KEEPING SPEECH PURE

Taranaki Daily News, 1 September 1930, Page 6

KEEPING SPEECH PURE

VALUE of competitions THE ABSENCE OF ANY DIALECTS, N®W ZEALAND’S GREAT. ASSET, INTEREST IN THEATRE REVIVED 'The value of competitions in keeping the language pure was stressed by ths judges, Messrs. J. W. Bailey and ,W. H. Dixon, at the conclusion of the Hawera festival last week. “Competitions undoubtedly help to', keep the language pure,” said Mr. Dixon, “for it is no use a competitor going on with crude speech. Unlike other countries there are no dialects in New Zealand and the speech is uniformly clear. That is an asset and should be jealously guarded despite the tendency to hear American gramophone records and talkies. With these constantly thrust upon people the tendency is for them to adopt subconsciously a nasal form and the use of slang words. The study of elocution and singing, especially for competitions, will help to check the tendency.” It was no tribute to a singer io say that one could hear every word, continued the judge. That was only a negative virtue. But it was a tribute if one said that each word was given the right • emphasis. Then the words would glow with life and become dear and significant. Singing in the home, added Mr. Dixon, would enrich the family life os it had done in Germany, for example. The communal life and the national could be enriched by music. ’ CAUSE JOE AFFECTATKM Answering the charge that elocution tended to make ichildren affected, Mr. Bailey showed that the fault rested with the teacher and not with the subject. “All the likable traits in’ our friends are acting, fortunately happening to be peculiar to the individual,” he said. “Correctly developed these traits can only add to personality. The trouble is-that many teachers of elocution inake their pupils mere imitations of yffiat they themselves feel and think?* * Elocutionists, Mr. Bailey considered, should take up singing, and singers elo- . cution, but it was a point of which people were inclined to lose sight. Singers often had all tone and no words and elocutionists all words and no tone. Everybody in England was trained to develop both sides. The voice in speech was a beautiful instrument if proper care were taken.

Mr. Bailey thought the novelty of mechanical entertainment was dying and people were again becoming - interested in the theatre. Little theatres were growing all over the world. If such a society could be formed in Hawera and become interested in competitions a short play every night would materially add to the success of festivals. A dramatic section would soon make a difference to the general appreciation of drama,- in which at the present time literary ability was very good. Great minds were working for the stage, producing plays of high merit.