THE SKETCHER.

Otago Witness, Volume 01, Issue 2123, 1 November 1894, Page 45

THE SKETCHER.

THE "G.0.M." OP AUSTRALIA.

Sir Henry Parkes entered hia eightieth year the other day. He is in excellent health. Last week I spent a morning with him in his library. I never »aw him in better spirits. In the evening he addressed a crowded meeting of electors. His speech was vigorous, statesmanlike in tone, and free from the acrimonious element which has of late characterised muoh of the political oratory of New South Wales, Speaking on the federal question, he said that he intended to make the great national proposal for the union of the colonies the main plank in his policy. Sir Henry's energy is tireless. Daring the past year he has travelled thousands of miles by land and water, and delivered several speeches in the neighbouring oolonies and in Western Australia.

He lives at Anandale, a suburb of Sydney, in a tbree-atorey house with a fernery and a small flower garden. The rooms are richly furnished, and full of literary and political interest. One oan see there the portraits of almost everyone who has cut an important figure in politics and in literature during tho past century. Sir Henry rises at 8, eats a good breakfast, and thea retires to his library, where he studies and receives visitors. He still writes poetry, and I have read a volume of sonnets which he has jast prepared for the press. He declares that his faculties are as fresh as ever. His heariDg is perfect, and his sight as good as it was 30 years .ago. No one could take a more absorbing interest in life. Autographs are his hobby,' and he has a wonderful collection.

Oa the day after his resignation Mr Gladstone put his name in three birthday books which Sir Henry sent to England, and then returned them with his compliments— in a bold band — to the veteran in Australia. He is very fond of animals, but his pets, of which he, had a curious collection, have been killed by dogs since he left Houghton Villa. He seldom enters society, and ,club life has never had any oharms for him. He is generally to be found until a very late hour in his place in Parliament. Sir Henry was born in an old farmhouse, which still stands, about fivo miles from SloneleJgb. It is called Oanley Moat House, the moat being a deep ditch which encircles the garden. When he was two years of age his parents removed to Toncil Farmhouse, a short distance down a lane from the main road that leads from Coventry to Kenilworth and Warwick.

His father was an old-fashioned Warwickshire farmer, of methodical habits, and a strict Sabbatarian. He owned some threshing machines, which he used to hire to the farmers. "My mother's maiden name," he says, " was Martha Faulconbridge, and she came of a very old English family. "She was an exceedingly good housewife, and wa3 so celebrated for her cookery that people used to come to the farm from miles away to taste her pork pies, her confections, and her homemade bread. She attended to the hives, brewed the beer for the household, arid made wine from cowslips and elderberries. Her cheese and butter were always considered specially excellent. " I went to a dame's school at Coventry, walking three miles there and three miles back. When I waa a youngster of nine, my father removed again to Glamorganshire, South Wales. It was an unfortunate step, for the farm he took there did not succeed. My experiences at that time were those ff a oountrj bjay wjuidjiJng tfw fields s&d

the woods. We lived near the little town of Oowbridge, not far from the coast of the B.itish Channel, and we afterwards removed to the city of Gloucester, where I went to work. Subsequently I got employed in Birmingham, where I attended at night the Mechanics' Institute."

I have askud Sir Henry tims aftr-r titno for further particulars about hio early life, but he has always shook his head. "I know little or nothing about your boyhood," I said to him ou the day of my interview. " And you are not likely to learn anything," he replied. Bnt he has written a detailed account of his youth, which, however, he intends to burn before he dies. "Mine was not a happy boyhood," he said recently, " I had no companions."

With every penny he could save from his scanty earnings as an apprentice be bought books, part icularly the poetical works of Byron, Moore, and Leigh Hunt. Hunt has always been his -.iavourite author. Hs pot; his first taste for politics at the age of 17, when he attended the great meeting known as the GAtheriag of the Unions, to demand the First Reform Bill of the Grey Administration. The meeting was held at a plaoa called New Hall Hill. This was before the days of Cobden and Bright. /" We wore badges in our coats," he said, "and swore that we would not take them off until the bill was passed. I wore mine accordingly, and have It by me until this day."

He never attempted to address a public meeting until nine years after his arrival in Australia. His first address, which was a failure in the way of oratory, was iv connection with the election of the late Lord Sherbrooke.

It is not know to many that Parkes, who is even yet, perhaps, our most eloquent man, was born tongue-tied. Till ho was seven years old he was considered of by no means a good intellect, owing to this defect. Several doctors who saw him refused to operate, but at last his tongue was unlooked by a Dr Butter, to whom, years after, he gave a Government appointment in Australia. The paople of Australia cannot remember when Sir Henry Parkes was not a factor in political life, and it would be difficult to persuade many that he was not here when Captain Cook discovered the continent. As a matter of fact, he has been a leading figure in no fewer than' 35 elections, and he has sat for 42 years in Parliament. His name has always been before the electors, and those who are senior members in the House to-day entered it when Sir Henry's best work was done.

Sir Henry has a numerous family. His youngest son, Cobden, is only about a year old.— Westminster Gazette.