PIANOS, PICTURES AND PATRIOTISM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1949, 8 March 1919, Page 3

PIANOS, PICTURES AND PATRIOTISM.

(Pelone Chronicle.) A German-made piano, bought in pre-war times hy a British resident, in a British community, with British money, is creating some discord among tho good people of Pox ton. There’s music in Hie air, but not the kind of harmony which the Teutonic manufacturer of (ho instrument intended. The piano was offered cheap (o' the local School Committee, which decided to purchase it. It was a naturalised alien, and the committee took the rational view that it might as well he interned in the schoolroom to give forth its glorious melody. Did not Mother England intern many (but not all — far from it) of her German residents and make them plant potatoes •with which to feed her people? The piano was built for music, and the men for labour —so where’s the difference? But Mr Pred. Pirani, who has just returned from a free trip to Europe, whore his urban manner fascinated kings and captivated the leaders of the world's thought (we don’t think) will have none of (he Hunnish box of tricks. It would have a malign influence upon the children, he declared, and they would scoff at marching and singing lo a tunc played upon a Germanmade piano. Personally he was opposed to if. and would sooner sec fifty thousand indecent pictures in the school Hum one German-made piano. The Board should make every effort to dissociate itself with anything German-made. Wc do not admire Mr Pirani’s taste or his lack of logic. The children will march “with glad and gallant tread” to the tune of “God Save the King” without giving one second’s thought to the ancestry of Hie piano. It’s the spirit of the hymn which counts. There arc many organs of German make —line, instruments, io ° Now Zealand churches, and when the vast congregations rise to sing something grander and more ■ sublime than our National Anthem, and sound their (mean of praise to the King of Kings in the fine refrain:

“Hail, Saviour, Prince of Peace,

Thy Kingdom shall increase Till all the world Thy glory see,” they banish from their minds all thoughts of foreign nationalities and warring factions, and their stirring appeal is borne heavenward in radio waves to the throne of Him whose desire is that national and domestic strife shall cease, that pelly .jealousies and differences shall be forgotten, and (hat love and not bale shall lill the hearts of men.

Colonel Ingersoll. oiH' of tbe world’s most noted infidels, wrote what many critics consider to be (ho finest prose poem in the English language. It is entitled “The Laughter of Childhood,” and we reprint it elsewhere in this issue. P» those verses Robt. Ingersoll expressed an affinity between music and human nature which was almost divine. The translated passages of harmony, overflowing with sweet cadences to stir the souls ot men and women, touched the gentle heart which beat behind Ingersoll’s stern exterior, and the nationality of the composers or the makers of the instruments did not weigli with the man. Inlidel though he was, lie was more of a Christian at heart than many of us.

“Fifty thousand indecent pictures in the school,” forsooth. Put onq picture of obscene, meaning on the Avail of any Pctone or Hutt school, and there would he no pupils left, and we would know how to deal with the master and committeemen who sanctioned such an outrage on the morals of the young. Mr Timid poses as an educationist, hut Heaven grant (here arc no others of his distorted vision endeavouring to shape or mis-shape the intellectual bent of the hoys and girls of this fair country, We want purity of thought and purity of action, which arc the parents of the highest: and noblest form, of culture we should instil in the hearts and minds of the young.