CHAPTER II. THE ENDS TO BE OBTAINED BY EMIGRATION.
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NO SUDDEN FORTUNES TO BE LOOKED FOR.
CHAPTER II.
THE ENDS TO BE OBTAINED BY EMIGRATION.
No sudden fortunes to be looked for by emigration to an industrial colony-- A colonist's success rests with himself--Struggles at home for a living-- Labour the most valuable commodity in a colony--Advantages of the Southern Colonies--The emigrant's mission.
No greater fallacy can occupy the mind of an emigrant, than that by becoming a colonist he is about to acquire a sudden fortune. It is a very common delusion, both with the ardent and the desperate, two classes of men who abound in colonies; but with such, the realization of the delusion, and not of the sudden fortune, is the more probable event. Nowhere is steadiness both of mind and of pursuit more requisite than in a colony, and nowhere does it meet with a more certain reward; but both must be exercised if that reward is to be obtained. Men of restless habits and unsteady dispositions who embark in colonization with visionary schemes and extravagant expectations of the speedy acquisition of wealth, rarely, if ever, do acquire it. It may, indeed, occasionally happen, that a man of cool judgment, superior sagacity, and endowed with the faculty of combining circumstances, does realize speedy wealth; but a very little reflection will make it apparent, that in a new colony in particular, this must have been done at the expense, present or future, of his neighbours; out of whose pockets his rapid accumulation
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A COLONIST'S SUCCESS RESTS WITH HIMSELF.
of gain, must, in some shape or other, have come. Such men chiefly owe their success to their knowledge of the bias of men's minds towards speculation, and to their power of turning this knowledge to account. Speculation, in a new Colony, is only another term for gambling, and by the concoction of schemes for landjobbing, and other projects of a similar nature, persons so disposed find little difficulty in exciting the lurking passion, to which all men, notwithstanding their protestations to the contrary, are prone; the consequence, to all but the projectors of such schemes themselves, is, as great a certainty of being duped, as though the operation of fleecing had been performed in a gambling-house. The emigrant's first care, on landing in a new colony, is to be on his guard against speculators.
Let the intending emigrant always bear this in mind, that men who are incapable of succeeding at home, providing the opportunities of success offer themselves, will not succeed in a colony to the extent of their groundless and inconsiderate expectations. In one respect, they must, and will succeed-- they will be much better off than they would have been at home, even, with the negative qualities of want of industry, perseverance, and energy. But the want of the opposite qualities will as surely operate comparatively in a colony, as they would have done at home. Without industry, perseverance, and energy, natural or acquired--and they may be acquired-- success in any pursuit, at home or abroad, can, at best, but be doubtful, and must, in all cases, be in proportion to the exertions made use of, in search of it.
It is, therefore, of the greatest importance to the future success of the emigrant, that before starting on his contemplated expedition, he should have formed rational and well-founded views of what both his mind and his physical powers are capable of effecting. No good can result from self-deception in either case. If he be satisfied with the result of his. self-examination, then let him at once adopt the step contemplated, but let no mere impulse, nor the restless love
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STRUGGLES AT HOME FOR A LIVING.
of change, inherent in some men, urge him to emigrate. Having made up his mind to the step, his first requisite is to gain an accurate idea of the country to which he is about to proceed. His second, to adapt all his proceedings to the knowledge thus acquired. With a systematic way of going about it, there is no difficulty in either, and neither time nor means spent in the acquisition of such knowledge, as the basis of future operations, will be afterwards regretted; though the neglect of opportunity in acquiring information, may, and will, be so regretted.
