CONVERSATION PIECES—VI SAMUEL BUTLER RIDES ON THE FIRST TRAIN

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26261, 4 November 1950, Page 3

CONVERSATION PIECES—VI SAMUEL BUTLER RIDES ON THE FIRST TRAIN

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R. M. BURDON

SCENE « DEC. 1, 1863 Samuel Butler arrived in Canterbury toward, the end of 1856, and at once began to look about for a block of unoccupied grazing country. After much searching he at last found what he wanted near the headwaters of the Rangitata, and in June. 1860. he went to live on hi, new run which he called Mesopotamia. The life of a backcountry runholder was not altogether to hi, taste, and it seems that after about two year, he took lodgings in Christchurch and spent most of his time there. “The Press" had recently been started by James Edward FitzGerald with whom Butler bees me friends. Butler wrote article, for "The Prera” and once edited the paper for several months when Fitz Gerald was away. The ideas that later took shape and expanded into hi, famous book "Erewhon” began to appear in his writing, at about this time—more especially in two articles written for "The Pres,' entitled “Darwin Among the Machine,” and "Lucubratio Ebria.”

Also among Butler's closest friends was William Sefton Moorhouse, for some year, Superintendent of Canterbury. Butler admired him greatly and once ,poke of him as “perhaps the greatest man all round that I have ever known." Having seen the construction of the Lyttelton railway and tunnel well under way, Moorhouse resigned hi, office as Superintendent and was succeeded by Samuel Bealey. The first locomotive to run in New Zealand made its first journey from Christchurch to Ferrymead—a distance of about four miles—on December 1, 1883. An official party consisting of the Superintendent, Samuel Bealey, members of the executive and head, of department made the first trip, starting at 2 p.m. The remainder of the afternoon wa, sperU in giving free rides to the general public. According to Henry resting Jones. Butler’s biographer, “Moorhouse took Butler on the first locomotive engine that ever ran in New Zealand, on its first run between Christchurch and the Heathcote." Butter and Moorhouse are seated ride by ride in a railway carriage that if being drawn slowly out of Christchurch railway station by what would now be regarded as an old fashioned puffing billy. The platform is lined with an excited, cheering crowd. Moorhouse i, in hi, late thirties, very tall, heavily bearded, with long oval face and long nose. Butler is 28. small and slight, with thick black hair, heavy eyebrows and dark, penetrating eyes. Maorberae: Well, we've started. Batter: Yes. we’re actually moving. W.BM: Not very fast just yet. BJL: Never mind. I thought at first we were’nt going to start «t all W-BJE-' So did I a, a matter of fact, but you needn’t repeat it. Mt: You’ll be a proud man when we gM to Ferrymead. wsjy.:*Why »o? Em no longer everyone know, you're responribla for all this. WJUtjAll thi, U only the begmwBt' do you want done next? wglgi Why. get the tunnel finished at course, and then put the railway through to Lyttelton. gJUWhbt then? WBM-! Begin the southern railway to Timaru . . . then on from Timaru to the Widtoki. By that time a line should be coming north from Dune’Ll tog's? Who's going to pay for all this? Sm it» That', the question my pro wincial councillors were always asking, rtoyourealise I only invited you to because I believed you were the one person who could be renot to art such a thing? ni answer you fai'bhillv Idomt know who', going to p..y ww >ll I only know somebi-dy Irik quite frankly. I've iever knSwn all my life who's going to My for anything, but someone aiways doe, in the end.

