A QUESTION OF "LANGUAGE."

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, Volume 1, Issue 19, 2 August 1901, Page 3

A QUESTION OF "LANGUAGE."

.-/ The question of "language" engag-j ed the ittention of the House last week—not the ordinary language of commerce, but the more forcible "language " of the Billingsgate 'var-i iety, which, if used in a public .place, endangers the liberty of its user; The question at issue was whether the law should not be altered bo as to provide that persons charged with using such language should 'n©t necessarily be sent to gaol, but shotild in the discretion of the Magistrate, •be allowed the option of a fine, Mr. Hogg espoused the cause of the man of " language " —the bullock-driver and horse-attend-ant, who are supposed to be - peculiarly liable to linguistic outbreak ; while Mr. Hojnsby posed as the defender of the women and children within whose hearing the terms supposed to partieu-lai-ly move bullocks are used. Mr; Jackson Palmer and Mr, Laurenson also found an excuse for Billingsgate —that ie to say, they thought there were circumstances in which a fine would q-uite meet the case; but Mr. J. Huehison and Mr. K. Thomson fought the suggestion tooth and nail j —it was, mid the former, a "fat man" proposal, virile the member for Mareden characterised it as an attempt tc " screen, tbs foul-mouthed scounderal who has pienty of money." After a long debate the advocates of leniency i j prevailed, and now if. a man—or! ; woman—is so careless of the propriet-' i ies as to use language -which is ii( frequent and painful and free." he : or she may be allowed to depart from ■ the Court on payment of a fine—always ? supposing, of course, that the Legisl; lafcir« Ooun< il taken the same view of | , the matteT as the representative Cham- > ber has done/—-Post.