He is a model of urbanity and discretion, and Ministers like him so well that they will be induced to father his road beautification schemes, even when they scarcely know where the money is to come from (1).
Carlo Catani is a most interesting companion on a long train or motor trip and in the bush. Incidentally he uses his conversational prestige to push forward his beneficent schemes for the making of beauty spots, good roads, new harbors and what not (2).
I have found three references to his skills as a linguist in English and Italian.
In October 1908, Carlo organised a trip to Mount Buffalo for the Premier, the Minister for Lands, the Surveyor General and various Government other officials. The Ovens and Murray Advertiser reported on the trip, the efficiency of Carlo's organisational skills and at the end his perfect English. The relevant section of the article is transcribed, below.
Carlo's organization skills and perfect grammar praised.
Ovens & Murray Advertiser October 24, 1908 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/198714716#
To Mr. Catani, however, of the Public Works Department, is to be ascribed the principal praise. Not satisfied with constructing the road he organised the trip, and through himself and his assistants he apparently provided for every possible want. To house and feed 40 or 50 rather sybaritish individuals on the top of a bare rock 5000 feet up in the clouds, amid the snow, is no mean task; but he did it, and did it admirably. His own chief, Mr. Davidson, did not scruple to say that no man but Mr. Catani could have managed the thing so well; and in his efforts he was excellently seconded by his lieutenants, Messrs. Clauser (3) and McCormick. Just as a further taste of his quality, Mr. Catani gave a lesson to his guests by making the only absolutely grammatical speeches delivered during the trip, and so still further surprising the party (4).
The report the next day of the meeting was in The Argus and headlined - A Polyglot appeal: Speeches by Allies' Subjects -
Heralded by the band playing the Belgian National Anthem, Monsieur C. Costerman, speaking in French, drew a harrowing picture of the sufferings of his countrymen. Then came a speech in Italian by Signor Catani. Those of his countrymen who had found a home in Australia had, he said, a double duty. As Australians they should give their last shilling; as Italians they should sell their innermost garment to provide funds to carry on the war. Monsieur E. Napoleon Boffard, representing France, gave as an excuse for speaking in English that he had forgotten French. The French peasants, he said, had taken their hoarded-up gold to the Treasury. "You have taken our husbands, you have taken our sons", the women said, "take our gold also, we want France to win." Monsieur Boffard concluded with a powerful appeal to his countrymen to do their duty (5).
There are two references I found to Carlo speaking Italian in public. The first was at meeting held at the Melbourne Town Hall on July 31, 1916 the purpose of which was to convince people who were from Allied Nations to subscribe to the War Loan. This included Russians, French, Belgians, Italians, Servians (apparently a former word for Serbian) and the Japanese. As a matter of interest, this meeting took place two days after his son, Enrico, was Killed in Action in France, but Carlo was at the time unaware of his son's demise.
Advertisement for the meeting, where Carlo was a guest speaker.
The Argus July 31, 1916 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/1630281
The report the next day of the meeting was in The Argus and headlined - A Polyglot appeal: Speeches by Allies' Subjects -
Heralded by the band playing the Belgian National Anthem, Monsieur C. Costerman, speaking in French, drew a harrowing picture of the sufferings of his countrymen. Then came a speech in Italian by Signor Catani. Those of his countrymen who had found a home in Australia had, he said, a double duty. As Australians they should give their last shilling; as Italians they should sell their innermost garment to provide funds to carry on the war. Monsieur E. Napoleon Boffard, representing France, gave as an excuse for speaking in English that he had forgotten French. The French peasants, he said, had taken their hoarded-up gold to the Treasury. "You have taken our husbands, you have taken our sons", the women said, "take our gold also, we want France to win." Monsieur Boffard concluded with a powerful appeal to his countrymen to do their duty (5).
The fact that the speakers were addressing the audience in languages other than English was apparently unusual and The Age advertised the meeting as a Meeting of Allies: Novel gathering at Town Hall (6).
The other reference I can find to Carlo speaking Italian was on his first day as a Magistrate at the St Kilda Court, which was on May 15, 1917. At the hearing Giacomo Rando was charged with having, on April 21, acted contrary to the regulations made by the Board of Public Health, under the Health Acts (for securing cleanliness and freedom from contamination of articles of food), to wit, bananas and apples, by storing them in places where things were kept which were likely to contaminate such articles of food or injuriously affect their wholesomeness or cleanliness (7).
The report in the Prahran Chronicle continued with Defendant (in his native tongue) was asked by Mr. Catani, J.P., as to whether there was a child's cot near the fruit and defendant replied that he did not know whether there was or not. The Court found that apples were stored in the bathroom covered with old bags and rags and a case of bananas were covered with rags. Mr Rando was found guilty and fined £3 (8).
We will return to Table Talk for another tribute to Carlo and his communication skills -
Probably he was able to do so much with the slow-moving civil servants around him because he was blessed with unusual vigor himself, and could paint a rosy scheme in treble languages. He was about the best story-teller the department ever had (9). Treble languages - English, Italian what would his other language be? Possibly French. His brother Ugo Catani, attended a meeting in 1890 to establish a branch of the L'Alliance Francaise in Melbourne. Ugo was one of the entertainers and all the vocal and instrumental music were the compositions of the best French composers and all the conversation was in French (10), which suggests that Ugo spoke French, so it is possible that Carlo did as well.
Trove List
I have created a short list of articles on Carlo and his linguistic skills on Trove, access it here.
(1) Table Talk, February 15, 1912, see here.
(2) Table Talk, September 11, 1913, see here.
(3) This is George Clowser, read about him here https://carlocatani.blogspot.com/2019/07/mr-clowser.html
(4) Ovens and Murray Advertiser, October 24, 1908, see here.
(5) The Argus, August 1, 1916, see here.
(6) The Age, July 31, 1916, see here.
(7) Prahran Chronicle, May 19, 1917, see here.
(8) Prahran Chronicle, May 19, 1917, see here.
(9) Table Talk, May 3, 1917, see here.
(10) Australasian, August 2, 1890, see here.
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