PUGNACITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 230, 28 September 1929, Page 11 (Supplement)

PUGNACITY.

CHANGES IN FIFTY YEARS.

WE GROW MORE MEIXOW. SOME AUCKLAND MEMORIES. (By JOHN A. BEALE.). Fifty years ago the individual as well as the nations was considerably more inclined to be looking for fight than is the case to-day. Duelling was then very much in fashion on the Continent. In one part of Germany disputes were settled in dark rooms with pistols, the contestants' targets being the bright end of a cigarette in the other's mouth. In New Zealand the Maori War was on, and the air was full of pugnacity. With the passing of years we have mellowed considerably, and have become more gentle and pacific of mind. In my young days it was a case of a word and a blow. Might was right. One's honour was jealously guarded, and once it was impugned blows followed automatically. This always happened if a man was called "a liar." At the present day one can call a man even "a liar" with absolute safety, the recipient often recognising the once objectionable epithet with an amused and iialf-guilty smile. On joining a school one had to find one's true level' (like water). The big boys saw to that, and arranged a series of fights on the tournament principle, so that the new boy should know where lie stood, that is, who were his superiors and who his inferiors in the gentle art of boxing. A dear departed friend of mine confidentially and felicitously announced a bit of good news to his younger brother, about to join the same school, that lie had taken the trouble to arrange four fights for him. One had literally to light one's way into a new school in those days. I was once, at the age of 13, made to try conclusions with my greatest pal, and consequently it was only a halfharted affair, and our blows were anything but of a vicious nature. This little boy afterwards became an officer in the Royal Navy. On another occasion, whilst in a fit of temper, I belaboured a boy big enough to eat me, but instead of provoking a fight, I was insulted with a condescending look of pitiable contempt and amusement. On board the old sailing ships fighting was the order of the day, and on our arrival in the Auckland Harbour in the barque Tamar (on which we had as fellow passengers the well-known Outhwaite family) on the eve of the regatta in ISSB, the first excitement we had on board was a fight between the captain and. the cook, whose culinary arts had presumably declared war on the captain's spleen, and had thus given rise to angry passions. When about twelve years of age I belonged to a set of boys in St. Matthew's Parish which was at enmity with the Town, or rougher class of boys. We were frequently attacked by the latter, armed with solid road metal. One evening there was a pitched battle at the Nelson Street gully. Our set was on the 'southern side endeavouring to stop the "enemy" from crossing the gully. Both "armies" were well supplied with ammunition. Unfortunately my aim, on one occasion, was only too true, as' I succeeded in landing a big stone on the head of a little boy. On seeing the boy fall, I made sure that I had killed him. I thereupon visualised an early arrest on a charge of murder, and an eventual dangling at the end of a hempen product. I was not anxious to play into the hands of the posse of police which I imagined would be waiting for me at my home,, by providing a too speedy opportunity for my seizure, so I stayed away in the dark until I thought the gentlemen's patience would have given out, when I crept in in a cautious manner, peering into the dark corners for secreted policemen ready to pounce on me; but to my great relief I found that I had had no callers in my absence when I was again enabled to breathe in the normal manner.