The New Zealand Graphic AND LADIES’ JOURNAL. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1890.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 44, 1 November 1890, Page 10

The New Zealand Graphic AND LADIES’ JOURNAL. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1890.

To a person brought up in the older communities of Europe the life and restlessness of the democratic off-shoots from that mother continent must impress itself upon all who have had any experience of them. The English-speaking communities—the children of the British Isles—present, of course, the most striking examples of this intellectual activity, they being by far the more numerous and most intelligent of the descendants of Europa. The whole population of New Zealand is only equal to that of the county of Devonshire, which is a third-rate one in England, while the extent of New Zealand is as great as that of England and Scotland combined. The four leading cities of New Zealand would rank as fifth-rate at Home, and there are sleepy county towns by the dozen in the English provinces about whom nobody ever troubles but their inhabitants—regular Little I’edlingtons—ranging from the size of Blenheim or New Plymouth to that of Napier or Nelson.

But the manner of life is very different, as all who have gone from a small colonial town to one of twice or three times the size at Home can testify. In the latter there is an amount of social inertness which in time proves depressing to the colonial accustomed to the freer movement of those places in which he has been reared or spent the better portion of his life. The wildest dissipation of the winter season in an English county town is a monthly penny-reading got up by the clergy. As for fancy dress balls, opera performances, or racing carnivals, such as are common in the lesser towns of New Zealand, these are not dreamt of except in the watering-places or garrison and university towns, where there is a considerable influx of extraneous ability and wealth from larger places. Indeed, all New Zealand is in some degree in a similar position to these gayer and brighter of the smaller towns at home, without the cramping influence exercised by the more marked division of classes in the old country. There what persons possess in the way of knowledge and refinement is far more confined to certain circles within which their social position compels them to move. In these colonies, so far, society has not crystallised in the same degree into sets. Culture and knowledge have not yet become markedly isolated, and the general life, intelligence, and comportment preserves an average, which forms an agreeable mean between the supercilious exclusiveness of the wealthy an<T the rude familiarity of the more ignorant classes in England.

With the gentler breezes and the luxuriant growth of early grass, duly tempered by the mower, lawn tennis will -once more be engrossing the minds of men and women. What a boon to the gentler sex is this pastime of lawn tennis ! (lone for ever, one hopes, are the old-fashioned days when the recreations of women were purely sedentary, -or active exercise consisted at all events in that merest parody of it, the afternoon crawl with school-mistress or mamma. Is it surprising that such a system of deportment, dancing, and the use of the globes, varied by occasional intercourse with a brother or cousin of quite a fashionably intenqierate character, should have developed eighty years ago a bread-and-butter sort of woman with ■curiously lenient views on the subject of drunkenness in the other sex * The whole efforts of womenkind seem to have l>cen spent in making other younger women mere brainless toys, yearning for men, but quite incapable of permanently lidding them by the attraction which results from common sympathy.

It never seems to have occurred to the instructors of girls that when the period of childhood is over a woman has two characters to play in society—the character of a citizen and the character of a mother. It seems to have been considered sufficient to educate her brains up to the level of those of a nurse-girl or- a nursery-governess, and to trust entirely to her future husband—if she got one—for her views of the world outside her family circle. Consequently her mind was very imperfectly developed, and in general intercourse with men she was useless as a companion. Her effect on the world outside her own home was nauseating, and the tone of conversation of men wherever she intruded, though it may have gained somewhat in decorum (as did her own), fell intellectually into a bathos of complimentary drivel. Indeed, in most cases she ceased to retain her husband’s intellectual admiration ; he gradually dropped away into his own special pursuits, while she took refuge in. hen children, bringing them up just as her mother had previously brought up her children.

Now—that is within the last generation—it is gradually being recognised that if society is to advance and improve, the intellectual and physical capacities of the more numerous sex must be given freer play. Woman is no longer to be kept in a sort of Oriental tutelage, but is to be allowed more of the freedom of movement and liberty of self-de-velopment allowed to her brother. It is true that the old idols die slowly, especially in English communities ; but they are dying, and it is shown in a multitude of ways, and in none less than the increasing inclination of women towards open-air sports. Apparently there ate women of the older generation to whom the sight of a girl running in the field or rowing on the flood, getting her clothes all drawn awry and her face all sunburnt or freckled, is a very appalling spectacle—‘ unwomanly,’ ‘ quite unsexing herself, my dear,’ and all that sort of thing ad nauseam. But she is just as surely on the high road to capturing some man (that, apparently, being the chief end of woman) as if she were educated on the most rigid lines of ancient propriety, and it will be a great deal pleasanter for the quarry when she ’grips him.

