Correspondence.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 504, 2 September 1857, Page 4

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. I am only a quiet observer, Mr. Editor, of >what may he passing around me, and have no wish either to parade my own opinions or to meddle inconsistently with .those of my neighbours; but a question has lately arisen amongst us, which in.my view appears to be a simple one,although it has caused some discussion; and, ;as it is still before the public, you will not perhaps object to submit to your readers what occurs to me at present on the subject. It appears that the drama .has .lately been charged with objections, which can scarcely be said with propriety to.attachto it, unless we consider the objections to a rule as weighing against its general tendency, and conclude that the comparatively few immoral pieces which we find in the great and varied "mass of dramatic writings which have been before the public for ages must be taken as objections to the whole ; which cannot in reason be admitted. We have nothing before the public at present in the settlement which can be classed under the head of dramatic representations; but from trivial beginings good results may be anticipated if our first humble efforts meet with due encouragement; and if, on the contrary, we allow them ..to be crushed in the bud, or suffer them to wither through neglect and indifference, there* .■can, be no reasonable prospect either of advance or improvement. It has been asserted that public amusements, and particularly those of the theatre, are open to serious objections of encouraging vice and immorality; but where shall we not find opportunities for the encouragement of immoral feeling if we allow it to injluence us ? So long as it exists it will make .them for itself in defiance of the public arrangements which, may appear to have effectually checked it; and if the drama have no immoral tendency considered as a means of instruction and rational amusement, which a proper selection will always insure, I cannot see why the ■possible abuse of the privilege accorded to our -colonial audiences should be reasonably supposed ■to constitute a serious objection to its. being allowed them. On such grounds we might wholly exclude art and literature in all their varieties, and throw ourselves into the vortex of ignorance in seeking to shun the rocks and hidden shoals of immorality. The ostrich hides its Tiead in the sand, and thinks to have shut out danger because he can no longer see it; but the blindness of ignorance is not found to help him, ■and the precautions suggested by reason would have been much more efficacious. In childhood -when vice first presents itself to the uninformed .mind its native deformity is not apparent; but when it has once been contrasted by precept with its opposite, the necessity of a struggle between them will be evident, and unless it be effectually made the knowledge which dictated the choice will be useless ; and the offcener this shall be made, the more confirmed will be the struggle which is applied to it. Without •it there can be no safety, and vice will of necessity prevail. Let it ever be remembered that our strength is not our own ; and that if we do not seek it where alone it can be found, and employ it with energy when called for, we cannot with reason expect to be otherwise than weak. Now, what is the drama, Mr. 'Editor, but the mirror which we hold up to nature, in which we see reflected the various incidents of human .life as they display or have displayed themselves in the present and the past. The virtues and the vices, the passions and emotions, the wisdom and the folly of our nature, with all the various results which have followed, or still follow them, on the great stage of human existence are the materials of which the drama are, constructed ; and from it we may learn what to seek or to avoid, what to hope for or despair of, what to reverence or despise, what to pity or condemn, what to think lightly of and what to admire in the picture which it places before us. As a_ teacher it possesses the advantage of blending, entertainment with instruction" and the peculiarly impressive manner in which what we_ learn is conveyed to us tends materially to fix it on the mind and on the memory. Human nature is then the vast reservoir in which the dramatist must seek and select his materials, and if vice and virtue in the drama should not at all times meet with their deserts, it is equally so in human nature, so far, at least, as this world is concerned, and has been so from time immemorial. The dramatic writer is not necessarily.a moralist;. truth of description is his principal requisite and, should he he so disposed, he may leave it to his audience to draw their own conclusions from what they have witnessed. We have no more right to quarrel with him for keeping closely to truth than we should have with, those incidents and personages in human nature which he may . have selected for his purpose if they really presented themselves in the drama of life. On

■this point, however, good taste and good feeling are usually brought into action, and nature as it might or as it ought to be, is often selected by the dramatist in lieu of that which actually displays itself, preserving always the appearance of probability, without which its general character would be sacrificed. On the whole, it may be said that dramatic writers have in general well advocated the cause of morality, and have lashed vice and folly successfully with the scourges of reproof and of ridicule. We shall find that when this has not been the case the public will have be«n more to blame than the authors; since, if at such a period he had written more correctly, they would not have appreciated that for which they had no value ! themselves. An immoral age will have im- [ moral writers ; but the vice will quickly disappear when public opinion condemns it. Of our own immortal Shakespeare we may fairly observe that