1859 - Fuller, F. Five Years' Residence in New Zealand - CHAPTER II. TO BECOME A COLONIST DOES NOT FORFEIT SOCIAL RANK

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CHAPTER II.

TO BECOME A COLONIST DOES NOT FORFEIT SOCIAL RANK OR POSITION.

THE great bulk of mankind are brought up in employments more or less connected with trading or producing occupations, and to such it is not necessary to address arguments on the relative dignity of such employments. But many thousands are brought up to follow public and other services, where great prejudices are entertained to the occupations of a colonist, and these may be met by relating the history of some who have left their ranks and become colonists. For many may be met whose previous histories, in the Old World, were attended with very painful circumstances, sufficient sometimes almost to obscure their perceptive faculties: but the same persons, in following their new employments, in their new homes, amid new scenes, and enjoying a healthier climate, have renovated their constitutions, and obtained that return of mental and bodily health.

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which has enabled them again to enter with pleasure on the ordinary business of life. There exists a much larger proportion of employers of labour who have retired from professional life in a new colony than is met with in an old settled country, and among them there is not the same regard for amassing pecuniary wealth, that exists among those who have been brought up solely to the pursuits of commerce. Such persons sometimes freely relate their previous histories to encourage others who they deem to be desponding on the success of their new avocations, or when they desire to establish greater confidence with their neighbours.

The relation of misfortunes may appear to be a futile mode of recommending a colony to those who have been always possessed of ease and competence, and have lived but to think of their own pleasures; but when persons are about to embark in consequence of misfortunes for a new colony, it is satisfactory for them to hear something, directly or indirectly, of the previous life of those who are to be among their new neighbours. Timid persons, untrained to business, often accept disparaging accounts from the colonies, and deem that the evil related of some characters who go to them, represents the general character of all in them, and they use these representations to deter such of their acquaintance, whom they wish to remain in England, from joining their friends in a colony, when meditating to go there. It is not, therefore, unreasonable for colonists to relate stories of an opposite nature, in order to counteract these representations. For it is not by remaining quietly in the colony, encouraging effeminacy, and allowing their acquaintance in the United Kingdom to suppose they cannot improve their circumstances by

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going out to them, or concealing from them that serious troubles arise in the management of their institutions, that colonists can hope to increase the population of their neighbourhoods; and when a colonist feels he is speaking with perfect truthfulness, he knows he is only doing a duty, both to the old country and the new one, whatever timid or interested persons may think to the contrary.

A story is therefore related which may interest those who look for character in those they contemplate for their new neighbours, though it may appear of little moment to those who read of a new country only to learn what advantages it presents in a pecuniary point of view. While those who are placed in circumstances of ease and comfort, never having themselves undergone privations or disappointments, may in time learn that the relation of melancholy matters does not turn, from considering the subject of colonization, any suffering under adversity or affliction: for those who have mixed in the society of a young colony know that many are driven only by the recurrence of repeated disappointments, during their former lives, to undertake that step, and that to persons in those circumstances it is of interest to learn that others have also formerly had melancholy periods in their lives, and have recovered health and spirits by their sojourn in the new country. ---There are others, again, willing to make the endeavour to transport themselves, but who are deterred by considerations of deteriorating from their personal dignity or self-importance by following the occupations of a colonial life: these also may be glad to hear that others have had similar scruples laid before them, and have heartily rejoiced on laying them aside. The following story

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may therefore be related, as one among many eventful histories of a previous life that may be met with in a young colony.

Being one of a family who could look back on their grandfathers and great and great-great-grandfathers as having been general officers in the army, the subject of the story was born in the barrack-square, and had accustomed himself to look on the army as a profession honourable above all others, and that unless it were maintained so, the institution became intolerable to the country at large. In the days of his boyhood his father commanded a regiment, which he maintained in the highest state of discipline, and, though very strict, was highly beloved and very popular in it. The son witnessed a very affectionate leave-taking on the part of his parent from the regiment; for the old colonel cried like a child as he walked up and down the ranks, shaking hands with every man in it, and bidding them adieu. The parent left the army because he had a large family, and considered that when he was on foreign service their education could not be properly attended to: moreover, he knew that the price of his commission would be most serviceable to him in starting his family out in the world. The son followed the profession of his father, and entered the same regiment; but his career in it became a melancholy one. For an uncle succeeded his father in command of the regiment, who had a small family, but, unfortunately for him, a wife who did not possess the requisite ideas for supporting her position with dignity and respect, having come from a position in life lower than that of her husband. The uncle's intellect was weakened, and became ultimately worn out, in the

