THATCHER

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27664, 21 May 1955, Page 9

THATCHER

AN ENTERTAINER OF THE SIXTIES SINGER OF HIS OWN SONGS [Specially written for “The Press") [By G. R. MACDONALD] C. R. Thatcher was a travelling entertainer who toured New Zealand and the Australian colonies in the 60’s. He had a keen insight into hqman nature and could turn a neat rhyme. Thus equipped, he was able at short notice to turn out verses which nearly always amused and sometimes wounded. He also had the ability to set his rhymes to music and to put them across so well that every word told and every shaft found its mark. Thatcher could get his audience laughing straight away and after that they just sat, their mouths open and their eyes shining; and the laughs came almost before the jokes. A few of the more stiff and proud disapproved of him (Chudleigh of the Chatham Islands notes in his diary, “Went to hear Thatcher a comic singer and very personal. He brings in Judge Gresson as Old Gregson. He is a very clever fellow but he wants a thrashing. Madame Vitelli, his wife, sings very well.”)

Actually, it appears that Madame Vitelli was not Mrs Thatcher. Mrs Thatcher, according to the paper, had a baby in Christchurch during the time Thatcher was performing there. He usually picked up an accompanist as he went along. Bonnington played for him in Christchurch.

More than one man, smarting under one of Thatcher’s gibes, had sought i him, armed with the traditional horse- ; whip. But Thatcher was a powerful , man and. knew how to use his fists; [ and the injured one always left his room discomfited. Thatcher was always on the look-out for any incident upon which to hang,a few rhymes. The ’ famous prize fight on the banks of the • Waimakariri came perfectly to his hand. The telegraph line from Christ- ■ church to Lyttelton had just been fin- ; ished, and the citizens were so pleased and excited that they had a grand dinner in Lyttelton (with of course innumerable toasts with “three times three”), followed by an exactly similar event in Christchurch, and finishing up with a ball on a grand scale. Thatcher had to have his laugh at such provincial self satisfaction. Before he left any district he usually published a paper-backed booklet containing all the songs he had composed during his stay. A copy of one of Thatcher’s song books is hard to come by nowadays. The two verses printed below are extracted from a song called “Over the Hill,” which in 17 verses altogether celebrated the trials and agonies of climbing the Bridle Path, and give fair sample of his style: Unto myself I frequently now wonder If this can be the spot where Jack and Jill When fetching water, made that fatal blunder Over the Hill What early riser who, his bed forsaking, Would choose this walk for his pedestrial skill An early rise out of him, ’twould be taking Over the Hill. W. T. L. Travers William Thomas Locke Travers, whose name is now hardly rememi bered, was In his day a notable man, not only in Canterbury but all over New Zealand. He arrived in Nelson in 1-49, and being a qualified lawyer, started to practise there straight away. He represented Nelson in the first New Zealand Parliament, which met in Auckland in 1854, and stood against Stafford for the position of Superintendent of Nelson. He explored a good deal of the back country of Nelson and took up some of the poor grazing country between Nelson and the Amuri. Travers decided to settle in Canterbury and went into partnership with Philip Hanmer. He was soon the leading man in Court work in Christchurch. He also took part in local politics, was a member of the Provincial Council for most of his time in Canterbury and stood as a third candidate in the hard struggle between W. S. Moorhouse.,and J. D. Lance for the superintendency. Moorhouse represented the town, the businessman and the working man, and J. D. Lance represented the landed interest. There was really no place for a third candidate, but Travers polled a surprising number of votes. Moorhouse won this contest very comfortably and Travers probably knew he had no chance. He was perhaps just getting his hand in and making himself known with an eye on the future. With all his wide knowledge, variety of gifts and ambition, there seemed to be no reason why Travers should not win the highest prizes to be gained in the colony. As well as holding a high position at the Bar, he was a skilled geologist, botanist, and horticulturalist, and was a specialist in mosses. On these subjects he read many papers before the Philosophical Institute. He was an ardent volunteer and, needless to say. was an officer. He could claim to be an explorer. He was a musician and owned the only grand piano in Christchurch. There was just one gap in his armour—his temperament in the end was always fatal to him. Scenes in Court were almost a matter- of course when he appeared. The “Lyttelton Times” described him as “brilliant but not sound; argumentative but not convincing; able but unsteady; energetic but changeable; fickle, flighty, bent more on distinguishing himself than in promoting the welfare of the . country.” He was vain, touchy, thin skinned, arrogant, and domineering. Just at the time Thatcher arrived in Chrischurch, Travers, considering that Chudley, his gardener, had insulted him, gave him such a beating that the poor man arrived back home with a pair of black eyes and a very swollen nose. Chudley threatened to sue Travers for damages for assault. Various of Travers’s legal friends tried to ' buy Chudley off. Finally, Slater per- 1 Suaded Chudley to take a cheque fpr s 10 guineas and got a receipt from him.

