Memories

Press, Volume C, Issue 29680, 25 November 1961, Page 3

Memories

Puborama. By lan Mackay. Oswald-Sealy. 103 pp. Mr Mackay’s unpretentious volume of memories will be valued by readers of an older generation, especially those who had occasion to travel in Wellington province in the first decade of the century. The hotels Mr Mackay knew best were in the vicinity of Taihape; but he also has something to say about hospitality in Wellington itself, particularly during the early part of the First World War. The author saw much of the province in his younger days; for he was an enthusiastic angler. In addition he was interested in his fellow man and liked to spend an hour or two in congenial company where the conversation became more lively as the evening advanced. “Puborama” is made up of memories of this kind, all of which have some connexion with the hotels the author visited or called at. The stories he has to tell, simple for the most part, and quite unstudied in tone, give a glimpse of a way of life that is now gone for ever. It was rough, no doubt, but honest, and it abounded in a kind of good-fellowship that Mr Mackay is not alone in regretting. The customers in a country hotel bar in those days were often men of widely differing backgrounds and accomplishments. The link with the mother-country was very real. There were numbers of first-generation New Zealanders; but people born in Ireland or Scotland made up a greater fraction of the population than they do in .1961. The bushmen who congregated on occasion at Taihape often included what were called "remittance men.” They were for the most part reticent and eager to buy the means of forgetfulness. In those days, too, there seemed to be a surprising number of convivial spirits who would, if suitably encouraged, recite “Lasca” or sing all the verses of "The Wild Colonial Boy.” It is also interesting to read a few stories about an almost forgotten figure in New Zealand literature. Anthropologists of this generation do not attach much importance to Dick Harris; and it must be more than 35 years since Mr Lawlor brought out a selection of his verses. Harris was in some ways a pathetic figure; but it is good that Mr Mackay still remembers him with affection and dwells on his association with Taihape. Incidentally, denizens of the West Coast will note with amusement that the author appears to suggest that there was a certain similarity between the hotels of the Wellington province in the early days and those of the Coast. This is the only heresy in “Puborama,” which will otherwise be read with appreciation in all parts of New Zealand.