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course of long service in hot climates, and it became necessary for the department of public service charged with the supervision of the army to remove him from the command. The mode in which this was done was thought to have been a rather harsh treatment towards an old man, who for nearly forty years had stuck to his regiment in every quarter of the globe they had been sent to, and it proved a shock to him his weakened intellect could ill sustain. But it is well known that the moving out or disposal of old officers of the crown who are no longer able to serve, has always been a general difficulty attending the administration of the public offices of the country: nevertheless, this is no reason for advancing men deficient in tact and judgment to high posts in their offices requiring the exercise of those qualities; for there are frequently painful duties of this nature to be performed.

However, in this case, according to an old rule seldom departed from at the Horse Guards, the promotion was not given in the regiment, but a stranger was brought in to command it. Now this was not a man who possessed any claim to promotion on the ground of previous meritorious services; but report said, in reply to all inquiries concerning him, that a constant attendance on the levees at the Horse Guards was his only recommendation, and that he appeared to be but one of those place-hunters with which all the public offices of the country are more or less attended. He proved to be a man so destitute of the feelings that ought to actuate those exercising such responsible commands, that his officers made it their business to have as little to do with him as possible. His habit of boasting deprived him of the benefit of confidence in his word; and so

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irritating and offensive was his demeanour, that the newspapers frequently indulged in satirical comments upon his proceedings. He aimed at establishing a reputation as a martinet, but failed in obtaining for himself the slightest respect or confidence. Jack Brag was his sobriquet, and for several years the regiment was under this tormentor.

Now the mere martinet is a man of very narrow mind, and his sphere of enjoyment is greatly curtailed, because his fancied pleasures, arising from the idea of ruling those under him solely on the low principle of fear, are greatly interrupted by the knowledge that his power will not always last, and that those who have suffered injustice at his hands may one day have the power of retaliating. Any appearance of dislike displayed towards himself, therefore, by those under his command is often keenly felt by him, when others actuated and ruling with higher motives can easily witness such displays without feeling annoyed by them. It is truly observed that many persons, when placed in command of any body of men, be it a regiment, a ship, or any of the humbler occupations of civil life, can carry on efficiently and strictly the work appointed for them to do, and still secure the respect of those below them; while some, possessed of narrower minds, unable to appreciate the wants of others, and being destitute themselves of the finer feelings of our nature, are unable to understand how others regard them; and also, sometimes, by possessing an overweening confidence in their own importance, cannot conduct a duty without bringing themselves so prominently forward in it, that they convey their orders, even on trivial subjects, in a manner that gives offence to those who receive them.

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But officers in the army are drawn from a class who require qualities other than those which distinguish the mere drill-serjeant, to be exhibited in those who are appointed to command them.

Meantime the son above spoken of continued in the regiment towards which his feelings lay, hoping every year that the next would remove the incubus that sat upon it. He kept therefore rather retired, and being of a reading turn of mind, went to the senior department of Sandhurst College, to prepare himself better for advancement in his profession: but in those times it was very difficult to get an exchange to a regiment on active service, and to employment on the Staff it appeared still more difficult to get appointed. But in this latter service it was of great importance to him that he should be employed, because he was unable to purchase the next step of promotion in his regiment; but by being appointed to the Staff, he could hope in a few years to save the money he required for purchasing his next step. However, all endeavours made in that direction he found to be met by insuperable difficulties. Often did he wonder at the course of providence in so ordering his lot to him, but knew in good time the cause would be made known to him.