This affair was, of course, straight into Thatcher’s hands. The next night Travers was lampooned in a verse that has not survived, which was strong enough to prick the bubble ot his conceit. An Embassassing Forgiveness The next dpy Chudley put an advertisement in the paper which went as follows: “If Mr Travers will return the receipt I was persuaded by Mr Slater to sign I will withdraw all proceedings in .the case, as he has been made the subject of local song, and I. consider that sufficient punishment.” To be publicly lampooned by a comic singer was bad enough; to be forgiven in the daily press by your gardener, whom you had treated shamefully, was much worse. A letter from Travers immediately followed, which pretended to be cool, calm and indifferent, but beneath which subterranean heat was blazing. After traversing the facts of the case, it ended as follows: “As to the punishment mentioned by Mr Chudley, I cannot and, if I could, would not prevent travelling mountebanks from making me the subject of their effusions for the public amusement. I heard it and laughed at it as much .as my neighbours. The real punishment in this case, if I remember rightly, fell principally on Mr Chudley.” Thatcher replied with a letter which is too long and not good enough to reprint here. He also showed that, unlike Travers, he could keep his temper. There was also a set of verses which he sang that night of which the following are the first two:— Travers Esquire is dreadfully riled Admits that the Chudley advertisement gibbets him, So he writes a reply and he gets very wild, ’Cause a ‘‘travelling mountebank” comes and exhibits him Though W.T. Locke Travers he Says he listened to Thatcher with wonderful glee. Travers Esquire's a limb of the law But his power of attorney he sadly misuses; From his gardener he doesn’t stand any jaw For he hammers him—giving the poor fellow bruises And W.T. Locke Travers he Seems to exult in his great victory. Thatcher was able to get some additional ammunition from the fact that Travers had lately been employed to prosecute the principals in the prize fight case. And though guilty himself, appears as accuser, And W. T. Locke Travers, he Shows us what a lawyer will do for a fee. The following, which appeared in Andersen’s “Old Christchurch,” describes the end of Thatcher. “When in Robe, about 1878, I first heard of the scoundrel and of his being chased through the settlement by Major K—, then the Commissioner of the Japanese Imperial Mint, over the question of some lampooning verses. The fellow escaped in a coasting vessel to Nagasaki. Some years after, probably about 1882, I was in Shanghai. Cholera was rampant in the concession at the time. One morning, about 11 o’clock, Thatcher came into the Oriental Bank Corporation, accompanied by some half dozen Chinese merchants from Pekin. He had been up. there buying blue china. He held a letter of credit from Baring Bros, for £5OOO, of which I cashed £3OOO for him, which was paid over to the merchants in dollars. He then returned to the Astor House Hotel in the American concession, where he was staying, in time for luncheon. On learning from one of the waiters that a lady who had breakfasted at the same table with him had since died of cholera, he left the table, went up to his room and was dead himself by 2 o’clock. There was nothing apparently wrong with him. Though not a coward in many ways, he appears to have died of sheer fright.” This is what the “Lyttelton Times” thought of him: “There is really such a genial humour about this man that his keenest satire provides only an agreeable titillation, leaving no sting; such a flow of wit and universality of application, that no shaft of his falls aimless, no events escape his Argus eyes. Does any man at a public meeting spout nonsense, let him look out for Thatcher; if anyone strives to cover his meanness by a glozing exterior, it is no go; Thatcher lays him bare; would you clothe small thoughts in pompous utterances, Thatcher’s blade will anatomise you and reveal the dry bones beneath.”

The writer would be glad to hear from an- "e who has a copy of Thatcher ’ Canterbury Song Book.