LOVE OF PLEASURE

Taranaki Daily News, 12 August 1930, Page 9

LOVE OF PLEASURE

CRITIC OF NEW ZEALANDERS. HORSE-RACING AND FOOTBALL. In the opinion of Mr. E. Norman Torry, a visiting English writer and lecturer, the people of New Zpaland possess many striking qualities and at the same time many defects, which are surprising to a stranger. These were discussed in a humoroiis manner by Mr. Torry in a lecture delivered at a meeting of the New Zealand Rationalist Association at Auckland on Sunday. “New Zealanders are the freest people on the globe,” Mr. Torry said. ‘‘Your climate is the most, equitable and your scenery is exquisite, while the smaller towns are 25 years ahead of towns of the same size in England. Yet you seem- to tackle your problems in a very half-hearted way. You are the most pleasure-loving and pleasure-obsessed people in the world, and -the most nomadic. On any excuse at all you travel by road, rail or sea, and if you have no excuse, you still travel.” The New Zealander, however, according to Mr. Torry, speaks the best English that is to be heard anywhere, and with him class distinctions are almost invisible. He is patriotic to a degre which is almost aggressive, and in Auckland, where one hears the greatest amount of talk about patriotism, one finds the people buying American things whenever they can. “Here, too,” Mr. Torry added, “the youths of the city are busily cultivating the slang of the New York Bowery, as witness the terms “Jane” and “sheilah” which are commonly used to describe girls and women.

“A curious impression which persists with most overseas visitors to New Zealand is that the people of New Zealand are merely sojournerfl here. This, I. think, is due to your everlasting talk about ‘going Home.’ I have heard even old people in very modest circumstances refer with faith to that time in the future when they might go Home. Contrasting this is your stupendous civic pride. Your four larger cities are full of it, and we visitors often find ourselves in some embarracsing positions owing to it. “While your speech in general is excellent, your vernacular is most curious. One of the queerest expressions to English ears is -that of ‘too right’ to indicate that things are as hoped oi’ as agreed. Where we would say a person has ‘gone to the dogs,’ you say he has ‘gone to the pack.’ Then there is your wonderfully expressive word ‘jake,’ while anything which incurs your disfavour, be it a man, a woman or a thing, is classed as a ‘cow.’

“You have the four fetishes of the Briton, the Bible, Shakespeare, the medicine bottle and respectability, but you have added three others, horse racing, Rugby football and ‘spotting.’ Your drink bill, as shown in the statistics, is appalling. 71 notice that you also drink a great amount of tea, but I can understand that, Tor I have tasted your coffee.”