CURIOUS VERNACULAR

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1047, 11 August 1930, Page 14

CURIOUS VERNACULAR

NEW ZEALANDERS THROUGH ENGLISH EYES PLEASURE-LOVING PEOPLE New Zealanders speak excellent English, but they have a curious vernacular, Mr. Norman E. Torry, a visiting English and lecturer, told an assemblage in the Majestic Theatre last evening. His dissection, in lighter vein, of the qualities of the people of this country, was given under the auspices of the New Zealand nationalist Association. “Too right,” is one expression Mr. Torry thinks is queer. Again, where the Englishman says a person has “gone to the dogs,” the New Zealander says he has “gone to the pack.” "Jake” is wonderfully expressive, he says, while anything that incurs disfavour, be it a man, a woman or a thing is a “cow.” Britain’s four fetishes were the Bible, Shakespeare, # tne medicine bottle and respectability. New Zealand had gone three better —horseracing, Rugby football and “spotting.” According to the statistics New Zealand’s drink bill was appalling. “J notice you also drink a great amount of tea,” observed Mr. Torry—”l can understand that, for I have tasted your coffee.” The lecturer considered New Zealanders wer» the most pleasure-loving and pleasure-obsessed people in the world, and the most nomadic. “On any excuse at all,” he says, “you travel by road, rail or sea and. if you have no excuse at all, you still travel.” CLIMATE AND SCENERY The Dominion’s climate is the most equable, its scenery exquisite, the smaller towns are 25 years ahead of towns of the same size in England, yet, according to Mr. Torry, people here tackle problems in a very halfhearted way. The patriotism of New Zealanders is almost aggressive, Mr. Torry says, yet in Auckland one finds people buying American things wherever they can. Here, too. the youths of the City are busy cultivating the slang of the New York Bowery’, in describing girls and women as “Janes” and “Shielahs.” Overseas visitors often find it embarrassing. and in marked contrast to the stupendous civic pride apparent in the four cities of the Dominion, to hear New' Zealanders talk of “going Home,” as though they' were sojourners in this country, Mr. Torry' added. The lecturer concluded with a reference to capital punishment. Through the courtesy' of the sheriff, he had witnessed a recent execution, and Ins determination to work for the abolition of capital punishment had been increased tenfold. It was a relic of barbarism and nothing could justify its grim horror. He was of opinion that if Charles Dickens, whose campaign caused executions to be enacted in private, had not undertaken the task, capital punishment would have died out half a century ago. A plea was made for New' Zealand to take a lead in this matter.