Captain. Barry’s Lecture.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 573, 21 February 1891, Page 3

Captain. Barry’s Lecture.

AFTER MANY YEARS. Gisborne people are so much taken up with their own little potato plots that Captain Barry bad not a crammed attendance at his lecture on Thursday evening. But he was still the same undaunted hero, who though perhaps unaccustomed thereto, would think no more of facing a moderate attendance than he would of penetrating to the heart of a country in the hands of untamable savages. At ten minutes past eight the enthusiastic and expectant audience gave a round of applause, and the distinguished leotupsr modestly, but without loss of dignity, strode to the front, and was given a warm we'come as ho took his seaton the platform. The Mayor, whose mind seemed absorbed in the far distant past, also went to the front, and when tha enthusiasm had cooled a little he took advantage of the lull tn introduce the much-travelled Captain, He said a few evenings previous they had had the phonograph and were given some idea of what a wonderful invention it was—that was of the present, and the Captain, who was a man of such wide experience, would be able to tell them of that past when such things were not thought of : though the audience was not as large aa expected, the lecturer had dscidsd to fulfil his part. Then up rose the Captain, a benevolent smile (without ths suspicion of flippancy) irradiating his countenance, a narrow-gutted stick playfully twiddling in his right hand, and a few sheets cf delicate blue paper being held in his left hand, tha tinted paper having a spruce white vest for a background. When the applause had died away, the Captain began to hold forth in that slow and measured style that so becomes his dignity and gives assurance to the audience '’that every sentence is carefully weighed, and the beautifully rounded periods are vary effective, He, as it were, takes you into his confidence' and divulges the many incidents in his long experience just for the benefit of mankind, He said he intended to faithfully fulfil hia part of the programme, and would treat them with the same consideration as if he were speaking to some of the audiences of thousands whom he had had the pleasure of addressing; on Saturday night he would have an audience packed to the doors. All his adventures, he said, were related from memory, a memory which he ventured to say, had served him faithfully—(the audience themselves could eee that he did not shuffle up the notes in his hand and apparently only looked at the top occasionally to prevent his modesty causing embarrassment). He considered be was just the reverse of Micawber, for “ by energy,' push, and perseverance I put my'shoulder to the wheel.” By nationality he was both Irish and Scotch, was born (1819) in England, and was reared in the colonies. He related al! about the great lords with whom his family had come in contact, and how one noble lord had given him the opportunity of indulging his romantic notions by going tc sea: his father was a veterinary surgeon whose practice was mostly among the nobility and gentry. He got to Sydney in 1828-where the grand post office now is was up to one’s knees in mud, and cows grazed on the side of the pathway. By his folly he was left alone in Sydney, and was leaning against a post crying, as a poor boy without home or friends would do, when a man came along and asked him hie name, not once or twice, but thrice, and the man turned out to be named Smith, a friend of his father’s, and who also proved a true friend to him. That friend adopted him and brought him up to manhood, and among other things made a great sportsman of him, Smith himself being a great sportsman who had brought the first blood stock into the country. He (the Captain) had not forgotten the pigskin yet, and had recently rode and won a hurdle race down South, He would now run any man his own age a hundred yards for a hundred pounds; he was a bit of a sport still, and they would see him play a good game of cricket on Saturday, although he was 82 years of age. He was as good as most men of 40—all that came of taking good care of himself in his young days. (Laughter and applause.) But it appeared others had not taken such care of the good Captain, for he went on to relate how he had got into trouble through giving tobacco to convicts. The second offence meant a hundred lashes, and to escape that he sought the aid of a whaler, Captain Brown, who succeeded in getting him past the Heads by jambing him in a cask, and lowering hl—down the hold, with only a bunghole to let air into the cask—he would sooner have taken the flogging than suffer what he did. When he got to Port Phillip in 1835 there f * was not the vestige of a white man’s face to be seen, neither was there a white man’s house ’—that place is now marvellous Melbourne. He described how he had becomeacquainted with a young fellow named Jack Winton, gave full particulars of their capture of the wild white man, and how Captain Brown had taken he and "Winton prisoners, brought them to New Zealand, and left them among natives, who were, in those days, giants, and cannibals in their ignorance. He now repeated what he said not once, twice, or thrice, hut hundreds oi times, that the Maoris were the finest class of natives that were under the sun in the New Zealand hemisphere. Hethenwenton t< relate many of his numerous adventures bj land and sea, of their shipwrecks, adventures with the cannibals, with tales ol how land was bartered for in the ole days. The natives, ha said, placed n< value on flour, saying they had no use to: it • sugar they liked, and gunpowder the; planted to see if it would grow, the expert merits being of no profitable aocouni " These, gentlemen,” said the lecturer, “ art ' stubborn faois; I challenge any mai ■ in New Zealand to contradict any. 1 thing from my lips on a public platform > I say as I said recently when I addressed thre i thousand people in Melbourne, and ha : the Earl of Hopetoun there. I an 1 giving nothing funny to night; I am givin ■ you sound logic, but on Saturday night I wil f give you something lively.” In dealing wit 1 the famous whale story he repudiated th s slander that credited him with riding r whale, and then gave full details as to th l great adventure—he had hung on to a del • whale for 12 hours, not knowing it to b - dead, Among other experiences of ship a wrecks three of them, a lady among th I, number, had lived on shellfish for six week: . afraid to light a Arc even if they had th 1 matches, lest the blacks should discover the: it whereabouts, Their wearing apparel we not such as would be oottsidored proper to

ballroom. After telling of so many adventures the Captain said he had only gi*. en an outline, but on Saturday night he would give them something that should fetch a crowded house. Among other things he is going to tell all about the Tichborne claimant.