1859 - Fuller, F. Five Years' Residence in New Zealand - CHAPTER IX. EMPLOYEES AND EMPLOYED

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CHAPTER IX.

EMPLOYEES AND EMPLOYED.

PERSONS on their arrival in New Zealand perceive a marked change in the behaviour of workmen towards their employers, as compared with that which prevails in the United Kingdom.

It becomes, therefore, an object of interest to educated men to inquire into the origin of those relations as they at present stand. This can only be properly investigated by going back to the original institutions

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of slavery or serfdom, as it existed in primitive heathen times, and at present exists throughout nearly all heathen nations. It is the boast of Christianity that she everywhere alleviates the evils of this custom, and has thoroughly broken it throughout all the dominions of the British Crown. Nevertheless, it is only by keeping in view that this was the original institution among mankind, and has subsisted, in a greater or less degree, throughout all portions of the British Empire, until comparatively recent periods, that persons can arrive at any comprehension of the different relations that at present subsist between employers and their workmen in different parts of the United Kingdom, and consequently the different modes in which individuals coming from different parts of it view their relations to one another. It has been a special branch of philosophy to trace the opening intelligence of the lower ranks, and to observe throughout succeeding generations how they have successively gained advances in freedom from their employers, and held the positions that have once been obtained. A. notice, therefore, of this institution, and that there subsist very different relations in different portions of the United Kingdom between employers and their workmen, may prove acceptable to those who desire some explanation of the variety of views that they hear expressed on those relations by persons who have met together in a young colony, after residing severally in various quarters of the British Empire, and some from a residence in foreign countries.

In the serf dominions of Russia and the Slave States of America the population comprises only the two classes of noble and servile. Travellers from both countries describe certain acts on the part of the servile

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portion as being enjoined by law to designate the subserviency of one class to the other. The servile portion in each country are said to be obliged to stand uncovered, cap in hand, on meeting one of the other class upon the open roads, day or night; with a written permission from their owners, granting them leave to be abroad, ready open for perusal.

Now, a few centuries ago, all the Western States of Europe were in the same condition, and the elevation of the serfs from that servile condition has been a gradual process. Philosophy has always maintained that men born and bred in a servile condition are unable to take care of themselves, and that, consequently, to confer on such persons uncontrolled liberty of action is but giving a man a rope to hang himself. Men born and brought up in a servile condition generally know of no enjoyments beyond those which man shares in common with the brute creation; and the exceptions to this are so few, that they only prove the general rule as regards mankind at large. Now, serfdom compels labour with bodily punishment, but supports the serf in old age and sickness. A state of freedom only admits of labour in the form of contracts, and a nation progressing into a state of freedom requires the labourer to be brought up, almost from childhood, so as to be accustomed to earn his subsistence in the manner which is usual in civilised communities. He has to consider the expense of his subsistence, and to calculate, therefore, the price he will require for giving up his time to bodily toil; this condition being imposed upon him by the removal of the protection which his owner granted him when in a servile condition. History points everywhere to nations where the servile portion

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have been brought up in great ignorance, and are therefore untaught and untrained in the necessity of restraining their desires, that when such portions obtain a sudden release from those restraints to which they had been accustomed, they give themselves up to the indulgence of almost every evil passion; and also shows that where portions of a nation have been born and brought up in a state of servile dependence, it has generally required the period of a generation to elapse, before all constituting the former servile portion are sufficiently instructed to live with benefit to themselves as freemen, able to act with independence, and to possess that feeling of self-confidence which results from a consciousness of being able to provide for themselves, and which is necessary to enable any citizen to enter heartily into the public affairs of his country, and to feel interested in its general progress of successfully accumulating wealth.

But such portions of the population of the United Kingdom as were once in a servile condition have long escaped therefrom.

The law supposes all classes to have learned how to provide for themselves by the labour of their minds or their bodies. And books describing recent changes in the laws of the United Kingdom in reference to the labouring classes, relate that the tendency of these changes is to reduce the previously implied conditions between master and servant into mere contracts, made between independent parties, engaging with one another to perform si certain amount of work for a specified payment in money. A nearly feudal obedience may still be maintained in the army and navy, also in the service of domestics, where good wages and easy work

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are given as the equivalent; but this is service of a different nature from that of the yeomen class in the country, and that of the more intelligent class of artisans and mechanics in towns, who maintain themselves and their families in positions of greater independence, but involving a far greater amount of manual and intellectual labour. Nevertheless, the United Kingdom is very populous, and from that circumstance alone arises a very great difference in the relative position of employers and the employed to that which exists in a new colony thinly peopled; for the threat of dismissal by the employer occasions to the employed in a populous country an amount of trouble and inconvenience in obtaining fresh employment, which is not caused in a country thinly peopled, where the demand for the services of the labourer is steady and almost continual; and this inconvenience in a populous country is of so serious a nature as to oblige men, able and willing to work to maintain themselves, to be maintained in workhouses, or by other modes, established by law at the cost of their neighbourhood, when unable to obtain employment.

