PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 4029, 2 June 1931, Page 3

PASSING NOTES.

Dr Curtins and the Austro-German zollverein (Toll or Customs Union) have for the past few months caused a flutter among French and British dovecotes. For Austria to coalesce with the federated German States would be an overweight of power in Central Europe, and the risk of any response by Vienna to Berlin along these lines was the subject of special articles in the Treaty of St. Germain. This is a different tale from that of 100 years ago when Franz Joseph dreamed of Austrian hegemony among the German States. The genius of Bismarck saw to it that the Hapsburg regime should not attain this length. According to Redlich: In 1848 Bismarck taught those who were willing to listen that Vienna was now engaged in an effort to transform the hitherto honorific position of Austria as presiding power (presidial right) info an effective leadership of the German States and the Confederation into an extended Austria. Were this to succeed then, the life threads of Prussian destiny as a great Power would be cut. At Koniggratz the doom of Austrian hopes was sealed, and Prussian supremacy

assured. The whirligig of time sees the Teuton empires, Kaiser and King-cm peror, united after Serajevo. The economic measures, now propounded are being referred to the learned jurists at The Hague. Pandects, protocols, atm pacts will be discussed by this tribunal in due form, precedents canvassed, Vattel and Grotius expounded. The matter is still sub judice. The progress to the status of a graduate is very evidently a question of degrees. One is first received within the matrix of the University by the process of matriculation; the learned corporation itself is “ alma mater,” though the stream of aliment depends largely upon the appetite of the youngster. After a series of trials of strength, the baccalaureat is attained. This is not all, for fees have to be produced and public homage given in the ceremony of the conferring of degrees. Until this service is yielded, graduates are merely graduands, he and she who must be gradu ated, an inchoate title. In arranging the order of procedure for the occasion, the processions, punctilios, and whatnot, the academic mind delights in descending from the clouds and in the disposing of administrative details, edicts and orders of the day. This at least was characteristic of Mr J. E. Nixon, fellow and classical lecturer of King’s, Cambridge, whose “ Parallel Extracts ” with prefatory “Notes on Idioms” are not unfamiliar in Otago. His mind whirled incessantly in a maelstrom of new dodges for counting the attendance of the undergraduates in Chapel, for registering votes at Fellows’ meetings, for ensuring regular supplies of toilet paper in such places as the Dons needed them, or for ascertaining the speed of the train in which he was travelling. On Sunday in May Week, at Cambridge, there was always an immense crush to get into King’s Chapel for afternoon service, and in preparation for this, Nixon printed a small leaflet “On the Management of Large Crowds,” which he distributed to the vergers, so that they should know what to do. The crowd this year was more unwieldy than ever, and Nixon popped out of the organ-loft, where he had been observing the management of it, and cried in a lamentable voice, “If there is any more shoving, there will be no Divine Service at all.”

Charlie Chaplin, in an interview given to the Daily Express, says:— “ Patriotism is the greatest form ot insanity from which the world has ever suffered. People say I have a duty to England, but 17 years ago I slaved and starved there for a few shillings a week. I have been all over Europe during recent months, and patriotism is rampant everywhere, with the result that there is going to be another war.” Mr Chaplin transcends all known bounds and frontiers, and has enjoyed an extraterritorial patrimony that no one can filch from him. . His film producers have doubtless learned that he has an adequate sense of his own worth in terms of The currency. He can now rest upon his laurels and give the cue to world politics. Is this just lip service to the countless millions who worship under the Chaplin cult? And is this modern Carolus Magnus a mere mummer? One would have it otherwise. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, and possibly out of the mouths of mimes, has been ordained strength. Dunedin being a University town and the charter already bearing evidence of a vesture of antiquity, it is fitting that the populace at large should sometimes participate in the good things standing

