Random Notes

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 40, 30 December 1893, Page 7

Random Notes

Christmas has come and gone, with its cordial greetings and feastings, and the old year of ’93 is rapidly drawing to its close. We are thus to-day, my courteous reader, you and I,- enjoying our latest little exchange of civilities. for the year, and may cheerfully join in good wishes “to the year that’s awa.” Here in New Zealand we do not enjoy such diversity of manners as they do in our old Motherland. South of the Tweed, as everyone knows, feasting and frolic prevails during Christmas, while further north, during the same season, there is not the least indication of festivity; the true blue Presbyterian deeming Yule-tide and its mirthful accompaniments as almost epuivalent to, - and consequently as abhorrent, as “ Bending the knee in the temple of Baal.” “ IST year d’y ” with the Scot, however, proves the feast day of the year, and instead of following the Southerner in devoting attention to solid fare, such as roast beef and plum pudding, the canny Scot warms his bluid with deep potations of “ Mountain dew.” If the Colonial excels in any one thing, it is the zest with which he provides himself with amusement. Consequently, as fie claims descent from “forebears” coming from both sides of the Tweed, be combines their several convivial customs, and thus Christmas and the New Year, each in its turn, supplies him with the occasion of enjoyment and festivity.

“ First fittin’ ” is a custom not yet fully introduced, but I doubt not that we shall find room for its introduction after the clock and chimes are duly installed into their proper position on our lofty and prominent clock tower, so generously provided by our Liberal Government. Hot a few of my readers well remember the huge assemblage which annually on “ Hogmanay ” gathered at the Cross o’ Glescae to wait the adven t of the New Tear, each convivial Scot in the crowd permitting the neck of the “ black bottle ” to protrude slightly from his breast pocket —indication sufficient of his •‘first fittin’” project! How deep, too, was the sonorous cheer which rose from thousands of throats when the bell overhead gave forth its first warning note as to the arrival of midnight ! And then, as if by magic, the mighty throng disappeared like Clan Alpine’s warriors true, to emerge into daylight, at its late arrival several hours afterwards, in a condition somewhat “ obfuscated,” and with limbs not fully under the control of the will. Though we do not proceed to enjoy our Hew Year festival fully in the Scotch way, we still make a close approach to it, and liquid refreshment is not infrequently the order of the day. I believe that I have in this column confessed myself a Prohibitionist of the mild type, that is one who would restrain alike intemperance in drinking and intemperance of speech. Tho’thus T. T. generally, yet at this festive season, when the Lord of Unreason ” rules, I permit myself to unbend just a little. Ample justification for my conduct do I find in the poet’s lines, which, for your benefit, my reader, I here transcribe : “ The thirsty earth soaks up the rain, And drinks, and gapes for drink again. The plants suck in the earth, and are With constant drinking fresh and fair. The sea itself, which one would think Should have limt little need to drink, Drinks ten thousand rivers up, So filled that'they o’evilow the cup. The busy sun! (and one would guess J3y his drun'/;on fiery face no less) Drinks up the sea, and when he’s done, The moon ind stars drink up the suu. They drink and dance by their own light; They dripk and revel all the night. Holliing in Nature’s sober found, But an eternal health goes round. Fill up t jie bowl, then, fill it high, Fill all t he glasses there, for why Should every creature drink but I P Why, me a of morals, tell mo why ?” I opifie, my gentle reader, tliat you are interested in art ? If so, I am

sure, like me, yon graced with your presence the small and unpretending display of work shown by our local modest Art Club. “Great things from small beginnings rise !” is a. true and trite saying, and I can safety permit myself to employ that saying as a prophesy of what shall hereafter appear in our fair city in the years that are yet to he. We must remember that we are but a mere handful of people, as few as are found at Home in tenth-rate towns or in villages of hut a larger growth. Yet in these provincial towns in the Old Country how seldom do we find the people interested in the “ higher culture.” Gratifying is it indeed to find s© many in onr own new land who, after conquering the wilderness, are devoting 1 themselves to studies “ which sexwe for delight and for ornament,” and which, too, as the poet phrases it, are “A joy for ever!” Such were a few of the thoughts which occurred to me last week when passing round the small rooms in which the first fruits of the artistcraft of Invercargill were displayed.

It were invidious to select any individual pencil or crayon drawings for special mention. Each and all displayed the hand of the pupil, hut hand of the pupil guided by the experienced eye of the master. Hot the least gratifying circumstance in connection with the exhibition was the fact that the method so frequently employed by Art (save the mark!) teachers was noticeable for its entire absence—copying work from the flat! How often do we find pupils, term after term, employing their time cop3 r ing designs, conventional and other, in pencil or in colours, and after a course confined to this alone, turned out as finished artists. Set snch as these to produce a drawing of some simple group of still life objects, and how worthless the instruction, is proved by the futile attempts to produce the (for those trained by the method indicated) impossible! Every drawing shown in our little gallery was the effort of the student to reproduce what he with his own eye saw, and the general excellence of the results attained are ample proof of the assiduity of the students and the careful instruction of the director of their studies, —Mr J. Hendry, who will accept, I hope, the hearty congratulations of Vox on the success of his first year’s work. Of the more ambitious works in water and oil by local celebrities it befits me not to speak. These pictures were not submitted for criticism, and therefore the voice of criticism is silent. Let ns hope that next -year the wielders of the brush will have sent in their pictures for exhibition and candid comment, and Vox will not be loath, so far as his critical instincts guide him, to speak out fairly on the merits of the exhibitors, all and sundry. Special mention, however, ought to be made of the pictures exhibited by the instructor, —Mr Hendry. The high quality of this gentleman’s work is evidence sufficient of his fitness for the position he occupies, and I hope that next year, in more roomy premises, a larger and finer display of more ambitions work will he made Before leaving this subject, I may congratulate the Camera Club on ,its small but choice exhibit. But why did excess of modesty veil the names of the artists ? Let us know, please, next time to whom we are indebted for the photos exhibited.

Ere many hours are past the*chiming bells shall have “ welcomed the coming and sped the parting guest,” and mutual congratulations will be the order of the day. Eor the past six months I have, with commendable regularity, addressed you from ibis column, and thus, gentle reader, I presume that I am numbered among your friends whose good wishes you value. You will therefore permit me, in the words of the Scotch song, to wish “ To ane an a’ Baith great an’ sma’, A Hearty Quid Hew Year.” Vox.