YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVII, Issue 4354, 29 July 1871, Page 3

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

The fifth of the annual course of lectures in connection with the above Association was delivered last night by Mr.G-.M.Keed, 8.A., at thejrooms of the Association, Albert-street. There was a very large attendance, and the Rev. E.N. JBree oc«upied the chair. The subject chosen was "The Influence of Colonial Life on the Formation and Development of Human Character." The lecturer, after a few introductory remarks, said the influence of man's surroundings on his principles, and motives, and mode of thought, and general habits was universally admitted, and therefore there could be no question that there was such a thing as colonial character. But it would be asked, what was there really peculiar in the life of a colonist ? To anyone considering the subject it must appear that the most striking feature in colonial life was the extraordinary assemblage of heterogeneous classes that constituted colonial society, to which must be added that colonists were in general the most intelligent and enterprising of the communities from which they came, and were removedfrom the circumstances and influences amid which the previous portion of their lives had been passed. They had peculiar difficulties to overcome, meeting things generally in their primitive elements, aud battling with them as best they could from their own resources. The most important and influential of those peculiarities was the extraordinary assemblage of heterogeneous'classes that constitute colonial society. The particular bent which the nature of colonial society was calculated to give to humancharacterwas, he thought, precisely the same as that given by foreign trarel, namely, to make a man more forbearing, and less disposed to adhere to his own opinion with an obstinate and increasing prejudice, A colony might be regarded as a kind of microcosm or world in miniature ,in which knowledge of the world and the peculiarities of its inhabitants was forced upon a man without the necessity of travelling. The lecturer referred to the development of novel ideas as a consequence sf colonial life, alluding particularly to the United States of America. He attributed the variety of inventions for which America was distinguished to the facility afforded for the levelopment of those inventions by the State, which he said wag necessitated from the lifference of influences experienced in old homogeneous communities and in the mixed populations of the colonies. The whole world was full of thinkers, but while in the >ld country there were only some who were regarded as having a presumptive right to think, or at least to have any attention paid ;o their thinkings, in the colonies on the )ther hand we were compelled and inclined ;o give a hearing to other people's thoughts, md every plan and every theory had a trial. [t was from that peculiar feature in the solonial mind that political theories which lad been slowly fighting their way in Engand had had such facility in being put into wactice in the colonies. Voting by ballot, ixtension of the suffrage, the separation of Church and State, and a multitude of other )olitical theories had not to fight against that prejudice and narrow-mindedness in the ;olonies which impeded their adoption in England. Those fences too which bound in ill religious communities at home, and over vhich people scowled at one another, were learly all broken down in the colonies. Colonialism in this respect was the direct mtipodes of old fogeyism ; and yet they bund old fogeys in the colonies. They bund that almost invariably the old fogey lad migrated in the earliest days of the :olony ; that he had planted himself down n the days Jof semi-barbarism ; that he had :ecured such a position as had made him iuhfforent to succeeding arrivals, whom he e^arded as intruders, aifd whom he did not oel called upon to conciliate ; and thus, trapping the mantle of his selfishness and lontracted views about him, he, had grown ,s impervious to the influences around him ,s the skin of the rhinoceros. (Cheers.) There veve however some hard features in the olouial character which had arisen from other teculiarities of colonial life than the rather (leasing influences he had described. He eferred to the peculiar difficulties generally net with in colonial life, which he aaiJ equired more ingenuity to overcome han those encountered at home. In the iolonies a man had no rule but his >wn mother wit, his determination to get ra, and his ingenuity in finding an entrance. Che whole world of business was before him : le might try them all, and if they all failed le might become a sharebroker and sell icrip. (Laughter and cheers.) The exigences of his position made him quick in applyng his intelligence to his own practical purposes, and all the influences combined served ;o produce that restless, pushing, self-reliant, tvide-awake, self-seeking, and somewhat unscrupulous nature which they knew was the jolouial character. In mentioning unscrupulousness, he did not mean that lownright dishonesty and criminality in general was a prevailing feature in the jolonial character, although, as shown in the recent charge of Mr. Judge Johnston at VVellington, in this colony crime was considerably more prevalent in proportion to the population than in England. There was nothing extraordinary in that. That there was not farjmore crime in the colonies, where the crutches of virtue had been knocked away, and where the restraining influence of family connections and traditions did not exist, was highly to the credit of the colonial character. He feared however it must be admitted that to the minor sins the colonial character was somewhat addicted, and notably that of unscrupulousness. He would not steal, but he would sell them wooden nutmegs ; he would not take their purse, but he would sell them scrip ; and, if he could overreach their ingenuity by his own, and. do a smart trick in business, it was » fair game. (Cheers.) After a few more remarks upon this subject, the lecturer said : "I by no means defend this feature, but I think it is correctly stated, and the man who does not develop a character having this as one of its features is deserving of the highest credit j for he is offering a successful resistance to a decided tendency, and one evil tendency ia colonial life. Ido not mean by this a man who does not give evidence of the unscrupulousness of his character, for there are multitudes of people in the colonies that are strictly proper in all their doings, just because they do net happen to be impelled by the exigencies of their position to exercise the quality of unscrupulousnsss. A rich man in .the colonies is almost always an honest man : I mean in general estimation. You rarely if ever find it otherwise, unless the tricks by which his wealth was won are knewn and .remembered. He is 'Honest John,' or honest somebody else, and his success is rewarded in the possession of qualities and in a popular estimation which it does not receive to anything like the same extent in old and formed communities. So long as a man is seen bounding over the waves with a full sheet and colours flying, he is beyond question ; but the whole world of colonists pounces down on the poor unfortunate who has missed stays and is cast a wreck on the shore. People have seen the luckless craft shifting sails and tacking with all the energy that despair can give, and then when the winds and waves have • been too much they point to the shattered battered beams and. timbers with which the shore is strewn, and sneeringly connect the result with desperare efforts that had been made to steer the craft from destruction. The glorious ship however that has got well to windward is an object of admiration to every eye. H she shifts sails or tacks, not indeed from any .kind of necessity, but as if, playing with the winds, which from her position she can afford to do,. her movements are but graceful evolutions, and, unless with those who have seen that same vessel beating out of harbour and getting shipshape for the voyage, increase the public admiration : and, these graceful (becoming actions are not in the least to 'be "compared to tb,e 'movements of 'yon storm-riven craft;. when she was battling with" wind and waves 1 amid the rocks and the breakers: of a lee-shore. Great is success all the" world over, but greatest of all in tha: colonies. It enables a man to keep unexercised that quality of no* I scrupulousness . which is »v» v characteristic lfe»,turo of tlio: colonial character, and %»

