Damian George
English writer Rudyard Kipling once pursued the New Zealand Government for £50 after one of his poems was published in a school journal. reports.
Ihad 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 (about £5000 in today’s terms) for an alleged breach of copyright in publishing the poem, a war of words ensued as to the legal rights of the two parties which 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 W E
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 had 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’