within the academic cupboards. Proof spirit requires breaking down before public consumption, and for this end, the meetings of the Otago Classical Associa tion serve the purpose. The report in Tuesday’s papers of Dr Lawson’s lecture manifested an obvious enthusi asm for Plato. Before getting well into his symposium, the professor served his guests with a stiff aperitif. His propaedeutic must have caused some at least to wonder what potent liquor they were being asked to sample. The lecturer proceeded to claim that he was an authority on his subject, but knowing something of his reputation as scholar and thinker, one would have thought this prefatory admonition not required . possibly he deemed it politic to establish Ins position impregnably at the outset. Platonists and neo-Platonists are coming back to their own and, as an ardent disciple, Professor Lawson is in good company. I take it that, with Jowett, he leans more to the philosophy than the philology. One morning the Master of Balliol was in his study going through with their authors the English essays which the undergraduates had sent in for his perusal and criticism. Swinburne (the poet) was sitting, with the proofs of Jowett’s translation of a Platonic Dialogue, in a small adjoining room, the door between»the two being open. ft was the Master’s habit sometimes to make rather withering remarks to these young essayists, and this day one of his most biting observations was interrupted by a ■ joyful crow of laughter from the next room, and Swinburne’s exultant voice exclaiming: “ Another howler, Master!” “Thank you, Algernon.” said the Master meekly, and gently closed the door.

Mr Herman Klein knows probably more of the genus prinia donna than all the impresarios, the Haminerstcins and Maplesons, and critics put together. His references to lima di Murska are of interest to those in Dunedin who remember this singer, with her three octave range, in the seventies. Like her contemporary Lillian Nordica, lima di Murska was an oft-married woman, and elected as her third husband a citizen of this town. One of the most eccentric singers of the time, she was one even ing during a performance of “ The Magic Flute ” found sobbing violently in the wings because someone in the company had said she was 45 when she was little more than 30! A large dog used to accompany her at rehearsals, and her manager, Mapleson, declared that she — travelled with an entire menagerie. Iler immense Newfoundland, Pluto, dined with her every day. A cover was laid for him as for her, and he had learned to eat a fowl from a plate without dropping any of the meat or bones on the floor or even on the tablecloth. Pluto was a goodnatured, dog. or he would have made short work of the monkey, the two parrots, and the Angora cat that were his constant associates. From my correspondent, Disciplicus: Had anyone slumbered through the reading of “Julius Gtcsar ” by the Dunedin Shakespeare Club (which I certainly did not), he would certainly' have been startled to consciousness by the declaration: “This was the most unkindest cut of all.” One might have thought oneself in the Town Hall, which was recently filled to capacity on the occasion of Mr Holland’s annual visit. I do not hold with the symbolical interpretation of Shakespeare, and I have no available documentary evidence as to a reduction in dramatist's fees during a slump in Elizabeth’s day. At any’ rate I can recommend the tag to the compilers of the forthcoming Capping song book, which is sure to con-

tain a song relative to the present vogue for financial decapitation. And equally well, it might nave figured among th? forensic flights of the Labour advocates before his Honor of the Arbitration Court in Wellington. A line from Shakespeare, aptly turned, might have tipped the trembling scales of justice! If pleaded before another tribunal, the Prime Minister would retort from the same drama: My credit now stands upon such slippery ground I The Otago Harbour Board seems to specialise in what is beheralded in the local press as “ big blasts.” For months on end sappers, subterrene and submarine engineers, prepare a magnificent petard, the culminating moment draws near, tugs are requisitioned, and officials manifest a schoolboy curiosity. They stand on tip-toe for the exciting spectacle. I am not surprised, then, to receive the following missive from a lady correspondent: In yesterday’s Otago Daily Times the picture of the explosion off Goat Island appeared. Is the wording underneath correct? I have not any great experience of explosives, but know that gelignite is used generally. Is “gelatine” correct? or should it read “gelignite”? A pertinent inquiry! The ladies, accustomed to regard gelatine as a congealing and not a disruptive agent, a phlegmatiser and not a stimulant, cannot understand the reference. Gelatine, however, is right, and not gelignite, “blasting gelatine” being the correct term.

Civis.