ST. MICHAEL AND ST. GEORGE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4382, 6 April 1875, Page 3

ST. MICHAEL AND ST. GEORGE.

(From the Thna.ru Herald, AXarch 31.) It was a pretty invention, and received in most Governments of the world, to establish certain vain and cheap distinctions, to honor and recompense virtue. — Montaigne. We are glad to observe from a recent telegram, that an effort has at length been made to popularise the Order of St. Alichael and St. George in this colony. Hitherto the Companionship of the Order, in New Zealand at least, has been purely a prize for political leaders; but the elevation of Air. Walter Duller shews it to bo within the reach of the humblest station. In Corfu, the head-quarters of the Order prior to the cession of the lonian Islands to Greece, an immense number of the lower classes were created Companions in their early youth ; and the Companionship was consequently seldom inflicted on any British officer above the rank of a boatswain. The -meaning, therefore, of the titular letters C.At.G. was utterly unknown in English society until the jealousy of the Order of the Bath induced the Imperial Government to extend the Mediterranean Order to the colonies. Now, however, since the decorations of St. Alichael and St. George have been scattered broadcast over the Australias, its minor title is in a manner familiar to even the upper classes of society at Home. It is commonly

supposed in a vague sort of way to indicate some connection with tickets-of-leave. Mr. Buller, however, takes his stand on quite a different basis. Not as a penitent thief, but as a staffer of birdskins, lie enters the chivalfic Order. In his case the initials C.M.G. may fairly be construed to signify Caught My Game, It would indeed be most unjust to confound him with the Australian criminal classes, merely because he has received this order, or on account of any trifling personal defects. There have, we know, been many ill-natured comments on his appointment to the Companionship, and all sorts of unldnd things have been both written and spoken about him ; but we are happily able to repel such unfounded rumors, and to throw on those who have made them the responsibility of their insinuations. Mr, Buller belongs to a highly respectable family of tradesmen. One of his uncles, if we mistake not, plies the timehonored craft of the tailor in Sydney, and another does or did pursue the same useful profession in Auckland ; and we feel that we are conferring a benefit on society while not invading the sacreduess of private life, in strongly recommending the Buller cut to a liberal and appreciative public. Another near relative of the learned subject of this sketch arrived in the colony as the carpenter of an English vessel; and was, we are assured, not only an excellent workman, but also, strange ap it may seem, even thoroughly honest. The elder Buller abandoned the ancestral goose for the pulpit, and became a zealous and able Wesleyan preacher. , He was also an excellent hand at electioneering, and it was his skill in this direction that obtained from Dr. Fcatherston Mr. Walter Buller’s appointment as assistant-clerk in the Resident Magistrate’s Court at Wellington. Thus suddenly raised to a lofty position in life, it is regretted by some that Mr. Buller abandoned the simple faith of which his reverend father is so famous an exponent, and adopted the tenets of the Church of England, as being more genteel. But many, including ourselves, find only in this change that strength of character which scorns sectarian differences, and

presses forward to its mark by all and every means. Once pinned to Dr. Featherstou’s coattails, elevation was easy.- The Superintendent soon selected Min to act as inter-* preter at tha purchase of native land at Manawatu. How Dr. Eeatherstou made a mess of that transaction; how Mr. Duller made a further mess—-after the manner of Benjamin, nine times bigger than his master’s; how the Wclliugtonians were for years kept out of both the land purchased and the money paid ; how Sir Donald McLean, called in as Deus ex macliind,

Cut them from the best of all their land, A huge half-moon, a monstrous cnntle out, as reserves for recalcitrant Maoris ; how pit'll ous prayers were made again and again to the Provincial Council for some extra reward for Mr. Walter Duller ; and how the Council considered he had received too much already, are matters written in the chronicles of the province of Wellington. During all these years Mr. Duller accumulated birdskins, occasionally acted as Resident Magistrate at Wanganui, and obtained a highly profitable lease of Maori lauds. The Manawatu negotiations being concluded, and his patron, Dr. Featherston, having been appointed Agent-General, Mr. Duller, inspired by a brilliant idea, informed the Government that he had written a book, and desired to go Home as secretary to his patron in order to publish it. He had previously sold His birdskins to the Government at a most exorbitant price, according to Dr. Hector ; and, on getting his appointment, he magnanimously borrowed them to take Home with him. On the question of salary and allowances arising, a little episode occurred, which brings out in beautiful light that ingenious scorn of petty scruples to which we have already referred as distinguishing Mr. Walter Dulier’s career. The Government, agreeing that Ins salary whilst in England should be the same as it had been in New Zealand, Mr. Duller, by the use of a vague expression, represented the sum of his emoluments at nearly a hundred a year more than the Treasury accounts showed, and it was not until more than a year afterwards that Mr. -Gisborne's small-minded departmental scrutiny discovered the discrepancy. The results were a very humiliating correspondence, which was printed and published (see H. 11. Appendix to Journals of H.R., 1873), and the transmission by the Premier to the Agent-General of the following characteristic telegram : “ Do not employ Duller; Assembly not tolerate. If not back in time loses appointment.— Vogel.” Once in England, Mr. Duller stuffed his birdskins, set artists to sketch them, and entered for the Bar. His title of Doctor he easily obtained from- a German University, without being subjected to the cruelty of an examination in Greek, Latin, or Mathematics. The “ History of the Birds of New Zealand” appeared in marvellously slow instalments, just as Gibbon’s “ Decline and Fall” and many another work of deep research did ; and remonstrance after remonstrance went Home from the Premier, who “ wanted to know, you know,” in his usual vehement way. Mr. Duller, however, was not to be ruffled. He stubbornly stuck to his secretaryship and salary until after his call to the Bar, and finally produced his famous book. It cannot be denied that this work is a very valuable one, the letterpress being its only drawback. Even that, though, has been of some service as enabling learned authorities at Home to decide at once on Mr. .Buller’s claim to be deemed a scientific ornithologist. It now remains to he seen whether he will succeed at the Bar. We have seen him a clerk, an interpreter, a land purchaser, a magistrate, a birdstuffer, a lawyer, and.an incipient knight. If all these fail to lead him on to fortune it is consoling to recollect that he may always retire with dignity into the avuncular thimble. There is nothing like having a variety of strings to one’s bow.

We have sketched Mr. Walter Buller’s career at some length, as it is. invariably desirable that the public should be made acquainted with the reasons, whether of birth, fortune, or merit, which recommend a man to the favorable notice of his sovereign. If we have been somewhat too eulogistic of his homely virtues, vve can but plead a pardonable pride in so distinguished a follow-colonist; if we have dwelt with too mnoh minuteness on the details of his progress towards the Temple of Fame, we ask our readers’ indulgence on the ground of the instructive nature of our narrative ; and we shall not consider our labor expended in vain, if by thus enlarging on the chief features of a great man’s biography, we have put an end to those absurd murmurs which have been raised against Mr. Buller’s decoration. The only objection to it that we can see, is the probable wholesale destruction of small birds by ambitious larrikins, with the view of qualifying themselves by skinning their victims, for the Companionship of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.