Don't Go Near the Water

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 471, 2 July 1948, Page 10

Don't Go Near the Water

OME caginess was exhibited by each of the four speakers in the recent Monday night discussion from 2YA: "Should the State Patronise Literature?" There seemed general agreement that the State could not find a worthier object for its financial consideration, and that the State was to be commended for a seemly action. But none of the four literati (J. A. Lee, A: R® D. Fairburn, Dr. Musgrove, Maurice Duggan) was disposed to take first plunge into

the cornucopian waters, at any rate not without a lot of feeling round to see if there were any. leading strings attached, or, to cadge a metaphor from Mr. Fairburn, with-

out knowing whether you could swim and how deep the water was. First to lower .a cautious tone was Mr. Lee, with the sensible suggestion, germane to him throughout the discussion, that the State should subsidise authors on the basis of the number of times their works were issued to library subscribers. Mr. Fairburn, next in line, remained aloof, suspicious of the flood’s enticing gleam. (Much better to trust oneself to the private patron’s private bath, if available, you at least knew where you were.) Mr. Duggan, quoting Iceland plunged in a whole foot, but later was infected by Mr. Fairburn’s caution. Dr. Musgrove thought the whole project a good idea, but was more concerned with the working out of a TVA to control the stream than with taking the plunge himself. At the end of the half-hour, when the sportsmaster announced that the swimming period was over, the boys remarked in weil-bred surprise that they had but touched the fringes of the problem. Certainly (wisely perhaps) none of them was wet all over.