POLITICAL PORTRAITS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4020, 6 January 1875, Page 5 (Supplement)

POLITICAL PORTRAITS.

SIR DAVID MONRO.

Visions of the old Tory squire, three

or four bottle man, running down the

new fangled ideas of the new generation, and lauding, the manners and customs of the ancients, his ancestors, in one and the same breath, carping at the watchword of progress, and laughing at universal suffrage, rise up at the sight of Sir David Monro. He looks the very sample of the good old English or Scotch gentleman, ■ 'and is one with all the hereditary characteristics, only slightly tinged by several year's racketing and roughing in a new - Colony. Such a life as he has led in "New Zealand for some time past, almost from ihe beginning, would have been expected to have had more influence over Sir David, to have engrafted upon him somewhat more of an age that is present, and left somewhat less of an age that is past, to call up ruminations and _ regrets. Mingling in Colonial politics with-a zest and energy characteristic of him, and with his lot cast in New Zealand, it is quite worthy of remark how very faint and indistinct is the stamp of the Colonial

spirit, which stands out in such prominent relief in the conduct and actions of other men contemporaneous and equally interested with him in the rise and progress of the Colony. The mark of the colonist, which, it is said, is so indelible <jvhen once it has fairly had time to solidify, that the man who has once received it can never lose _ it, but will always be known by it, seems to have "passed by Sir David Monro, to have missed him altogether. He is left now with thoughts and ideas which are worn out and threadbare—the ideas of a past age, which he retains with the true tena'cityef.the Conservative, or, to give him the other term which is better applied to such a man—the old Tory : and yet, like many others in a similar position, without retracting one jot from the stand he has taken uj), and without allowing him3elf to bo drawn into new ideas, notwithstanding the strenuous efforts .made by those who propose them, lie continues to invest these antiquated

notions and exploded theories with a freshness and life which has long since left tnem in reality :so that Sir David, while avowedly opposed to ths present I/vberal—extremely liberal—tendencies in (thought and government, not only in the old couatiy, but also, in a minor form, in our \ own Colony, and visibly shuddering at ifche vividness of imagination at this present day, and the startling intrepidity with which the most immense questions will be discussed, and the fearlessaieas which his class call rashness and temerity, with which it is plunged into action upon them, is able by brushing up the faded coat of the opinions we hold to make it appear quite respectable and admissible ; and this is the only reason that tie is regarded with that respect which is naturally and spontaneously accorded by alt to a man who had held honourably an . honourable and difficult position, and to " a man who knows how to invest dry subject* with a coat, even though it be a false <203t, of freshness. Sir Ds-vid looks s.pon tte spirit of progress, as ifc is aiow developing itself in Kew Zealand, ennch in the light of the poor Portuguese peasant, who drives his oxen to the threshing floor in the gaod old style approved by primitive times, and i» so conignt and "satisfied therewith, with its ejfpGBj®f t expediency, and suitability to pft the $>ui-pofees required of it, that he would shrink with pious horror, and a "Miii&onnamia 5* from such a thing as one of t&Gse ungainly ml steam engines to which modern ecienc? h,as entrusted the art of threshing corn in place x)f the feet of patient oxen, or the labourer with his flail. An& yet the Portuguese, if his" wooden t)£g3 ga*~£ way, would not refuse the ,o&'ei; ef °se superior an article as au iron nail to niend the broken boards. That he would pot consider a» invention of the Evil Obxj, as he most uedoubtedly would the reaping machine, •- but &3 a step which would save trouble _ and be thereby an improvement on hi 3 former method, without demanding any material alteration. Some of the Conservatives are, or were, very like the Portuguese peasant. They stand aghast at Progress pointing in front, upturning established theories, propounding new platforms, demanding new organisations—npfc disregarding the past entirely, but using it more" as a stepstone than anything eke— and resisting her with all their might in the form she threatened and is threatening to assume, although willing to assent to that part of her demands which, like a merchant's outlay, the regular increase <-f his business eaems to warrant. 'What they flatly refused to do was to make a plunge ; a quiet din they did not find too much. Sir' David Monro might have been ia the front ranks o£ this class, and no doubt they would have been glad to have him, for he could have taught them a wrinkle _cv tvyo in political life worth the teaching. However, it wa3 destiny that New Zealand ifcpnld be benefited with Sir David JVtopi'P, and she has not jnnde a bad bar. gain ,qu£ pf him; for with all his old £de&.s } he has done good service. Before he became Spt.ak,e? of the House of Representatives, and be£oy r a he received, in yggognition ,gf his election £o that high oj&ee, i&e of a knight—wh.eji he was known as plain Dr Monro—be already allowed that .adtagion to the fashions of times past, and tha£ strong old Tory penfciyvenfc, whiph. has increased rather than ie/jsened as his life has grown upon him. • A skilful and clever surgeon/ he was, even in his profession, considered one of the old school^-a follower pf Galen and Hippocrates, lather than of .Carpenter and Thomson, and the host of other eminent men who are turning medical science inside out, and divesting it of so mg,ny of the attributes with which ijb has for ages fceen invested^ that ii is assuming fiiitjrely .a new .aspect and relation ; he held many of the old theories, and was very stubborn to receive the new ideas, evade as they then were and only beginning io attract attention. Medical men are, it is gaid, generally gifted with Conservative 'tendencies, as if by the principle of contrariety, though the swift onward march pf their profession would seem incongruous with the holding of such opinipns. Dr Monro was certainly one of these. Of course he kept pace with the ago, as the phrase somewhat obscurely goes, for it was and is essential for a man in such a position to do so, but it was always with a surly and grumpy good.humour, which showed how convinced he was of ihe entire sufficiency with the day of evil and how unwilling he was to i^ivn, as he found himself forced to do, that after all there was something or other in these new fangled'plans, "When the physician became mgtamorphosed into the politician, the same opinions naturally manifested themselves. Sir David, as he soon afterwards became, wa3 always remarked for a man who had a sincerely good desire for the benefit of the Colony, and ready to give in a cordial adherence to moderate policy for its de- - Telopment, and to pans for its regular . and measured yearly growth. There was none of the wildly adventurous kind of political gambling. The colonial " faro" banji, the New-Zealand "rouge et noir," with' the "'cronoier nob," who directs ' the game, which'is ranipant jjow : a-d.ay3, or is supposed to be by those who pan digGem nothing but pure "alea" in the game, without stability to recoyer loss, and who consider that the dice have bo been thrown that there is no alternative—that they have been recklessly. and improvidently cast, and that they, for the Colony, must turn up either one or the other—either " Genus" or ''Canes But there were garms of public works policies, immigration extensions, possibly of Polynesian schemes, even then, and to all such tpo adventurous prognostics of

