WORKS OF SAMUEL BUTLER

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19451, 28 March 1933, Page 8

WORKS OF SAMUEL BUTLER

INTERESTING W.E.A. LECTURE. Samuel Butler has a staunch admirer in Mr C. H. Tripp, of Timaru, who has given a great deal of time to the study of the life and works of the wellknown author, who visited New Zealand between 1859 and 1864. Mr Tripp’s father was one of the early settlers in Canterbury, taking up land at the rear of the Rangitata river, and it was at the head of the Rangitata that Samuel Butler settled on his arrival in the Dominion from England. In an interesting address to members of the W.E.A. last night, Mr Tripp related incidents in the life of Butler while he was sheep-farming in Canterbury, and discussed passages from the writer's works. Mr Tripp said that Butler sailed from England for New Zealand on October Ist, 1859, and when he arrived at Christchurch he bought a horse and began a search for land on which to settle. By that time all the land on the Canterbury Plains was occupied, so Butler penetrated to the hills at the head of the Rangitata river. It was generally thought that the land there was unsuitable for sheep farming, but Butler took up some land up Forest Creek. In those days it was possible to buy land from the Government for 10/- an acre, and Butler purchased a 20-acre block and built himself a hut there. The speaker remarked that the land was still in Butler’s name, and a friend in England had written to him (Mr Tripp) in recent years to ascertain the possibility of effecting a sale. Butler found the place unsuitable, and later bought the freehold of another block occupied by a man named Oaten. The remains of the hut on the original block were still to be seen on the place. Mr Tripp said that with a surveyor, John Baker. Butler had tried to find a pass from the Rangitata to the West Coast, but had succeeded only in discovering one across to the Rakaia river. Later Butler had found the Whitcome Pass, but he had never crossed it. In “Erewhon” he imagined that he had gone through 4he pass, and on the other side found a new race of people. Butler called the place

“Erewhon,” which was “nowhere" reversed,. and the ideals of the people were diametrically opposed to those generally accepted at that time. A man suffering from a disease was locked up in gaol, but a man suffering from an attack of fraud or embezzlement was attended by his straightener or brain doctor. The passage was a satire on the judicial system of the day, and it was remarkable that at the present time judges and magistrates were inclined to be more lenient and to inquire into the mental condition of offenders. Butler had been the first man to bring that question before public notice. The speaker dealt at length with

“Erewhon,” and later quoted passages from “Erewhon Revisited,” in which Butler imagines that he goes back to the fantastic place and is deified. It was in that book that Butler visited the “Colleges of Unreason” at which “hypothetics” were taught. Mr Tripp explained that in his own school days the study of languages had been overstressed, and unless one were proficient in Latin and Greek the rest of one’s education suffered. Languages were not always essential in after life, but their importance was emphasised on the hypothesis that they might be. In “Erewhon Revisited,” Butler satirised the English education system in the form of “hyopthetics,” and occasionally attacked the Church. Although not altogether an unbeliever, he had peculiar views on the subject of religion. He was said to have remarked on one occasion that “an honest God is the finest creation ever made by man.”

Mr Tripp then touched on Butler’s “Way of All Flesh,” and “A First Year in Canterbury Settlement.” The former was a description of the writer’s own life, although it was carried further to give emphasis, and the hero was not identical with Butler. The speaker also discussed the ''Authoress of the dyssey,” in which Butler asserts that the “Odyssey” attributed to Homer was really written by a woman. On the motion of Mr P. W. Rule, the speaker was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.