INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
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FIVE YEARS' RESIDENCE
IN
NEW ZEALAND.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
The class of Families among the gentry from which our Colonists are mostly furnished--The Information they desire is different from that which is required by other Classes of the Nation--The purpose of the writer is to meet that Information, and to avoid subjects which have been entered on by previous writers--A distinctive Feature in the Canterbury Scheme of Colonization pronounced to have succeeded-- The general Plan of the Book.
AMONG the numerous gentry of the United Kingdom are some families who have been so long accustomed, generation after generation, to follow each one their predecessors in the several departments of the public service, civil, naval, or military, that they become a society in themselves, and acquire a tone of thought and feeling different from that of the nation at large. They have no knowledge of the value of trading or producing occupations, and in many cases, deem that their families sink in position if any of its members enter upon such occupations. Such families, however, generally find, after a few generations, that their private properties have seriously diminished, that their means are not equal to the station they traditionally claim, and that something must be done to improve their finan-
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cial status. These ideas are generally regarded, particularly by the thriving and energetic middle classes, as partaking more of the spirit of the middle ages than as being in accordance with the modern estimate of what constitutes the true wealth and greatness of nations. And yet such families exist likewise throughout the States of Europe. To all such States as border upon the sea, including the United Kingdom, colonies have for the last few centuries, presented a convenient opening for recruiting their finances. That is to say, the younger members of a family can proceed to enter upon trading or producing occupations in a colony without offending the feelings or prejudices of their older relatives, whom they feel bound to respect, while at the same time they have the conviction that emigration promises better prospects in turning a small capital to account (when they are willing to work with it), than the crowded condition of an old country offers them.
The necessity for removal to fresh fields of enterprise, may be more readily understood by considering that the incomes attached to the various public offices and services in a free country, under constitutional government, though possibly calculated on such a scale as will, with prudence, enable the persons holding them to keep up appearances in their respective grades of society; yet afford no opportunities for laying up money to accumulate into fortunes; consequently if one or more in a generation be of extravagant habits, or others are charged with bringing up a numerous family, the private property must be continually reduced, and may ultimately yield an income barely adequate to the support of even the smallest family. This frequently
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happens in the ordinary course of affairs, without special blame being attached to any. Some other resource then becomes necessary, and thus it is that persons are often met with in a colony engaged in producing even the first and simplest necessaries of life, and living in the humblest manner, whose families have formerly been in high positions in the mother country. Now it is to be observed that such persons, entering upon trading or producing occupations when it has been their previous habit to live in a fixed style, and on a fixed income, begin at a disadvantage, in having to compete with those whose training from childhood has been directed to trading, raising raw produce, or in manufacturing it when produced by others.
There are also other families, who, from having been brought up in circumstances of ease and opulence, or from being engaged solely in the practice of professions, have no knowledge how trading or producing occupations are carried on. These, likewise, from various causes affecting their financial condition, are accustomed to furnish recruits for young colonies.
However, the great mass of those who proceed to a colony have been generally brought up to trading or producing occupations. But the information which is required by persons in the former condition of life is very different from that which is desired by those in the latter condition. Their tastes, objects, and desires, are distinct; and even the language which is generally adopted by persons brought up as traders, is often found to be too terse and abbreviated, requiring much previous information on the topic written upon, in order to be comprehended by others not similarly brought up.
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Moreover, the feelings which actuate those comprising one division are not entered into by the other; and thus a publication intended to meet the enquiries of persons in one class, may appear to those in another to contain much that is unnecessary, cumbersome, and perhaps puerile; though it may still contain much that has not been previously written upon, and may convey information on topics which they had never previously considered.
In the heat of party contests, newspapers in the trading interests may sometimes seem to ignore the presence of families in the kingdom who are not acquainted with their pursuits, as if the laws did not contemplate them; but they do exist in great numbers, and require for their guidance, or inducement to begin industrial occupations, information on a variety of topics, which the latter do not understand the necessity of stating.
Now persons who feel really interested about New Zealand have read many of the books that have been published upon it, and gathered thereby considerable information on the subject of outfits, and the domestic inconveniences to be experienced. The object of the present work, therefore, is rather to avoid what has been previously written upon, and to endeavour to enunciate some of the principles that regulate the ordinary business of the colony in an elementary form, in order to meet enquiries that are generally made by persons commencing business in it as employers of labour. Nevertheless, notice is taken how labouring men raise themselves into a condition of independence, how trade is conducted, and the general prospects of the colony. The writer has no party to serve, but wishes to circulate such information upon the general condition of the colony as
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may be relied upon. His object is not to amuse, but to convey knowledge of an useful and practical character. He has not resided in any of the neighbouring colonies, but refers to them incidentally, as visitors to the Canterbury Province describe them, or as information is gathered from trustworthy publications.
It was a noble scheme to start a young colony, where gentlemen from different ranks might find profitable occupation, with sufficiently agreeable society, and which should serve to contradict a foppish idea prevailing in the United Kingdom that emigration can be regarded by gentlemen only as a last resource, when other hopes have failed them, and then ought only to be resorted to until sufficient money has been saved wherewith to return to England, --England, or the Continent, being deemed the only place fit for them to live in. When the government of a colony is conducted practically by an office in the parent State, there is room for such ideas to prevail; but when the gentry and industrious classes feel that there is a security for life and property; a freedom for the exercise of their respective abilities, especially in the right of making laws for the government of themselves, equal to what they enjoyed in the Mother country, then, living in a colony comes to be regarded in a different light, and attachment to it follows. It becomes a new home, to be loved with new affections, -- not unlike those with which the bride rejoices--in the home, which she and her husband create, with a joy not inferior to that kindled by the recollections of her own infancy.
Observations bearing on the philosophy of colonization are sought after by educated men, even when engaged in trading or producing occupations; for the
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ideas of those living by such employments contrast greatly with those living upon fixed incomes; and, whatever may have been their previous experience of business in the Old World, all persons find there is a great deal to learn on arrival in a new country. The basis on which a colony is organized and governed exercises a material influence on all questions in which its inhabitants are personally interested. It will therefore take the first place in the subsequent pages, and be followed by chapters relating to land, capital, labour, produce, &c. The disturbance and confusion of mind of one brought up in the refinements of an old and highly civilized country, when newly arrived in a new settlement, are sometimes great; his previous notions of distinctions of classes and propriety of demeanour appear to be greatly violated: but a recurrence to first principles of life and conduct affords the true explanation of those difficulties that perplex him, justifies the reasons of experience, and points out the way to meet them. The following chapters may turn attention towards the proper direction in which to look for the solution of some of the matters that surprise him, and he advantageously entered on previous to treating upon the general business of the colony.