5.8.: Generally speaking, the human race is divided into two categories—people who get thing, done and peob'c who pay for them being done. W.S.M.: Only very generally speaking. 8.B.: The people who pay for things being done are relatively harmless; it’, the other, who are a danger to the corimunity. W.8.M.: The community couldn’t possibly get on without them. 8.B.: I don’t know so much about that W.S.M.: One must have progress. 8.B.: There’, no need really. And after all one can never be quite sure where progress is leading us. It may lead to destruction.' W.8.M.: You're talking nonsense. I wish old Haast was here. He never talks nonsense or ask, who', going to pay for things. 5.8.: I’m glad he isn't here. He take, up such a lot of room, especially when he gets excited, and there's little enough room as it is jammed in among these fat old councillors, W.8.M.: Don't talk so loud for Goodness sake. They'll overhear you. Remember, you’re only here on sufference. I had the very dence of a job persuading them to let me bring you. 8JB.: They can't possible hear above the sound of this noisy old engine. W.S.M.: Noisy, old engine. You have got cheek. Its the most up-to-dace think of its kind. 8.B.: The result of progress. W.BJH.: Certainly. 8.B.: I suppose we shall go on perfecting these machines. W.SM.: Undoubtedly. They'll grow faster—more powerful. Distance will gradually disappear. One day it may be possible for a man to-travel from Christchurch to Timaru and back the same day. 8.B.: Have you ever considered that these machine, we’re constantly im-' proving may one day get the better of us? W.SJW.: I’ve no time to waste on such fool Idea, ’ 5.8.: It's not a fool idea. You believe that human progress is infinite, don’t you? WBJtf.: With certain reservations, yes. 8.B.: Then suppose that engine, be* come almost infinitely improved, just as man has grown to be what he is out of a primitive organism. By the way. have you read that book I lent you oy this chap Darwin, or have you .’Ol gotten I lent it you and lent it to someone else? You did that once before when I lent you a book. W.8.M.: I read it and found it very interesting. 8.B.: Then don't you draw an analogy between evolution in animal life and evolution in machines? W.8.M.: Change places Sam. The sun's shining right on your bare head. 5.8.: No thanks. I've only just got comfortable here. As I was, saying, the difference is that machines are evolving very much more quickly than human beings, and in time are bound to outstrip them. Human beings took thousands of years learning to think and put their thoughts into words. Suppose machines learn to think and •peak, not in thousands but in hundreds of years. Don’t you think they’ll inevitably become our masters’ W.8.M.: Either move out of the sun, talk of something else, or keep quiet. 5.8.: I'd rather talk of something else if I'm to have the choice. W.S.M.: Something sensible.5.8.: I’ll talk about progress. What do you want done when the railway to the Waitaki i, finished? W.BJL: Well, one day Canterbury will have to be connected with the West Coast. We might run a line through the Cannibal Gorge, or even the Otira. 8.B.: Who's going to p . . , Sorry, I forgot. What I meant wa,. a lot of the West Coart is practically unexplored, isn’t it? W.SJH.: Yes, there may be gold there by the ton. 5.8.: There might be living mow. There might be strange tribe*

WJI.M.: One finds Maoris everywhere. 8.B.: I didn't mean Maoris. W.S.M.: What then’ 5.8.: Have you ever lived under a mountain range that separated you from unexplored country? It puts ideas into your head. W.SM.: I can well believe it in your case. 8-B'i I spent two years looking at the Snowy Range and wondering what lay beyond. There must be quite a lot of room between that range and the western seaboard. How can we be sure its uninhabited?

W.S.M.: We’ll soon find out when the railway goes there. 5.8.: Suppose a race (if people as intelligent as the Greeks lived for centuries in some undiscovered enclave with no war, or conquests to hinder their progress. W.BJW.: They'd have invented steam engines long ago. 8.B.: Exactly—and the engines might have got the better of them by now unless, of course, they took the necessary steps in time. W.S.M.: For the sake of curiosity, hew does one treat an insubordinate steam engine? 8.B.: One destroys it before it becomes dangerous. In fact it would probably be safer to destroy all machines now while they’re still our servants.

WJS.M.: You gave an understanding just now to talk sense. Perhaps you had better keen quiet altogether. BJL: Very well; out it doesn’t really matter because here we are at Ferrymead. Just have a look round at all these old councillor,, each of them with a speech ready. What a lot of sense you’re going to hear for the next hour or so.

W.BJH.: A change, I’m sure, after the last quarter of an hour.