Pen and Ink Portraits

Observer, Volume 2, Issue 28, 26 March 1881, Page 292

Pen and Ink Portraits

No. 16.— Me. Waj/tkk Woods Johnston. Ay'iikn you sit down to sketch the new Postmaster you find yourself confronted by the fact that there is little to sketch. You have any quantity of colours to mix. You have your brushes beside you unused, and your pal ate fresh cleaned, but the trouble is, that the brick in the human building you are called upon to depict, so closely resembles all other bricks in the edifice, that it seems scarcely worth while the painting-. When, however, you o\ize for any length of time on the commonest object your powers of vision become confused. .Strange unrealities iloat and flash before the eye, the blade of grass assumes the proportions of a tree, and the insect, floating in the Avatcr, the magnitude of a whale, in some such a manner must Ministers have looked at Mr. Walter Woods Johnston when they ottered him a portfolio. It _is true that they were somewhat restricted in their choice, because few people would have anything to do with them. It is true that Mr. Hurst would, but Header Wood would not. in the same manner Mr. button, of Napier, wo aid have liked the billet of Native Minister amazingly ; he would indeed have done any thing he was ordered to do ; but neither Captain liusscll nor Mr. Ormond would take a portfolio. The Wellington Pout got howling for a Wellington man, and got one of their own customers, and nothing could have suited the Pout better. The Wellington evening paper would run Judas Iscariot for a bishopric, or Joe Saunders, the Wellington nightman, for the mayoralty if they advertised well in its columns. So potent is the power of money, and the lack of principle in the Empire City." Mr. Walter Johnston, as he is popularly called, belongs to a family of 'Wellington commercial men. Whether the term merchant can be properly given to them is simply a matter or a sense of the propriety of the user. His family have been so long resident in Wellington that they have become identified with its earliest mercantile traditions. It would be an error in statement to affirm that they have been a popular family. 80 early were they settled in the Empire City that the'question arises, which cannot be solved without enquiring whether the subject of our sketch came to Wellington in infantile clothes, or just saw the light within its boundaries. The matter, like however, the subject of our memoir, is unimportant. Within the city boundaries Mr. Johnston was brought up and educated. What he has learned about public life he has there learned; what public men he has been brought into contact with has been, speaking in metaphor, within its gates. What ho knows of politics and aught else he has there been taught. Of the seething turmoil and political strife in other lands he is entirely ignorant, save what some writer or narrator may have told him. Of the oppression of class legislation, of its results, of the struggle for the existence of the poor, in other lands, he has only heard the far-oil' coho: — a something unpleasant to hear and think of. Forming a portion as it were of the crone cle la crane, of the parnan-a Wellington society, his family, and himself must needs belong to the respectable side in politics. That is when men suppose there is one side to be found more respectable than another. Mr. Walter Johnston entered Parliament as a member for Mauawatu, where the election took place prior to the session of 1576. His return to the Legislature Avas more through his wife's instrumentality than his own. He married one of the Goring' s it may be stated. He failed to understand the important fact that candidates for senatorial honours are expected to spend money. The making of money rather than the disbursing is the qualification of the Johnston family. Had not his wife come on the scene, his extreme economy would have insured his defeat. She interviewed electors, she opened the public houses and his purse, and carried her husband into the House on her feminine shoulders. Having 1 entered the doors of the Legislature, he made one or two carefully prepared, although short, speeches, on commercial and financial affairs. It was during the time when the Lower House and the country were under the spell of Vogelian finance. He was looked upon as a promising young man. He has since come to be regarded as one of those promising young men who never come to anything. They are known in every legislature throughout the ■world. They disappoint their friends, their constituents, and the public. They raise great expectations which are never fulfilled. As a rule he gives a silent vote — a vote, moreover, ■which his party cannot always depend upon. Beside these few commercial speeches, he has" made one on the education question, -whereon ■what reputation for political ability he possesses rests. It is among the unwritten legends of the legislature that this one speech -was prepared for him by Bishop Redwood. The present Postmaster, it mukt be known, belongs to the Roman Catholic Church. He is like the Premier, a known and stern Denominationalist, although like the Premier, he subordinates his religious convictions to the love of place. When he again contested the Manawatu seat at the last election, on the subject of religious education he was mute, beyond remarking to a chosen few that he could not allow his children to attend a (State school. His election at that time was also very doubtful. He would not have entered the House again had not the Grey party been anxious to keep out a more dangerous candidate. They ran a middle man to split the votes and to get Mr.

Jolinston elected. Mr. Sheehan had a land of regard for Mr. Jolinston through his being a brother Papist. His appointment in Wellington is only popular in the Press. Whatever the Wellington Press declares to he emphatically true may he regarded as being opposed to the wishes of the majority of the people. So true is this the case, that comments of such a kind are heard among the rank and file of the matchbox city. Although Mr. Johnston may be popular elsewhere, it is certain that his popularity is least ■where he is the best known. So true is this estimate of his character that he will find great difficulty in obtaining a seat at the next election, lie dare not stand for Wellington ; the ManaAvatu people will have nothing more to do with him ; and Taranaki seems his only place of refuge. He is reserved in manner and haughty in bearing. He is not a sociable man. The only eonlidence he inspires is in his commercial probity. His money and his wife alone placed him in Parliament. He speaks in a hesitating manner, with a stilted tone. His gesture is as awkward as his construction of sentences is unhappy. The wife would make a better servant of the Crown than the husband.

KONEKE,