Great Writer Who Never Grew Up

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 42, 26 April 1935, Page 14

Great Writer Who Never Grew Up

"Jamie" Barrie Had His Early Successes Plagiarised-Central Control of the Mounted Police- The Effects of Depreciated Currencies-Home is a Good Landfall.

DONALD COWIE (3YA). {" has been said that James Barrie made £300 at freelancing during his first year in London. There is no reason to doubt this statement. The young man didn’t have to woo success long once he had established himself in the London of his ambitions. His first publications, "Better Dead," "Auld Licht Idylls and Edinburgh Eleven," "A Window in Thrums," "My Lady Nicotine’ and "The Little Minister," all issued about 1890, aroused much critical interest, and brought young Barrie considerable . fame. He and Rudyard Kipling, whose best short stories were published about the same time, were greeted as the rising hopes of Bnglish literature.’ Indeed, Barrie’s stories of lowly Scottish life became so popular that a host of lesser writers sought to imitate them, with the result that for a short time there was a positive boom in what was derisively termed "the kailyard school." — "THOUGH he has never grown up, Barrie has always been a shrewd Seotsman. The ridicule which was heaped by critics upon his imita.ors Was carefully noted by Barrie himself, and in this way he reached the opinion that the novel was not an ideal medium for the expression of his genius. In 1892 he wrote, and had performed at a Strand theatre, a farcical comedy in three acts called "Walker, London," which met with a favourable critical reception; and it was evidently at this time that he came to the conclusion that be could present his ideas in dramatic form better than he could in fiction. In the next few years he acquired useful practice in the writing of one or two minor dramatic, pieces ; and in. 1897 the production of his. first important play, "The Little Minister," definitely settled it. "The Little Minister" was so successful that Barrie, the playwright, was a foregone conclusion. ITTLE "Jamie" Barrie, the boy who has never grown up. does not live in a bald statement of biographical facets and figures. He is a curious and lovable character-undoubtedly the most curious literary figure and the most lovable public man of our time. If you met him walking along the Strand to-day, ‘a little insignificant fellow, unpicturesquely dressed in Ulster turned-up soft hat, with walking-stick clasped in his hands behind his back. you would be lucky if you recognised him. That is Barrie’s essential quality-elusiveness, JI haye pondered over this matter for a considerable while, and my conclusion is that the only way to know the reai Barrie is to forget about conventional facts and re-read that story in "Margaret Ogilvy" where the playwright describes how. when his mother was sad because of the loss of his brother in tragic circumstances, he tried to

make her laugh. Here are his words: "T suppose I was’an odd little figure. I have been told that my anxiety to brighten her gave my face a~strained look and put .a tremor into the joke

(I would stand on my head in the bed, my feet against the wall, and then ery, excitedly, ‘Are you laughing, mother?’), and perhaps what made her laugh was something. I was unconscious of, but she did laugh suddenly now and then, whereupon I screamed exultantly to that dear sister who was ever in waiting to come and see the sight, but by the time she came the soft face was wet again." MR. G. M. KEYS (3YA). MecH of the success of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police lies in its central control; mistakes have come largely when that control has been interfered with; to-day it remains strong. At headquarters in Ottawa is located the Commissioner, commanding the work and seeing that it is good. His dictatorship is only to the extent of his being responsible to the Minister of Justice, which: office is almost invariably held by a man sympathetic, far-seeing and proud of the . present wotk. The work at headquarters is divided among several branches, including. the C.I.B. (Criminal Investigation Bureau), and the remainder of the Dominion of Canada is divided into ten divisions, and these in turn are broken up into sub-districts comprising 112 detachments, widely spread and varying greatly in size. The force hag never been large in numbers-a matter of several hundred men to patrol the greater part of g Dominion almost as large as Europe. That is why the records tell so frequently of exploits perfermed by oue or two men where many times their uumber would seem no more tban adequate. They represent all that are available, and their courage and sense of duty must make up for lack of numbers. N one occasion in the early days the deportation of a troublesome tribe of Indians had been ordered by the U.S.A. Government, A cavalry troop of considerable size escorted them to the border, where, they had been informed. the escort then would be taken over by the N.W.M.P. Barly one morning they reached the border and a Mountie reported to the captain of the cavalry troop. "Good morning, sergeant," was the greeting, "Where ave your men?" *My men?" replied the sergeant, some-

