THAT PAMPHLET.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1006, 22 December 1910, Page 6

THAT PAMPHLET.

THE TRANSLATOR IN DEFENCE. . A few days ago . there appeared iW". Tile Dominion a clipping from', thai Auckland "Herald," a cutting from, the "Review of the River Plate," which" read as follows:— "We wonder , who is the official hpamsh translator to the New'Zealand l ' Government? We are led to make tliia inquiry from the fact that a four-leaf pamphlet'has come our way, which was published in English and what is meant to be Spanish by the A 7 ew Zealand" Government.' This .pamphlet was issued for distribution at the Agricultural Exhibition, and was entitled 'Brief Noteson New Zealand Products.' " ' - : The "Herald" supplemented the ting by the statement that it had 1 been? assured by an Auckland gentleman who had tried his hand at translating 'it' back into English that it' would be-a ; ' staggerer" for any Spaniard: . Mr. Thos. H. O'Neill, of Wellington,-, who was the translator of the pamphlet mentioned, states that he has little doubt that the Aucklander's translation back would be a staggerer to a Spaniard if his (Mr. O'Neill's) Spanish. 15 to that c ! u ! n j ' s n °thing w/-ong - with my Spanish,' said Mr. O'Neill 'to "aDominion representative. "It is pure Castilian, save here and - there' where the spelling may have been altered' Slightly to suit the colloquialisms of the - Argentine, and I am willing to submit my Sanishto anyone who knows "anything about it. I do not fancy that' they would'stagger in the attempt .to read.it." - . l - ;

In Teply : to.. .questions, Mr.. O'Neill, stated that he was born in Madrid, his father being an'lrishman and. his mother -a Spaniard. ,-He lived there until he was fifteen years of age, receiving a good primary education at a Jesuit school. When 15 years of age he left for South America, and resided for 22 _ years in the capital of the Argentine, where little, but Spanish isspoken or written. _ lit Buenos Ayfres. he attended an English school, presided over by a Mr. Bird (where both English and Spanish were spoken and written), a connection he- did not break until he was 20 years of . age. When 37 years of age, in the course of his avocation as a commercial traveller, Mr.-O'Neill spent-four or five years in Mexico and two years in Guatemala,; in both of which countries Spanish iathe predominant language. After three years in Central America, Mr. O'Neill returned to the' Argentine, from which country he'came, to'.-N6fr Zealand. Sir'. O'Neill' suggests that the "pamphlet" may have been called- in by Mr. Gow; the Government Trade • Commissioner, who" may have been informed thai- the' Spanish was questionable ' by' those anxious to get the work;of re-translat-ing it.' Otherwise, neither he nor the Government authorities, here know anything about' the withdrawal of the pamphlet. ' •