PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3517, 9 August 1921, Page 3

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday’s Daily Time*.) It is pleasant to have among ns a teacher of the “dismal science’’ who is able to get rid of its “dismal.” My compliments to Professor Pringle. Political economy, characterised by Carlyle’s sardonic humour as the “dismal science,” is novv “economics” and the most popular science going;—naturally popular with those who understand it, or misunderstand it as a short cut to the Lubber Land and Fdoi’s Paradise of less work and more pay. As things are, Thine is Thine and Mine is Mine. As things are to be, Thine will be Mine and Mine my own. Wait and see. Or, rather—adopting the Lloyd George variant of the Asquith formula— Watch and pray! Meanwhile we are joining the League of Nations. America keeps out, but New Zealand has come in. The affairs of the League are looking up. In the League of Nations we pass resolutions against war. Should war nevertheless break out, we pass more resolutions. No big stick ! The big stick idea is alien from our principles. We are a society of Conscientious Objectors. Proceedings at our League of Nations rally were agreeably varied : While Dr Cameron was speaking, a woman hysterically interrupted that nothing would lie right till Christianity was restored. t-lie subsequently made herself conspicuous by remaining seated during the singing" of the National Anthem. The motion was carried unanimously, with the exception of tin-* one objecting voice. Hysterical, was she? It is a form of inspiration. The Pythoness at the laurel and tripod of Apollo delivered her oracles hysterically. It is a reasonable view that the woman who hysterically interrupted Dr Cameron was inspired to supply the missing word—Christianity. For Christianity, if only we could get it adopted, would in itself be a League of Nations, its leading principle—Peace on earth. Exhausted, perhaps, after her hysterical outburst, this prophetess “remained seated during the singing of the National An - them.'-” Tf exhausted, small blame to her ! —if otherwise, I would show her no mercy. Hut is there not a variety of religionists who by sitting down manifest their respect for the Psalms of David ? They say their prayers standing, but sit to sing. And they are devout in both. The Duke of Northumberland scrapping with a veteran Socialist (.Friday's Daily

Times) looks hopelessly handicapped. Being a duke, he is in the wrong from the outset. Citizen Percy-—the duke is a Percy—and Citizen Hynaman it should have been ;—Socialism has no time for dukes. Worse still, the Duke of North umberland possesses an income of over £60,000 a year How he holds vp under that condemnation is a miracle. And argues with a Socialist to boot! It counts for nothing that his £60,000 a year must all be doing work and paying wages, and that if confiscated to the State A could do no more. Neither Rockefeller nor Rothschild keeps his millions in a stocking. Every penny is put to use. But that fact does not count. The millionaire duke, though he can eat only his four meals a day, and not that if ne is of a bad digestion, must be reckoned a bloodsucking parasite whose, god is bis bellv and whose end is destruction. Argument in the matter is a foregone conclusion. But the tables are turned when in straight terms the millionaire duke accuses the other side of treasonable complicity with the enemies of their country. Responsible London editors are calling on the Labour leaders to clear their character in the courts. Let them indict the Duke of Northumberland for libel. Will they do it? Wait and see! There is nothing they desire less than a judicial investigation. As in Nature, so in all forms of Art, poetry included, we see what bring eyes to see. And thus is man the measure of the universe, each man for himself. Verses that to me are good poetry to some other man may be no poetry at all. I offer two examples : When ’Omer smote 'is bloomin’ lyre 'E’d ’card men sing by land and sea, An’ what ’e thought ’e might require 'E went an’ took, the same as me. . . That is one. The other -. The splendour falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story; The Jong light shakes across the lakes, And the wild cataract leaps in glory. Biow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying. Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. ... As the readiest that occur, and the widest apart, these two examples may serve. Both are poetry to me, each in its own way;—why? perhaps I could not explain to myself; certainly no outsider could tell me. But so it is. On the other hand here is T. Thomson, writer of a long antiC'ivis screed m Wednesday’s Daily Times, who would pass these examples with a sniff of,contempt to find in a late sonnet by the Poet Laureate, Dr Bridges, a “divine fire’’ by which “we gross ones are caught up, and are permitted to see his vision—to see the eternal in the mutable”—etc. Which sonnet begins thus : England can keep her dearest -jewel bright. And see her sons like to their sires renown’cl, Whose Shakespeare is with deathless Homer crowned Her freedom, the world; hope, throned in the Light. To me the quatrain is unintelligible, the fourth line a jog-jog-joggle of unmeaning ugliness. Discussion is useless. The old Latin maxim holds —icsthetics are not for argument,—“do gustibus non disputandum.” Each to his taste, as the old woman said when she kissed her cow. Dr Bridges, bo it remembered, has published a treatise on English prosody—metrical and rhythmical form. In writing an unmetrical line he is sinning against the light. Moreover, what may pass in the general herd of twentieth century poets may not pass in the Poet Laureate. I concede to Dr Bridges the license of rhyming “nature” and “misfeature.” T. Thomson suggests that in eighteenth century usage “feature” was “fayture” and “creature” was “ erayture.” Likely enough. Have we not the Pope couplet: Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey, Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea.