what puzzled. "Oh, he’s over there = cooking the breakfast." LEICESTER WEBB (3YA). HY have so many countries abandoned 2 monetary system which had such great advantages? . The. answer is to be found in the very Ny heavy fal in prices which occurred atter 1929. I want you to consider for a moment the effect of a fall. in prices in any given country upon industry and trade. Suppose you ate a manufacturer of boots, and the’ price of boots in the open market falls by , one-third. If you are still to continue making the same profit as before on each pair of boots it will.be necessary to reduce the cost of. manufacture of each pair by one-third. But perhaps you will find that it is not at all easy to reduce most of your costs of production. The principal item will be labour; but you can’t go straight to your men and say, "I’m sorry. The price of boots has fallen, and you will have to take less pay." | They will rer tort that their wages are governed by an award, and that you can’t im . cuts of your own free will, The labou: cost in manufacturing is, then, fairly. rigid. Wages will come down éventually as the result of a fall in prices, but eventually may mean a year or more. Other costs are even more rigid. As a- manufacturer you probably have to pay a fixed rate of interest. on some of your capital. A fall in prices means an increase in the value of, money, So that the burden of this interest charge is heavier than it was before. But you can’t just go to the debenture holders and say to them, "Tke money you get as interest is worth more than it used to be, so I will even matters by giving you less." They will’ reply that a contract is a contract, and that you must pay the full rate of interest. T is perhaps unnecessary to explain to you why depreciation of a currency helps industry. Let me, however, refer again briefly to the case of . boats. When the currency is depreci- }, ated or devalued it takes more of it to, buy a pair of boots, so that prices rise. But the workers in the boot fagtory and debenture holders. are still paid the same -nominal amount, so that overhead costs are less. ‘To put the matter jin a nutshell, a depreciation of the currency benefits all who owe money, or employ labour, or who are in any way engaged in producing goods, It makes poorer all who are paid wages or who draw interest on money they. have lent. Depreciation is, of course, a breach of contract, and on that account, a bad thing. But there are worse disaster§ in life than a breach of cortract. One is a heavy decline in production with its inevitable accompaniment of poverty and unemployment, It is,in order to prevent this decline in production that practically the: whole

world has resorted to currency depre ciation. There are about 44 countries in the world with their own muuetair systems, Of these all except tive have resorted to depreciation since 1929. In more than half the cases the currencies wre worth half or less than half of what they were in 1929. Altogether, it is a very baffling situation, and it is very difficult to know what should be done about it. Personally, I have a susp'cion that events will move faster than the minds of sta "esmen. MISS ELLEN MELVILLE (3YA), J Lvl a little impression of Norway: One night, travelling with some friends amoug the fjords, we came late to our hotel, and were ushered straight into a long, oak-panelled, dimly lighted dining-room, On this

uight the principal course consisted of a dark-coloured stew which, in the dim light, looked to me to be something like mushrooms, I decided to risk it, and took a portion, It was certainly not mushrooms, but I could not identify the flavour, which, to a New GZealani palate, was rather novel. Finally J usked my neighbour at the table, an Oriental gentleman whom I took for a Japanese, whether he knew what -it was, "Certainly," he said. "It is reiudeer stew!" J inquired whether there were reindeer in Japan. He replied, "I don’t know, I have never been in Japan. I am Siamese." LZAVING untold the tale of many another landfall, I come.to the last, and, to the returning New Zea-

lander, one of. the most, appealingthe blue gates of Wellington, As the ship» rounds the heads on a bright spring morning and the beauty of sea and shore opens up, one feels it is good to:be home again. Dimly one senses the emotions of gratitude for dangers past, and hopes for the future. which must have stirred the hearts of New 4Zealand’s great pioneers of nearly a century ago, .who journeyed from the Old Land under conditions so very different from those of to-day. They laid in New Zealand the foundations for the building up of a nation and a country which to-day can offer, whether to her own children returning or to the stranger from abroad, a landfall with few rivals the wide world over,