What men desire in women is companionship. Every man—not brutalised—has some taste, and it is never so delightful to gratify it as in conjunction with a woman he likes, loves, or admires. It may be field sports, or literature, or art, or science, or music, or even medicine. We once knew a pretty young lady who was the idol of children, danced divinely, played the most classical music with ease, displayed to us (drying on her clothes-line) wonderful specimens of the human anatomy culled from the dissectingroom, and would make no bones about asking us to come down and take her to the theatre without her mother. At first, of course, we thought this combination dreadfully delicious, but it is wonderful how adaptible is human nature, and we ended by regarding that girl and others, less versatile but equally unrestrained by Mrs Grundy, as being just as charming as those amongst whom we were reared, and a great deal more capable and companionable.

The Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry, the only corps of the kind existent in the colony—that is purely a yeomanry corps—has just finished the annual seven days’ training. The camp was pitched on the grounds of the Agricultural and Pastoral Association, which are not only exceedingly spacious, but have every convenience in the shape of permanent buildings for mess-house, canteen, etc., and abundance of stabling for the horses. The Governor visited the ground, and has requested to be allowed to become Honorary Colonel of the corps. As Lord Onslow is an excellent j udge of horses, this is a high compliment to the Yeomanry, and they are correspondingly delighted. During the past six days the streets of the city have been enlivened by the scarlet coats of the Yeomanry, and at the various social gatherings the sombre black of ordinary dress clothes has had to play second fiddle to Britain’s red, more particularly in the ballroom. The training has been exceedingly successful, and Captain Coleman, the Government Cavalry Instructor, has expressed himself highly pleased at the work done. One of the first results of the Governor taking a prominent position in connection with the corps is the large accession of recruits. The annual session of the Diocesan Synod is in full swing, and Christchurch’s streets now swarm with clerical costumes

—a poor substitute, in the eyesot our girls, for the military swagger and glamour of uniforms. To many of the country clergy, more particularly those in remote parts, this annual session is looked forward to as a season of harmless dissipation of tea-meetings, lectures, and Cathedral services. No one, I am sure, will grudge the poorlypaid country parson the enjoyment once a year of a trip to town. If they could only go and have a hearty laugh at Mr J. L. Toole as Spriggins or Chawles they would go back to their ernes lighter hearted and none the worse. But that terrible female, Mrs Grundy, is in the way. The Bishop’s opening address has been universally admired. It is frank, free, and manly—just the character of the man—and is likely to be somewhat disturbing to the fossils of Episcopalianism who have been quietly dozing these many years under the quiet and mild paternal rule of the late Bishop. Bishop Julius, in addition to enumerating several changes for the better in the Church Constitution which he proposes, takes a broad, scholarly survey of the condition of the Church ’elsewhere in the world, which completely removes his address from the parish vestry kind of character which is usually their peculiarity. The loss to the Anglican Church of such preachers as Bishop Lightfoot and Canon Liddon is touched upon, as also the death of Cardinal Newman. The popularity generally of the Bishop, despite the few carpers at his recent sermon —outspoken and fearless as all his utterances are is strongly on the increase, and both Mrs Julius and himself have already won hosts of friends. The Bishop has enrolled himself as an active member of the Canterbury Rowing Club, and I am looking forward at no distant date to seeing him exchange that historical Bishop’s hat which went miles down the West Coast torrent during his recent visit for the orthodox boating cap.

A bequest something like the Costley bequest in Auckland though smaller in amount, has been made by an old colonist, Mr J. C. Moule, who died recently in Canterbury. He leaves an estate valued at some £35,000 to the Old Men’s Home at Ashburton, a somewhat neglected institution, by the way, as regards modernising the buildings.

In social matters, except the usual small and early dancing parties, we have been somewhat slow of late. By the way, speaking of dances there is a remarkable thing which Ido not know how to account for. It is that, charm she never so wisely, Materfamilias in Canterbury with a number of daughters or young friends cannot induce our jeunesse doree to come to dances. Like the famous Tenth Hussars, Canterbury young men do not dance. Hence, except on very rare occasions, the sides of the rooms are lined with representatives of that most objectionable flower in a ballroom—the Wallflower. Can you suggest a remedy, or send a detachment of Auckland boys to the rescue of our distressed damsels ? Of course, everyone is going to see Toole. Over two hundred seats booked in three hours four days before the opening night is a bit of a boom in matters theatrical, worthy of even the ‘ much-traveiled ’ R.S.S. himself.