At Trentham, at May Morn, at what other camps there be, "a certain foul and disgusting word has a deplorable hold'' even amongst men who are and remain "staunch and solid and good New Zealanders''.
Apparently then the bad word, however deplorable, does not connote badness in the men, nor make the men bad.
In civilian life profanity means weakness and wickedness; in camps and barracks, where men consort with men, it usually means nothing more than a wish to be picturesque and emphatic ... For what reason some words are morally bad, though not filthy, not indecent, not curse words expressing malice, not blasphemies profaning things sacred, it were hard to say.
Our feeling is instinctive; hence quite at its ease, and quite unable to give any rational account of itself.
Take the adjective made from the noun "blood'', - described by the big Oxford as "constantly in the mouths of the lowest classes, but by respectable people considered 'a horrid word,' on a par with obscene or profane language, and usually printed in the newspapers (in police reports, etc.) ‘b-y' Yet this unprintable outcast, the Oxford goes on to say, is also on a par with "blessed'', and "blooming'' in their slang uses, so that a blessed idiot, a blooming idiot, and a dashed idiot (as aforesaid) may be one and the same thing.
Also we are asked in charity to "compare the prevalent craving for impressive and graphic intensives seen in the use of ‘jolly', ‘awfully',‘ terribly', ‘deuced', ‘ripping,' ‘rattling'' ‘thumping', ‘stunning', ‘thundering'. and the like.
I am not making light of words - Heaven forbid. Words are things, and by thy words thou shalt be justified; and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. But when condemning the Trentham rough, think of the society girl whose talk is of the "awfully jolly'', and the "frightfully duff''.
In strict ethics there is little to choose. - Civis
• The Salvation Army here is about to make a forward step in the equipment of its social service work among women and girls.
At the present moment the Caversham Rescue Home, where there are 30 or 40 inmates, is its only institution here for females, and this does not permit of the separation and classification which is so necessary in this work.
The object of the classification is to separate old and hardened offenders completely from girls who as yet are only showing evil tendencies which, if not checked, will lead them to join the ranks of the criminal class.
For the purpose of this classification the Army has secured a site of 16 acres on the hill beyond the Anderson Bay tram terminus, where it is proposed shortly to establish a female home.
"A strange feature of life in this dominion.''
Major Colvin told a reporter, "is the great number of people who want to get rid of the responsibility of training their families. We are simply besieged with parents,'' he said, "and in all his experience of social work in different countries he had never seen anything like it.''
• The Oamaru Woollen Factory is still busily engaged in khaki orders (says the Mail), and the amount of work in hand and offering has necessitated a good deal of overtime.
The usual run of private orders has been maintained, but their execution is delayed in order to cope with the Government requirements.
Similar conditions obtain in all New Zealand mills, and the consequence is that retailers' stocks are being rapidly depleted.
To build up these stocks will be one of the first necessities on the conclusion of hostilities . . . - ODT, 22.1.1916.
