500 Mile Cycle Race.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 September 1938, Page 6

500 Mile Cycle Race.

Plans for a bicycle relay race, North Island versus South, over 500-mile courses extending, respectively, from Whangarei to Wellington and from Invercargill to Blenheim or Picton, are being considered by the New Zealand Centennial Boy Scout Jamboree organisation. The cyclists will bring Wellington tallies of the numbers of boys to attend the jamboree, and the race will officially mark the closing of applications. A Matter of Speech. “I found it easier to understand taxidrivers and waiters in Italy than some of the taxi-drivers and waiters in England,” said Profesor F. Sinclaire, professor of English at Canterbury University College, in an interview on his return from a visit to Great Britain and Europe. He was referring to what are termed “class dialects” in England, of which he said there is none in Italy. Italy has its regional dialects, he said, but there was not the distinction between the speech of the different classes of society that there was in England. In Italy he was able to make himself understood, he said, though he disclaimed very great ability as an Italian conversationalist, but in France it was more difficult. The Frenchman “winced visibly” when addressed by a foreigner, but the Italian “stood up and took it like a man.” It was possible that the French had a greater respect for language, which, he feared, was lacking among the English-speaking people.