EN PASSANT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 836, 8 January 1883, Page 2

EN PASSANT.

Since Mr Archibald Forbes, the “ King of War Correspondents,” arrived in the colony we have heard a good deal concerning the power of the press and the enterprise that has been shown by newspaper proprietors in Europe during recent years. No expense has been spared, and as Mr Sala once said, special correspondents travel like princes and receive the wages of ambassadors. This spirit of enterprise is to be found, though of coarse in a less degree, in the colonies, and as was mentioned in a southern paper some time ago Mr Forbes received the sum of recently for a five-column biography of General Skobeleff, which he wrote for the Melbourne Argus and the Sydney Morning Herald. No one believes more in the power of the press than we do, and we are glad to see that even in a comparatively new place like Ashburton an example has been shown that will no doubt be followed by other journals in the colony. “ Our own Jenkins ” was despatched the other day to Mount Somers to do the district, and in the quaint, if somewhat ungrammatical language of our contemporary, he “ done ”it beautifully. The adventures he encountered were certainly not very striking, but the personal element which is to be found in his narrative of “cakes and ale,” and which is such a prominent feature in modern j ournalism,makes the article very amusing. After all, we care more to read of the doings of “our own Jenkins,” and the rapturous manner in which his health and that of the newspaper he represented was drunk, than we do of people less known to fame. Nor did the hospitality of the Mount Somers people end in mere words. We are told that one of the gentlemen present insisted upon the “ special taking a seat in his buggy, and, though pressed, the former would not receive payment. We have not, we are proud to say, a spark of envy in our composition, and we can rejoice that our contemporary has found one place in the district—an oasis in the desert of indifference—where his efforts on behalf of suffering humanity are valued as he considers they ought to be.

It occurred long years since to a schoolboy to add one more commandment to the Decalogue, namely, “ Tell a lie and stick to it.” Although this injunction cannot be defended on moral grounds, we are afraid that it still remains an article of faith not only among youngsters, but a)so children of larger growth. The editor of our Oamaru morning contemporary has evidently added still another commandment, which nearly resembles the schoolboy’s, and runs thus.: —“ If you do make a mistake don’t admit it.” The other day we mentioned what was evidently a printer’s error, for the pointing out of which we omitted to credit the Dunedin Star, in a report of some local sports, at which an absence of “ protestant grumbling ” was noted. This was considered to be a misprint for “ protest and grumbling,” a far more intelligible phrase. Our contemporary, however, will in nowise have this. He says :—“ Of course nothing ot the kind was meant. If the writerof the paragraph had sought the opinion of the office boy on the subject, the erudition of the youth might have been sufficient to convince him that the phrase -has been used before, and that it was not an ‘ amusing printer’s blunder.’” But in spite of the opinion of the office boy. which by the way is rather vague, we are inclined to think that “ protestant grumbling ”is scarcely English. Even admitting that protestant in any case can be considered an adjective, the only meaning it can have is protesting, and then the phrase must be condemned as redundant, for who ever heard of grumbling in which a protest was not involved. On the whole it would have probably shown more wisdom on the part of the paragraphist if he had accepted the correction and said no more about it. Turning, however, to another part of the paper, we come across a passage in a leader which causes us to have strong doubts as to the editor’s classical knowledge, whatever ability his office boy may possess as an English scholar. We are told that >Eneas was a “ peregrinating and somewhat priggish pietist.” That circumstances caused the hero of Virgil’s great poem to do a good deal of travelling is an undoubted fact, but why priggish ? and why pietist ? Is it possible that our sapient editor has heard of “ Pius Mntas,” and has taken the adjective to refer to the religious proclivities of thfe son of Anchises. The next time he attempts a classical illusion it would be perhaps well if he sought information outside the office of his paper, as any fourth form boy in the High School could tell him that the epithet “ pius ” in this instance simply means affectionate. A little learning is truly a dangerous things