CALAMO CURRENTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9130, 11 August 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

CALAMO CURRENTE.

mjj E acre we live in is characterised by literary^enterprise, but there is a field for effort that strangely enough has been heretofore neglected, despite the yearnings of thousands, who in their inmost souls have ' n longing with groanings that cannot be 11 ' ,~, -J "A t i a st. we have announced a work Jlrendeil to satisfy a great public want, and !. pWs Colonial Gentry" the coming '• burke's Colonial Gentry ' is the coming sensation of the time. The spirit el author •- the new departure is "Sir Bernard Parke, of Dublin Castle and hailing as he ; i from such a location he cannot fail to touch a chord of sympathy in the bosom of , - ~-v colonial of sound Conservative in.'inets whose highest ambition, as we know, on retiring from the vulgarity of colonial i;,V. is to touch the hem of the garment of fie British nobility. "Pray favour me," writes the courteous Sir Bernard, addressing himself to the members of the "leading classes" of colonial society, "pray favour i,-,' with answers to the enclosed for the forthcoming work on the Colonial Gentry," which he says he hopes to make "a i .crfect record of families of distinction in Her Majesty's dominions and the list of questions comprises the name, ■i Mress, official post, dates of birth, marriage and parentage of wife, names of ?J ns and daughters and marriages of the same: name and place of residence of parents, also grandfather and paternal grandmother. In addition to this the gallant Baronet desires a genealogical account of the distinguished colonist family, with any particulars available concerning his grandparents, but if this cannot be conveniently given, any tradition as to the loon lit v in England, Ireland, or Scotland from which the family is supposed to have come. New to the "wealthy lower orders," as the leading families in Australia have •.here been irreverently styled, and to the '•V-ading citizens" everywhere in Austrap- . the publication of such a work sot fail to be of profound interest, not sometime? of alarm. In some ... - the ditiieultio# of tracing the geneaA tree will be increased to the v,[::ay compiler of these colonial records i\ the fact that in some of the colonics the h; ' '.live* of the early settlers and of the j :n,'ve striking incidents of their lives have ' a burned by order of the Government, j • ..-.in,' an to that time been kept under seal in ;hc various police othees of the colony : i.:a: Sir Bernard's efforts to correct errors or omissions. breaks as it were in t'.H' bi' graphical histories of the founders (i ::v. famiiivs, will be rendered less etieethan they might otherwise have been. \- ; ; ; s the distinguished families will tl.-Ive* be the narrators of the incidents union led to the transference of the f,it-rs of their families to the colonies, :h-re will unhappily in many cases be a vi.-'.'.-ness about the name and date and e . .r.i-'ter of the ship by which they came ; v.iiie the " traditions" in the locality from vih a they sprung are not likely to be -in ii as to induce their distinguished suc-C..-.V- rs to lay on the scent of them this ir..r:irei into family lore.

This of course applies only to a section— imuigh in some of the sister colonies, a \. v important section—of the colonial

t-.v.ry: but. apart from these, there will be many eminent colonials who will be . ... • 10 have forgotten their grandmother —jf thvv ever had a grandmother. One v-rv wealthy, and consequently, leading citizen in -Victoria, diet not even recollect hi- father, or his " place of residence,'" v:\til it was brought out on the public la >:■ I sheet- that the worthy old gentleman v s an inmate of the Benevolent Asylum at \ , ; th Melbourne: whereupon the leading e'tizen was very angry. Indeed. I cannot see ww i hi? curious Baronet should mind so ranch these grandfathers and grandmothers, •vx-iirg that"the grandson? do not; while i- is the proud prerogative of a selfmade man. such as our colonial magnate* commonly are. that he feels he owes nothing even to his father : and so, when he acquires wealth, he recognises the obligation accordingly, and cares not if the old man dies in a ditch. Burke's publication maV have the effect of furbishing up grandfathers and grandmothers, end other progenitors lost in the mists of antiquity, and of giving them a brightness unknown to their contemporaries ; but the i;.. re immediate relationships will probably I - still lost to sight, especially if they are Kill interned in this sublunary vale of te.u-s. and still addicted to the consumption o: victuals.

