“TOO MUCH GUSH”

New Zealand Tablet, 15 July 1920, Page 35

“TOO MUCH GUSH”

ORATORICAL HYSTERICS. Writing under date May 20, the London correspondent of the Christchurch Press quotes the Yorkshire Post relative to the Prince of Wales in New Zealand, as remarking that ‘‘enthusiasm is a very human trait. The man who lacks it is a poor creature. Like other virtues, however, it becomes a vice if carried to excess, and the English-speaking world is witnessing something not far removed from that process just now in connection with the antipodean tour of the Prince of Wales. Enthusiasm on the part of the people whom the Prince is visiting is not only natural but gratifying, and, if the language they use in welcoming him verges at times on the extravagant, the failing is so human that it can readily be forgiven. That is no excuse, however, for the columns of gush that are being sent Home in regard to every incident -of the tour. We yield to no one in our admiration for the Prince’s fine qualities; but we resent the insult to our commonsense when we find superlatives forced to the point of exhaustion in regard to them. One speaker was so carried away by his feelings that he represented the Prince’s visit as the death-blow to Bolshevism in New Zealand. Exaggerations of that sort are not merely absurd, but mischievous. People who indulge in oratorical hysterics of that sort are no true friends of the Prince himself. For too lavish and too persistent praise inevitably breeds reaction; and there is a real danger that the highly-colored reports of the Prince’s doings and reception overseas may prejudice opinion against him here at home. He is a fine, manly fellow, thoughtful beyond his years, with a priceless sense of what is the right thing to say or do, and the fact that he came through the adulation of his North American tour unspoiled is the highest compliment that could be paid him. The gush that is lavished on him, however, represents him almost as a demi-god. A little more sobriety of statement would do neither him nor us any harm.”