DUNEDIN DOINGS.

NZ Truth, Issue 144, 21 March 1908, Page 6

DUNEDIN DOINGS.

WHAT "/D.L.F." MEANS.

Damn Little Fools, of Course.

The "Otago Witness' is a weekly journal fearfully and wonderfully respectable. Its lack-lustre pages contain lengthy arguments m favor of No-License., verbatim reports of sern^ons that fairly ache m their awful sameness and dulness, equally dull articles which are presumably printed only because their brilliant authors would stop their papers if they weren't; there's wishy-washy verses badly expressing maudlin sentiment, various reports as dull as Dunedin itself— and there's "Dot's Little Folk." To those who take the trouble to read the Otago "Witness" "Dot's Little Folk" are a source of pure, unadulterated joy. There are generally five five-column pages of them, and, this is a fair sample of the stuff that is set out m small solid, type : "Dear Dot,— l am only a little girl, and Igo to school with my sister. Pomohaka Sunflower is holding niy hand. It has been raining all day and it filled our tank, which was nearly empty. My father has all his oats cut, and I used to help m,y sister out with the lunch. V#ell Dot, I shall stop now, as my arm is getting sore : — lYours truly. Dot's girl." .Five pages of this unutterable piiflflc. every ; week ; and cousins and aunts and sisters naturally subscribe to the paper m order to read the literary efforts of little Mjary or Bill, and the hoary-headed mythical "Dot" swells out his waistcoat, and remarks on the growing circulation of 'his dry-as-dust joiirna'l. Many, editors, seeking to foster, an ability to write well amongst children, wisely sacrifices a colunvn per week to their struggling pens. But .■ „ /.. . ..,. s FIVE PAGES OF PUERILE RUB^ BISH. ! U 'Now, these D.L.F. youngsters have amongst them a club, which, with childish ingenuousness: they call a debating club. The members numfber many persons ©f mature years, who, however, possessing childish intellects, are content to associate themselves with children. As children of all degrees are members of this juvenile organisation, one can imagine that a debating assembly represents a peculiar mixture. It gained an immense popularity, did this kids' club, and persons who thought that there was an undue amount of sweethearting going on amongst the youths and maidens after the business for the evening was transacted were decried as scoffers and pessimists of no account. The club was there for the purpose of fostering literary and oratorical attai-ifments among the vounft reople, and anyone who suggested that it furnished a vehicle for immo-