SCOTLAND IN THE SOUTH

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 456, 19 March 1948, Page 6

SCOTLAND IN THE SOUTH

By the Very Rey.

G. H.

JUPP

T the moment in the programme at which it is customary to play in the haggis and then to hear the panegyric on that glorious "pudden," the Dunedin Burns Club found itself in a dilemma at their anniversary concert on January 24. There was no haggis. The president was equal to the occasion and in a humorous little speech exhorted the audience to use their imaginations, And they did, unquestionably, as Fair fa’ your honest sonsie face, Great chieftain 0’ the pudden-race! was declaimed in "guid Scots," braid and fu’. The word for us who are taking part in the Centennial of the Otago Settlement is similar. We must use our imaginations. Why did so many men and women come in small sailing ships over so many miles of stormy water to this new land? They left many comforts, relatives and friends, circumstances which they understood, for strangeness, problems they could only guess at, toil and trouble of a sort they were unable to gauge. A few of the early settlers were men of some worldly substance; most had but little or no wealth. It had been agreed that work would be found, for those who wanted it, at 3/6 per day. No homes were to be ready on arrival but sites would be marked out and, within limits, a choice would be offered. The nature of the land was almost ‘unknown and without doubt many were not ‘a little daunted when they saw the hills clad with thick bush and realised the labour which clearing would entail. Some had come because adventure called; others in order to secure for themselves and their dependants a house and land which was their own; others, again, because they saw little future in Scotland. There would be some who had not got any special reason for coming. But the majority knew why they had left the hills and lochs and rivers of their homeland and, even if daunted by the hard work entailed in making a new home, the reward they saw before them was sufficient payment

HAS the result justified the sacrifice? No one can travel over the province and remain in any doubt. The typical citizen, south of the Waitaki, is not given to boasting. He is something like the Scot who had been remembering Robbie and was making homeward in the wee sma’ hours. "Gaein’ hame, John?" asked a friend who overtook him. "Aye. Whil@és,"’ was the reply as John took two steps backward for each three forward. That Otago is prosperous, her climate no’ that bad, her citizens comfortable, will be acknowledged by all with an, "Oh, aye. Whiles." No typical Otago man or woman would think of boasting about his or her share of the Dominion. The pioneers set to work to prepare a home for wife and weans. The first were but poor and lacking in many comforts. But each felt that his home was his own property and to it he returned at the day’s close, His wee bit ingle, blinkin bonnilie, His clean hearth-stane, his thrifty wifie’s smile, The lisping infant prattling on his knee, Does a’ his weary kiaugh and care beguile, An’ anes him quite forget his labour an’ h@ toil. The wifie, to use the word in the Cottar, had planted in the front of the house flowers such as she had grown at Home, roses, sweet-william, foxgloves, stock, lily of the valley, gilliflowers, which include wallflowers, carnations, and stock. Heather, too, was prized even as it is to-day. Dunedin has been laid out to reproduce, as far as possible, the plan of Edinburgh. The homes of the city to-day remind one of the Scottish homes from which the passengers on the first four ships came. The newer flowers have a place but the old ones are there also. "Mother grew them and loved them before she came out to New Zealand." That explains everything. Those early settlers would have said with W. H. Davies, With this small house, this garden large, This little gold, this lovely mate, With health of body, peace at heartShow me a man more great. Some eight years ago an Englishman, a planter from Malay, unable because of the war to spend his furlough in England, came to Dunedin, and was taken through the Early Settlers’ rooms. Greatly interested, he spent quite a long while examining the articles and gazing at the portraits. Coming away he spoke of the priceless nature of all he had seen and expressed the hope that it would be possible before long to build a larger place so as to display the articles to advantage. Then, after a pause, ‘Do you know, the portraits of the women give me a sense almost of masculinity." His friend replied, "I knew quite a number of those women. They were, in most cases, quite aged then, but they were essentially feminine." Yet the visitor had noticed the outstanding feature of the men and women who colonised Otago. They were people of strong character. We know that quite clearly. But it may be asked if we recognise that their descendants are worthy of their parents. They are, though some will doubt the truth of such a statement. The underlying sense of the over-ruling guidance of the Divine Being and the value of social worship are still recognised. The value of a

sound education and the desire to give a goodly training to every student are evident. From the beginning the University was designed to give a general training as well as specialised teaching. It does mot require great understanding to see how the Arts and Science Faculties fit in with the specialised schools, Medicine, Mining, and Home Science, to give an _ all-round training to any student who desires to fit himself for a particular walk im life. * * *

T was a schoolboy who said the word which fits those men and women who laid the foundations on which we are building to-day. Two boys were looking for the plate which marks the spot where the first settlers stepped ashore. It is in Water Street, a few steps down from Princes Street, beside the Stock Exchange. A man standing by showed them where it is and answered their questions about the reasons why the water does not come up to that point now, explaining what the pioneers set themselves to do to make Dunedin what it is at present. Looking down toward the harbour, up at the Post Office, and round at the traffic in Princes Street, one of the boys remarked in a quiet voice, almost as if it had been to himself, "Gee, they were some fellows all right." A modern way of expressing one’s estimate, but it is exactly true. So is the word of a bystander, who, with others, had been listening to the conversation, "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings!"