CORRESPONDENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 579, 17 November 1871, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

[ VVe are not responsible for our Correspondent*' opinions.)

CLERKS, COUNTER-JUMPERS, AND SHARE BROKERS. To the Editor of the Evening St.ab.

SIE, —1 am only a stranger in tho place, having arrived by the last ship from England, and I hope, therefore, you will excuse the few queries I venture to put through the medium of your columns to those who know all about it. there is one rather curious speculation which, lias bee- raised in my. mind, and which mußfc strike every stranger who has been j.ccustomed. to a state of society where social position is well defined. Itis this : whether, supposing a clerk turns sharebroker, he will have improved his social position by the change,or trice versa, or whether a respectable draper's assistant, retaihng calico in good and boneafc measure is not one peg higher up in the social scale than the sums individual living by his wits. These queries raise sueb nice questions that a case in point, to illustrate the position, may assist in their solution. I< an give you one from my own limited experience. You must know, sir, that I came from a very small country town in the old country. There I served my time as a draper's assistant, with the son of a small farmer. My felbw apprentice was gifted wi**.h a happy knack of dressing windows. Ah ! sir, you should have seen the glorious array in our shop window on Saturday night under the skilful niauipuintion of my friend and fellow apprentice. There wore fine trousers, and rich plush waistcoats, with white buttons, that made the honest coun'ry folks open their eyes even wider than nature had originally fixe I them. And here and there stout cowhide leggings, beautifully printed cotton pockethandkerchiefs, an i glowing ne-kties were so adroitly mixed that it was almost an impossibility for a country-man with a spare sispeiiee in his pocket to pass tho shop without investing his little capital. But I digress; suffice it to say that even all this genius was not appreciated, and my worthy friend, no longer an apprentice, but. a full blown draper's assistant, availed himself of the liberal offers of the New Zealand Government, then, as now, anxious for colonists, and, leaving the scenes of his many great, though unappreciated triumphs, emigrated. Years passed on, and the little shop that had known him knew him no more ; but, as I subsequently learned, his lime was fully occupied in dealing out buttons and tape to your x~nd belles. The opening of the goidfields seems to have disturbed the whole current of life in Auckland, for my friend wa*; hauled from that sphere, for which he appeared to be so peculiarly adapted, and launched iuto the mysteries of sinuvbroking, with a pencil, pocket-book, andan immense .tock of impudence. This little* narration may appear to be rather wide of the* questi v under consideration, but its bearing will be readily understood when I state that upon my arrival, I, his friend and coadjutor, his fe low labourer in the fields of cotton hose and grey breaks, was disowned ! And^by? because I was what is vulgarly termed a coume.'-jumper. But the most remarkable thing in connection with the whole affair is that my friend discourses learnedly of operas, and refers to his experience ill the opera-houses of London, gained, I presume, during his two days' stay while waiting for tbe sailing of the ship which was to convey him to your shores, for I can vouch that he was never out of our.villagp for a longer period before sailing for Auckland. It is certainly-true that Sally Margrove, of our village, was a beautiful siuger, but then she sang in English, and I don't see that he could fairly judge of the Italian opera by her standard, although he peruaps thinks he is justified in doing s«T-for tfally was really a fine singer. However, sir, with all these facts before you, what view am I to take or his uufeeliug conduct ? Am Ito look uoon it as a legitimate exhibition of dignity -^nd pride at, his high position in colonial sockj., or as one of the natural offshoots of ignori&ti p ippyism ?—I am, &0.,

New Chttm. P.S. Since writing the above, I have learned that my fellow apprentice in the cotton reel and tape line, had a slap at your journal with reference to something auout a "broken chair" and " dilapidated bottles." I suppcie iic would try to pass himself off as a fit companion for the " Bolliekiug Rams," with which, I have heard, ibis city was troubled s_*me time ugo, but who being, as 1 am informed, really gentlemen, must surely have a contempt for a man who was ashamed to own an old mate iv the business—far more honest than sbarcbroking—of retailing rotton. «"»% kerchiefs. - '' -