Pen and Ink Portraits.

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 57, 15 October 1881, Page 72

Pen and Ink Portraits.

No. 28. — Vincent Pyke. The member for Dunstan came from, the West of England to Victoria in 1851 or 1852, and located himself at Castlemaine, earning a livelihood by keeping a store where calico and newspapers were retailed. It was hinted many years since by the Napier Telegraph that he supplemented the profits of his legitimate trade by vending illicit bottles of grog, but the insinuation was indignantly repelled by the honosrable gentleman, and according to Parliamentary usage his denial is entitled to credence. There was a dearth of public men in Victoria in the fifties, and Vincent went into public life. He found that public money was sweet as stolen water, or bread eaten in secret, and since that period of his life he has managed to obtain a fat living from the public purse. For thirty years he has been alternately a successful or a disappointed place-hunter. Providence has blessed him, as it did Hans Breitman, with teapots and spoons. Devoid of political principle, no dependence ever has been placed on his vote. And yet he has always voted straight. His eye was single for his own interests. He is made use of by those whom he seeks to utilize. Ministers think it a venial thing to break a pledge made to Vincent ; and the member for the Dunstan appears to have forgotten what Tacitus says of the Boman Emperors — " That the first of them who looked upon the public treasure as his own was Claudius, the weakest and most sottish of them all." Old time-honoured precepts after all can afford rules for guidance to men of modern times. When what is called responsible G-overnment was established in Victoria in 1855, at the first election of candidates for the Assembly, Mr Pyke stood for and was returned for Castlemaine. He contested the seat, if I remember aright, with a man called Chapman, described as an intelligent barber, who subsequently migrated with Pyke to Dunedin, and there contnraed his calling of cutting the hair of men, and combing and curling that of women. After Pyke had been in the Assembly some time his heart yearned to revisit his native land. His trip would be of course more pleasurable if he could make the visit at the public expense. To effect this purpose his enemies and detractors assert he became appointed one of two emigration commissioners — the other being one David Blair — to proceed to England to aid and regulate the emigration stream. With a confiding rashness unworthy of the man, Mr Pyke went to England before the money was voted to defray his expenses and salary, while Blair, possessed of a greater amount of control, remained b.eliind until the Outlay was sanctioned. Blair's prudence was wise, as the vote was struck out, and Pyke came back in an angry mood claiming compensation for the breach of faith. O'Shannassy told him if he could get some popular member to propose that compensation should be granted, that he would not oppose the grant. Don, who was known as the Collingwood stonemason, at that time kept a tobacconist's shop at the top of Bourke-street, opposite, I think, the Marlborough Hotel. Don moved that an address be presented to His Excellency praying that a sum should be placed on the Estimates to recoup Mr Pyke's cost, and, after some Parliamentary negotiation, a sum of £500 was voted in full payment of all demands. Then, for some reason which Pyke could never understand, there was a great difficulty in getting the money, which he wanted badly to defray his exSenses to New Zealand. Don again went to I'Shannassy, when the Treasurer was told to pay the money/ After its receipt Pyke visited Don and told him of the payment. Don, who was hard up, wanted to borrow £50 from Pyke, which was lent on the understanding that it was not expected to be repaid. Thinking over many of the varied stories in Pyke's career, always supposing their truthfulness, there seemed to be no single one so indicative of the main features of his character as this emigration episode. When lie was in Victoria he was in some manner, I forget how, connected with the mining department. The nature of the connection is immaterial. Pyke came to New Zealand in 1861, and Yogel having taken the control of the Otago Daily Times, through the influence of Cutten, made him Secretary for the Q-oldfields of Otago. Many of us remember the little office which Vincent occupied at the end of Jetty-street, where he could generally be found with a bottle of P.B. in a handy position. His hatred for Scotchmen was so intense that he preferred a permanent appointment in the Civil Service, where there were no losses of office through losses of Ministerial confidence. Hence he became a goldfields warden. It would be beyond the space at my disposal to give a Imndreth part of the stories I am familiar with of this portion of his career. The mining population overlooked his eccentricities for two reasons. He had a clear knowledge of mining law, and he • would drink with any miner who offered to shout. Some of his decisions provoked comment, but in only one instance that I remember with sufficient cause. His long connection with the goldfields has led him to regard himself as being the member for the goldfields. This equivocal honour was formerly contested on all occasions by Thomas Luther Shepherd, a lawyer's clerk who developed into a politician, and lately by Tuapeka Brown. Pyke's latent ambition has been to hold the office of Minister of Mines in this Colony, and he has never ceased to advocate the establishment of a mining portfolio. Tired with the routine of a Warden's life, and the monotony of cheap liquor, Pyke gave up his appointment and established a weekly newspaper called the Mercury. Not proving a success, it was taken over by the Ghiardian Company, established by Greorge McCulloch Beed, the Ghiardian being again absorbed by the Otago Daily Times. Pyke was not long out of employment. Counties were created in New Zealand, and he became the chairman of Vincent County at a salary of £300 or £400 a year. The recklessness of the finance of Vincent County has become proverbial. I should have said that before the abolition of Provincialism, he had become a member of the House of Representatives. Life seemed easy now to the professional place hunter. His honorarium, his County Chairmanship and his receipts from newspapers, provided him with an easy living, and one that appeared moreover sure. But the

Vincent County Council thought the Vincent County Chairman was overpaid, and the versatile subject of my portrait took the editorship of the Dunedin Morning Herald. Mr Vincent Pyke has written several small works, the most successful of which was his earliest venture called, "Wild Will Enderby." It is chiefly remarkable for its graphic description of scenery in the vicinity of Lake Wakatipu, and Pyke's old enemy and rival, Henry Manders, of Queenstone, asserts that the descriptions are taken verbatim almost from the pages of a well-known French author, a statement I have always attributed to envy. The most noticeable of his other productions is called the " Recreations of a County Chairman." You smell the flowers in the garden as you read its pages when the author moralises with a friend in the morning over the vanity of human hopes as he lovingly points out the beauty of a choice verbena, or glows with satisfaction as lie removes the matutinal cigor from his mouth, to inhale the sweeter fragrance of tho humble and lowly English violet. His literature, however, like his flowers, are only a short time in season when they pass away. Twice in a short time the vote of Pyke has been the one doubtful thiug in the fate of Ministers. He has voted on these occasions as the Vicar of Bray would have voted. Possessed of nmch ability, he might have done much good, but his head is not at clear at midnight as it is in the morning. He is as good an actor as he is an author. He would like to enjoy the power whicli integrity possesses in conjunction with the flesh pots of Egypt. His prudence seems to have passed away with his youth. He is constantly getting into scrapes in the House. It is hard to say how or why he has lived so well so long. He is jealous of another's superiority. He has forgotten how important a factor conduct is in life. His form and his vagaries are familiar in AVellington, and when his seat will know him no more most of his confreres will say and think think that they could have better spared a better man. Koneke.