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ANSWERS TO READERS'
QUESTIONS By WALTER MURDOCH
Should New Australians Learn Australian ?
I HESITATE to suggest an-
other burden for the al-
ready overburdened shoulders of
our new fellow-citizens; but I
think the learning of Australian,
though not essential, is highly
desirable, if they wish to get rid
of that feeling of being strangers
in a strange and inhospitable
land.
After all, this need not add
weight to the load they carry;
it would be substituting one load
for another. There is no need
for them to learn two new
languages; one will suffice. What
I propose is that they should
learn Australian instead of, not
in addition to, learning English.
If you learn a language, with
the aid of a competent teacher,
a grammar, a dictionary, a good
reader, and a strenuous con-
science, the probability is that
you will end by speaking that
language too correctly-far
more correctly than those whose
native speech it is. You become
pedantically exact in your use
of words and in your construc
tion of sentences.
Among us, nothing marks a
man more distinctly and unmis
takably as an alien than the
speaking of fastidiously correct
English. We know at once that
English is not his native tongue.
Moreover, if he learns good
English, he will not only speak'
what sounds like an alien langu
age, but he will find it hard to
understand the language he
nears in shop and street and
tram. For instance, the other
day I heard one man advising
another man to go to some meet
ing or other. What he said was,
"If y'don' go y'might wisht
yadda went." Now what would
a newcomer, trained in correct
pronunciation and the strict
rules of grammar, make of this
argument? He would be at sea.
Apart from grammar and pro
nunciation, of course, there is
the Australian vocabulary. Even
so simple a poem as "Waltzing
Matilda" will be quite incom
prehensible to the New Austra
lian who has only learnt Eng
lish. He will not even know
what it means to waltz your
Matilda. He will despairingly
wonder what a billabong is, and
a swagman, and a jumbuck, and
a squatter, and a coolabah.
Messrs. Angus and Robertson
have lately published an edition
of "Chambers's Shorter English
Dictionary"-a book already
well and honourably known to
students of the English langu
age. What is distinctive of this
new edition is that it caters also
for students of the Australian
Language. The Australian sec
tion is the -work of Professor A.
G. Mitchell, of Sydney.
Next time I hump my bluey
across the Nullarbor Plain this
invaluable book is going to be
my cobber; I shall read it to an
accompaniment of damper and
billy tea, sitting in the shade of a
dunga-runga or a beefwood or
a belah. And I shall dip my lid
to Professor Mitchell for teach
ing me hundreds of new words
-or at least new to me, whose
education has been neglected.
Some day I hope to write this
column in dinkum Australian;
but at present that is beyond my
powers. I am still a new Aus
tralian. But I can see that this
bonzer dictionary will soon help
me to pass muster as an old Aus
tralian.
J.R., Footscra?, Vie.
Must We Have Television In Australia ?
YES, I am afraid we must. That
is, I am afraid it is inevit
able; which is a very different.
thing from calling it desirable.
Of course there would be no
"must" about it if public opinion
were strongly against it. I call it
inevitable because public opinion
in Australia is strongly in favour
of it.
In fact, the public demand is so
clamant that no government will
be brave enough to refuse; and
that, I suppose, is on the whole
a good thing. At any rate, it is
democracy; and we can't have
the good of democracy without
having the evil also.
Why is public opinion so
strongly in favour of television?
Because other countries, which
we call advanced countries, have
it; therefore, obviously, we ought
to have it, too. The public is
like an importunate kid who
clamours that Tom Brown next
door has a clockwork beetle, and
Jimmy Smith up the street has
a clockwork beetle, and why
shouldn't he have a clockwork
beetle, too? He makes so much
noise that his parents give in for
the sake of peace and quiet.
You quote a speaker at a radio
dealers' dinner as saying, "Aus
tralia cannot afford to do with
out television." What on earth
did he mean? About as much
as the boy would mean if he
told his parents he couldn't af
ford to do without a clockwork
beetle.
The real question, of course, is
whether Australia can afford
this enormously expensive lux
ury, which is expected to cost
I forget how many millions per
annum and to draw away I for
get how many thousand pairs of
hands from more necessary
forms of productive labour.
Yes, I suppose we can afford
it, and I suppose its coming is
inevitable; but I would strongly
urge the Government to delay
its coming as long as possible
to delay it, at least, until we
learn whether America and Bri
tain regard it as a blessing or a
curse.
From all I can learn. America
is a Frankenstein in the grip of
a monster of its own creation.
Its effect on the young seems to
be appalling; the best minds in
the country are dismayed by
thoughts of the future of a na
tion almost universally addicted
to this subtle drug. And what
good does it do? I wish some
one would tell me that.
G.A.O., Nedands, W.A.
Is It Right To Burden A Child With A Sense Of Guilt ?
DON'T know what the auth
orities on "child psychology"
say about this. I know nothing
about that subject, except what
I have learnt from my own
childhood, and what I have
guessed in anxiously watching
the growth of certain other chil
dren. I can give you no scien
tific answer.
1 remember well the oppressive
sense of guilt under which I, as
a child, groaned inwardly. I
had an old puritanical nurse
who seems to have been deter
mined that my conscience should
give me no peace. Possibly with
the best intentions, possibly with
a streak of sadism in her mot
ives, she laboured to make me
feel, after this or that peccadillo,
that I had committed the unpar
donable sin, and would probably
be damned eternally.
If these admonitions had been
allowed to go on indefinitely, I
don't know what sort of distort
ed nature I should have today,
but I think I should now be a
confirmed criminal. Happily
my parents, who probably knew
no more of child psychology
than I do, were affectionate and
humane and wise. They brush
ed away my heavy sense of guilt
with what the old nurse prob
ably regarded as scandalous
light-heartedness. When I had
done wrong, they explained to
me why it was silly to do that,
and why I had better not do it
again. I am eternally grateful
to them for their wise attitude
towards a child's sins.
I think, by the way, that this
applies more or less to our judg
ment of adult as well as juvenile
wrong doing. "It is probable,"
says Stevenson, "that nearly all
who think of conduct at all,
think of it too much; it is cer
tain we all think too much of
sin." And he adds, "We are not
damned for doing wrong, but for
not doing right; Christ would
never hear of negative moral
ity; 'thou shalt' was ever his
word, with which he superseded
'thou shalt not.' "
But it is children, not grown
up people, about whom you ask
your question. My answer is
strongly in the negative; it is far
from right; it is a crime. Darken
a childish mind with a sense of
guilt, and you may do it an
irremediable harm. A child
who thinks too much about his
guilt thinks too much about him
self. You start him on a course
of self-absorption which may
easily discolour his whole life.
Take a simple instance. Your
little boy tells a lie; you are a
strictly truthful person yourself,
and you are shocked to find a
child of yours departing from
your own high standard. But if
you know anything at all about
children you know that at a cer
tain age almost all of them tell
lies. You probably did, though
you may have forgotten all
about it.
But you must not forget about
it. You must not let him think
himself guilty of an enormity.
He must not be made to brood
on his offence. You should talk
to him quite rationally, pointing
out how sad it will be if nobody
believes a word he says. You
may even tell him that when he
tells lies you will have to pun
ish him. But you must not ex
aggerate the offence. Don't let
him think of himself as a wicked
little boy. He is not; he is only
a boy.
P.O., Wembler Park, W.A.
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