THE PATE OF THE SHABBY GENTEEL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 185, 24 August 1871, Page 7

THE PATE OF THE SHABBY GENTEEL.

( " Nelson Examiner- ")

No one can pass through the streets of a colonial town without being struck with the disproportionately large number of well-dressed young folk of both sexes that he encounters, none of whom have, apparently, any definite object, or fixed occupation, in life. On enquiry, he learns that these are the sons and daughters of t!ie commercial or Government clerks, of small tradesmen.- or of annuitants, who, by a painful struggle, continue to retain a place in the ranks of what, for want of a less offensive word that will fully convey our meaning, we must call the " shabby genteel." These unfortunate youngsters appear to have been taught no speciality, but have received just such an amount of preparatory training £iSj while it will allow them to begin the task of qualifying themselves for almost any calling or profession, will assuredly not enable them to dispense with the final and inevitable ordeal exacted from all who aim at becoming professional men. What is to become of this alarming-numerous class when the bread-winners pass away — as, in the course of nature, soon pass they must — is a question that doubtless occurs, in the silent watches of the night, to many an anxious parent.

In England, scarce as is the competition for employment, several resources are open to the more energetic sons of the middle class, that do not appear to be very available to those in the colony who are similarly circumstanced. India and China absorb. annually their hundreds—the ocean has not yet lost all its charm for the islanders whose ships swarm in every sea, and crowds still issue forth each year to seek their fortunes in the Far West. Bufc to oup colonial youth India, is a sealed book - the sea tempts but a few of our lads ; andre-iramigrationis seldom attempted, or, indeed, so much as thought of. Our Banks and-public offices absorb a small fraction only of the ever gathering throng of applicants. A few become surveyors, some schoolmasters.

But to the vast majority, every avenue in life seems closed. Our clergy can be better trained at the old seat of learning than here, and consequently, are usually imported. The colonially - bred medical man, for similar reasons, is held in but slight esteem by his fellow-countrymen, while our indigenous lawyers find that it is almost hopeless for them to attempt to compete with men who have been trained, either wholly or in part, at the British bar. And the novice- is not long in finding out that, to succeed on a colonial farm or sheeprun, he^must begin with not much less capital than a Yorkshire farmer or grazier usually possesses.

Awkward as it may be, there seems to be no escape from the conclusion that a large proportion of the welldressed, and by no means ill-bred, •young men who haunt our streets comers must in a few years descend to the position of labourers or mechanics, and fight theirway upwards, as, in many caces, their farthers did before them. A certain ainouut of education has now — fortunately — become so common that it must in future be considered as its own reward, and not, as it was half a century ago, a kind of passport to what was then considered genteel employment. This state of things, which has. long been prevalent in America, where it is accepted as inevitable, has, after all, not a little to recommend it.

The future of the girls of the genteel class that we refer to, suggests better grounds for gloomy forbodings than the probable fate of the lads. Many a well nurtured boy of the middle ranks has left his native shores as a cabin boy to return. the captain of a tall ship. Many' a stout fellow has become the bailiff — aye, or the owner of

the farm, on which he formerly wrought as a hind. Actual life has had its Whittingtons. But for the g- nteelpoverty of- the more helpless sex, what refuse is there in the colonial l.tbour market ? A. young lady can turn governess, school mistress, sempstress, or domestic servant. The field of choice is not wide, but it is practically still further narrowed by several limita* tions.

It is clear to every one, that the modest list of acquirements that has, until lately, been deemed sufficient for a governess, will not be permitted to pass muster much longer. A smatteringof music ; a modicum of the " French of Stratford-atte-Bowe ;" " geography and the use of the globes ;" will go but a little way towards furnishing the stock-in-trade of the lady teacher in the future. Nay, it is just possible that the dominant and aggressive sex may invade the domain of the poor governess, and that a real live professor, say of history or mathematics, may supersede in those, and in other departments, his gentle rivals who have failed to advance with " the spirit of age." A special traning, in addition to special natural aptitude, will assuredly be required, erelong, of every candidate for the office of governess or schoolmistress.

The sewing-machine is slowly but surely undermining the occupation of these amstress, while the hardy frame and practised deftness of the professional housemaid or cook, will render her only too formidable a competitor in the struggle that we clearly foresee for even the lowlier kind of employment.

Yet another resource remains. To this our sex and our mature years fortunately enables us to allude without the least fear of being misunderstood.

Our young ladies may marry, and thus all the foregoing difficulties will be settled in the most approved and satisfactory manner. It is painful to have to dispel so pleasing an allusion. A short anecdote, told by an unimpeachable authority, will show what we mean :—: —

At a ball given in a New Zealand town (not Nelson), three score marriageable young ladies were present, the vast majority of whom our informant pronounced, to be in every respect ''eligible." Four gentlemen only could be picked out of the temporary partners of this bevy of beauty who could be reckoned, under the most favourable construction, as being rich enough to take any four of the sixty as partners for life. And even the favoured four seemed afraid of the " great expectations " of tne assembled fair. The floating clouds of lace — the resplendent jewellery — the very carriages in waiting appalled them. We dare not add another word, recollecting the fate of Actaeon.