[ religious man, and perhaps a pillar of the Church. Far be it from me to say that all successful men are dishonest or even unscrupulous. Heaven forbid that there were no honest and upright men in toe--colonies j but I.do record my protest against 1 the theory, more generally held in the colonies than elsewhere, that success is the teat of worth, and that failure is a proof that a man is worse than his fellows. There are hundreds in the colonies who have won their way to wealth by integrity, and have never, and would never, sully their hands, even with an unscrupulous act. But Ido fearlessly assert that three-fourths of the wealthy and the successful in colonial life have won that wealth by the exercise of an unscrupulousness that would not bear the public gaze ; and that in many cases success is the triumph of dodge, and is to be characterised not by the absence of that unscrupulousness which is characteristic of colonial character,* but of successful effort in concealing it. The lecturer next briefly referred to the influence of colonial life on the formation and development of children's character, attributing the precocity of colonial children to similar influences to those operating in the formation of the colonial characters of their parents. He concluded by comparing the colonial character to our hills, and said the day was not fa/ distant when the ruggedness of both would not be visible. On resuming his seat Mr. Reed received long and loud applause. — Mr. Leigh White, in appropriate and complimentary terms, moved a voto of thanks to the lecturer, which was accorded by acclamation. — The rev. Chairman asked the meeting to receive the lecture aa the work of a faithful friend who had pointed out to them .some of their failings ; and urged upon them to regulate their conduct by the rules of Christianity, so that another lecturer might aay that they were not unscrupulous, bwfc a God-loving and Godfearing people. (Cheers.)— Mr. Reed returned thanks, and the meeting terminated with the benediction.