Where “tea” is evidently the Irishman’s “tay.” Yet neither great Anna nor Alexander Pope was Irish. I concede to Dr Bridges his bad rhyme, but bad it is, all the same. To T. Thomson, however, I do not concede that my epithets for the Bridges sonnet —“laboured, trite and trivial” are “three words practically saying the same thing,” and that “Trite and trivial are certainly identical.’’ Not so. The distinction between these two words is of no great nicety, but a distinction there is. The trite is the worn out, the hackneyed. “Trivial” derives from the street corner and the talk thereat. Look up your etymologies, T. T. ! And, if by chance you so prefer, construe “laboured” as a compliment. Horace, who on this subject is entitled to be heard, condemns the shirking of the file, the labour of it and the tediousness—“limae labor et mora.” Dr Bridges had not laboured his sonnet enough. Dear “ Givis.” —As I have, so far, seen no intimation that nominations for the “P.N. Guessing Competition” are closed, I venture to offer a solution of the problem that the poet Bridges lias, with unbecoming ambiguity, left us simple folk to solve. I suggest the following:—“Her freedom,—the world’s:— Hope throned in light.” That is—not only her own freedom, but the world’s freedom is dependent on “ Hope throned in the light.” Another emendator, writing in the Daily Times, would rationalise the line thus: Her freedom the world-hope, throned in the light. Where meaning still counts for little, and metre for nothing at all But theie is no getting away from the authority of the London Times, which prints the line exactly thus — Her freedom, the world; hope, throned in the light—and is not given to typographical vagaries. And now—the closure ; of Dr Bridges and his sonnet we have reached quantum suff. I add a remark on the lawlessness infecting recent English verse. Of a poetaster under his scalpel a London reviewer writes thus: His blank verse is plain and unaffected, but such lines as Tlis duties ended, he sat at a window, or By angina pectoris, let it drop, or Gregory Wenner’s brother married the mother are too frequent. If this vogue continues we may in the end attain the freedom of the pious bard who versified the Pentateuch: Pharaoh, King of Egypt, was a great rascal, Because he wouldn’t let the Children of Israel with their wives and their little ones, their flocks and their herds, go three days’ journey into the wilderness for to eat the Paschal. From Renwick (somewhere in the Backblocks?) —■ Dear “Civis,” —Would you be kind enough to throw seme light on the following ? : “ It was resolved to leave things as they stand at present.” Can one read into the above sentence that things might bo altered in future? and also that they remain for ail time as they stand at present ? Are both correct ?—if not, which ? Adverbial clause in the wrong place. What is meant is that for the present things be allowed to stand as they are. Let no one deem enquiries of t-nis kind trivial. Clear thinking arid clear expression go together. Either is ruined by a failure in the other. Dear Civis, —Having consulted all the authorities on things general for the last thirty years without success, I can see nothing else for it but to invoke your aid on the origin of the term “Morgan's orchard,” the application universally applied to “two pairs” in that old past-time cribbage. Among the many from whom information has been sought was a certain Michael Morgan. But Mike had to admit that he was “bate.” Said he: “Bedad, try Givis.” “Morgan’s orchard” implies a pun on the word “pairs.” As for “-Morgan” himself, he must pair off with Hobson of “Hobson’s choice” and Buckley of “Buckley's chance.” In the case of the two latter, however, there are happy . inventions. Hobson, it is said, was a Cambridge livery-stable keeper who restricted each successive customer to the horse nearest the stable door ;—take it or leave it, that or none; —Hobson’s choice. Buckley. it- is said, was an escaped convict from Tasmania who presented himself to the Australian blacks of the main land opposite —the first- white man they had seen, and took the chance—a- mighty poor one—of not being speared at sight. “Buckley’s Cave” is a show place near to Queensclift. in Victoria. Morgan has still to wait for his explanatory myth. When it arrives, the origin of the names