Again: the circumstances of a populous country occasion each workman thoroughly to learn his own trade, for the employer has time and opportunity to look out for the best workmen, and inferior workmen therefore see they are at a disadvantage, and receive far less recompense for their work than the better workmen in their line of business obtain. This has a tendency to make workmen generally find it to be to their interest to attend to their own particular trade only, to learn the work of that trade thoroughly, instead of taking a turn at others. And in carrying out this principle, a

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saving is effected, by introducing considerable subdivision of labour into all the processes of trades and manufactures. In the economy of trades in a young colony, rough workmen only are required; for fine work occupies too much time and labour, and is not found to repay the outlay it occasions. Therefore it is easy for men brought up hardily, and able to stand bodily labour, to learn sufficient of several trades to be able to earn wages at some, when they may be unable to obtain employment in others.

Now in the dense population of the United Kingdom, the labouring classes have to look out for employment wherewith to earn their daily subsistence. They must seek the good will of the employer and ask to be employed. In country places the employer can exact the most implicit obedience, or obtain the utmost amount of work to be done, by holding out the simple threat of dismissal, which generally entails so much trouble on the person out of employ, that he will submit to much that is personally inconvenient and annoying rather than provoke that alternative; and recent changes in the laws are based upon the supposition that the employers have sufficient power for enforcing their rights, in being able to dismiss workmen, whom they are supposed to be always able to replace by others with little trouble. Employers generally can demand, and do require, a character of the men they employ, and this alone will enforce implicit obedience and respectful attention in any occupation, and in farm service enables a very good class of workmen to be raised, who still retain the character of true servants.

Again, a strict distinction of classes, an implicit obedience, and respectful personal attendance and attention,

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are considered necessary to be maintained in the army and navy services, which otherwise are considered to be encumbrances, instead of being bodies useful to the nation; and severe laws are enacted to enable and compel those in command in those services to enforce the same. Now men brought up in those services almost painfully perceive the change in the habits and status of the labouring population in a newly-settled colony. Not that there is positive disrespect shown to those known as occupying upper stations in life, or as being employers of labour; but the feeling of independence in the labourer is perceptible. The employer has to go or send for the workman, and finds he is dealing with a man who has plenty of other calls upon his services, and is only debating in his own mind which it will suit him best to undertake. On men thus situated, therefore, harsh words, or orders given in an imperious tone, are worse than thrown away; for they would decide him immediately to close with some other employer. And so, too, an imperious tone used in conveying orders to a labourer taken into employment for a specified period of time, induces him to give trouble and to endeavour to bring to an immediate termination the period of service for which he had engaged, an attempt in which he generally succeeds.

Workmen generally on all descriptions of heavy labour restrict their day's work to eight hours, and the comparative ease of getting out of the labour market also operates in causing the different tone that subsists between employers and employed in a new colony. In two years after his arrival, a steady, well-trained farm labourer has frequently bought a few acres of land, on which he puts up a rough dwelling-house, (the walls of

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which may be composed of sods), and in which he places his wife and family. He is enabled to keep them there, working by contract in the vicinity, raising little off his land for the first few years. Now though he may thus be out of the market for that yearly service which is required by the larger farmers, still his sons, when old enough, will be available for them. The larger farmers are therefore specially interested in seeing that by a proper application of the public funds of the colony, some supply of farm labourers is introduced by periodical emigrant vessels. For if this supply is not maintained they are at a great disadvantage in the labour market, as are also other employers generally. Likewise the steady journeyman, who knows his trade, has frequently, in a few years, saved enough money to buy some land and build a house, and to start himself as a master in his trade; and, though he may appear to be making slow progress for a few years, nevertheless he knows he is laying the foundation of what will be a profitable business to him afterwards.