delicacy of language was not so imperative in the age in which he wrote as in our own; and he occasionally fails in this ■ respect when judged by the standard of modern propriety: but we may venture to say that he has also afforded us, in exquisitely beautiful and soul-stirring passages, a much higher standard of practical moral duty, high refinement, and nobility of feeling, than the best of us has ever acted up to. The French drama, and the little we have of the Italian, from the period at which it reached any celebrity, is also well deserving our respect and admiration, and the follies of the present day might not be so conspicuous if the lash of Moliere were hanging over them. The German moral standard affords a wider range than casual observers might approve, and may be said to border on the confines of romance ; but the world would lose more in dispensing with the noble aspirations of Schiller than the cause of moral rectitude, in its most perfect form, could ever lose by an intimate acquaintance with him. For my own part, I cannot help thinking, Mr. Editor, that a little more of the romance of moral feeling | would not do society much harm, though it I certainly would not be generally understood; j and he who in our own time should chance to indulge in the romance of benevolence and disinterested feeling alone would either be slandered as a hypocrite, or mistaken for a fool or a madman. Nay, more, sir, the universally admitted standard of genuine Christian feeling itself, as we derive it from scriptural authority, I without the slightest tincture of romance, has ! often been rashly considered as only suited to the times of the Apostles, and not really intended as the standard of modern civilized society. On the other hand, the narrow-minded prejudices of fanaticism, are at war with sound religion and the dictates of reason; and we have often been told, I know it for a fact, Mr. Editor, that every kind of knowledge is superfluous and injurious save that which the Scriptures afford us j and, in short, that the Bible is the only' book that should ever be seen in our hands. I trust that however we may fail, and we certainly do' fail, Mr. Editor, in the: practical part of Christianity, there are but few who would venture to detract from the value of scriptural record and authority; but let us not, on that account, run into extremes which are equally at variance with true religion as they are with reasonable conclusions. Let us ask if we have really nothing more to be grateful for, nothing more that we ought to desire, beyond that which is absolutely necessary to salvation P To what end, if it be so, are we found to possess that great capacity for talent of every description which we recognise in literature science, and art as comprehended in their infinite varities? Are they all thrown away because it is true that man can go to Heaven without them ? Look at the ever-changing and attractive face of nature—l don't mean Christchurch nature, Mr. Editor, and not exactly, I might say, that of Lyttelton; but exceptions only serve to prove the rule—look, I say'then, at the varied and attractive face of nature. Is there nothing there but what is absolutely necessary to support human beings in their temporary dwelling ? Have we there no materials for mental >and physical enjoyment independently of that which we have actual occasion for ? Are we not called upon at any hour of our existence to be grateful for enjoyments, intended as such exclusively, by Him who in his goodness and wisdom has destined them, and supplies them unceasingly for that purpose ? If, then, the drama were of no other use than to afford us the means of recreation and rational enjoyment, it would still be desirable to encourage it and quite consistent with Divine arrangements. It is difficult to say, then* on what solid grounds the late objections to the drama can be founded; unless it be, Mr. Editor, that we are actually become so exemplary that human nature, as it has been, must not be reflected in our modern dramatic mirror.. In that case we shall have reason to congratulate ourselves highly on the step which we have made beyond our ancestors, and our new dramatic writers, should any such appear, will have no vice to lash and no folly to subject to ridicule. But this is not all; we cannot stop here, Mr. Editor. The list of human passions which has too long been left at the absolute discretion of nature must undergo a thorough revision, and the greater part of its contents must be cut out altogether, as seriously productive of mischief. At the same time, young ladies and gentlemen should be most particularly directed never to look straight at one another, lest unhappily, when searching for dramatic materials, it might afford some daring author a pretext for introducing a love scene on the stage, to the infinite horror and dismay of all sober-minded parties assembled to witness it J You would do well, I

think, Mr. Editor, to give them a hint on this subject, for we should not neglect any means in our power of keeping up public decorum and propriety to their present high standard of perfection. With reference to the able and judicious support which has been given to our newly-con-structed fabric of colonial [moral refinement by our worthy brother settler, Mr. Marsacky it is but fair to give him credit for the feeling which dictated it and the boldness with which it has been applied. It is certainly much to be wished that sterling good feeling and principle should spread themselves as rapidly amongst us as watercresses in the neighbourhood of Christchurch, without the fear of a premium being offered for the most efficient mocje of getting rid of them. But if, at some period, this should really be proposed, I cannot think, Mr. Editor, that they who might suggest the efficacy of dramatic representations for this purpose would come by any means so near the mark intended as our worthy friend alluded to above seems to think. The easy, good-natured wit and shrewd