Mr Boucicault on the Old Country and the Colonies.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 126, 31 October 1885, Page 5

Mr Boucicault on the Old Country and the Colonies.

An interesting address was delivered by the celebrated actor and author, Mr Dion Boucicault, on the occasion of a monster picnic tendered to him at Sydney a few weeks ago. Mr O'Connor proposed "Our Guest," and then spoke of Mr Boucicault in terms of very high eulogy. The toast was drunk with musical honours. Mr Dion Boucicault, who on rising to respond was received with hearty and continued cheering, said that he really felt much oppressed by the task laid upon him to in some way justify the encomiums so very unexpectedly laid upon his shoulders by the worthy chairman. Hitherto he had had no idea he was so great a man — (laughter) - and in point of fact he had his doubts about it now. ( applause and laugh ter). As regarded his literary work, he was quite surprised when he was informed by his friends in Ireland, and especially by the late Duke of Leinster, that his Irish dramas were doing a very great deal of ETOod in England. (Applause). He assured them no one was more surprised than he was when 25 years ago the Duke told him that many people had reformed their ideas of the Irish peasantry from the pictures they had seen on the stage in the " Col'een Bawn." The thing went so far that in the following year Her Majesty the Queen and the Prince Consort visited the Lakes of Killarney, where the scenes of •'The Colleen Bawn" never took place. (Laughter.) Be mentioned this because he visited these scenes subsequently, and was taken by the boatmen to all the spots to which the Colleen Bawn was taken by Danny Mann, and to the one where he subsequenty drowned her. It was only 12 weeks ago that he entered the Heads of Sydney Harbour, and as he saw around him the lovely panorama gradually developing itself, and reminding him of the Lakes of Killarney, the Lakes of Cumberland, and the head waters of the Supquehanna, he said that he wonderel whether the actors were worthy of the scenery, because in great scenic pieces they were not always so. He had seen the Sydney public, 1,500 a night since he had been hero, and should have seen 30,000 of them before his season closed ; and he could say that the reputation he had heard of them in New York and London was de°erved — that they were the most critical, delicate, and appreciative of audiences. Yet they were most generous, and he could say that he had done his best to please them. (Applause.) The reception he had met with in the theatre had culminated here, and this reception would never be forgotten by him. (Hear, hear.) When he first came to Australia he was struck by the evidences of level prosperity here, and by the absence of beggars ; and he had found that the principal explorers had been Irishmen, and that in the Legislature, at the bar, and in other posts of trust and honour Irishmen were to be found. They fled from their native country because there was no hope and no scope for them in it They left Ireland despaining, but when they entered Sydney harbour they saw there as it were, the inscription, "All ye who enterhereleavedespair behind." (Applause.) And it was the same thing in America The Irish American citizens had the same feelings and the same liberty as his hearers ha i. The fanatical crowd who had caused such excitement lately were but a drop in the bucket, and could not be considered with the Irishmen who were loyal and true During his stay in America,' from the Chief Justice of "New York, Mr Daley, to the Bonanza King of San Francisco, Mr Mackay, he had met with Irishmen in every position, and he could speak of the benefit to them of self-government— (applause)— or, as he was gointr to say, "Home Rule." (Loud and continued applause). He would recount to them a little anecdote illustrative of the relations between England and Ireland When he was in Paris, 30 years ago, a hatter named Gay, whose shop was in the Rue de Vivienne, used to take the shape of his customers' heads and try to fit customers from the sizes recorded in a large album ; but this would not do, any more than English hats would fit Irish heads. In crossing from New York to San Francisco he noticed one remarkable circumstance, and that was that no policeman or soldier was necessary to keep that great people of 55 millions in order. They were kept orderly by their innate respect for their own laws, as was the caee in Sydney and Melbourne ; whereas in France and Germany he saw nothing but men in uniform and numerous members of the gendarmerie. England eeemed to always possess the ambition of being a European nation, but he thought geographically that shebelongedtoa group of islands off Europe. She had always aspired to preserve the balance of powers, and h**d wasted millions and millions upon it ; she had poured out her blood like water ; and the only result had been the unification of Germany. Bis marck, if he would but speak, would say, " Why turn your face to us in the East, where we bate you, instead of turning to the West, where, in America and Australia, you have English-speaking races? Why not make a federal union of English-speak-ing races ?" There should be two or three Pacific cables and several good lines of steamers, to bind the English-speaking races together by their commercial interest —a league of 100 millions of English-speak-ing people. If there were a war, what would become of the Australian telegraph wires, which would cross tho territory of half-a-dozen hostile nations. Would they not be cut up 1 Of course they would. But if the Australians had a line across the American Continent it would never be stopped, because war between us and the American nation was impossible. (Applause). He thought that such a scheme as this was practical and inevitable. In his wanderings over the world he had found Irishmen everywhere, for the sun never pet upon the brogue of his native land. He wished all his hearers increase and prosperity, and that their children and children's children would perpetuate the Irish name. (Loud applause).

Dr. Hocken, the enthusiastic student of early colonial history, is at present on a visit to Auckland, The Lyttelton "Times" office is now ighted by electricity.