The previous life of a man about to emigrate to a colony, has usually been a struggle for existence, and in nine cases out of ten, a hard one. One of his motives in emigrating is to render this struggle less difficult, and its results more certain. The expectations founded upon this motive of emigration, are in no danger of not being realized, even at the commencement of his career as a colonist. Whether the labour of his hands form his only capital, or whether he combine with it a small monetary capital, he needs be in no fear of not being at once placed in a competence consistent with his station in life; such competence of course depending upon his own industry. This is of itself no inconsiderable advantage, and one which a thinking man will appreciate. There is no one, to use a common but expressive phrase, "to take the bread out of his mouth." His labour is wanted, and his capital, which in the mother-country would only be swallowed up by the leviathans around him, can at once be turned to good account. But the mere lessening the struggle for existence should be the lowest motive of an emigrant; it is a motive with which none but a "hewer of wood and drawer of water" would rest contented. Persons who emigrate to colonies are almost invariably found to possess a more enterprising spirit than those of the same class remaining at home, and that for a very sufficient reason; --it requires both enterprise and energy of purpose to forsake the associations of home, and to
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LABOUR THE MOST VALUABLE COMMODITY.
face the annoyances of a long voyage, even lessened as these have been by modern improvements and increased skill in navigation. Hence it is that the generality of colonists, especially those who have emigrated from an appreciation of the industrial advantage of so doing, do not rest contented with a mere change of pasture, abundant though it be in comparison with the one in which they have previously been accustomed. The acquisition of minor wants give aspirations towards greater ones, and an energetic man is no longer content with merely being well fed. He must possess standing, consideration, comfort, and even, luxury; and in proportion as a man aspires after these things, so is, in general, his value, both to himself and the community. Even the labourer, bowed down as he has been at home, is generally the first to show symptoms of social improvement under improved circumstances; --his commodity, labour, is necessarily in the greatest demand in a colony, and he is among the first to reap the reward of his industry. The necessities of his animal nature, no longer in fear of wanting supplies, seem to give way to a higher tone of feeling, the existence of which he had, perhaps, scarcely before suspected. It had been kept down by the state of mental degradation in which society at home had placed him.
Yet this is not the lot of all, except as far as the certainty of being fed goes. The same opportunities present themselves to all, but by no means do all equally avail themselves of them. The fault, however, rests with themselves, and not with the colony to which they have emigrated. One fault, the commonest cause of failure in a colony, is of too great moment to be lightly passed over. The means of dissipation are unhappily too facile in all our colonies, and the indulgence in these is the bane of the emigrant, to whom no little strength of mind is requisite for the resistance of such indulgence. He must bear in mind that this indulgence, or its opposite, forms almost the only distinction between the prosperous and the unprosperous. To resist the first impulse
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ADVANTAGES OF THE SOUTHERN COLONIES.
is the chief point requisite. If he do this he will be safe, but if he yield to the temptation, his hopes of prosperity are futile. It is a maxim, in the experience of most colonists, that if a man do not ascend in the social scale, he retrogrades. There is no remaining on the same step of the ladder.
Instances of this nature are, however, happily the exception, and not the rule. They are, notwithstanding, too numerous not to deserve a passing notice; and if such notice shall have prevented a single individual from falling into habits so destructive to his future prospects, the purpose of the writer will have been answered. A man given to intemperance at home has an excellent opportunity of breaking himself off the habit during the voyage; let him not, as he values his future welfare, resume it in the colony. He will find few other drawbacks to his success.
A profitable caution to the emigrant on his first landing in the colony will be, not to be too hasty in deciding on his future course of proceeding, whether he have nothing hut his labour to offer, or whether he have a small capital to invest. In the first instance, his steps are easily retraced if he go wrong; but in the latter case, money hastily and therefore injudiciously invested will, often be lost altogether, or, at the least, from want of experience on the part of its owner, be in no small danger of becoming so. The emigrant to New Zealand, of all colonists, has the least occasion to be in a hurry on his arrival, possessing, as he does, an advantage unknown to the occupant of other emigration fields, viz, the advantage of being placed at once on the site of his future operations. He can, therefore, afford to spend a few days or weeks in looking about him, before he finally decides on his future course. This advantage should not be underrated; nor will it be so, if compared with the disadvantages of emigrating to some other of our colonies; from which comparison it will appear, that New Zealand, though the most distant in space of all our colonial possessions, is among the nearest in the time requisite for the location of the emigrant. Take Canada, for example, the nearest of all our colonies. In
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COMPARISON WITH CANADA.
