PUBLIC OPINION.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 September 1928, Page 4

PUBLIC OPINION.

THE CURRENCY OF WORDS. “Apart from their sound and association, the choice of words is mainly governed by their currency. The state of a language is never constant, and almost every year words lose their life and new words arc born. To be aware of these subtle changes'in the growth of a language requires the. finest sensibility, and is perhaps peculiarly difficult for those who coniine themselves to the reading of classical models. The vitality of writing corresponds in some inexorable wav to its contemporaneity, and is nourished not so much by the study of example - ns by the act of living, from which it takes an accent of reality. The history of a word is entirely irrelevant in prose style; it fare-value in current usage is tho only criterion. Mi Iloibert Read in “English l’rose Style.”

SCHOOL PRIZE-01VING. “We all know that school prizes offer a stimulus-to work, and, at their best, raise the standard of scholarship. ... A prize is a near and tangible goal; it may be only a stop to some remoter end, hut it may assist the effort towards that eml. In this sense it can he defended even on ethical grounds. This argument, however, ■does not justify flic public prize-giving and the artificial distinctions of the occasion. Tho table adorned with 1 vooks, the gathering of many strangers who may know font little of school work, the pointed distinction between tho successful and the unsuccessful competitors, the exaltation of the few who go up for a, prize, and the neglect of the many who only sit and wait—these unnecessary accompaniments are only evils. Let us give our * prizes with more sympathy and more humility. Let the publicity he within tho school, and not among an unknown audience. Let the school know that if Jones has carried off the prize, the work of Smith also reached a commendable standard, and that Robinson, who started with a serious handicap, made a very creditable effort. Let it be a contest of honour whose justification is (openly neiknovf edged to be tho raising of the school standard in things of the miiul, and we shall attract the sense of sportsmanship that is so often absent from intellectual pursuits.—From the “Times Educational Supplement.”

A HOUSE OF ANOTHER COLOUR. “If the General Assembly of the Kirk had demanded the passing by Parliament of a Bill affecting tlie Kirk’s status by a majority as large as the Church Assembly demanded tlie new Prayer Book, and if two prominent elders' of a like political standing to that of Sir William Joynson-Hicks and Sir Thomas Inskin bad used their 'influence in the House of Commons to defeat the wishes of Scottish .Presbyterianism by an appeal to tlie prejudices of Anglican and Roman Catholic M.P.’s, they and their backers would have received from an indignant laity such a reception in the General Assembly as they would not soon have forgotten; and no Moderator and no minister could have held back, the torrent of indignation that would have burst on their luckless heads.” —“Church Times.”

A DEFINITION OF CHRISTIANITY. “Christianity is a religion, not of social reform but of spiritual regeneration. But though it does not aim primarily at material and social progress, it promotes progress very potently b.v indirect means. What it calls the Kingdom of God. which, as St. Paul says, is not eating and drinking, hut righteousness mid peace and joy, is a goal both more attainable and better worth having than what the nineteenth century usually meant by progress.”—Dean Inge, in the “Evening Standard.”