TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Southland Times, Issue 20527, 2 July 1928, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE TIMES

“If the million are reading and speaking slipshod English while only the thinkers write purely, a gap is widening between ordinary men and those who on the moun-tain-tops of thought can see a little more clearly through the mists that lie around man’s destiny, and would tell the rest if only the rest could hear,” Lord Dunsany writes in a recent volume of essays. “If the poets come to appear pedantic and precious the poets will be derided, and that they have always been, and know how to bear it; but the people will be cut off from their message, and will not be the better for that. Or else the poets will write in the new jargon; but the trouble, then, is that it is incapable of carrying so much of their thought as was the English of Milton. Those who so champion modernism that they would support the prevalent trend of our language to-day, merely because it is of to-day, will surely hold that our day is a great day and has something to tell to others. We can read without difficulty what the Elizabethans had to tell us. Will the people of three or four hundred years hence, if our language continues upon its downward slope, be able to make head or tail of what we thought or cared about?”

Speaking recently before a Boston audience, Rabbi Harry Levi of Temple Israel undertook to define what he referred to as a “real American.” In his opinion such a person is one who understands American ideals and lives up to them. But he hastened to observe that this real American has not yet appeared; that he is still in the making, as he expressed it. Seeking to establish this premise he told his audience that the American to-day is different from what the American of to-morrow will be, and that Americans differ in various sections of the United States. As to these variations or dissimilarities there is no doubt. It is not difficult, when in the East, to distinguish the visitor from the West, or vice versa. Likewise the northerner and the southerner are able, almost at once, to designate the approximate geographical habitat of one another. But there remains and will always be distinguishable, nevertheless, the composite or real American who is of America. The inclination is to believe that, he is to-day the exponent and representative of those qualities of citizenship which have long distinguished and been personified by every true American. One hesitates to accept the theory that these qualities will be greatly altered or modified by amalgamation or by the infusion of alien racial influences. The standard, as the speaker indicated, has been established. It is conformed to by those who understand American ideals and live up to them. Perhaps this standard will never be changed. These ideals, when defined, are found to include physical liberty, political liberty, religious liberty, and liberty of speech. Rabbi Levi Refines liberty itself, concretely, to be a voluntary compromise to law. He declares the greatest menace of to-day to be those groups who decide that they do not approve of a law and then proceed to violate it. Respect and reverence for law are fundamentals of Americanism.

“It is not five years since the Turkish State, for so many centuries a theocratic autocracy to which it seemed that no human agency could give another character, was proclaimed to be a Republic,” says the Daily Telegraph. “It is barely four years since the rulers of that Republic deliberately threw away that which gave to Turkey the undisputed leadership of most of the Mohammedan world when they abolished the Ottoman Caliphate. At the same time the Moslem judicial system was replaced by another of the most modern Western type; and latpr, for the ancient and largely religious body of law administered by the Courts a Turkish civil code was substituted. Polygamy was made illegal. The wearing of the headdress which distinguished the Ottoman believer was prohibited. Last year it was enacted that every Turkish citizen who was of age should enjoy complete freedom to choose his own religion. This year the Grand National Assembly, by a unanimous vote, decreed the wiping out of that article of the Constitution of the Republic which declared Mahommedanism to be the religion of the State, and the prescribed form of oath invoking the name of Allah was changed to a formula by which the citizen pledged no more than his personal honour.” Since then, a proposal has been advanced for the abandonment of the alphabet in which the Koran was written, presaging the adoption of the Roman characters as the medium of writing and printing.

The Dominion Meteorologist last night issued the following forecast:—Pressure is rising generally over New Zealand and to the eastward, while an anti-cyclone is moving slowly across the Tasman Sea. Light to fresh west to south winds decreasing north from Cook Strait. Still a rather heavy southerly swell in off-shore waters, but otherwise moderate seas. Fresh southerly winds and rather rough but decreasing seas in the eastern Tasman Sea. Some isolated showers, chiefly coastal, but weather mainly fair to fine. Cold night temperatures with many frosts.

Frederick George Pennell, aged 32, was arrested at Auckland on a charge of using a butcher’s shop at the corner of Shaw street and Edendale Road as a common gaming house. He was granted bail in the sum of £5O.

A young man named Cecil Gilbertson, aged 25, was admitted to the Southland Hospital on Saturday evening suffering from a fracture of the upper arm as the result of a fall from a motor cycle.

The rough weather and the slight falls of snow recently have not materially affected the state of the rivers. At Gore on Saturday the Mataura was two feet six inches above normal, while the Waikaia was also reported to be slightly above normal. At Garston the river was normal and the weather was clearing.

“Britain has £500,000,000 invested in the Argentine, and people ask why she won’t give preference to New Zealand mutton,” said Mr John Fuller, at Auckland. “The people of England are the last in the world to buy British goods and produce, unless they are cheaper than the others. The pocket comes first, then patriotism.”

The annual ball of the Knapdale bachelors was held on Friday evening and attracted quite a satisfactory attendance, although weather conditions were anything but good. The floor was in excellent condition, and the music as supplied by Bain’s Orchestra (Gore) left nothing to be desired. At a suitable interval supper was served. Under the capable M.C.-ship of Mr A. Fergie, dancing was kept up till the early hours of the morning.

A fatal accident occurred in Whaka road about half past six on Friday night, states a Press Association message from Rotorua. John O’Connor, aged about 40 and married with a young family, employed in the King George V. Hospital was going home from work on a bicycle which was etruck by a car, and fearfully mangled. The car disappeared the body being found by passers-by. The police were immediately informed and it is understood that an arrest will follow.

The Waikana young people held their annual dance in Mr D. Sinclair’s (Knowsley Park) barn on Wednesday evening, when there was a large attendance, people coming from as far afield as Gore and Mataura to participate. The barn was tastefully decorated for the occasion, while the floor had received special attention at the hands of a capable committee. Music for the dancing was supplied by Mr A. W. Duncan (violin) and extras were played by Mr F. Arnold (accordeon). The duties of Masters of Ceremonies were ably carried out by Messrs J. Eden and S. H. Parker.

“It was just a case of an honest man, having neither job, nor money, nor home, getting desperate. It is a case of real hard luck and far removed from the usual type that comes before your Worship.” So said the police on Saturday when Alexander Marinus Christinus Tuck, aged 59, described as a cook from Holland, was charged in the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court with wilfully breaking a pane of glass valued at 5/-, the property of the New Zealand Government and also with being and idle and disorderly person. Defendant had deliberately broken a window in the old Post Office so that he might be arrested. He was ordered to come -up for sentence if called upon. The Salvation Army promised to care for him.

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