The New Zealand Graphic AND LADIES' JOURNAL. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1890.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 47, 22 November 1890, Page 10

The New Zealand Graphic AND LADIES' JOURNAL. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1890.

The case of Burchall. which has recently been decided in Canala, shows in lurid colours the ever-present existence of tragedy and romance in what appears to us present actors a mere commonplace work-a-lay world. Carlyle remarks that no age appears romantic to itself. Everywhere the tendency is noticeable to look back into the past in search of subjects to excite the imagination. Even when the subject is a contemporary one we like it all the better because the scene is cast afar off in regions of which we know nothing, and where the actors and their surroundings assume a distorted grandeur through the mists of the over-stimulated faculty of fancy.

Nowhere in the pages of narrative which smacks of the horrible could a more notable leaf be found than this one culled from the criminal calendar of our own day, describing the conspiracy to lure young men from their homes, and. under pretence of settling them comfortably in a new country, callously lead them to their death. It is, moreover, a deed which in its nature is calculated to impress the imaginations of English people more than any other. There is a novelty about the mode of proceedings, arising out of the new conditions of English social life, which gives it a peculiar stamp. The over-populated condition of the British Isles, together with the rapid increase of wealth there during the last fifty years, has created a large and well-educated middle class, the parents of which are at a complete loss to know what to do with their numerous progeny. If population continues to increase on a given surface, the average scale of living must decline, or the excess must swarm elsewhere.

For the last two hundred years, with the influx of wealth from her tributary and dependent lands. Britain has been making a return to the waste and uncultivated places of the earth in the form of her own flesh and blood. But until within the last generation it was not the fashion for the better class of youth to emigrate. The difficulties of intercommunication had not sufficiently overcome distance, nor did knowledge of distant countries get diffused with the facility we see at present. The notion, though in a great degree a mistaken one, even in those more primitive days, was that emigration meant not only expatriation, but an existence of hardship and barbarism unutterable. This idea is, of course, in a great degree still current at home, but every year the press, particularly the illustrated press, is helping to dissipate the delusion and impress upon the minds of English people a sense of the practical propinquity and habitableness of land hitherto supposed to be fit onlv for savages or the offscourings of civilised society.

That emigration is to a great extent a process of mentalcorrection and disillusionment, and that multitudes go forth, some to death, some to disaster, and a few to eminent success, intoxicating those who resolutely shut their eves to statistics, is true. Every year there comeson in the British Isles a fresh crop of humanity who have to find an outlet in the sphere of the practical activities of the world. Amongthe lower classes, without any accumulated wealth, girls as well as boys have to put their pride in their {rocket ami go forth to partake of the rough rubs of life which rapidly abrade from it the glamour and fastidiousness begotten by comfortable seclusion. The children of the well-to-do classes above them make a sort of compromise with necessity. If they are well off the daughters settle down quietly into their own class, or spend their life in aspiring to climb the superincumbent heavens of the social empyrean by way of satisfying the ambition that is in them. The sons being supposed more

capable of taking a mud-bath with impunity than their sisters, are encouraged to a wider flight into the devious and often miry ways of law. medicine, commerce, farming, or that labyrinth of varied experiences known by the vague appellation of ‘ emigration.’ Of late years the number of young men with some expectations has been increasing, and there is no colony of which the ‘ society ’ ladies do not periodically enjoy the sensation of the advent of a new-chum of this order. In many cases he has come out with the laudable ambition of sacrificing his modest capital in the development of the agricultural interest of the British colonies, and he is usually successful in accomplishing the first half of the programme. Sometimes, too, the colonial girl proves more than a match for his greater prevision, and he having been dexterously hypnotised, awakes to find himself, like Samson, hopelessly enclosed by Delilah and her auxiliary Philistines. Then his locks are shorn, and he settles down, and the old country knows of him no more, except perhaps by an occasional report that his olive-branches are expanding luxuriantly, and that he seems to be continually shifting bis domicile to places of strange and unpronounceable names.

Poor Benwell, the central figure of the recent tragedy in Canada, was one of this type of young Englishmen, whom Burchall and his wife snapped up before the Canadian ladies could get at him. The English press teems with advertisements thrown out by such men a* Burchall to catch unwary parents and induce them to invest capital in the purchase of worthless farming land, or in settling their sons with persons who generally allow the neophyte to pursue game, and * mash ’ all the available girls until his ready cash is exhausted. It is the old swindle of ‘ Eden ’ which was perpetrated on Martin Chuzzlewit and Mark Tapley, only in this case the ‘ shark’ is of a genteel Thackerayan stamp, and operates upon pronouncedly refined lines. He insinuates himself by means

unimpeachable references, and baits his hook with the charms of woman and the attractions of a falsely represented life supposed to combine the profits of hard labour with the easy existence of a country gentleman. The whole complexion of the tragedy is characteristic of the present conditions of English society, and it cannot fail to make a great and possibly wholesome impression on those who squander the prospects of their offspring with the easy imbecility peculiar to those who habitually dwell in a fool's paradise.

