A Century

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 100, 23 May 1941, Page 4

A Century

11 this issue we reach our first cenXV tury-if not quite our centennial. We have appeared every week since June 30, 1939, and if the journey has been a very short one measured in time, it has been considerable counted in words. We have not counted them, and are not going to, but if we say that we are near the end of our fourth volume, and that each volume is three inches thick, it will be realised that we have produced already nearly a cubic foot of words and filled more than five thousand pages. Or, to put it another way, we have printed and produced a little more than five novels each as long as Gone With the Wind. We do not, of course, suppose that these million and a-quarter words would make a very big book of wisdom. We remember the question in Job, "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" and are as humble as we can afford to be. But we also remember that Governments which ration words invariably ration liberty. Foolish as so many of our words have been, they have not been so foolish, so dangerous, or so injurious as the "Thou shalt nots" of tyrants. We may even claim that words do not darken counsel in the long run when they go free, since one folly cancels out another, and the small remnant of wisdom and truth remains. Words are windows as well as curtains, and the more windows there are in the world, the less darkness there will be, social, political and scientific. But our real reason for pausing for a moment at this point is to seize an opportunity to say to our hundred thousand Teaders that it is their century as well as ours. If we have done anything worth while at all, it is because they have supported us; and we do not mean supported us blindly. They have thrown many heavy bricks at us, some of which have hit us on tender but fortunately not dangerous places. But they have also sent us dozens and dozens of bouquets, all of which we have appreciated, if we have not often had the time and the grace to acknowledge them. We hope they will go on doing both these things. And if they ask us questions sometimes which we do not answer, make suggestions which we do not adopt, and send offers of help which we may appear to ignore, we hope they will believe that no letter written to us is ignored.