This prospect of soon attaining independence frequently acts injuriously on first arrival, with the younger portion of the labouring classes; for, coming from a country where competition is great, --where, as they express it, "the nose is kept to the grindstone," --they sometimes appear to forget that a few years of steady work are necessary before they can hope to be out of the labour market, and seem to think that almost any wages they may desire may be obtained by being asked for. This is generally accompanied with a feeling, that houses, buildings, and the general accessories of an occupation, should be as complete and finished as they are in an old-settled country. The female portion are

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generally heard to express disappointment at not seeing the same nice houses, green fields, lanes with hedges growing fruit, and the same comforts generally as in the houses which they had been accustomed to see near their former abodes. And this confusion of mind, and over-estimation of what they may fairly expect, may be in some measure helped by stories told them on the passage, by sailors or others, who may sometimes amuse themselves by raising to a high pitch the expectations of the confiding country-people, many of whom may never before have left the neighbourhood of their native village. However, the elder men, if ever they had any anxieties on their minds as to their prospects in the colony, are soon relieved of them, when they see others, brought up as they had been, who came out penniless as themselves, snugly and comfortably settled, with little anxiety or care about them, and they soon learn from the others how these advantages have been obtained. The view of numerous small holdings, the general rate of prices, and the demand for labour in the country, soon satisfies a steady man, with any common experience, that he has made a good exchange: but the female portion of the colonists take longer to learn these things. However, they also are found to become satisfied with the change, and the Old Country after a year or two is seldom spoken of, except to say they should like to hear how their friends are getting on, and to express a wish for some particular one to come out and join them in the colony.

Writers on young colonies, therefore, desire to draw agreeable pictures, for the information of the labouring classes, on the comforts and independence that have been attained there by some of their number; but it

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does sometimes occur that these accounts are taken by the more inexperienced of those who read them as showing what they are immediately to attain on reaching the colony, instead of pointing out what is ultimately within the reach of the patient and industrious. Now, the wages for farm service have generally run from £40 a year upwards, exclusive of keeping the man, his wife, and his family, in provisions. Therefore, the farm-servant, if a steady, saving man, soon attains to the position of a yeoman, farming upon his own account; for with the wages of the first year, after he has settled the accounts for his passage, he may buy a pair of foals, or some young bullocks, which, when grown up, he has at command for a team to work his land with, &c. At the end of the second year he may buy a section of land; but if he goes upon it then, he may find that the next two or three years are a struggle to him, attended with discomfort, because he has not money enough to keep himself and family, until his harvest comes in. He must therefore obtain his household requirements on trust at the stores, or live on the proceeds of work done by contract in his neighbourhood. Now, this he can generally obtain in many forms, such as ditching; work in the bush at sawing or splitting timber; work on the roads for Government; shearing or other short contract work on stations, and harvesting for the farmers; or he may rent a team, and do draying as a carrier on the roads: but if he live by any of these means, he cannot do much upon his land for a few years, beyond raising somewhat for home consumption. It is generally considerably better, therefore, for him to remain at least two years longer in service, saving money to put up a more substantial house and fences

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on his land, and also money enough to keep him for a year after he gets upon his land; for this will give him time to get a sufficient extent of land prepared for cropping, and also save him the necessity of a forced sale, immediately after harvest (to the storekeeper, for goods obtained on trust), of what he has raised, which he can therefore hold over, if he desires to do so, in expectation of an advance of price.

In opposition to the character of this steady plodding workman is that of seamen, who are generally supposed to spend their money as fast as they earn it, in a manner to have nothing to show for it. They receive a higher rate of wages while employed at sea, where their work is of a nature more trying to the constitution than is that of the agricultural labourer; but as soon as the voyage is over, and their money is paid them, the public-house is resorted to, where in a few weeks it is spent, and they have to look out for another ship going to sea. But the nature of their occupation makes them more intelligent than the farm labourer, and they are more eager to take advantage of the circumstances of their employers to demand an increase of wages; but, being light-hearted, ready, quick, and active, they often prove useful in assisting at the starting of stations up the country, as they can generally construct rough buildings, fences, and work of that nature, handily.