At length, some years after this son had been a Captain in his regiment, it became necessary for him to report himself personally, after a return from foreign service, at the Horse Guards, when it appeared to him that a certain head of a department therein took exception to him, on the ground of a defect in his speech, and he was referred to another department to see what was thought of him there, preparatory to other steps being taken to cause him to leave the army, and this

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occasioned a violent shock to an earnest mind accustomed to regard his profession with enthusiasm. It was truly a time to feel how certain minds can be tempted to seek their satisfaction on the man who has robbed them of the long-cherished hope and desire of their lives; and, by depriving him of life, by a deed of violence, in some conspicuous position, would hope to call attention to their wrong; while the individuals themselves would cheerfully give up their own life, then no longer considered of value to their possessor, to satisfy the laws of their country, only hoping that by doing so they had called attention to their wrong. The feelings that work in many minds, brought up in military service, pay a far less regard to the value of human life than persons in civil life generally suppose. But that it is of the highest importance to a Government to maintain a confidence, in the nation at large, of a sense of justice in the administration of their public services, is well exemplified in the circumstances of a late revolution in a neighbouring nation on the European continent, where in common opinion the administration of the reigning Sovereign was identified with intrigue and injustice; for the secretary of the Prime Minister had been convicted before the Chamber of Peers of receiving bribes, and had received in consequence a sentence of imprisonment. When, therefore, the nation rose to expel the Government, though 80,000 troops were concentrated in the capital, it is related that scarcely a shot was fired to defend the Court that was being expelled.

But, returning to our story, it may be mentioned that the head of a department referred to was an individual generally spoken of in the service with the prefix of

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"bully" to his surname. And his style may be gathered when it is related of him, that on one occasion, when inspecting a depot of a regiment, the commander of it not giving his orders in a tone loud enough to please him, he ordered him to stand aside, and proceeded in stentorian tones to manoeuvre the men himself, in order to convey his ideas how he thought "words of command" ought to be given.

However, the colonel spoken of as "Jack Brag" was then in London, and conveyed to the hero of our story, that in an interview with the above head of a department, further exception had been taken to him on the ground of a correspondence that had taken place a few years before, wherein this captain had reported an officer, senior to him in the regiment, who was at the time in command of a detachment on board ship, as exhibiting himself, frequently, in a state of drunkenness, before the men. Now it is said to be an established rule at the offices superintending the naval and military services of the country, that a junior officer advancing a charge against a senior officer becomes a marked man in their departments. That is to say, he never receives assistance towards his promotion, but rather whatever obstruction can legally hinder it.

Now this rule, however good in some cases, may be grossly abused when the moral sense of justice is lost sight of in carrying it out. For it is generally considered among the older members of these professions that discipline, viz., the habit of ready, immediate obedience required in these services, cannot be maintained without this is known to be the established rule. It is supposed that mankind are so apt to complain, and find excuses for disobeying orders, if penalty is not attached to making

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complaints which are not substantiated, --that for the support of authority every allowance must be made, both for infirmity of temper and anxiety of mind in those placed in command. But younger members look upon this view as taken from one side of the question only; for they consider that they also have a conscience and feelings to be consulted, which require to be respected: and that if these are outraged by a conviction that justice is not to be obtained between them and their superiors; a change, and if necessary a revolution, in the laws of their offices, must be contended for, by those who have sufficient political power to obtain it; otherwise it is frequently preferred to leave these services, and retire to private life. There is a story of a general officer, at an inspection of a regiment, saying to a subaltern, who stepped out of the ranks to complain of his colonel, "Right or wrong, sir, I will support the commanding officer," and so dismissed his case. And it may be said to be a general conviction throughout these professions, that justice cannot be expected to be obtained when very old members in them adjudicate on cases of this nature brought before them.

To return to our story: our captain felt in his conscience that he had done his duty in this case that was under the consideration of Jack Brag and his superior.

The circumstances were as follows: --A major, a captain (he of our story), three subalterns, and an assistant surgeon, fresh from his larks as a medical student, were on board a merchant vessel at sea, with a detachment of their regiment for foreign service. The major was a confirmed hard drinker, and would endeavour to conduct duty when in a state not fit to do it. The captain, after trying other ways to keep him quiet, at

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last gave him a letter to be handed to higher authority at the termination of the voyage, reporting him as having exhibited himself frequently in a state of drunkenness before the men. This was done after a request from the junior officers for him to do something to stop the intolerable nuisances they were subject to in the cabin, by the major's intoxication, and the captain was thanked by them on board for the quieter demeanour he had brought about in the major. Upon arrival at their destination, an aged general, in command, called upon the captain to withdraw his letter, which was met by further explanations, and a Court of Enquiry was ordered to investigate the matter. Before the Court three of the junior officers stated they had never seen the major drunk on board the vessel, and one only stated he had seen the major drunk. With the kindest intentions possible, the aged general then closed the proceedings of the Court, (though above a hundred witnesses could have been called), and said the captain had advanced charges which he had not proved, and he desired the matter should be terminated.

