THE WEEK, THE WORLD, AND WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9143, 20 July 1908, Page 6

THE WEEK, THE WORLD, AND WELLINGTON.

(By Frank Morton.)

The Snowclad Kaikouras.—Captain Fairchild and Governor Gordon.— Aristocrats, in General. —Muddling the Mails. —Exit, Dan Barry.

The Kaikouras, glistening with snow, looked nobly well, as seen from Island Bay the other day. And the thought of the Kaikouras recalls an anecdote that I may as well repeat. When Sir Arthur Gordon was Governor, he made a trip south in the Hine moa, then commanded by Captain Fairchild. In the morning of the first day, the skipper came on deck, to find His Excellency gazing at the white Kaikouras, with a respectful guide hovering dutifully in the background. The skipper stalked genially up to the Governor. "Kaikouras looking very well this morning, Sir Arthur." His Excellency turned and glared - at the mariner, who was quite unperturbed. "Sir," said the Governor, "be good en )Ugh to understand that any ommunications addressed to me must come through my aide-de-ramp." Not a word said Captain Fairchild, but he put his thumb in his mouth and jWhistled for the cabin -boy, who came with a run. "Billy," said the skipper, "will you ask Mr Aide-de-kong to tell the Governor that the Kaikouras are looking very well this morning " The indignation of the Governor was so that it left him speeohless. ******

I don't happen to be conversant •with the origins and career of Sir Arthur Gordon, so can't say whether he was an aristociat or not; but with many aristocrats of my country I have some acquaintance. There are godd and bad of all sorts. Jutt now lam more concerned to recall one or two of the quaint ones. Ot these, one insisted on accompanying me one night to a labour social. He went, and he charmed everybody. Anyhow, nothing would suit the cornpany except that my friend should give at supper some of his impressions of Australia. One of them, 1 remember very well, because it seemed a confession so novel in the cipeumstances. "I —I don't know exactly how to express the thing, don't you know. I—l am no orator, so to speak. It's awf'lly good of you to ask me to speak, 'n' all that—awf'lly pally an* all that sort of thing—what? The thing, you know —you know, the thing that has struck me in Australia —the thing that seems to me to be so awf'lly assy to anyone from over there, y' know—the thing that strikes me, as I Baid before, is the —ah —the preponderance of the peasantry."

A noble lordling found himself cast away in a coastal town of North Queensland some twenty years ago. According to my authority, "he had a oort of horse-box arrangement made, with a small window and a springblind. Over the window in large letters was —"This is a Lord. 3d a Look Full The String and The Show Begins." A slot in the box received the coin, and the blind ran up and exhibited the youth in even-ing-dress. He would then indulge in a littlo chaff with the crowd, give a short account of his forbears, and describe the family place. Then he would ring down on that lot, wait for the tent to fill up again, and repeat the performance. As a general thing, despite the Yarmouths and the Angleseys, and all that silly set, the English aristocrat is a harmless and companionable chap. All the Englishwoman of the aristocracy is, in the average case, a natural and instinctive gentlewoman, in whose refined simplicity of pose and manner there is no trace of the snobbishness that passes as current coin of the caste in our little, infinitely removed societies.

If any of you, being electors, desire now to pull a wire to some useful end, you might get your member to ventilate the matter of mail communication from the north. Sunday after Sunday, Australian mails reach Auckland, and generally an English mail comes by the same route. These mails ought to catch the express at New Plymouth on Monday mornings; but they very seldom do. They are generally delivered on Wednesday, the day of arrival of direct mails that leave Sydney three days later than the Auckland boat. lam unable to dis caver any colourable reason why several such mails recently should not have caught the Monday train. The week before last the New Plymouth steamer sailed out of Onehunga while the Australian steamer was actually sailing up Auckland Harbour. Had the New Plymouth steamer been delayed for the mail, the express would still have been caught. As these mails are of great importance to many people in the south, there seems to be a genuine ground of grievance here. While talking of mails, let me note that I saw a statement in a New Zealand newspaper the other day to the effect that the first Australasian mail via Suez came on such and such a date, after the opening of the Suez Canal. That is quite erroneous. The first Australasian mail via Suez left Southampton per steamship Ripon on December 20th, 1852. The mails were transferred at Suez, taken across the isthmus, and shipped , in the Chusan, reaching Sydney on March 19th. This route was interrupted for a time, owing to the large number of P. and 0. steamers that were retained for transport service during the Crimean War; but the system of overland mails was recommenced on February 24th, 1857, ■when the screw-steamer Etna left Southampton with mails that were transferred at Suez across the isthmus to the steamship Oneida.

While I am talking of Australian institutions, purrnic me to say my word regarding Dun Barry, deceased, the champion barnstormer of the world. Dan was a great institution, a>id the Australian Uaekblocks were his goldfield. Dan played in places which no other company would dream of playing. He was the most or.gina! actor-manager 1 ever met or heard of. I him playing in "The Kelly Gang" at Lhu Coiling wood Town Hall, the night o£ the Federal Referendum in Victoria.. When the final result of the j o:i reaehvd the hall, Dan was dying wierdly as Mod Kelly. The glad news was whispered to him from the wing.-:, and Dan promptly

interpdlated a flaming speech in | favour of "Fideration" into the dying remarks of the bushranger. Never before was such an unconscionable time a-dying, and surely never since. Dan had his own way of doing things. The salaries he paid were meagre to the last limit of the possible. I asked him once to explain tame the slander of this statement. He assured me that he paid his people well; and added that his leading ladies were especially well satisfied with his management, because of "me sympathy with their ar-rtistic ambilions." He was a great believer in the power of names. He would bill hiu fearful and wonderful dramas, j alleging alarming authorships. "The | Pool or Blood," by Charles Stewart i Parnell, "The Distracted Mother," Iby William Ewart Gladstone. He ' always made a speech. Here is a characteristic speech, as reported by an Australian newspaper at the time. "Ladies and Gintlemen: I cannot let dis auspicious opportunity pass without comin' forward to ixpress my gratitood for your gracious pitronage dis evenin'. I hev travelled far an' wide, but niver, ladies a id gintle-men (here Dan strikes his stomach) hev I met so much youth, beauty, intelligence, an' wor-rth as amongst the good people of Sillyville. In the near future, I will be in the vicnitiy, and I do hope I may again rely on your gracious pathronage. Some day I hope to end my days on Life's fitful shtage at Sillyville, but my mission to l*ai«e the drama to the glorious pinnacle of my ideals still netds my t dents; but with the gracious encouragement you hev given me tonight I go for-rth solaced in my mighty endeavours. Dear, kind fr-riends, once .more good-night and thanks!"