On arriving at a new colony, they are very apt to run away from their vessels; but too often, as fast as they earn their wages up the country, they resort to the public-house, and drink them out; thus the more such men earn the more they riot and injure their health, and consequently the sooner they tire of the life in the colony. Thus, if employment at any time gets slack on

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shore, they are ready to go to sea again for a change. At one early period of the gold-fields in Australia, to which many of them went, it is known that vessels had to pay £12 a month for ordinary seamen, on shipping a new crew, when the rate of wages might have been but £1 10s. per month on leaving England. And it is said that some shipmasters, knowing this trouble about obtaining a new crew, preferred to ship their seamen on leaving England for the voyage to Australia only, as they found they could get men to agree to go so far only at a nominal rate of wages--for perhaps 1s. per month--and could then better afford to pay the enormous rates demanded for shipping the fresh hands to a new port. Advantage is generally taken of this irregular life of sailors to organize in colonial ports a system of obtaining their hard-won earnings from them to the great inconvenience of shipowners; for not only do men from the port go on board ship, and tempt the seamen on shore by enticing representations to stay at boarding-houses organised for their use, but they are also induced to stay there until they are in debt about equal to the advance of wages which they became entitled to on shipping for a new port; which is also thus secured to the keeper of the boarding-house. Now seamen leaving their vessels without leave become liable to forfeit their wages, and to undergo imprisonment; and shipmasters complain generally of not being sufficiently supported on shore in colonial ports to recover their seamen: it may be satisfactory, therefore, to masters of vessels, to relate that the full sentence of imprisonment allowed by law for a magistrate to administer--viz., the period of three months--has been undergone in the port of Lyttelton by seamen who had

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deserted their vessels; and other ports in New Zealand are paying attention to the law on this head.

But when there is a disproportion between the rate of wages on shore and those on board a ship troubles may be always expected. It may be remarked that the port of Callao, in Peru, is considered to present the fullest development of this system of kidnapping sailors that is anywhere known to be at present carried on; for many refugees, expelled by the Vigilance Committee from San Francisco, having centred in that port, plenty of fit instruments have collected for carrying on such designs, and thwarting the masters of sailing vessels.

But seamen generally must not be thought to be the only portion of mankind living by manual labour who spend their money quickly; for many workmen in every kind of employment are equally improvident, and present enjoyment is, probably, the ruling principle with mankind in general; though experience may teach some in all ranks and classes the more solid comfort to be obtained by saving habits, and a due provision for the future. And although sailors must not be considered the only class of workmen who are prone to spend their money quickly, with nothing to show for it, yet they preponderate so greatly in young colonies that they appear to visitors to form so large a proportion of the labouring population, as to draw within their own designation all whose habits are similarly distinct from those of the plodding, thrifty, yeoman class.

Now the younger portion of the farm labourers, if not steady, are liable to be attracted by the examples of these men, and learn little conducive to steadiness of character from them, either on the passage out, or when arrived in the colony. And many of the hands employed on the station partake so much of this sailor-

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character, that as fast as they earn money they come down to the public-house to spend it. Such men cannot contemplate bringing up a family in the colony, and are ready to move to other colonies where they hear there is any increase of wages to be obtained. It may be further remarked that it is observed of the native-born workmen of the United States of America, --many of whom can work well at perhaps a dozen different trades, --that they do not show a disposition to save their money; for, when not employed at work, they appear dressed, and move about with independence in public, in a manner involving far greater expense than could be maintained by those of a similar class in the United Kingdom. And it is observed of the population of the United States generally, that they do not desire to save money to leave their families; for they live up to their incomes, and are described as generally arguing, even when possessed of good incomes, and living luxuriously--that they had raised themselves from possessing almost nothing, and that they consider their sons are able and ought to do the same. And this is very important to observe, as it tends to show how differently the ordinary labouring occupations are regarded in the society of thinly-peopled countries, when compared with the desire that is shown for avoiding similar manual exertion in the society of all thickly-peopled countries, where manual labour is generally performed only by those who form a class distinct in themselves for their separate livelihood.

Now old-settled countries are supposed to enjoy a far steadier demand for the products of industry than young colonies, whether they be the products of agriculture or manufactures.

The employer can feel more confidence that he will

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be able to dispose at advantage of what he has employed labour upon; and writers, therefore, arguing philosophically on the economy of producing, advise the subdivision of labour which is found to answer in practice. But in a new country people are supposed to be nearly all producing something, either for sale in their neighbourhood, or for export. Their market is, therefore, always more or less liable to be overstocked, and the price of each particular articles to fall, which may as suddenly rise again, on finding that those who had been supplying the markets were failing it. Employers, therefore, must be ready to change their products for the local market; consequently, there is not a continued demand for any large number of workmen who can work in one particular branch of their business only: but, if the workmen learn to work at different employments, experience shows they can obtain employment all the year round. The theory of the subdivision of labour, therefore, though applicable to the circumstances of a populous country, is not so to a thinly-peopled one, for the labourer would be out of employment by adhering to that rule; when many employers, in other occupations, would be glad, in consequence of the general scarcity of workmen, to obtain the assistance of any rough labour, especially in commencing their occupations.

