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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 2
[Mr Colenso's presidential address]
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The Napier Telegraph thus acknowledged the printed copy of Mr Colenso's presidential address:— « At present we have only time to note that the pamphlet has left the printer's with blunders in spelling and punctuation that we hardly expected to see in a work of this kind. » Readers of the pamphlet having searched diligently and unsuccessfully for the alleged « blunders, » asked the editor to point them out. In about a week he took up the challenge in a long paragraph, in which he characterized the pamphlet as a « hideous » specimen of bad spelling, bad grammar, and misquotation. In support of the first charge, one error only was discovered—the addition of a final « e » to the name of the late Mr Justice Johnston; but objection was also taken to the « u » being retained in words where Webster rejects it. The two sentences quoted as bad grammar were quite correct—apparently the critic could not understand them. Two instances of misquotation were alleged. The line « For beauty's best in unregarded things » should have been « Beauty is best." The critic did not say where the emended line might be found, nor how he proposed to make it scan. The other « blunder » was in a well-known line from Thomson's Winter:« Father of Light and Life, thou Good supreme »— « for 'God supreme' »! Mr Colenso quoted the line as Thomson wrote it. As altered by the Telegraph, the passage loses its meaning.