A CORRECTION.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2386, 16 February 1915, Page 7

A CORRECTION.

Sir, —On seeing the headline, "Mania Apotu," in this morning's Dominion, I took it at the first glance for Maori, and wondered what it could possibly mean.' But perusal of the article presently revealed to me that .the legend was meant for Latin. The strange formula occurs four times in the article, consistently misspelt. The words are threo not two. "Mania" is doctor's Latin for madness, but is really Greek, the proper Latin word being furor. "A" is a good Latin word, meaning, in this context, derived from, or originating in. "Potu" is the adverbial inflexion .of aasthef.&oodi i&tojwerti simiftsJ;

drink. So that the whole expression means madness caused by drink. , I should lave passed this matter by as a mere clerical or typographical error but for the curious circumstance that the same thing has been done with deliberate elaboration in some hundreds of instances on the city tramcars, whero the three words, "Suprema a situ," which might mean champion stick-in-the-mud, have been telescoped by tho city sign-writer into two, suprema 'asitu, which have no meaning whatever. Is there by any possibility a conspiracy between The Dominion and the City Council to reform the Latin language? I am, etc., BASIL. STOCKER. ■February 13, 1915.