•what was to come, Sir David was a hatsh dealer. He would have none of the forcing proces^, no greenhouse to put the country in, and while making it outwardly fairer, render ib sickly and weak, and unable to endure tear or wear, the end which, in the estimation of such men, results from too liberal action in politics. He was for the country developing its own want 3, and for satisfying those with the addition of such slight incentives as wcrald induce it, in thswords of the immortal Mrs Chick, "to make another effort, however slight." So ho was known as a very good-hearted fellow, but with such old and queer ideas, and in the ■ possession of those he was, without much opposition, left to make the best of . them. He has retained them ever since ; and up to 1873, when he finally retired from Parliamentary life, he was a consistent Tory, a firm adherent of the status antiquus, and a tolerating though decided opponent to the Novae res et novi homines, whom he compassionately regarded as a set of fools who would not listen to tho words of their mofe experienced advisers—not recognising the grand principle which has long existed in the thought of men, but which Bulwer Lytton was the first fairly to express in the novel of Kenelm Chillingly, that the ideas of the new generation are foieshado wed to those who are to inherit them. As he was the old Tory in his opinions and ideas, so in personal appearance, andahost of other/characteristics, Sir David was i dentilied with them. There was none in the House in thatvarying crowd of faces,youug, old, and middle-aged, on whom nature had more clearly impressed the mark which designates those who receive it as one of her ogm gentleman. Sir David i 3 the nearest approach to the old Torjs*, gontleman that .we have ever seen out here, and it recalls all kinds of associations to hear him and speak to him. A fine, tall figure, a massive, ronnd, and well-set face, the strong outlines of which are not concealed by too much hair, but shaven clean in the good old style, and a commanding and dignified presence mark him at once in any assemblage; still more in that, in which he has held a high and dignified position, which seems to have left a portion of its dignity with him when he retired from it. There is intellect and solid sense in the high forehead, and the whole face is expressive of deta?mination, to which the linn set lips give the colour of obstinacy, two qualities for which Sir David has always held a name. There is a dignity of presence about the man which draws attention immediately. KTo less is his attire in accori^ange with his other attributes. There is the fine old ! stand-up collar, wj£n the broad rough neck-cloth, as they called it then, and which has degenerated into the countless myriads of shapes that the modern necktie has assumed, to the disgrace alike of its wearers and inventors, tied in a loose knot round his bread neck ; white vest and black frock coat make him look like jan old squire. To hear him speak gives the saim impression. He speaks in that dignifjed round voice which scorns all devicea of rhetoric and speaks plain English —a dignity of speegli which he carries into pi'ivate life, and which j§ there so striking and unusual. Perhaps it i.s in private, even more than in public lif,e f jhat Sir David becomes the part he naturally fills v/ith more success. Those who haye had the pleasure of knowing him somewhat intimately, and hearing him tell Scotch stories and anecdotps ovfir the claret, have had a treat which an old gentleman only can give. The Scotchman and £h<s Englishman combined make a fine stamp of man, and Sir Davjd ha 3 the characteristics of both. Upright and honourable, his efforts for the public good have been aided in the honest spirit of the Englishman by £he common sense and clear hoadedness of the Scotchman, whose special characteristic of etjnginesS has found in Sir David a corresponding .canniness. It cannot but be regretted that so good a man has left the ranks.

ABOXJjg,