In connection with the cabled report that German scientists were working on the problem of applying carbonic acid gaa directly into glasshouses and sown fields from blast furnaces for fertilisation purposes, it was stated at Auckland on .Friday by Mr A. Schmitt, who for a long time has been engaged in experimental work in the making and mixing of manures, that Germany was not the first country to discover !he value of coke for manure purposes. This discovery was made in Auckland three years ago, and the product of the process was already being marketed in considerable quantities. The Auckland process produced a product of coke and other ingredients containing small quantities of carbonic acid gas hermetically sealed in the coke fires. Important new proposals in regard to the rural mail service were outlined by the lion. J. G. Coates at Manurewa last week at a function after the opening of the post office (says a Press Association telegram from Auckland). At present, settlers have to secure a contractor, and the department pay 3 a certain sum, the settler finding the balance of the cost of the service. The cost could not be passed on to the public. He was considering a proposal by the department that there should he a charge of £2 per year for every settler along the road, provided there were four settlers to the mile, for a daily delivery, and £1 a year for a tri-weekly delivery. Under the present guarantee system a man could pull out at any moment. “If a man puts out a kerosene tin or a letter box we must deliver his mail into it. We want to get at the man who won’t carry out his share of the responsibility. Under the new scheme if a man doesn’t care to come into it, he can just hop on to his old pony and toddle off to the nearest post office. It is the endeavour of the department to arrange as far as possible for some facilities for people who were game enough to settle in tho backblocks.” The Wanganui Herald records a good story going the rounds locally. A Wanganui resident, who is favoured with sufficient cash to lend to friends in need at moderate interest, assisted a lady client who, it is alleged, was rather long-winded in settling up. The lender decided to send the bailiff along to take possession of the furniture and other effects, but the bailiff was promptly locked up by the lady. The lender, when he heard of the plight of his agent, then issued instructions for a carrier to be sent to remove the furniture. The lady was most amiable, and invited the carrier inside, and, having showed him into one of the rooms, promptly turned the key, leaving him to keep the bailiff company while she kept guard. After a two hours’ wait tho carrier called out: “Look here, madam. I am not in this joke at all, and as my horse and cart are waiting outs ; de you had better ring up the boss.” The lady refused to entertain his appeal, and later he found a means of escape, and the j neighbours state that he wasted no time in whipping up the horse and getting away from the locality. What became of the bailiff has not been stated. The sequel to the story is that the lady still retains her furniture, and the carrier has sent in an account to the money-lender for the time wasted in captivity. At the meeting of the executive of the Dunedin Returned Soldiers' Association last week Colonel M‘Don.ald asked if it had been noted that since the resolution in regard to the Canteen Fund had been passed tho fund has risen from £BO,OOO to £116,000, or £45,000 more than they had been given to understand was its total. Colonel M'Donald continued: “We are watching this fund very closely, and I think there will be some interesting developments relating to it before long.” Unless extraordinary and sustained bad weather intervenes, one of the best crops in the history of Canada is assured this year, according to the statement made by Dr J. G. Gradate, Deputy-Minister of Agriculture. From coast to coast, Dr Grisdale said, a bountiful harvest is assured, although the conditions in Ontario and Quebec and tho Maritime Provinces are slightly better than iu tho West. M'William and Thomas, the prisoners who escaped from the Oamaru Gaol on Monday night, were recaptured on Wednes day afternoon (writes our Oamaru correspondent). They visited Enfield on Tuesday night, stole a railway trolley there, and (a i i- to Wniarokn. where they abandoned it. Early on Wednesday they were heard of on the North road, and the police scent grow hotter and hotter until, at last, with the fugitives in plain view, they were run to a standstill in the heavy going of the beach shingle, some two milos from the mouth of t.he Waitaki ltiver. The polico were assisted and accompanied by residents. No further stolen goods were found upon the recaptured prisoners.

