FAMOUS MEN

Taranaki Daily News, 3 August 1935, Page 1 (Supplement)

FAMOUS MEN

-SAMUEL BUTLER

(By

M. Hood.)

Sir,—lt was with much pleasure and awakened memories I read Dr. S. C. Allen’s address to the members of tile New Zealand Libraries Association at Timaru in the Daily News on April 3. He said Canterbury was fortunate beyond any other of the provinces in having the privilege of sheltering for five years that remarkable literary genius, Samuel Butler. I should liked to have seen Mr. S. Percy Smith’s name included in New Plymouth’s claim. He was a Maori linguist, historian, founder of the Polynesian Society’s Journal, and a staunch friend of the Maori race. Another staunch friend of the Maoris was (Whitetere) Fitzgerald, who was also a friend of Samuel Butler, author of “Erewhon” and “Erewhon Revisited. It is recorded that no speech ever moved the House like Fitzgerald’s on the Maori question in 1862. When induced to take office in the Weld Ministry in 1865, he became Native Minister, and during the few months that Weld’s - Government lasted he introduced and carried that good measure, the “Native Rights Act which recognised the equal standing of the Maori race by providing that every person of that race bom within the colony should be deemed a natural born subject of the Crown. In many a vivid Press article also Fitzgerald had upheld the claims of the Native inhabitants upon the people who had come to civilise a bounty laden land. In looking over some old Press cuttings I have come across some very interesting references to Samuel Butler. The .two articles, on, which “Erewhon” was based will be read with interest by lovers of literature all over the world who have fallen under, the fascination of Butler’s writings. Butler was in his-, twenty-fifth year when, some years after leaving Cambridge and haying decided not to take Holy Orders, he landed at Lyttelton m 1860. He took up sheep farming in the upper Rangitata district, Canterbury, which forms to a large extent the scene of his brilliant satire. During his four and a half years’ residence in New Zealand he spent most of his time in Christchurch, forming there a friendship with J>uch witty and congenial spirits as J. E. Fitzgerald and J. Colbome-Veal, who at that time controlled the destinies of The Press. For some months Butler worked on the staff of the paper, and in 1863 contributed to it, under the signature of “Cellarius,” his letter headed “Darwin Among the Machines,” which ran into some three columns of print. In July, 1863, he contributed another article, “Lucubratio Ebria.” In his preface to the second edition, of “Erewhon” Butler states that “Darwin Among the Machines” formed the germ of the first of the satire; the second article is also woven into an important section of the book. Subsequently, when the author returned to England, he elaborated his theme, sending further articles to the home publication, and then it was suggested to him that he should string them together into a book. “Erewhon” was published in 1872 by Grant Richards, having first been declined by Chapman and Hall, on the advice of their reader, George Mereditn, who gave it as his opinion (in which Butler concurred) that it was too philosophical to appeal to the general reading public. It is unnecessary now to say how fallacious was this estimate of the capacity of the English public to appreciate what is really, good. By common consent “Erewhon” is now regarded as the keenest, and most brilliant satire since “Gulliver’s Travels.” Butler died in 1902. A year before his death he made up an analysis of the sale of his books. He found that he had actually paid out of his own pocket the sum of £1065 5s 3d for the privilege of placing his works before the public, for of his many books only one, “Erewhon Revisited,” had been published at a publisher’s expense, and the others, with the exception of “Erewhon,” had not earned the cost of production. When Butler made up his accounts in 1901, he found that he had sold 4000 copies of “Erewhon” at a profit of £69 3s lOd.

Now “Erewhon” is a classic, and has found its way into Dutch, German, French and Spanish. He was an indefatigable worker. He worked himself to death. He had an uncomfortable habit of verifying all references. “I do not mind lying,” he would say, “but I hate, inaccuracy.” Although the critics of his day laid him comfortably to rest he continues to come up again from time to time, very much alive, to enjoy unceasingly the only kind of immortality he wanted—to live in the thoughts and deeds of other men. -