What if Kipling was right and New Zealand wrong?
English writer Rudyard Kipling once pursued the New Zealand Government for £50 after one of his poems was published in a school journal. Damian George reports.
If the New Zealand School Journal had been aware of the controversy that would ensue after it published a Rudyard Kipling poem early last century, perhaps it wouldn’t have bothered.
The School Journal, which was established in 1907 with the aim of encouraging children to read, published Kipling’s poem If in October 1914, an action it said was inspired by the outbreak of World War I earlier that year.
The journal acted cautiously after the publication, advising the English short-story writer, poet and novelist’s publishing firm of the move and offering to compensate him for his work.
But when Kipling’s firm advised the Education Department the author was requesting £50 (almost $10,000 in today’s terms) for an alleged breach of copyright in publishing the poem, a war of words ensued over the legal rights of both parties that would carry on into the next year, and perhaps even longer.
Files from Archives New Zealand show the Education Department initiated the exchanges, advising Kipling’s publishers, Macmillan and Co, it had published the four-verse poem. It sent a copy of the journal, along with the letter, to the firm’s representative in Australia.
‘‘You are aware of the character of The School Journal and also that it is not always possible to arrange ahead for the insertion of copyright poems,’’ journal editor WE
Spencer wrote on November 11, 1914.
‘‘The outbreak of war caused the insertion of If and I have to say that the department is prepared to pay any reasonable fee that your firm may wish to charge.
‘‘If you will please inform the department of the amount, the sum will be paid to the firm at home by the high commissioner, or to you if it should be desired.’’
The response from the publishing firm was not what Spencer expected.
‘‘We have referred the matter to Mr Kipling, as he is the proprietor of the copyright, and we are asked by him to say that he considers that he has been very seriously wronged by the Education Department as, by publishing If in their journal without asking permission, they have, among other things, put him in the wrong with the large number of people to whom he has refused permission to do the same thing,’’ the firm wrote in January 1915.
‘‘We are authorised by Mr Kipling to say that the terms on which the matter can be settled are a payment by the Government of New Zealand of £50, and the insertion of a statement in the next number of The School Journal to the effect that the copyright of If belongs to Mr Kipling.’’ Ironically, a poem seemingly projecting the virtues of tolerance and measure, and published during a time of war, had now become the subject of a forthright dispute as to who could publish it.
The department hit back soon after, advising Macmillan and Co it had followed the usual practice after the publication and offered to pay a reasonable fee. ‘‘Macmillan and Co now write stating that Mr Kipling demands £50. This I consider unreasonable, and I doubt if he can legally claim any fee,’’ Spencer wrote, citing the New Zealand Copyright Act 1913. The SolicitorGeneral waded in a few weeks later, telling the publishing firm Kipling had ‘‘no legal claim’’ against the New Zealand Government for publishing the poem.
‘‘The Copyright Act 1913 does not bind the Crown, and the New Zealand Government would be at liberty, if it chose, to reprint the whole of Mr Kipling’s works without committing any breach of copyright or being liable to him in any way.’’
Spencer reiterated the Government’s assumed legal position shortly afterwards, while also saying it did not intend to ‘‘take refuge behind legal enactments’’ to deny writers being paid their dues.
‘‘The good faith of the department in this respect is shown by the mere fact that the publication of the poem was brought under the notice of your representative, though it was recognised that Mr Kipling had no legal claim whatever.’’
The Archives New Zealand files do not show whether a resolution was ever reached, with the final piece of recorded correspondence, from the firm to Spencer, stating the firm did not agree with the Government’s legal position.
‘‘Under this section [of the act], it is possible to publish in a school book, without the author’s consent, a ‘short passage’ from a literary work.
‘‘We maintain, however, that under no consideration can a complete poem such as If be regarded as a short passage.’’
Kipling, who was born in British India in 1865, is best known for his fictional works such as The
Jungle Book, Just So Stories, and Kim, short stories such as The Man Who Would Be King, and
poems including Mandalay, Gunga Din, The White Man’s Burden and If.
He died in London in 1936, aged 70, as one of the most popular writers in England.