Ifr.njidi'i Noel Blake Marshall, an employee* of the Union Bank, was arrested for the alleged theft of a cheque for £42 17s 4d (says a Pahiatua Press Association message). He was remanded for a week. | Mr J. C. Browne, provincial organiser for the Otago Provincial Council, Now Zealand Farmers’ Union, reports that, at a meeting j held at Outrarn on Friday evening a branch j was formed, to be known as the On tram Branch. Mr J. Miller was appointed chair- j man, anil Mr J. Young secretary. Forty j members were enrolled at the meeting. ! Acting under pressure exerted by the ; Miners’ Federation and apparently appre- ! honsive of expulsion fioin that organisation I it it did not comply with its behests, the Miners’ Union at Kaifangata has decided I against, negotiating a local settlement of j conditions of work by means of the machi- j ncry provided by the Tndr.firi .1 Conciliation I and Arbitration Act. We understand that \ 60 members voted in favour of, and 112 ! against, a district settlement, and ns a consequence of ibis decision tile union will, it is said, ignore any award that may be ! made. j At the monthly meeting of the Dunedin ' branch of Engineers, Firemen, and Cleaners’ Association great indignation was expressed at the If ail ways Department’s attitude towards the returned soldiers in the matter of their promotion. It is alleged that a man with three years’ war service and two years’ firing service must, in the department’s opinion, be put up for examination behind the man wiih in- war service, and in consequence must xsfl'er i

delay in promotion and loss of increasex wages. No justification could be found for the action of the department in this direction, and the branch instructed the Executive Council to take this matter tin al once with the management, in the hope of securing justice for the returned soldiers iti the service. The Paerau residents are not at all satislied with their present postal service, and are moving through tiie Maniototo branch of the Farmers’ Union to try and have the mail service altered from a weekly to a bi-weekly one. At present mails go only on Fridays, and it is impossible for them to receive a letter and reply to it the same week. The department states that the revenue does not warrant a bi-weekly service, but the Paerau people claim that under present conditions most of their revenue goe s to Ranfurly, Wa'piata, or Potearoa. Their service now, they say, is no better than ii was 45 years ago. The Maniototo branch is sympathetic with the claim, and has written asking the Otago Provincial Council of the Farmers’ Union to take the mailer up. It will be necessary that the office of Acting Minister of Finance, which is at present filled by Sir Francis Bell, shall be held by a member of the Ministry who possesses a s f, at in the House of Representatives lor such portion of the ensuing session as will elapse before the return of Mr Miuaray to New Zealand. We understand it is practically settled that Mr Downie Stewart, will undertake the responsibilities of the office before the Parliament meets and discharge i hem until Mr Massey is prepared to resume then).

