters c«Wtaining coin, banknotes, car jewellery above 10s in value must be registered." Tlie regulation is printed and punctuated thu3- in the Posts.! Guide, and th« Postal Department interprets it as meaning: — "All coins', no matter of what value, when posted in a letter, are t« be registered." Looking at it from a grammatical point of view, one immediately concludes that any coin under the value of 10s maj be posted without registration fee. Several English scholars in Dunedin have stated that the sentence is grammatically wrong and misleading. — I shall be pleased to receive your interpretation of the regulation. — Yours faithfully, Ti PtJjtE. The adjective clause, "above 10s in value," qualifies each of the nouns before it, "coin," "banknotes," "jewellery." Applied to "-banknotes " this clause is absurd, no doubt ; but it is the grammar of the regulation we are looking' into, not : its intention. Absurdity is. no fault in ; grammar. - Foote's " Yard of Nonsense " i — "So she weat into the garden- to cut a cabbage' to make' an apple-dumpling." and the rest — is strictly grammatical. , To make the postal regulation say what it was intended to say there is needed .another disjunctive "or"; — "All letters i containing coin, or banknotes, or jewel - ; lery over 10s in value, must be registered." But it is useless to argue with the Post Office or the Customs ,on points of syntax. A money-collecting official under -this needy and spendthrift Government is, and is bound to be, " Sigismund super grammaticam. Cms.

At its meeting on the 12th the Electrio Power ar.-d Lighting Committee- of the City Council devoted considerable time in discussing the relative merits of steam and gas plants and the duplicating of the Waipori hydro-electric plant in connection with the increasing of the city's available supply of electrical energy from 2000 to 4000 kilowatts. It was finally decided to ask the council to adopt the recommendation of its electrical engineer, and carry out the .duplication of the plant at Waipori, at an estimated cost of £37,000. The committee, after careful consideration, came to the conclusion that the Waipori duplication scheme, both in regard to initial outlay ar.d future maintenance.- had a very great deal more to recommend it than the other schemes proposed. ' ' A Wellington messago states that infor. matio-n .. has been received by the Government from Admiral Sir R. Poore that he will arrive at Wellington on the Powerful on November 17. Hi 6 Excellency hopes to be* accompanied by cix ships of the Australian squadron. A new waterfall, 145 ft in height, haa boon fliiscovered at the foot of Mount Houdsworth, near the Mountain House. Parties of Ma c t<Mton and Carterton residents who ha\e lately ascended the mountain <-tatc that thore is c\ery prospect of a. grioat profusion of the mountain flowers, which are now ju^t coming into bloom v Tlio track up the mountain is at present rathei 1 rough. The Cromwell Argus reports that «f meeting of the Wanak-a Railway League, the president (Mr R. M'Dougall) in th« .cliair, was held at Pembroke reoently to consider its future action relative to th« position of the Otago Central line. It was resolved that the* league should oon« tinue its efforts as & body in agitating for for a resumption of work upon the- line, and that the other leagues in the- district be asked to join in a protest to the Government against its unfairness to the local : community, and Otago generally, in it* , allocations of public money for railway | construction. It was suggested to hold a meeting— say, at the Queansberry Hotel,— when one or more members of each league could attend to represent their district at the meeting, and the secretary was asked" to ct-d-viss irto r-os-pectivc lc«t£n.ie^ to ii-acfc effect.