And vet there will be difficulties and objections about this Book of the Gentry, too ; 1.: ' ■< >■<> -cripfn rrumet, and if a man places on record the fibs that he can innocently pa--? current among his acquaintances with(T. ;'.mv responsibility, the chances are that v.- 1.-.i will be- in the tire ; and peradventure fi:lv with book in hand going buzzing '-.. i fossicking about the localities in Eng'.a:: i. Ireland, or Scotland, which are x«l» the scenes for colonial apocryphal :*;»;:iily tradition, will get to know things, : i t'here will be the devil to pay. It is so v:»y to gloss over an incident in the : r;.-,icy of social intercourse, as when a man 1 '! 0!' the lamented death of his worthy iV.ther, that lie was addressing a large conc p--'i»ile from an elevated platform v.': -n the bottom fell away and his vital spark v.';;- extinguished ; whereas, if a leading titiz-.-n places on record that his father was t-n ••n.in-iit. manufacturer in such a place, or a ..Mid- i proprietor, and it is found by the übi.jui; tourist that the progenitor in que- kept a cobbler's stall or a mark-: garden, the inconvenience? and cmb : ■ may be extremely awkward. Ai: I { -v.- there will be, 1 fear, with the '.o-ira.'e of the honest worthy who, in a fcnir:* of irreverence for pride of birth, fc;.,.; j . '' >!;. , bat ignoble blood, ii •• rin through scoundrels ever since the flood." Bat Sir Bernard Burke —cunning clog T:,;a it is— engages the femininity of the colonies on his side, for he puts the insidious 'iU'---tion as to the " parentage of wife." What a touch of human nature we have lb; knows the weak point in the tol'-nia! armour. The rude jostlings of colonial life— lie hard struggle with fortune, •V'*>V"r successful in the end, may have r 'ij'[ied the buddings of social ambition in ta-.- male colonial, but in the female never ; «i'l as it. will devolve on her to fill up this col-itjia in the returns, I venture to say that t:i<* status of the "paternal grandmother" ia the " jKirentage of the wife" column, 'yiil t'-tiei-ally be worthy of the consort of tiie ii-tinguished colonist. The thoughtl'--~ man in his lack of nous might be disj'O 'i'i to p1! in whose service she may have '•■'• a, and whether as cook or housemaid, U'i-t it. out that he is indebted for his <! '"a -s'ic happiness to the progeny of a 'i-.-ral ;'' but i will bet my bottom dollar "' i'. that the wives of the leading and (lis*!r.'.'ais!vd colonists of Australasia will be toiiii:) to have inherited blue blood all ; and l * l,T trace of frying pan, of scrubbing brush, r >' "•'••'•■-h tub will not be found in all the toru'.y escutcheon. The coming volume of "iViii-gui*!;,-.#! colonists will of course take [ i 0 l'.'inwledge of the gentler blood and •feeding of the sea-girt isles that may have '•int.- i in the colonies, but which may have koc-n lacking in that coarser fibre that ap-l'-ars a pre requisite to attaining to the rank of the "families of distinction" to ii.neii Sir Bernard Burke addresses himsf'/; hut the voyage by the immigrant »!■'), will be as the " coming over with the piiqueror," and this "perfect record of 'wnihes of distinction " will be the blazonry ~~ or the brazenly—of our wealthy lower orders.

fiie Quakers intend sending a delegate "° the Australian Colonial Exhibition to IVi -'Cate the principles of peace." Great ' <-ott ; what for ? Surely we are at peace enough with all men, barring the Chinese ; n ex ' en them we won't fight if they keep r^ a - v om us. Advocate the principles of ' '• hy, we are the very meekest Qf en 0,1 earth, and have not, so far as any in ' • ;now? > the remotest intention of wagtJv" ar on . anyone. Can they not direct attentions to the other fellows They he bother of our lives, and it is because

of them wo have got these big guns, and the earthworks, ana Sir George Whitmore, and other military appliances ; and if the Quakers will only obtain for us the assurance from the other fellows, whom we suspect of ill intentions, that they are as welldisposed as ourselves, and that they will only leave alone, we shall require nobody to preach peace to us. For mercy sake, let them go and talk to the other fellows.

A more touching incident it has not been my fate to learn than that which took place at the visit of the members of the Trades and Labour Council to Mr. Firth's Eight Hours' Full Roller Mills. The members were courteously shown over the whole establishment, in which sacks of wheat go in. and passing through the living, evermoving, and everything but conscious machinery, emerge as sacks of flour and germina, without the interventfon of human agency ; almost rivalling the hog-sticking machinery in Chicago, into which the porkers walk* squealing and come out at the other end as sausages. The Trades and Labour Council were delighted so that there was hardly any spirit within them, like the Queen of Sheba when she came to Solomon and saw the house that he had built. But that which of all things most struck the representatives of the trades and labour with amazement and delight, we are told, was "the wondrous perfection to which the machinery had been brought, and which allows such an immense business to be successfully conducted, and such splendid results to* be obtained, with the employment of so small a number of hands." There are moments in one's life, when the higher and nobler sentiments of one's being are moved in sympathy ; as when, for instance, one sees the warships of a great nation like the French showing courtesy and obeisance to the British flag, or even engaging in warlike demonstration or service for a nation commonly regarded as her natural enemy. But. I do not know that ever my bosom has swollen with grander or more generous emotion than 011 this occasion, when I see the representatives and defenders of the interests of labour rejoicing at the triumph of human ingenuity expressed in machinery that is almost automatic, and enables an immense business to be successfully conducted with an infinitesimal number of hands. There is something so affecting in the great machine-owner leading these noble representatives of he horny-handed sons of toil around, and showing them how at last he can do with the minimum of labour, if not wholly dispense with it; and in the generous and unrestrained delight of these representatives of the toiling classes at seeing his success —I say there is something so moving, so sublime, and so impressive, that I shall be forgiven, I trust, for being temporarily overcome by emotion while I lean upon my desk and wipe away a tear. * IVi.lkx.