RURAL SKETCHES.

Otago Witness, Volume 26, Issue 1705, 26 July 1884, Page 14

RURAL SKETCHES.

OUR TOWN.

Ill,— How We Progressed.

The rumours circulated during the night of the ball that both a carpenter's shop and general store were to be opened in " Our Town " proved correct, as in a few weeks' time buildings for these industries were erected, and were soon stocked with all necessaries.

Up to the present our'diet was as simple as our lives, but now that luxuries were obtainable we were not long in cultivating a taste for better living. Our furniture also began to look shabby in our eyes, and was soon replaced by the manufactured article procurable in the store. The easy chairs, however, were retained, and after our house had been properly furnished the furniture in a manner mocked the ouilding, and so we began to talk of putting up a new wooden house and pulliDg down the earthen one which had done duty up to the present. Thus wa progressed : one want supplied creating a want for something else, and our lives and habits becoming more complex. Our storekeeper was a North of Ireland man, long, raw-bonsd, and red-headed, with deep sunken grey eyes, and whose life was composed of two guiding principles : monoy, and a hatred of any other denomination than the particular religion in which he was born, and which, as he never gave the matter a thought critically or compared it with any other, was consequently to him part of his nature, and he fully believed, as all such do, that he was perfectly right in hating other Christians for Christ's sake. Since then I have been very intimately acquainted indeed with a good many people from that part of the world, and I confidently say that no others I have come across are more strict in observing' all the tenets of their religion, no matter whether the denomination be Presbyterian or Roman Catholic. I think the legislation and the administration of the laws— particularly that known as the Parties Procession Act— of Great Britain has a good deal to do with this, and in fact a look into the history of those people would lead one to believe that religion to them is more politics than anything else in their social dealings with each other. Our storekeeper was unmarried, but was on the eve of turning Benedict, as he only waited till everything in connection with his business was firbt settled. He could not be called a business man in tha real meaning of the word, his principal idea of the matter being to buy from the importer and retail to his customers, and he certainly was no great judge of the articles Bupplied him. He was no fool, though, and pushed a thriving business, and as it required a fair amount of correspondence, as did also the other trades, a postal service was becoming a necessity. Our " ohips " was as complete a contrast to the storekeeper as it was possible to find. He was a good tradesman, a genial companion, but of such an irresolute nature as never to have an opinion of his own, and therefore his actions were at the control of his neighbours and at the mercy of anyone to whom he took a fancy. He was the last man that should have started " on his own hook," as without a dishonest notion he was just the sort of a man who would only button his pocket when all hiß money was spent, and leave his creditors the only consolation in such a case — viz., to relieve their bile by calling him a rogue. How many such there are who are calculated to inako excellent servants, but the worst kind of principals 1 The Government now thought it wag timo that the reserve on which " Our Town " was built should be surveyed into sections and sold, and for this purpose a surveyor and staff were sent up ; and as the matter was one of the utmost importance to the residents, a public meeting of those interested was called, and who accordingly met in the Farmers' Arms Hotel, As jnost of fcfaose who attended the meeting were never called on before to take an active part in such an affair, how to go about the matter was a puzzle. The only two persons capable of conducting the meeting were my fathes and the hotelkeeper, but they, however, did not make the necessary mbyements. My father's reason for letting the meeting take its own course was that, in discussing the matter at home, he came to the conclusion that he ought to be appointed leader in tfaa affair. My mother argued that whoever took the lead in this case would be looked to in the future as tha principal resident — a position which she thought should of right belong to father. The same reason might have actuated the hotelkeeper, between wsose wife and my mother a jealousy had sprung up ? but whether such was Jits notion or not I cannGt cay — anyhow he mad^ no move. In this dilemma tko ( c.arpenter .struck a brilliant idea, which He ipur^iaisjy .put into epej*tion, by asking the meeting, whioh consisted <£ a few farmers as well as us townsfolk, to .give tjfee£i?."horders," as he waß A * a-going to shout." As.\ve /j#d sat for some •time looking at each other, wondering w.hat was going to ;be .done, this was ap agreajJble break in the jnoatftony, and algo met our Japstfp yiewa. In a short tiav? each had his qhoice before hitn, and after the us^al toasts had .been given and the liquor had disappeared those present became more communicative.-rso jpuch so indeed as to Jose sight qf the purport of .the meeting «a sqoial talk oja fcbe pfl.rtic.ular business of each .other. Whenever £he conversation flagged soxnje one ordered' in more liquor, and so the hours parsed till it was tjme to b?eafc up., Is<B>t last struck the mind of one of the farmers that that was not the object for »iiich we Bietj and he would like to know what was going to be done. The storekeeper suggested we should eJeoJ a chairman. He wpujfd