A suggestion has been thrown out that the enterprising spirits who go fishing in the troubled and deceptive waters of the mining market should hive given the n some security of certain information. To one who watches the operations of the speculators in mining stock it is a cause for perpetual wonder to note how complacently people are content to invest their capital in a mine of which some two or three persons have a knowledge of the most slender nature, and everybody else can have absolutely none. In nearly all cases investors are at the mercy of the managerand his friends, whose temptation to do a stroke on their own account in the market mayever he suspected as a possible reason for influencing the information they communicate. As for the general mass of investors, a long experience of the vicissitudes of the sharemarket only intensifies the feeling of wonder at the credulity of mankind, and the certainty with which they jump at conclusions and back their opinions upon evidence which has in it no element of certainty, and in many cases is nought but a windy accretion of belief arising out of vaju repetition. In nothing is there a greater tendency to rely upon idle rumour or to accept with increased faith the grossly-inflated reports which the believer himself was originally instrumental in giving a sort of currency. The notion of having a manager appointed by the Government to report periodically on the condition of the mines of a goldfield, is one which the Government should have practically carried out long ago, and would do much to generate confidence where everything is at present uncertain and open to suspicion.

The Auckland amateurs, following in the wake of those at Wellington, have just concluded a very successful representation of Gilbert and Sullivan's ‘ Sorcerer,’ extending over six evenings. Judging by the critiques of the daily press, perfection is in the main outdone, and mediocrity seeks a back seat. To take exception to any performance of local

singers anywhere in New Zealand is rank blasphemy. That sort of thing is reserved for professionals. This is peculiar to all the towns. As Macaulay says of the sycophants of the Restoration period, they transferred their eulogies, little the worse for wear, from Cromwell to Charles 11., and everybody was delighted and the adulators compensated. Similarly, by a little dexterous manipulation of names, the musical criticisms of one local opera company could, like some patent adaptibie garment, be made to do duty in another place, and nobody would be a penny the wiser or notice the incongruity. On the other hand, while the press is so uniformly complimentary (except where there is perhaps a private end to be served), the public, on the other hand, is ridiculously patronising. • Very good for amateurs,' is the common phrase uttered by persons who either desire to look wiser than they are, or who fear that they may be jumped upon by others of higher-soaring proclivities. Possibly the press critics themselves may talk like this in private. Such is the sincerity of society.

M ith reference to the performance of the ‘ Sorcerer ’ in Auckland, as is the case with most others where many persons are concerned, it was of mingled merit, but in its entirety thoroughly enjoyable. Like many an old friend, the operetta has been presented by the management with unnecessary apologies for its re appearance, and should the financial results not tally with expectations, it will, no doubt, be attributed to the selection of an exhausted subject But we venture to think that ‘ The Sorcerer’ is, with ‘ The Mikado,’ the one or the Gilbert and Sullivan lamily which will wear the best It is not so funny as the ‘ Mikado,’ nor so picturesque as the others of its congeners, but the merit of the music and of the dialogue is sound and even throughout, and the subject is rural and idyllic, and not so dependent upon the vicissitudes of fashion or locality as are ‘ Patience ’or ‘ lolanthe.’ So long as the passion of love exists, and the ways of the pushing canvasser remain the same, so long will the effects of the love-philtre and the assurance of -John Wellington M ells be intelligible and entertaining.

I" alluding to that impudent and amusing personage, the

..ne of Mr Archdale Tayler naturally suggests itself. He was the Hamlet of the piece, and what with his most excellent acting and his capacities for stage management, to him the lion’s share of the credit ought to appertain. The incantation scene is the most delightful parody of the romantic opera ‘Der Freischutz and the funniest of all the ridiculous situations devised by these twin masters of decorous satire. Mr Chamlvers, too. and Herr Schmitt in their respective roles, must be congratulated. As an actor Mr Chambers shone conspicuously, and with Messrs Tayler Hamerton, and Dnfaur, served' to put what there was of snap into the performance. Histrionically and vocally Mr Dufaur reached a fine average. His voice was impressive and true, and his acting intelligent and refined The one objection possible was to his make-up, which seemed more characteristic of the soldier who had l>eaten his sword into a church service than of a moss-grown country parson Mr Jacksons pleasing voice moved somewhat unequally throngh the performances, giving the impression that it was not sufficiently husbanded during the dav, but was sufleriiro from fatigue. Its absence, however, would have created a noticeable blank. What little Mr Hamerton had to do he did well.

Outside the male principals little can be said, for here the weakness which made the performance contrast unfavourably with a professional one, appeared. In truth the exponents were rather too immature. It takes a very mature woman to act a girl’s part realistically and freshness is no substitute for histrionic and vocal efficiency. This, nevertheless, produced no effect in diminishing the Niagara of floral tributes. With respect to the mounting of the piece, the training, sinking and acting of the chorus, no fault can be reasonably found.' They reflect great credit upon the management, and exceed what we usually receive at the hands and voices of traveliin' r comp>anies. °