But when the captain, in London, years afterwards, heard this affair was to be brought up to his disadvantage, he thought something detrimental to him might arise out of it, and he began to collect opinions regarding it. However, while so engaged, he found a state of mind had come over him, which he could in no way account for, but must conscientiously consider he was not mentally fit to continue performing any public duty. A mental cloud, a failing of faculties and energies, was upon him to an extent, he could not but feel, was a warning of Providence to desist from his then too exciting duties; and he was led to set about the work of em-

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igration, which reason had convinced him long before was the most likely field for recruiting his own finances and those of others in his family in whom he was interested. And he accordingly begins it. Now this feeling was not attributable to a fear that the divine Providence, superintending this world's affairs, had deserted him, for he could look back upon years spent in studying the Creator's laws, and steadily seeking him openly in ways pointed out; nevertheless, a feeling attended him that it was highly probable that circumstances with which he was acquainted would be opened to the judgment and opinions of men in his generation, though probably after some of the actors in them had passed from the stage; while for himself, at the time appointed in the course of Providence, the secret would be made known to him why a continual opposition had been shewn to his advancement in his profession.

In a melancholy mood, accordingly, he sent in his resignation. Soon after the captain saw, in the transference of the colonel to another command, the removal of the incubus that had so long sat upon his old regiment, as if he, the captain of this story, had been the Jonah who had caused it to be tormented.

He had been nearly two years in the Canterbury province, when he received letters from his family in England, stating that his uncle, who had formerly succeeded his father in command of the regiment, had died, and that the event had been an occasion for the two families to have met each other, for they had been previously long separated. The uncle's family had then acknowledged that one of his daughters had had a child born, not in wedlock, to an officer in the old regiment, that the intimacy took place soon after the uncle left

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the army, and that the officer was still in the regiment. How thankful must the mind of the now retired captain have been, at the ordering of Providence, that this was communicated to him at that distance of time and place; for he had known this cousin well once, and had regarded her tenderly, as a near relative unfortunately situated; but her own wilfulness had broken off all communication between them. He could not but feel that if this occurrence had been made known to him, when he was in the regiment, abruptly, and without his being prepared for it, he might have exhibited his anger too violently. A too concentrated regard for the opinions of others, in their own society, has frequently engendered violent manifestations of anger in the military ranks, when unmerited affronts have been received. Anti-duelling laws do not apply to cases like these. The feelings with which the master of a flock, on seeing a wild dog tearing his lambs, would seize the first stick or weapon at hand, and put it out of the power of the animal again to repeat the act, would rather describe the feelings which are excited in the minds of those brought up to hang their happiness upon the opinions of others, when they deem their dignity or their honour has been outraged.

But what must be the feelings of this retired officer towards his former companions? For some of them must have been aware of this occurrence, and for eight years they had allowed him to retain a highly unseemly position without giving him any intimation that there were circumstances in his uncle's family with which he ought to have made himself acquainted. Surely proper feeling demanded not only intimation but remonstrance on this unseemly position, from those senior to him in

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the regiment, particularly from those personally acquainted with his family. It was not a case to allow any doubt to remain on their minds, whether the son of their former respected colonel was acquainted with this circumstance or not, and it indicates a deficient estimate of Christian morality to suppose it becoming for any person to present himself in a public position before a Christian community after an occurrence of this nature, without first avowing his reprobation of it. The exercise of caution is necessary in making known unpleasant communications in any society of men; but when caution is carried into positive want of candour, loss of confidence precludes friendship in that society. False rules of conduct on this subject are encouraged in the army by the presence of Masonic lodges. Licentious characters may be seen to be screened in their public acts, by others who in private admonish their misdeeds, and this does practically encourage characters dangerous to the community, as was the case in this instance.

Now this is not an imaginary story, but one which public persons in the capacity of legislators might ascertain the truth of, by demanding the production of available documents and witnesses should a verification of any of its particulars be needful for the greater efficiency of the public service.