remarks of honest Terence have no doubt afforded Roman citizens many a hearty laugh, and many a pleasant hour of rational and, harmless amusement; and it might have been the policy of those who knew them well to take care that they should not want the joaneni et cir censes —in other words—a good supply of bread arid their customary popular amusements, without which they never were quiet; but to say that the drama and the exhibitions of the circus, barbarous as the latter may occasionally have been, have in any way accelerated the downfall of ancient Rome, or been the cause of her moral and physical degradation, seems to me to be quite as distant from the fact as if we should attribute the decay of Grecian States and the loss of their philosophic high moral principle to the sternly-majestic dignity of iEschylus and the judgment and dramatic powers of Sophocles and Euripides. Neither can they fairly be attributed to the attractions of those well known arenas appointed for the celebration of the public games, in which superior excellence "was honoured and rewarded; and in which the great dramatic poets here alluded to had repeatedly been crowned amidst thunders of applause. The causes of the decline and ultimate subversion of these powerful and highly-gifted states must be looked'for much deeper than our worthy friend has ventured, and much deeper than we need attempt to fathom. Their downward course was gradual, but circumstances : would have rendered their eventful fate inevitable without the interference of dramatic literature on dramatic representations. ■ I ought to apologize, Mr. Editor, for the unusual length of the present contribution, which has, I must confess, been extended very far beyond reasonable limits; but the pen, like the serpent, has at all times been a tempter, and, though he does not ask us to eat, he often draws us on to give our readers more than they can comfortably digest, and more than our literary Maitre d'hotelj as personated by yourself, Mr. Editor, may always find it convenient to serve \ip to them. Your's Sir, obediently, A FRIEND OF THE DEAMA.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sib, —Availing myself of the ready access to your columns which you vouchsafe to communications of general, and even of local interest, allow me to draw the attention of the public authorities to the present condition ofAkaroa in matters judiciary. Erorn all parts of this extensive district persons seeking Magisterial aid or redress have personally to repair to the office of the Resident Magistrate, in the town ofAkaroa. This, to. the majority of the settlers in so Alpine a region, is a sufficiently J serious matter; but it is quite possible, under existing circumstances, that having arrived at I the head-quarters of justice in the district, the officer whose duties and emoluments are connected with its administration may be absent on some public, or even his own private business, and either the suitor's journey be fruitless, or else a serious expense and loss of time be the price he pays for attaining his object. (I am not, Mr. Editor, supposing cases, but have reference to facts of recent occurrence.) For, strange to say, there is no single Justice of the Peace to whom he can repair for summons or warrant within any practicable distance; there is, indeed, but one such "in the whole district, and he all but inaccessible. I need not set ! forth the heavy inconvenience—the public and ! private wrong—that may fairly be looked for as the consequence of this state of things. Surely our Provincial authorities will lose no time in making the necessary representations to his Excellency the Governor upon it. Thinking men in our district cannot help asking why the Collector of Customs in Lyttelton should be a J. P. amid a host of others, and yet the SubCollector in Akaroa, who might be most useful in such a capacity, and who is probably for many reasons the most proper person for such an appointment, should have been hitherto passed by when commissions of the peace were in preparation. At any rate, since our R. M. is sometimes absent, (we trust, considering the state of matters, unavoidably) he ough^ to have the satisfaction, and we the security, that there is some person left upon the spot possessed of judicial authority. Verbum sap. I am, Mr. Editor, Your's respectfully, Aug. 27. A PENINSULAR SETTLER. To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sic, —Allow me through the medium of your paper to explain to the public how a private individual is victimized through the gross neglect of some Government Official.

Some time back, I made an application to the Waste Lands Board for about an acre and a half of rural land, paid my deposit, and received receipt for same. The land was advertised in due form, the upset price being £2 per acre. About a fortnight previous to its being sold, I was informed by the Government that some mistake had been made by them, as the land I had applied for ought to have been reserved for another party; and that if I did not forego or waive my priority of application, but insisted upon the same being put to auction, that they, the Government, would make me pay dearly for it. This was the verbal threat made by the Provincial Secretary, such threat being subsequently carried out by the Provincial Secretary, sitting officially on the board at the time of sale, running me up to £40, the price of 20 acres. I do not write this so much for the sake ot giving publicity to a personal grievance, but think I am in duty bound to let the public know that in purchasing waste land they have to compete with land-jobbing officials, who say they can give any price, as it is only putting money from their left to right hand pocket: As I hear His Excellency the Governor has no control over these matters, I shall have this letter copied into the Provincial and Australian papers, and, if possible, the home papers. I am, sir, Your obedient servant, FREDERIC LE CREN. Ferry Wharf,. August 27th, 1857.