An item that haa attracted attention in the public accounts for the Juno quarter is the railway expenditure (says the Dominion). Hie cost of running the railways during the quarter is set down at £1,978,600, as against £931,282 for the corresponding period of last year. The revenue tor the quarter was £1,609,937, as against £1,419,855 in the June quarter of last year. The apparent increase of over £1,000,000 in the railway expenditure is startling, but the position is not really as bad as the figures suggest it to be. A substantial part of the extra expenditure is due to heavy purchases of coal at high prices. The Railway Department’s stocks of coal have been built up lately, and they are now larger than they have been for several years previously. The coal has to be paid for immediately, but very much of it will be carried forward. “Sheepfarmers during the last 15 years have had a good run,” declared Mr W. P. Spencer at the meeting of the South Waimakanri River Board on Monday (says the Press), “and if they cannot stand one bad year now they ought to be ashamed of themselves. That is the trouble in New Zealand to-day; people have made money, and they have spent it, arid now, when a Had year comes, they are crying out.” Mr F. K. Jones said the country was passing through grave difficulties. People should have money in the bank, but they hadn’t. It vrs-a a time when everybody should show consideration and leniency. If it had not been for the mutual help that people had been alble to give each other, the country would have been in a more serious position than is was to-dav. A new process for smelting ironsand has been invented by an Auckland engineer, and, in view of the fact that a cable from Japan, published last week, announced that a new process had been tested and proved there, it is interesting to note that machinery for dealing with local magnetic sand is already in the course of erection at Onehunga (says the New Zealand Herald). Previous attempts at smelting ironsand in New Zealand have been unsuccessful, owing chiefly to the type of furnace used, but Mr N. G. G. Winkelmann, the inventor of the new process, claims that his type of furnace will obviate all the difficulties encountered previously. Laboratory experiments, it is stated, have been quite successful, and it only remains for the company to carry on operations on a commercial scale to establish a valuable industry. The extent of the fields of ironsand on the west coast of New Zealand is practically unlimited, and a feature of the industry is that a scow can load 50 or ZOO tons of sand at Manukau Heads and take it to the smelter while the flowing tide fills in the cavity with fresh deposit. The sand has metal in mechanical mixture, and thus the iron can Ire separated from the silicate by an electric magnet, leaving the fine silicate as a valuable by-product for building purposes. The iron will then be smelted in the new furnace, and instead of yielding pig-iron as in an ore furnace, a valuable manganese steel is deposited. Some of the most rare of precious metals are incorporated in the New Zealand ironsands, and eventually the extraction of these, it is predicted, will also form an industry. In the Magistrate's Court. Wellington, on Thursday, William Edward Parker was charged with having attempted to obtain £l4 14s from the New Zealand Insurance Company by falsely representing that as the result of an accident on the steamer Rama he had been totally incapacitated and unable to work for a period (says a Press Association message). He told the company that he had done no work since the accident, when, as a matter of fact, he had worked on the steamer Kennedy. A fine of £lO (afterwards reduced to £7 on the appeal of counsel) was imposed. A Press Association telegram from Wellington says that the estimated total population of the dominion on June 30 was 1,284,050. Between April 17 and June 30 the births exceeded the deaths by 3768, and immigration exceeded emigration by 561 Advice has been received by the Canterbury Steamship Company from Captain Mutno, managing director, who is at present in England, that he is arranging to purchase a new and up-to-date steamer for the South Island-Wellington-Wanganui trade. This steamer, which is just being completed, has a capacity of 850 tons, and will be ready to leave for New Zealand shortly. Licensing statistics show that, there were 105,630 licensed premises in England and Wales in 1920, and it is expected that tbestwill decrease by 952 during the current year, as compared with a decrease of 612 in 1919 (says a cable message to the Australian papers). On the other hand, the number of registered clubs was 8995, the highest on record. It is estimated that, these will increase b,v 900 during ihe current year. Discussing the American tariff situation on June 30, (lie New York Sun remarked: “Ihe fact is that the wool schedule is a surrender to the sheep farmers of the West, who have been threatened with ruin for more than a- year because of the slump iu the domestic market for wool and because of Ihe great influx of wool from Australia. New Zealand, and other places. Despite the drastic provision of the Emergence Tariff Bill the United States is now and will continue to be for some time glutted with wool, and the Forilney-Penrosp Bill b j an appreciation of that fact. If the old I schedule K with its basic rate of 11 or 12 ! cents a pound aroused a furore in Congress I and the Republican Party it would he ex-- I pooled that the new rate, appreciably ! higher, would cause even a greater storm, j But, such will not be the case, for conditions ! have changed and the necessity for pro- I teetion of the sheep farmers is admitted I by almost every one to be as great as the ' necessity for protection of every other kind i of farmer.