OUR COLONIAL PASTIMES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 50, 6 January 1872, Page 12

OUR COLONIAL PASTIMES.

New Year's Day was celebrated in several parts of the province by hoise racing, and in Wellington by Caledonian games ; both of which, rathei on account of the season than of their own inherent attractions, were well patronised. It would appear that each country in the process of time possesses pastimes peculiarly its own. They have grown up with, and form a part of, the social life of the people. It is as difficult to acclimatise some customs and pastimes as it is certain plants and animals. They never seem to take kindly to the soil. This is the case with many of the sports and pastimes we imported from England. Like a French constitution they are deficient in vitality. May not national customs, like old formularies, be well suited for one country, and under one set of ciicumstances, and yet be very ill-suited for another, and thus prove rather a hindrance than a help for the attainment of the object desUned ? A Christmas in the Southern is a very different thing from a Christmas in the Northern hemisphere, and ought to be v differently celebrated. We still stick to the customary roast beef and jplum puddiDg of our father land, but

the time will come when both will be abandoned for fare better suited to our habits, our climate, and the season. It will be the case also with many other of our important sports, customs, and pasti mes. They do not suit the country, nor our circumstances. We want pastimes of our own which may answersimilarobjects to those which we have inherited from our forefathers. There is no more reason why we should eat roast beef, or play at cards, or football, at Christmastide than that we should wear winter clothing at that time, simply because our fathers did so before us. These customs are a hinderance and not a help to the full and rational enjoyment of our Christmas holidays. In the course of time other pastimes will spring up, and it is the duty of those who are able to see how great is the influence of customs and pastimes on the national character and habits, to endeavor to give them a proper direction. Political measures and organic changes are nothing in comparison. Nor can you destroy or establish customs by laws but by customs ; as Montesquien long ago pointed out; though it is a truth which politicians aud tetotallers still persist in ignoring. As our constitution might be made to rival that of England most in excellence when it resembled it least in form, why should it not also be the case with our pastimes ? Why should we not like other countries have pastimes peculiarly our own? Our jockey clubs have never enjoyed more than a very brief existence, and horse racing does not seem to be altogether well adapted for this age and country. In England railway and cheap pleasure excursions are fast superseding other forms of amusement, and those who saw an English racecourse forty vears ago, would wonder what there was to attract people to it now-a-days. The racecourse is, in fact, growing out of date: but this will never be the case with horse-racing. The racecourse will have to be united with something else, and something different to that which constituted in former times one of its chief attractions. Fifty years ago nobody would have believed that Bartholomew and Donnybrook Fairs could have everbeen abolished; but morestrange things than these have since happened. Fairs at one time were very useful institutions, and supplied felt wants. With other wants arising, other means and appliances are required for their gratification. If this is the case in England, it is more likely to prove the case here. We want something better adapted to meet our peculiar requirements than the old-fashioned and effete pastimes of England ; and we venture to observe that this is a subject more worthy of the attention of our legislators, and of those classes who undertake to direct public opinion, than many of those with which they are too frequently occupied. It has occurred to us that horse-racing might appropriately constitute one of the attractions of a cattle show, and that an exhibition of dairy produce at an agricultural show might also be made the means of disposing of the same, as at the cheese fairs in the old country. Cannot Mr Fox and Mr Stafford unite together for once for the purpose of devising some means which may have the effect of reforming not only our national habits and political institutions, but our national pastimes also?