ESPERANTO.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81902, 14 December 1906, Page 2

ESPERANTO.

the L'.xn"KKSAL I.AX(iI:AGK. !Sir .losciil. Ward ct-juml Oil- opjiori.miity at til" .\a].ic!' lii g !i sclionl's l>ival;-i:p on Wcdiav-day I'vciiiiiir (suvs the Wiv /c.il»ri| Tiimvl of inakiirir'a ii-iiii-iit in fiivonr i.f i!',. i.i-ciiiiiii nf Ksoei-anlo. (he "universal lani>'ua'':e." lie madf l a pMnL of - f:u-L that he 'bad rm>aU,v aUrndi-d a jsroit hitci-Ration-a! Congress at which tlv.M'c w.mv l.'lfl dclc;.'alc;, fnr.n all parU of the world Men from C!,ina kid lo liavo interpreters who iiailerslood French and Chinese; .those from Austria men ulio uiKierstood Austrian and i-'reaeh; those from CuSa l m ,[ t0 interpreters who understood .Spanish and French-and so on. Those who ;iid not ujidersrand l''reneh missed a iir.r.t r.f what was hcin- said. He was of opinion lhat it was liifriiK- desiralile Jineninto sliould lie iniroiliiced into the curriculum of the Htate schools. Though literary men mi<dit not altogether a-rce with it, saiisiinl in his own mind that, consjdering wi-at was done j' n t| K , «ay ci/ liringiny the dilierout nations toyetlu'r, some language of a general and common character that nii«'ht he used In- the people of all countries ought to be taught, so that peop'e «ho were unable lo speak Frencli or tiermaii would not le .juite at sea. Jle admitted it might take a few vcar, to educate people up to accepting- tins suggestion, but it was not many Veers since shorthand and typewriting'were hxiked upon as almost impossible of adoption, and now of course thev weie almost universal in commercial 'olliees. lie had at the moment a letter from a 1,111 n i" 11 Wgh educational position in the colony impressing upon him the tact that he and many others were agreed upon the point that in addition to teaching French, Latin and (iermm ill tiie schools they should teach this '■universal language." It oou!d he mastered easily m six months, whereas .1-relic! l . Latin, and (ierman could not be mastered in less than three years even by smart linguists. II,." w .,5 strongly of opinion that thev should do what they could to assist 111 teaching a language that would be of su-li value throughout the world. (Ap l'huise.)