CONFESSIONS OF A COLONIAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14715, 24 December 1909, Page 5

CONFESSIONS OF A COLONIAL

ENGLAND AND THE ENGLISH. IJV GUV H. SciIOLKFIKUJ. V.-KX(iLISH PATIEXCK AND ORDER. If anyone asked me what eharacteriiitie of the English people has most impressed mo during a year in the Old Country, I should answer without hc&iUilion: "Their patience." The patience of tho English i s Now I know what Napoleon meant when ho said that the English never know when I hey were beaten. I can understand too why ( (.lio English lace is so loiig-jutlerir." and why, when it does strike, it "is usually for a just.caiiAi lon* considered, a cause to winch it \viji .-emain loyn! long after hop? has perisned, and until it revives aifain, . In every phase of lifo you see the <>ternal patience of the. English triumphant, over all other emotions. J n t |, e 5t ,.,, f . t traiiio the driver never fumes or frets when the constable raises his hand jii«t |w ho is about to dash past, ihe orcwiii" J ho rear ranks of the theatre queue never Ijuin and fidget, and shout to their ni*doc.ssors to hatter the dcor down. Tli'o railway traveller ncucr paces up and down the plalfcrm waiting f or |,: s j ra ; n Uimloner never swears when the traditional coal on its way into .the traditional cellar completely blocks tho footway for an hour on end am | lump .\. ],j nl to walk on the street. Ho does not mind if the small shopkeeper, unpacking Ins goods on the pavement, iiiipojc., on him the seme necessity. Tlie. Enelhilni.'lli tits calmly smoking and meditating through a block in the railway trallio which would set the colonial fretting and fuming with impatience. Th 3 British public (submits without protest lo dozens of littlo nuisances of which a colonial public would compel 111* ieiiioval. The British publio is probahhtbe only one in the Entire, which would consent to be shut, out from its own parliaments for months on end without a protest or a riot. It is tho only one that would stand in the rain for two hours waitintr for a royal ceremony which had boon postponed without any notice whutcvor. It is tho only public that would niics its trams every morning for a week bemuse ihe stopping places had boon altered without, notice. It is tho only public thatiwouhl allow the .street traiiio over a «'ido area of tho busiest pert of the city to Is dislocated for six hours a day half a dozen times in the year so that, a few might enjoy a triumph. It h the only one that, pessessimr ;i stock jibe about the dogs of Constantinople, would have its own fife made horrible in tho suburbs by multitudes of small doge Oh ! Blessed are the meek!

When I first saw the i|uo»?s standing outskh the ticket offices- at the theatreu and railway stations, waiting patiently for orderly admission to tramway curs and 'bines, I was .struck with amazement that a. virile people should bo «i lackinor in combat ivonesa cu not to fight for front place. This did not present it-wlf to me as fairness. It seemed more like a. lack of ail that ambition which :s to n«c.3.*.ary lo keep the nation to tlie fiont. When that idea fadod this littb circumslanee of life presuntcd its-clf in another objectionable form. It now seemed lo mo to bo a !:icjt approval of tho morality of " squatting,' by which farm we in Australasia know that practice- which allows a man to arrive in ailvanco of his follows aixl establish a claim to anything lie- desires which may not bo assaikd by Inter cum-irs. ft took my colonial mind months to unboml in tho slightest towards approval of the principle of the queue, ft swmeil so utterly undemocratic and destructive of tho virtue of individualism, which would enable a smarter or a 'cuter than the rest, to "beat" them for liret place. More than that, it seemed utterly unfair that a man who might not bo in a hurry at the ticket office and might not have his money nady should be permitted to "hold up" tho whole- line and perhaps be the cause to many behind him of missing their train. AYhen I first came to England I used to hustle to catch trains in the tubes.

"It's alt right," my 'English friend used to say, as I tried lo hurry him along the subwavii to get the next train. '' Thoro will be another ono in a minute."

"Yes." I argued, "that's all right; but there's the one I was trying to catch." And tho twin lights dwindled out of sight in the- darkiieos.

But now I have nothing but admiration for the English sense of order, which has Ixen made possiblo by ils god-like quality of pationce. There is this reservation, of course, that tho same denial patience is directly responsible for a good deal of lira laisso [aire and national laziness of which I have to spoak later. But in so far as it has engendered and fostered tho sense, of order, the colossal patient's of tho English is a splendid asset. It is an excellent thing, especially for ladies—who, by converse, are' tatter protected in the colonies by reason of their sex—that onco having secured a place in a lino they should not t>= <lisp!acc<! or robbed of thoir due seniority by boisterous newcomers. And even a colonial—Socialistic in spite of himself—mii6t appreciate the spirit of fairness which secures for him, as long as ho desires, his own seat and his uninterrupted view of'the- game. In the colonies wo are more primitive in these matters. Property i 6 not held in quite such a reverent respect, and tho man who is not continually watchful of his interests is liable to find an intruding person interposed between himself and his vista. My only objection now to the English sense of order is that the British public is inclined to be rather slow in its movements, and a host of trains arc missed by the chaffing inpatients at tho end of tho queue.

As for lirritish discipline, that is a commodity so often regarded as purely military that colonials arc apt to hold it in contempt. British discipline, as a matter of fact, is quite- tlio revc-rsi of military. It has no military tradilions. Its genesis was in the law courts, and its chief strength to-day is in tho police uniiorm. Nobody can convince me that the discipline of the Knglish is a national characteristic. When I see a British crowd equcezed into one-quarter of its physical measurements, standing as quietly and meekly as lambs, without a suspicion of pushing or shoving, without a word of protest or argument with tho police who stand comfortably along their edge, I know that there must have b:en thousands of cases of assault of eonstables in the history of British crowds, that in most eases the- liancli metal out substantial punishment to tho civilians, who wero disrespectful to the uniforms: and that this particular crowd, without exactly knowing it, has in its mind a lively recollection of each case and each punishment. The-qufct, orderly conduct of tho London mobs, which must bo tho admiration of tho whole world, is, in fact, the accretion of many generations of four of the law. Thero arc just the samo men in the colonies, and tho police are no less worldlywiso in dealing with men, but the policeman's lot in the colonics, is infinitely more difficult. On the most ordinary occasions of sight-seeing the crowd cheerfully carries

•■ pnlice with it. The colonial resents any attempt to discipline him. and ho argues the point very forcibly with'the constables who try to do so. In a- wholo year in England I have never heard a man so much as answer back a policeman. That is an inconceivable oti'enec.

Tho English sense of law and order was not acquired in a day. It dates severally and equally from the time when it was established that a baron look precedence of his retainers.; from the time when Cromwell Had savage livsons in altruism to his ru]-?rs; and from the time when the police ejected disturbers from anti-Corn Law meetings. It is quite the most useful thins a colonial can appropriate- while in Great Britain. Being commercially-minded, I cannot but. feel that a modicum of order

and discipline infused into our institutions, our education, and our habits of life will In u powerful assistance when wo have to >.-i'ct the trained foes of our race, who will conic jtifl as surely to our land from the swarming East as to this from the Teutonic fields and cities and harbours. That is why the other 10 per cent, of colonial boys should be competed to do what 90 per cent, have l>een doimr bv volition for years liast-lji.it is, submit themselves to' the '•iKimrs and the advantages of military training.