GAELIC ONLY DIALECT

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1934, Page 5

GAELIC ONLY DIALECT

AUSTRALIAN COURT’S JUDGMENT. SEVERE LONDON PRESS COMMENT. London, Dec. 19. “Misguided Solomons” is the heading over a leading article in the News Chronicle commenting on the Australian High Court’s judgment in the Kisch case. “The High Court,” it says, “has set the heather on fire with a vengeance by declaring that Gaelic is not a language but a dialect. “The blood of every true Highlander will boil. Surely there must be some in Australia, if even only a few. “The High Court will have reason to regret its imprudent judgment.” The High Court recently quashed the conviction of Egon Kisch, the Czechoslovakian author, as a prohibited immigrant. The Government was ordered to pay the ?osts of the appeal and of the proceedings before the magistrate. The Court, by majority, upheld the objection that Scottish Gaelic used in the dictation test by the customs authorities was not a European language within the meaning of Section 3A of the Immigration Act, 1901.

Sir George Rich, who presided, said that as the provision of the Act dealt with the practical subject of immigration he thought it would be unreasonable to hold that every distinguishable form of speech which had a home in Europe could be used for a dictation test. Scottish Gaelic was not the recognised speech of a community organised politically, socially, or on any other basis. In ordinary practical affairs it played no greater part than a local dialect might. Mr. Justice Starke dissented from the view of his four brother Justices. Gaelic, he said, was one of the oldest forms of language used by people in the British Isles. In his opinion it was a European language within the meaning of the Act.