not, however, propose one — not that he wanted tho position, but he could not do so without making moio of one than another of his best customers. " Chips," who was troubled with no such soruples, got tip and said — " Gents, Aas Mr (my father) his tho feoldest ftinabitant in this 'ere town, I nominates 'im chairman." The motion being seconded, was carried unanimously ; and aa no one seemed disposed to act as secretary, the chairman filled both positions. Business was then proceeded with, and it was decided that the surveyor be requested to lay off the town in accordance with exioting rights — that is, to leave each houße as it now stood in a separate section, not run a Bection lina or survey a street through them. This trouble could have been spared, as those were the instructions he received when leaving the head office ; but as we did not know that, my father got the credit of having been instrumental in effecting this object, and thus added to hia fame. The meeting also passed a resolution that a postal service should be established, and the chairman was requested to forward the reaolution to the proper quarter in ordor to have the request complied with. As it was shown that tho service would pay all costs, the boon was readily granted, the store being appointed as the offioe, and its owner the first postmaster, who agreed to attend to the work gratuitously, as the service waa only a weekly ono.

The day the first mail arrived was an exciting ono. For »n hour previous to its arrival great anxiety was displayed by the inhabitants, but when it did come it did not take long to distribute its contents, which consisted of a few — very fow letters, and a Witness or two. What created the excitement, however, was not the advent of the mail itself, but the desire to know when the sections would be sold. Another cause was that along with the mailcarrier was to arrive a barmaid for the hotel, the work in connection with which was now more than the publican and his wife ccrJd attend to. At this time the only opening for a female servant in the country was at the hotels, and why the life there should be looked down upon more than any other kind of domestic service I am unable to understand. Taking the position of servant in a country hotel waß in the majority of caves merely preliminary to becoming the mistress of the place or some other establishment, and generally the lot of tbose engaged in hotels v/u« preferable to that of domestic servants. The mispress very ofton had filled the same duties previoutly, and knowing the troubles which she herself had to contend with, the path was made as smooth aa possible for her servants when she was in a position to employ them. Th9re were and are exceptions to this rule, as the old adage, " Put a beggar on horseback," &c, applies here aa elsewhere ; but it is only the exception, and I am happy to say the cases are rare where the lot of a girl employed at an hotel was at all a hard one. Some of the leading matrons in this Colony have risen from this position ; some are ashamed to own it, but the shame Heß in their own lives. The great majority, who have risen by honest thrift, are not only an ornament to the country, the mothers and trainers of our leading men, but they are a living exemplification of the truth of the wise saying, " To the pure all things are pure." The lady in question was a young girl fresh from the Old Country, with all its simplicity of habits and modesty, and her advent created no small stir amongst the inhabitants. From the first " Chips" was a " gone coon "—everyone could see that ; but until then none of us knew he was bashful. He burned to make her acquaintance, but no persuasion could force him to go into the hotel when she was visible, and for the first week after her arrival our host lost a pood customer. A_t last he made me his conhdant, and I need hardly say that my mother was mine, and, like every good woman and wife, directly she heard of the chance of making a match she put all her energies into the inattor. Whilßt all this love-making and plotting was going on other things did not stand still. The day arrived for tho salo of. tho sections, those on which buildings had been erected becoming the property of the occupiers at the upset price of the laud, aa the valuation allowed for. improvements made the value of land and houses too heavy a speculation for outsiders. I also became the owner of two Boctioiiß, but the largest buyer was the hotelkeepor, a matter which my father regrotted, be arguing that too many towu sections becoming the property of one man in a new township would be a drawback tp its future success. "Our Town" now was becoming well known in tho country, and soon after the land sale a butcher visited U3 with the intention of starting business. A shoemaker also elected to try his fortune amongßt üb. He had bought a section on which he put up a house, and started in business. He was a fair hand at strong work, but personally he was a man not generally liked. Ho waß a peculiar character, too, for though^ not a bad hearted fellow, as he proved in after days a charitably-disposed man Lv Riving money to people in distress, yet he was utterly destitute of leal charity, as he never had a good word to say for anyone behind thejr backs. He was thoroughly illiterate, yet he pretended to be a man of knowledge, and his attempts to pump information from those who could give it to him for Che purpose of confounding one less informed than himself afterwards were really amusing. When this peculiarity became known he was made the butt of the place — a fact which his inordinate ponceit kept him entirely oblivious of. This was his redeeming feature amongst üb, and kept him fair friends with his fellowtownspeople, because as a rule no one pan dislike or hate a person who affords him amusement. Shoemakers have enriched the world with more than one genius, whilst in the athletic world they almost stand pre-emi-nent. *' Our Town" shoemaker, however, was an exception, but he possibly would have been a good man had he baen brought up in early days with a love for the beautiful and a belief in the efitcacy x>f soap and water. He entered the lists as the rival of poor •' Chips," but he had no show, backed up as " Chips " was by my mother.