There exists a great aversion to colonization at the Antipodes among the upper circles of English society, connected with the governmental departments of the country, which proceeds from insufficient information on the subject, and unnecessary fears of losing their personal dignity when proceeding there; and also from the stories circulated by those who have been to a colony,

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and have not succeeded in it. For many persons retired from those services may be met, who are established as successful settlers; while the non-success of many may be fairly attributed to the habits of self-indulgence to which they have been accustomed from childhood; and that of others to a want of experience in business. Thus, many born in easy circumstances, are brought up with highly honourable ideas, incapable of deceiving or acting with intentions to over-reach other people, nevertheless are too much accustomed to regard others as being actuated with equal purity of motives as themselves. But if it is considered that, with the masses of mankind, life is a continuous struggle to push themselves upwards by any means the laws of the land permit: each person in business requires to view others as striving to do the best they can for themselves, in order to make money, or secure an independence for themselves by their trade. Persons, therefore, who are not accustomed to caution in their dealings with mankind, must generally be as liable to be over-reached or imposed upon in bargains, when commencing an industrial occupation in a new country, as they would have been when commencing in an old one. It is, therefore, to the absence of training in industrial pursuits that the want of progress of such individuals, when possessed of fair mental abilities, ought to be attributed when unsuccessful in a new colony, and not to a supposed want of moral tone in the community among whom they were placed. It becomes, therefore, unfair to attribute to this supposed want of tone the non-success of untrained persons, who frequently plunge too largely at first into a business without previous experience in the mode of conducting it. Want of mental ability has occasioned in

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other cases to young men a total loss of their capital, which ought not to have been entrusted to them to invest upon their own account, but rather a yearly allowance made them to live upon, until their friends were satisfied they had gained sufficient experience to be able to invest their money to advantage. There are doubtless other cases where an addiction to intemperance or other vices, from the lesser restraints imposed in colonial life, have encouraged persons to squander their money earlier than they would have done, had they remained under the parental roof. But these are not cases by which to judge of what industrious persons can do. And though these colonies often prove convenient to send out youths to, who happen to be eyesores to their friends at home, and who do no better when in the colony; yet, steady persons, inclined to persevere, from all ranks and stations in life have succeeded there, with only moderate attention to business. Our retired officer having resolved upon a new line of life in the colonies, on taking leave of his elder relatives, then in advanced years, was told, "My dear boy, in three years you will be in the condition of a labourer." But those who saw him in three years after his starting, with some sixty acres of land preparing for tillage, six horses upon his farm, and two teams of bullocks, with a dairy of twenty cows and young stock coming on, also knowing that he was in a fair way soon to possess the freehold of a few hundred acres of land, would not think him exactly in the condition of a day labourer. The same retired officer would also have addressed to him on leaving England, the observation: "Remember you are sinking yourself in position by leaving the army." But would he be sinking in his

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own estimation of himself? Would he have fallen in the estimation of his new acquaintances, or in that of the general public?

The Canterbury colony affords hundreds of examples of persons of gentle birth, who are contented with their prospects in the colony, and are not disposed to consider they have descended in position by becoming colonists. But the reader must not suppose that previous disappointments in life have attended all who start for a colony; for many visit the colonies who have not known previous disappointments or cares of any kind, but, being satisfied with the freer and more jovial, and independent style of life that prevails in it, are content to remain there. And many have retired, and are continuing to retire, from the receipt of good incomes in the United Kingdom, actuated solely with a view of settling their families, when they happen to be numerous. And also many more, as young men, who view the proceeding entirely as an ordinary calculation of business, affording them better prospects than they see before them in the United Kingdom. But this colony has now within it many of a high stamp of character, and still strict in maintaining that character whose antecedents will bear the most searching investigation. It becomes, therefore, the argument of foppishness, to contend that because some leave the United Kingdom yearly for her colonies, the United States, or other foreign dominions, under circumstances where their characters are seriously affected, and that colonies are often used as penal settlements: that it is therefore impossible in the present day to raise young communities where the general tone and the sense of individual character cannot be as strictly maintained as they are in the United Kingdom.

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On the contrary, the experience of every day, (and here facts ARE worth a thousand theories) testifies strongly to the permanent growth of new kingdoms, whose institutions, moral, social, political and religious, placed in their statute books, will hear comparison with the palmiest days of the mother country. The chaff does but test the wheat, and the latter bears the test.