OUR DOUBLE LIVES.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 June 1930, Page 6

OUR DOUBLE LIVES.

“Within the tour walls ol' his own nouse a man lives a strictly ethical life; but the moment. he crosses ins doorstep he becomes entangled in a bewildering maze of relationships—with the postman who brings his letters, with the urchin who delivers his milk, with the scavenger who sweeps the street—relationsips in which the first principles of social justice may have been violated, but which he is powerless to control. • Throughout the remainder of the day lie may he faced with the same perplexities,” writes Mr Alexander Tvl.ackcndrick, 'in the “Hibbert Journal.”

CHOOSING A NATIONAL POET

“It should be possible to find a poet,” ;ays the “Manchester Guardian,” vho enjoys the respect of other poets md at the same time has shown that ie' is not so far aloof from other men is to be unmoved by public events that could stir them to song; if they could ;ing. Such a poet might, without he slightest violence to his music ir his convictions, enhance in the v hole nation its consciousness of metre's office. Supposing such coniderations weight at all with Mr Mac)onald when in choosing a poet to reommend for this post he performs one I the most interesting duties of his erm of office, they will make the task t choice easier than it would at first ight seem by narrowing the field, ’hey perhaps rule out one of the ;reatest. poets of our time, Mr W. 3. Yeats, on the ground that in so ar as his Muse has national sympathies they are specifically Irish, lero, of course, the question arises ihethoT the Poet Laureate is to be >oet Laureate of the United Kinglorn or of the Empire, parts of which re so different from other parts that hey may well feel the need of a Poet -aureate of their own.”.