THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1881. THE SCHOOL OF ART.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2144, 8 January 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1881. THE SCHOOL OF ART.

The formation of a School of Art in Canterbury is now an accomplished fact, and a master or director has been sent for from England. The importance of such an institution here, as elsewhere, cannot be over-estimated. In such schools workmen are brought up in habits of sound judgment as to taste, and are educated to eschew the meretricious and all that is not innately beautiful and true. In England the workman has all the advantages which largo centres of population afford. In every town of fair size a School of Design or Art exists, generally connected with the parent establishment at South Kensington, where the learner may lay up a solid substratum which will stand him in good service in his future career. Highly trained mechanics of every description are a necessity now in the Old Country. The competition with the Continent is so keen that the raw workman, with an uncultivated brain, is at a perfect discount. The Parisian ouvrier with bis innate taste, the German with his quaint fancy, the Viennese with his eye for color, are competitors against whom the English workman must strain every nerve, or he will fall hopelessly in the rear. Take the commonest article, say a carpet. It is jnst as easy to make a carpet of a good design as of a bad one, and the former is a saleable article while the latter is not. But carpet patterns are not easy to invent. A trained eye and a lively fancy are required. Good designers are paid as much as £6OO per annum at Kidderminster, showing the high value set oa superior taste and judgment as applied to what might be thought a very prosaic manufacture. And the further our civilisation is carried the more examples of this description will multiply. The Greeks, in their prime, cast the glamour of beauty over the commonest article. Their water pitchers showed the soul of the workman as well as the friezes of the Parthenon did that of their sculptor. Forms of beauty became necessary in the surroundings of any man of ordinary taste, and the more cultivated the workman the more he was patronised. Applying all this to ourselves, it is very evident that, although our few manufactures are yet in their infancy, the School of Art has not iboen formed too soon. Our mechanics will have to compete with English and foreign workmen, and at once to get into a good groove is a great point gained. But everything will depend on the way the institution is started and on the man who is appointed. We very much doubt if the College authorities are acting with their usual liberality in offering a salary of £4OO to the coming man. Their instructors in languages, science and English are paid at nearly double the above rate, but it is difficult to see that they are likely to be more useful in their generation than a competent head of the Art School. It may be urged that there are crowds of persons who have passed througli the South Kensington, or some other course, who would he glad to accept the above stipend. But the same might be said with regard to persons who have passed a University or a science course—their name is legion. But, nevertheless, to secure a first-rate man, a largo salary has to be given. It seems to us that the Governors have hardly placed the Art School on the level that it ought to be, namely, on that at present occupied by the schools for languages and sciences. It is true that Mr. Hutton, of Dunedin, only gets £4OO per annum, but that is nothing to the point. If the authorities there do not choose to place their School of Art on a level with their other schools, so much the worse for them. The odds are that the Art School will not be as efficiently managed as the others. Our argument is that, in justice to our rising manufacturing population, it is a vital point that a talented and most efficient man should bo procured to preside over the birth and early youth of this now institution, and we doubt whether the terms offered will “ fetch ” a first-class man, although second-rate men may come forward in shoals. Looking at the salaries given by the Art Division of the South Kensington Museum we find that they compare most favourably with the science and other divisions. This state of affairs certainly will not obtain in the Canterbury College.

THE BARMAID QUESTION. A veev singular case occurred a short time back at the City of London Court, in which Elizabeth Cobb, a barmaid, sued a Mr. Evenden, lately her employer, for a week’s wages, in lieu of a week’s notice. Mr. Evenden pleaded that it was part of the bargain that there should he no “ counter courtship ” and that Miss Cobb, by paying too much attention to |Ono customer, had broken her engagement. However, the lucky swain was not called in evidence and judgment was given for the plaintiff. Miss Cobb thus carrying off the honours. Had Mr. Evenden been a Christchurch Boniface, it is little likely that ho would have attempted to make a bargain of such a nature with tho fair Miss Cobh. Tlio load-stono of tho “ gilded youth ” of this city is not accustomed to bo shackled by such absurd restrictions. “ Counter courtship ” of a harmless and ephemeral nature is tho soul of the barmaid business, the more accomplished professors in tho noblo art counting the scalps, or rather tho hearts, that they have secured by the score. A scientific barmaid in full war-paint, is, like FitzJames, nnappallod by numbers. Placing ter back against tbc pile of bottles at tka

back of her bar—aa the warrior above mentioned did against the rock that was so conveniently at hand—she may be pictured as exclaiming : “ Come one, come all, this bar shall fly From its firm base as soon as I.” Her weapon is her eye, but Fitz-Jamos’s trusty blade was not one tithe so rapid. She dashes under the clumsy guards of the broadswords of the Roderick Dhua that surround her with lightning rapidity, and their chance in the fight is infinitesimal. The young man from the country, the knowing one about town, the new chum and the old colonial go down before her like straw before a patent double-actioned reaper. And her employer, unlike Mr. Evenden, rejoices with the exceeding joy of an individual who has obtained a pearl of great price for the small sum of twenty shillings per week. They do these things better in the City of Christchurch than in the City of London. We are a young community, but we understand the barmaid question thoroughly. No professors are required to give instruction in the art, for local talent is abundant, and the supply, for once, is equal to the demand. They are a cheery race, these Hebes of the counter, and all luck go with them. The damage they do to the young men from the country, the knowing ones about town and their like, is not generally serious. Usually they touch up their pockets more than their hearts, for when their pockets are empty their hearts heal with marvellous rapidity. The recovery of an “ ungilded youth ” takes, on the average, about two days. A voyage to the Antipodes would do Mr. Evenden a world of good. If of an inquiring turn of mind, wo could show him one local industry, at all events, which would astonish his weak nerves.