It should also be remarked that the wants of the working classes of the United Kingdom have extended with the increased education and intelligence of the present generation. These wants exceed those of workmen generally in the less favoured countries of Europe, and are greatly above those of uncivilized aborigines. And where these wants exist in the more intelligent

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there is generally a corresponding habit of steady continuous labour to obtain their gratification. And thus, though his wants are greater, the well-trained English farm servant is generally observed to give his employer a larger amount of labour, and that labour to be better directed than that of others.

Again, in considering the different tone existing between employers and employed, it should be remembered that not above one quarter of the population of the United Kingdom are supposed to be upon the electoral roll, while by the constitution given to New Zealand, as the labourers can so soon acquire the position of yeomen, nearly all the population may soon be placed upon it. Those concerned in making laws for the colony, therefore, have to answer to a more extended constituency, and one composed more largely of the working classes, than is usually the case in the United Kingdom. Employers, therefore, who may feel irritated at observing a different tone to that they had been elsewhere accustomed to, should consider that remarks made by them, either publicly or privately, derogatory of the labouring population, are not likely to assist those engaged in carrying on the government of the colony; who have extra trouble entailed upon them in subduing those feelings that will arise in the breasts of workmen when slurred upon, who feel their relatively freer position, and are rather disposed to remember struggles they have encountered in the old country to the prejudice of their employers in the new one. For workmen cannot be considered unimportant personages in a new country, and it should be remembered that civil words do not derogate from the position of an employer, though some, from possession of uncontrolled

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authority over labourers of the convict class, or where a population are pressing upon one another for subsistence, appear to think that those in the position of labouring men are destitute of feelings, and regard not tone or the manner in which they are addressed.

But the greater freedom enjoyed by the labourer in the colony, after his state of comparative restraint in the United Kingdom, does act injuriously, in some instances; and as this has been observed on the continent of Europe, perhaps it may be useful to extract the following note, in which it is so well expressed, from Mill's Principles of Political Economy, page 129. Edition 1848:--

"Extracts from the evidence of Mr. Escher, of Zurich, (an engineer and cotton manufacturer employing nearly two thousand working men of many different nations), annexed to the Report of the Poor Law Commission in 1840, on the training of pauper children.

"The Italian's quickness of perception in rapidly comprehending any new descriptions of labour put into their hands, in a power of quickly comprehending the meaning of their employers, and of adapting themselves to new circumstances, is much beyond what any other classes have.

"The French workmen have the like natural characteristics, only in a somewhat lower degree. The English, Swiss, German, and Dutch workmen we find have all much slower natural comprehension. As workmen only the preference is undoubtedly due to the English; because as we find them they are all trained to special branches, on which they have had comparatively superior training, and have concentrated all their thoughts.

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As men of business and general usefulness, and as men with whom an employer would best like to be surrounded, I should, however, decidedly prefer the Saxons and the Swiss, but more especially the Saxons, because they have had a very careful general education, which has extended their capacities beyond any special employment, and rendered them fit to take up, after a short preparation, any employments to which they may be called. If I have an English workman engaged in the erection of a steam-engine, he will understand that and nothing else; and for other circumstances, or other branches of mechanics, however closely allied, he will be comparatively helpless to adapt himself to all the circumstances that may arise to make arrangements for them, and give sound advice, or write clear statements or letters on his work in the various relative branches of mechanics."

On the connection between mental cultivation and moral trustworthiness in the labouring class, the same writer says:-- "The better educated workmen we find are distinguished by superior moral habits in every respect. In the first place they are entirely sober; they are discreet in their enjoyments, which are of a more rational and refined kind; they have a taste for much better society, which they approach respectfully, and consequently find much readier admittance to it; they cultivate music; they read; they enjoy the pleasure of scenery, and make parties for excursions into the country; they are economical, and their economy extends beyond their own purse to the stock of their master; they are, consequently, honest and trustworthy." And in answer to a question respecting the English workman:-- "Whilst in respect to the work to which they have been specially

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trained, they are the most skilful, they are in conduct the most disorderly, debauched, unruly, and least respectable and trustworthy, of any nation whatsoever whom we have employed, (and in saying this I express the experience of every manufacturer on the continent to whom I have spoken, and especially of the English manufacturers, who make the loudest complaints). These characteristics of depravity do not apply to the English workmen who have received an education, but attach to the others in the degree in which they are in want of it.

