WHAT MAKES THE GENTLEMAN.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 92, 9 December 1843, Page 366

WHAT MAKES THE GENTLEMAN.

The author of " The Backwoods of Canada " gives an account of the assumed independence of the labouring class, which it may not be unprofitable for some of our headers to peruse. j

" You would be surprised to see how soon the new-comers fall into this disagreeable manner and affectation of equality. We were much amused by the behaviour of a young Scotchman, the engineer of the steamer, on my husjband addressing him with reference to the management of the engine. His manners were surly and almost insolent. He scrupulously avoided the least approach to courtesy or outward respect; nay, he even observed, as he seated himself on the bench close beside me, * that, among the many advantages this country offered to settlers like him, he did not consider it the least that he -was not obliged to take off his hat when he spoke to people, or address them by any other title than their bare name ; besides, he could go and take his seat beside any gentleman, or lady either, and think himself to the full as good as them/ ' Very likely/ I replied, hardly able to refrain from laughing ; ' but I doubt you greatly overrate the advantage of such privileges, for you cannot oblige the lady or gentleman to entertain the same

Opinion of your qualifications, or to remain seated beside you unless it pleases them to do so.' With these words I rose up and left the independent gentleman evidently confounded at the manoeuvre ; however, be soon recovered his self-possession, and continued swinging the axe he held in his hand while he said, ' It is no crime, I guess, being born a poor man.' ' None in the world/ replied my husband ; ' a man's birth is not of his own choosing; he can no more help being born poor than being born rich ; neither is it the fault of a gentleman that lie is born to a higher station than his poorer neighbours/ The Scotchman was obliged to yield a reluctant assent to this, but concluded by again expressing his satisfaction at not being obliged to take off his hat or speak with deference to gentlemen, as they styled themselves. 'No one, my friend,' replied my husband, ' could have obliged you to be well-mannered at home any more than here : you might have kept your hat on in Scotland as well as in Canada if you had been so disposed, I am sure. And as to your boasted rudeness' of manners, will it ever put an extra dollar into your pocket ?' ' "Well, I guess there's a comfort in 1 considering oneself equal to a gentleman/ ' Yes, if you can induce the gentleman to think the same.' " This was a point which evidently disconcerted our candidate for equality, who commenced whistling and kicking his heels, with redoubled energy. ' Pray/ said he, after a pause, ' what makes a gentleman ? I'll thank you to answer me that/ '. Good manners and good education/ replied my husband. ' A rich or a high-born man, whose .manners are rude, and his mind ill-instructed, i* no- mar o a gentleman than yourself.' " This put the matter on a different footing, and the engineer had the good sense to see that cutting down the giant to the dwarf's level does not exalt the dwarf to the giant's stature, and that familiarity does not constitute the gentleman."

There would be little to surprise, if the settlers in a new colony were to think* proper to drop all distinctions of rank, and, in their passion for independence and equality, to abolish all titular eminence. But this is not what we usually meet with. On the contrary, instead of the total abolition of ranks, we meet with a reversal of them, and while the marks of respect vyhich are paid at home to those of superior statioa, are considered unnecessary by the labouring class in their intercourse with their employers in a colony, they adopt them most scrupulously in their intercourse with each other. Every working man styles his fellow workman " the gentleman," sp& his wife a " madam ;" indeed we have nevev in the society of what are styled the gentry at home, met with a hundredth part of the 11 ma'ams " and " sirs " which we hear bandied about in the cottage of a colonial labourer. Nor is, this taste Confined to personal distinction ; the cottager's five-acre patch; of which a. rood is perhaps the amount in cultivation, is designated " his

farm," while he dignifies his peck of wheat and bushel of potatoes by the name of " a crop." He " stocks" his farm with a herd of one pig ; and his farm-yard, which is fenced with fifteen feet of rail, is enlivened by the cackling of a solitary hen. His only stack is his chimney stack, and that perhaps consists in a hole in the roof of his cottage. His mill has hitherto ground coffee alone ; while his thrashing-machine is chiefly exercised on the backs of his refractory boys ; for they, too, copying their father, think it unnecessary to pay him respect, or to do what he bids them. Delicious climate, which so fosters the growth of all things that we make pies of potato-apples, fit for an alderman's feast, and metamorphose a labouring man into a " gentleman farmer " with such facility.

However, after all, these " vagaries" may be an indication of something better beneath the surface. The labouring men have come out with the intention of bettering their condition ; as Tim Moore says, " Nature never made their waistcoats to button over the breast of a tailor." If they have the ambition to grow into men of independence, and to see themselves owners of farms and stacks and stock, and mills and thrashingmachines, glad shall we be to see them* achieve it all. Only do not let them fall into the error of imagining that they have reached the top of the ladder when their foot is yet on the lowest round. They must carry the hod for many a step before they touch the summit. And we must confess that, so long as they do so, if they showed a pride in their own station and designation as the labouring class they would impress us with a greater idea of their independence than by endeavouring to assume a station of nominal gentility, which can only appear ridiculous in the eyes of those who know its value.

In our present - number will be found a report of the exploring expedition of Messrs. Spooner and Heaphy to the south-west ; and also of the attempted journey to the Wairau by the Pelorus and Kaituni, by Mr. Tuckett and a party of settlers.

The result of the first sets at rest a very important question, namely, that there is no extensive block of grazing land in that direction which can ever become an available portion of this settlement. Although there may be many small valleys of which we are yet-ignorant, it is now almost certain that the extensive grass plain spoken of by the natives as lying in that direction has no existence. There is yet a large tract of country to explore between the Motuaka jand Massacre Bay ; and we understand it is the intention of Mr. Heaphy to endeavour to penetrate to the Takaka by the Rswako. - - -

The Maori path, from hence to Port Cooper is said by the slaves at Motuaka (who belong to the tribe dispossessed of that and the Waimea district some years since, by the present Motuaka natives, with the assistsnee of Rauparaha) to be up one 'of the valleys which run into the upper part of the Wairau. Mr. CotterelLwas of opinion that the second opening from the pass led to an open country, which is, probably, the one in question.

With regard to the second, although the party have in this instance failed, there can be no doubt that the route attempted is practicable. Besides the Kaituni Pass, the natives who acted as guides to Messrs. Parkinson and Drake informed them that the Wairau could also be reached from the Pelorus by crossing one of the mountains a little higher up the valley ; and a remarkable hill on the western side of the Wairau

jpps recognised by all the gentlemen wh9 had visited that district. The distance from Nelson to the Wairau is considered to be little more than eighteen or twenty miles in a direct line ; and if a road canofe made by which it can be reached within double that distance, it will be the most valuable block of. land which can be appended to Osw settlement.