The Difference

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 421, 1 August 1928, Page 1

The Difference

New Zealanders Speak “England’s” Language NOT SO AUSTRALIANS “There certainly is a differentno, a difference. Yes, yes!” The polite little midshipman from his Imperial Japanese Majesty’s ship Idzumo—he came from the fair island of Kyushu—paused for a moment and thought hard. English, he explained, was *ver hard, so ’ver difficult, even though one had learned it for three, no six, years. But in far away Japan there was no occasion to speak English. Still, these affable little brown men from over the seas are nothing if not intent. Concentrating, the midshipman proceeded: “VERY CONFUSING” “It is all so very confusing. In New Zealand you speak English. In Australia it was very difference —no different. It was difficult at first to understand the people of Australia, for, you see, I had been taught the English of the ‘Englander/ You people in New Zealand speak the English of the ‘Englander/ Therefore, I can under/ Therefore, I can understand you, and I am very happj'-/’ Perseveringly, he proceeded with his view in regard to the respective characteristics of Australians and New Zealanders, an expression of opinion, which, he made perfectly clear, was entirely his own. VOWELS DISREGARDED The language difficulty, he remarked. was caused by the average Australian’s complete disregard for the vowel sounds. The average New Zealander was more careful in this respect. The result was that the foreigner found that the British tongue, as spoken overseas, a little more easy to follow in our Dominion than in the Commonwealth.

The midshipman continued: "New Zealand is very beautiful. It reminds us all so much of our own Japan.”