The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, September 16, 1913. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1146, 16 September 1913, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, September 16, 1913. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

A deputation waited upon the Borough Council at its last meeting and urged that body to join Shannon in the cost at the intake of the proposed gravitation water scheme from the Shannon hills. (Our readers are aware that Mr Suggate has been instructed by the Council to prepare an estimate of the cost of such scheme, also an estimate for alternative ■ local artesian scheme. Mr Suggate is also preparing an estimate for a supply from the hills for Shannon township.) Possibly the deputation’s idea was . that .the Council should instruct the engineer to ascertain what saving would be effected ' if- the borough combined with Shannon in acquiring a catchment area to serve both localities. We have previously warned ratepayers against dual control in water supply matters, but, provided such dual control begins and ends with the source of supply, the risk would not be great. The question o< cost of catchment area in such a locality should not prove a very great obstacle. The proposed supply is to be drawn from a gushing mountain torrent, winding its way between precipitous cliffs, so that the purchasing of a large reserve —which would be necessary in level country—will be obviated. This matter will need ‘.he most careful consideration by the Council when the details are submitted by the engineer.

Mr Renner, of the Wellington College teaching staff, speaking at the conference of secondary school teachers, held at Wellington recently, had something to say about the slovenly speech and marked twang noticeable in school children. He said : “Those of us who have given the whole matter earnest thought are convinced of two things, The first is, that the school children of this Dominion do, in the great majority, speak badly, and secondly, that the tendency to do so has, of late years, increased. lam not exaggerating when I say that it is by no means an uncommon thing to hear Irom a schoolboy the rendering of a portion of Macaulay’s Armada, something like this : “Oi tell of the throice fymous deeds . she wrought in aincient dys, Wen that grite fleet invincible, agynst her bore in vine The richest spoils of Mexicow, the stoutest hearts of Spine”— Or the rendering of a less classic line:

“Reound tha teown, witheout er breown.”

A mere cursory examination of the atrocities perpetrated here lead us to the conclusion that if we could eradicate from our schools and homes the mispronunciation of four vocalic sounds, we could then perhaps say with some reason that there is no general accent discernible in New Zealand. lam leaving out of consideration at present all such abominations as ‘ dun’tcher,’ ‘ wou’tcher,’ ‘no idear of,’ ‘a comer rafter,’ etc., etc. They are the results of aslovenly habit of speech and are curable. Undoubtedly it is the pronunciation, or rather mispronunciation of the following four sounds that gives the ball-mark to the New Zealand dialect. We have first of all the pronunciation, from nine persons out of ten, of the medial or final ‘ ou ’ or ‘ ow,’ as ‘ eow,’ instead of the correct ‘au ’ (see Skeat, also Morris). Here, too, we must class also the mispronunciation of final ‘0 ’ as ‘ eow.’ For example we hear on all sides ‘neow,’ ‘ heow,’ ‘gow,’ ‘ Mexicow,’ ‘ thankyeow.’ Because the above-given mispronunciation of the words now, how go, Mexico, and thank you is so extraordinarily common, it is the hardest to eradicate. A child feels that the correct sound is an uncommon sound and is afraid of doing something out of the common. On the other hand, the correct pronunciation of these and similar words seems a physical impossibility to some boys.” Mr Renner advocates singing as a corrective of slovenly speech, a knowledge of what is standard English, and concludes: “ But I think that when once both primary and secondary teachers are able to speak standard English, and are able to impart their knowledge to their pupils by the best methods, then we need have little fear of remaining difficulties.”