THE WORDS OF THE NATIONAL ANTHEM ROUSE A DISPUTE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 78, 1 April 1931, Page 8

THE WORDS OF THE NATIONAL ANTHEM ROUSE A DISPUTE.

A London Letter

Sir Edward Elgar*s Delightful Version Ousts “ Costa-Mongery.** (Special to the “ Star.”) LONDON, February 19,1931. The version of the National Anthem used at the Three

Choirs Festivals, and now in dispute from a verbal standpoint, is that of Sir Edward Elgar. It also precedes every concert given by the Royal Choral Society in London, in honour of the King as patron. It has taken a long time to oust the so-called " costamongery ” of an earlier day, and this version certainly makes a thrilling little tone poem full of dramatic contrasts. “ God save us all “ quietly corrects the remainder of the bellicose second verse, and a rousing counterpoint in the orchestra is pitted against the unison for chorus and audience at the nnenina of the third.

gIR GEORGE ARTHUR relates that after the death of Queen Victoria, the Nation* al Anthem was occupying the attention of the future Master of the King’s Musick, because in the previous reign it had been subjected to a rallentando displeasing to King Edward, who told Sir Edward that he did not wish it to sound like a dirge. Accordingly the score was altered and the piece speeded up until by degrees it reached a tempo which caused the present Kipg to allude to it as a jig and ask for it to be slowed down a little. The music for “ God Save the King ” suffered as many vicissitudes as the words, but the latest method, adopted by military bands, of beginning one verse only like a prayer and then swelling out on a roll of drums for “ send him victorious,” satisfies most people. It will be a thankless task for anyone to attempt to revise the offending passage, in which God is urged to “-confound ” the politics and “ frustrate ” the knavish tricks of the King’s enemies, as the style of speech adopted in the anthem is now a' lost art. Sir Laming Worthington Evans. It is not usual for Parliament to pass a resolution appreciative of a member’s public work unless he is or has been Prime Minister. The rule, however, does not prevent informal references being made in speeches, and more than one old colleague of Sir Laming Worthington Evans paid a passing tribute to his memory in debate. Sir Laming was born in London in 1868, and became a solicitor in 1890, passing his examinations with honours. After practising for eighteen years he retired in 1908 and entered Parliament as Unionist M.P. for Colchester in 1910. In the Commons he attracted attention by his criticism of details of Mr Lloyd George’s National Insurance Bill.

But it was Mr Lloyd George who made him Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions in 1916—when he received a baronetcy—after he had acted successively as inspector of Administrative Services and Controller of the Foreign Trade Department of the Foreign Office. Sir Laming left the Ministry of Munitions in 1918 to become Minister of Blockade. Next year he was Minister of Pensions, in 1920 Minister without Portfolio, and in 1921-22 Secretary for War in the Coalition Cabinet. His refusal to ally himself nvith the Carlton House section of the party kept him out of office till 1923, when he was made Post-master-General. From February to November, 1924, ha was editor of “ The Financial News.” Following the General Election of 1924, when the Unionists were again placed in power, he again became Minister of War, an office he held until the next General Election of 1929. Ironmaster and Inventor. Within a few hours of each other, two great British industrialists have died. One was Sir Arthur Dorman, the veteran Teesside ironmaster, and the other was Sir Charles Parsons. Sir Arthur passed away at his home, Grey Towers, Nuthorpe, near Middlesborough. Few men possessed a more remarkable monument to their commercial and industrial enterprise than Sir Arthur John Dorman, Baronet, chairman of Dorman, Long and Company, Limited. I-lis life was a life of hard work. Born at Ashford, Kent, on August 8, 1848, and educated at Christ’s Hospital, he was associated with the staple industry of Tees-side since 1866, when he went, as a youth of 18, as an apprentice to Mr E. G. Johnson, of Richard Johnson and Company, Middlesborough.

Sydney Harbour Bridge Contraet. He was associated with all the important experiments in the manufacture of steel which took place on Tees-side, and his practical knowledge of every phase of the industry has been invaluable in the building up of the great industrial undertaking which he has directed since 1876, when he and the late Mr Albert de Lande Long took over the West Marsh Ironworks, at Middlesborough, with their twenty puddling furnaces and three rolling mills. After the war he realised that a great opportunity existed in bridge building and similar constructional work, and with typical energy he set out, with the co-operation of his colleagues, to establish a bridge-building department of the firm. The first contract secured was the Sydney Harbour bridge at an estimated cost of £4,500,000. One of the many important undertakings for which Sir Arthur was mainly responsible was the merger of Dorman, Long and Company with Bell Brothers, in 1899, for the purpose of producing open-hearth steel from Cleveland iron. A Great Engineer. The death of Sir Charles Parsons occurred while he and Lady Parsons were on a pleasure cruise to the West Indies. Sir Charles Parsons was the inventor of many scientific appliances, but none more famous than the turbine which now bears his name. Born in 1854, he was the fourth son of the third Earl of Rosse, and at one time president of the Royal Society. After taking his degree at St John’s College, Cambridge, he entered business in 1877 in the firm of Sir W. G. Armstrong and Company, of Elswick. From that time he was determined to construct a marine engine which would entirely eclipse all previous e#orts with the old paddle propeller. He began in 1884 the experiments which led to the development of the steam turbine. So successful were they that he decided to establish his own works, and the firm of C. A. Parsons and Company, Limited, of Heaton, Newcastle-on-Tyne, came into being. The launching in 1897 of the Turbina, the first vessel to be propelled by turbine machinery, was an epoch-making event. The ship, a vessel of forty-four tons, made its public appearance at the Diamond Jubilee Naval Review at Spithead, and by attaining 34 knots proved the fastest vessel in the world. First Turbine-Driven Destroyers. In that year the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company was founded, with works at Wallsend-on-Tyne, and Sir W. White, Director of Naval Construction at the Admiralty, placed orders for the first turbinedriven destro3 j -ers, the Viper and the Cobra, and the first turbine-driven cruiser, the Amethyst. The two former attained 36 knots, but it was largely due to the success of the Amethyst that the general introduction of turbines into the Navy took place. Sir Charles was also a pioneer of aviation. As far back as 1893 he was conducting experiments with a model flying-machine, and later he actually made an engine-driven model equipped with a steam engine r.nd boiler. Knighted in 1911, Sir Charles received many honours from universities and scientific bodies. For his invention of the turbine he was awarded the medal of the Royal Society, of which he was a Fellow. He was president in 1917 And in 1919 of the British Association, to which he presented £IO,OOO in 1922. In 1927 he was awarded the Order of Merit. Sir Charles had implicit faith in the marine supremacy of l» ; s country and in July last prophesied that the new Cunard liner would regain for Britain the Blue Riband of the Atlantic.