Butler Left England For New Zealand In September, 1859, Remaining
In The Colony Until 1864.
A FIRST YEAR was published in 1863 in
Butler's name by his father, who contributed a short preface, stating
that the book was compiled from his son's journal and letters, with
extracts from two papers contributed to THE EAGLE, the magazine of St.
John's College, Cambridge.
These two papers had appeared in 1861 in the
form of three articles entitled "Our Emigrant" and signed "Cellarius."
By comparing these articles with the book as published by Butler's
father it is possible to arrive at some conclusion as to the amount of
editing to which Butler's prose was submitted. Some passages in the
articles do not appear in the book at all; others appear unaltered;
others again have been slightly doctored, apparently with the object of
robbing them of a certain youthful "cocksureness," which probably grated
upon the paternal nerves, but seems to me to create an atmosphere of an
engaging freshness which I miss in the edited version. So much of the
"Our Emigrant" articles is repeated in A FIRST YEAR almost if not quite
verbatim that it did not seem worth while to reprint the articles in
their entirety. I have, however, included in this collection one
extract from the latter which was not incorporated into A FIRST YEAR,
though it describes at greater length an incident referred to on p. 74.
From this extract, which I have called "Crossing the Rangitata," readers
will be able to see for themselves how fresh and spirited Butler's
original descriptions of his adventures were, and will probably regret
that he did not take the publication of A FIRST YEAR into his own hands,
instead of allowing his father to have a hand in it.
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