case of emigration thither, the emigrant, after a voyage of two or even three months, in ships for the most part badly found and wretchedly provisioned, finds himself under the necessity of travelling many hundred miles in a region in which frost and snow prevail for two-thirds of the year. Hence, the expenditure of time, notwithstanding the vicinity of the colony, makes the New Zealand voyage of four months short in comparison with the time requisite for getting located in British North America; whilst the expenditure of money without return, which, in the case of emigration to Canada, is unavoidable, amounts to a sum which, in New Zealand, would have put him in possession of an excellent cottage and garden, almost as soon as he had landed from the ship. Even after the toilsome journey through the back-settlements of Canada has been performed, the emigrant has still to look for his location; and if he arrive at any other period than the commencement of the short summer of the Canadian climate, he must wait for many months, living all the time upon his capital, till the advent of the following spring melts the snows which lie many feet deep upon the ground, before he can plant a single vegetable for the use of his table. In New Zealand, on the contrary, he can sow or plant during any month of the year, and such is the rapidity of vegetable growth, and the fertility of the soil, that a comparatively short time will suffice for a plentiful supply of vegetables at any season. A comparison in this and other respects, has been made with Canada, simply, because it is the most familiar instance with emigrants; but the same remarks, with regard to difficulty of location, will apply to the interior of New South Wales and other colonies, even though they present no drawbacks in point of climate.
It would be easy to multiply hints of this nature ad infinitum, but it is unnecessary. There are few subjects of importance to the settler which do not arise out of what has been already stated, and these will naturally suggest themselves to an intelligent mind. The life of a settler in New Zealand is an easy one compared with a life in Canada or in some other
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THE EMIGRANT'S MISSION.
colonies. He must labour, but not with excessive toil or under privations of any serious kind. Even those possessed of capital should labour with their own hands, if but for example's sake. None have hitherto set a better example in this respect, than those members of aristocratic families who have already emigrated. To a well-conducted colonist, there is no absence of those refinements of society to which he has been accustomed in his own station at home. If he do not enjoy this society, it will be his own fault. He may do this, and, at the same time, with ordinary prudence, lay the foundation for certain success, and for the future independence and comfort of his family.
One more remark will not be out of place. The emigrant, on getting located at his adopted home, will do well to form a correct estimate of his change of position. Nothing will operate as a greater spur to exertion than this. If he have been, as the phrase goes, one of the lower classes, he is no longer the "cumberer of the ground" which the artificial state of society at home compelled him to be, and that against his inclination. If he belong to what is termed the middle class of society, he is in no danger of sinking down to the condition of the labourer-- an almost inevitable result of his remaining at home. If his colonial career be pursued with ordinary industry and steadiness of purpose, from a burden upon his country he will have been converted into its benefactor. Thus, in addition to the benefit derived by being removed from a condition in which the great difficulty was to live, to one in which the difficulty is unknown, the colonist will have acquired, not only a position in the social scale, but also an independence of character which it should be his aim to foster and encourage.
Nor should higher considerations be wanting. The mission of the emigrant, insignificant though it may at first sight appear, is, in reality, a high and glorious mission. To him, together with others, has been committed the task of peopling and cultivating the earth. To him, more especially than to other men, is the divine command, "increase and multiply," addressed; for it would he but a narrow interpretation of the command to restrict it only
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INCENTIVES TO THE EMIGRANT.
to the reproduction of our species. Mankind is to multiply as well as to increase. The increase of mankind may be in a limited spot, as is the case in our own country, and is eventually productive of over-population, with its natural concomitants of degradation and misery to the masses. The multiplication of mankind has no limit but the world itself, and is productive of prosperity and additional happiness to all. The emigrant, then, is the agent of Providence in carrying out its greatest work. Colonies are infant states,-- empires in embryo,-- of which he is one of the founders. It is not merely probable, but almost matter of certainty, that, however humble may be his present position,-- his descendants will rank among the rulers of that infant state, as it approaches to national manhood. Let him, then, by his example, contribute his quota towards giving to this state a moral healthiness, as well as an industrial impulse; --assuring himself that this is the only method of rendering it vigorous for the future, and worthy of his prosperity.
