HUMOUR IN HISTORY

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 169, 12 April 1930, Page 9

HUMOUR IN HISTORY

WELLINGTON DURING 1874 GLIMPSES AT THE TIMES (By A.0.H.) Wellington in the '7o’s had its humours. It may be true that mankind is the same in whatever age, but some of the news and views of fifty and sixty years ago cannot but be regarded now as “curious” and “droll”—to use the language of those days. A browse through a file of the “Wellington Independent” of 1874, selected at random, provides here and there in its columns brief glimpses, as through the telescope of time, at earlier days and far-re-moved events, yet related to Wellington of the present. “Blinking Down the Vacant Street.” Wellington in the ’7o’s was proud. Its pride was uncompromising and even smug. The “Independent” in 1874 reprinted in indignation a paragraph from the Brisbane “Telegraph,” descriptive of Wellington as follows: “... Each lazy citizen, lolling 'at his shop door, winking and blinking as he looks up and down the vacant street, is an amateur detective, and relieves the monotony of local scandal by reckoning up the stranger and comparing notes afterward with his neighbour.” It might have been resentment that caused the following paragraph to appear a few days later, depicting Wellington in a state of pleasant and peculiar astonishment at itself: “Visitors to Wellington remark that the noise made in the streets by the passing of carts and carriages is exceptionally great and all but unbearable. Whether it arises from the proximity of the hills or the hollowness of the roadway or both is a question.” However, unless the newspaper was very lax in recording events —which appears not to have been the case—there seemed little enough to disturb the pleasant lethargy of the times. Reports indicate that the chief diversion was when .‘flies so worried coach horses that in desperation the animals bolted down the street and brought everybody running to their doors. The sports of the day were cricket and horse-racing, and for a day out the bloods would climb on the coach, and amid a crack of whips and parting sallies rattle away to the Wairarapa races. It was the custom for most organisations to hold their meetings in hotels, where, it was reported, there was generally “whisky in the jar.” The phraseology of the day more or less reflects its psychology: a “sad” accident was when the gunsmith shot off—not his head but his finger. A fatality was described as an accident attended by a “melancholy loss of life; an account of a mishap to another leading light stated that the sufferer’s greatest infliction was the "tedium of being confined to his bed.” The study of crime and criminals, and the holding of charity bazaars, appeared to be the community pastimes, although relief was occasionally afforded by touring vaudeville troupes. The satisfaction to the performers of seeing crowded halfs was rather offset by their subjection to cat-calls and abuse for so long as they trod the boards. The troupes were of singers, tumblers, bellringers, and conjurers, and once there was a waxworks of criminals, m emulation of Madame Tussaud s chamber of horrors. The “Independent” seized upon these troupes with misto. “Mr. Margetts,” it said of one performer, “also sang well, but even on race nights songs like I m on the Teetotal’ should be avoided. They are not witty, they are not amusing, and are only suffered—not appreciated. .. . The monkeys were amusing, as usual. Peering Chinese Faces. Zeal for advance is evidenced in a later paragraph: “It is admitted on all hands that the Queen s Wharf is not sufficient for the increased trade of the port The wharf is crowded with heaps of goods of all descriptions. . . . . Through the narrow lane left carts, express wagons and cabs convey cargo, luggage and passengers in a manner that appears dangerous. .. . boon afterward it was reported that a local firm of stevedores had acquired a new donkey engine and pulley “that would completely revolutionise the slow coach style of loading and unloading vessels. . "Chinese immigrants were at that time pouring into the country, most of them heading for the goldfields, and their arrival at the port gave a splash of colour to the waterfront. J'X 0 hundred and fifty Chinamen arrived by the s s. Alhambra yesterday morning, it is reported, “on their way from Port Chalmers to the West Coast. Many of them had recently arrived in the Mikado from their native country, _ and they presented a variety of Chinese costumes that appeared strange and grotesque to people who had not seen such new chum Chinamen before. Such rows of Chinese faces peering over the steamer’s sides made up a queer picture, and the chattering and yabbering that went on made a most unmusical sound.” A startling discovery was made one morning by someone who had occasion to go to St Peter’s Church. He found a man wrapped up in the Archdeacon’s surplice and quietly sleeping. On being aroused the masquerader got away, but was subsequently caught and given seven days’ imprisonment. First Railway Locomotive. There was no blare of trumpets when Wellington first became acquainted with steam railway "Yesterday morning (January 21, 1874) the first locomotive that has been used on a railway in this province was started on the Hutt line and did some work hauling ballast trucks. The start was witnessed by a considerable number of people, to many of whom the sight of an engine puffing along the rails was an entire novelty. Several Maoris looked on with feelings of astonishment and they seemed to think highly of the engine when they saw it doing actual work. A bell will be used as a signal instead of a whistle and this will remove one cause of alarm to horses.” The City Fathers, who, it appears, transacted their business only with the hottest debate and sometimes with the bitterest wrangling, at length called for tenders for a survey of the city, but there was no response because there was no data existent on which to base the work. It was editorially asserted that in the absence of the original owners or their heirs some portions of city property had been built upon by enterprising citizens who had run the risk of being ultimately dispossessed. A remarkable state of affairs also existed with the Provincial Government at the time. “The alleged result of the suspension of the Provincial auditor is that the Provincial Government is unable to pay its tradesmen’s bills,” it is recorded in>a small paragraph. Such matters, however, did not ap--1 pear to be regarded as greatly important in 1574.