"When the uneducated English workmen are released from the bond of iron discipline in which they have been restrained by their employers in England, and are treated with the urbanity and friendly feeling which the more educated workmen on the continent expect and receive from their employers, they--the English workmen--completely lose their balance; they do not understand their position, and after a certain time become totally unmanageable and useless. The educated English workmen in a short time comprehend their position, and adopt an appropriate behaviour.

"The entire evidence of this intelligent and experienced employer of labour is deserving of attention; as well as much testimony on similar points by other witnesses, contained in the same volume."

Twenty years ago, philosophers, observing the advanced intelligence of the labourer in the United States (arising from the comparative, cheapness of books, and the greater amount of leisure time upon his hands, obtained by a higher rate of wages), over the condition of the labouring population of Great Britain, published opinions that this difference of condition was likely to

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originate troubles of a more serious character to the peace and good order of the United Kingdom than all the armaments of Russia or of other European Powers. But the same abundance of cheap publications now exists throughout Great Britain, and whatever alarm may have been excited by certain Chartist demonstrations before the period of the late Russian war, the higher rate of wages occasioned by that war, and the abundance of money coming in from the gold-fields of Australia, together with the relief to the labour market by the large emigration to that country, and the greater facilities of education now for some time enjoyed by working men, has greatly improved the intelligence and condition of the labouring classes of the present day, who now regard emigration more favourably than at any previous period in the history of the country. Political economists had long observed that every labourer who left Great Britain for a colony gave employment to others in Great Britain to manufacture for him, and the increase of exports to her colonies tends to prove the accuracy of the remark; but it is observed at the same time, that the tendency of the population to increase soon fills up the vacancies in the labour market; for the rising generation soon fill up the places of those who have left the country; and great advantages accrue to Great Britain in possessing colonies with friendly feelings towards the parent country, ready to receive all those of her industrious population who are willing to go to them.

But what a contrast to the social state of Great Britain does the empire of Russia present? Travellers who have resided long in that country may be met abroad, who relate that the ideas generally prevailing in

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Great Britain on that country, which is undergoing the transition England has gone through, are in many respects erroneous. For instance, it is said that the policy of the family on the throne of that empire, since the days of Peter the Great, has been to seek the emancipation of the serfs, and to form by degrees a middle class to oppose the power of the nobles, but the latter have hitherto proved too strong. It is said to have been the policy of the late Czar Nicholas to emancipate the serfs as largely as he could. That he repeatedly promulgated laws to this purpose, as for instance, that the nobles were only allowed to borrow money of the Crown, who seized their serfs as Crown property if the money was not paid when due. It is said the late Czar had emancipated a large proportion of the serfs in his empire, and that this was the cause of his popularity in it. Also, that though the serf was transferred to an estate of the Crown, subject to military service, nevertheless this was an advance for him in the social scale. Again, the serf and his family would then have some opportunity of acquiring the habit of learning how to take care of themselves, as well as possessing the legal status to continue in that state of greater freedom. And though this gave the Crown a great source from whence to draw armies for pursuing schemes of conquest, still it was an advance in the social scale for the serf withdrawn from being a possession of a private owner.

Rumour now states that the present Czar is occupied with plans for abolishing serfdom entirely in his dominions, and when it is considered that all Europe was a few centuries ago in the same servile state, how thankful ought the labouring population of Great Britain and

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her colonies to be in considering their own present condition. But this condition of foreign countries is not always remembered when prospects of a fresh foreign trade are first before the public mind, and also when individuals, on arrival in a colony, first perceive the varied manner which is maintained by the separate employers with their several workmen, which it would serve to explain.

In consequence of the cheapness of books, and the general facilities of education, knowledge has been greatly increased to the labouring classes of the United Kingdom, and the improved demeanour and general intelligence of the present generation over the past ones is nearly everywhere allowed; it is also contended that there has been an equally increased attention given to education in the upper ranks of society, where licentiousness in conversation, and addiction to bacchanalian excesses, have become less frequent than in the preceding generation, while the young clergy and others from the universities appear a marvel to the old school of country gentlemen; but the greater sphere presented by a young colony to the energies of a labouring population, frequently occasions, on their part, a display of intelligence in starting and carrying on their business which excites wonder and admiration from employers of labour, without previous colonial experience, who judging the rustic as he appears in the United Kingdom, know not the intelligence many of them can display when a sufficient field is before them to show their powers.