CULTURED AND EARNEST

NZ Truth, Issue 1203, 20 December 1928, Page 6

CULTURED AND EARNEST

THE passage of years influences men and women m much the same way as a clever tea-taster will adjust the attributes of his teas— the more strident virtues are blended with the mellow; the cruder flavors become rounded, more bland, more acceptable, and the palate is better pleaded. When Henry Edmund Holland, came to New Zealand 16 years ago, his somewhat acrid" style was* repugnant to those accustomed to a more subtle, less sweeping parlance, but those three-quarter-spore years m the cellar of Life have infused into his spirit a cultured, if idealistic element. As Leader of the Labor Party his pronouncements of late years have been tempered with less clangor than was his wont not so many years ago, and he is not so much an orator as a passionately earnest speaker — all to the good. Whereas he once relied upon the roaring cannon of unleashed enthusiasm, he now prefers the sibilant arrows of Culture, from whose ensheathmg quiver he believes every man should pluck avidly.