CHAPTER I.
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COLONIAL EXPERIENCE.
CHAPTER I.
Introductory.
"NEW CHUMS," on their first arrival in the colonies, hear a great deal said on all sides about "Colonial Experience," and are apt to imagine, as many of the colonists themselves appear firmly to believe, that this phrase means a great deal, and that a man possessed of this quality has acquired a degree of infallibility to be gained nowhere out of the colonies. A person coming from England may perhaps suppose that he should be the teacher, not the taught; that the inhabitants of these antipodean
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regions are a long way behind the age; but, if he assumes an air of superiority, he is surprised to find that he is looked on as immature, and perhaps patronised somewhat, for wanting "colonial experience." By-and-bye, however, he discovers that this great desideratum is a myth invented to keep new-comers, such as himself, in their proper place. The expression, notwithstanding, is not without foundation, and though the adjective might with better propriety be dropped, colonists may more readily become experienced in the ways of men of all classes, dispositions and nationalities than those who live quietly in some steady, slow-going country town in Europe; but those who have been in business in the larger cities, or have seen anything of the world, have little or nothing to learn on settling in the colonies.
The discovery of gold drew to these southern lands a motley collection of people, and they for the most part were restless, stirring, energetic fellows. It is not the plodding slowcoach or man of timid disposition who emi-
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COLONIAL MEN.
grates, for the colonists, as a people, bear the same characteristics. From the possession of these qualities, and the fickleness of fortune where gold is so eagerly sought after as here, the ups and downs in life are more frequent and noticeable than in England. The sparser population, too, prevents a man when he is "down on his luck," to use the current phrase, from disappearing altogether from the view, and the greater democratic feeling which prevails, prohibits any notions of false pride, so prevalent in the old country, from intervening between a man and any honest means of livelihood.
Colonial men appear to have a knack of turning to anything. You may meet a man who has been long in the colonies, and discover in the course of half-an-hour's conversation that he has applied himself to some half-dozen occupations during the term of his colonial residence. It is never safe to judge what a man has been or done from what he is; for instance, a man may be managing a bank on your forming
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his acquaintance, and you are somewhat amazed to discover at one period of his previous history he had been a bullock-driver, carting goods to the diggings; some accident happening to his team, in disgust he left that occupation, and took to digging; not making a "pile" so quickly as he would desire, he gave that up and started in business as an auctioneer, and then losing all his money in some bad speculation, he succeeded in obtaining an appointment in a bank, and has risen to the rank in which we now find him. Another man is a thriving lawyer; he began his colonial career by mining, and was singularly successful; with his newly-acquired wealth he returned to his native place and started some kind of manufactory, by which in a few years he managed to ruin himself; still, undaunted, he returned to the colonies to find the palmiest days of the diggings gone by, and nothing else presenting itself he applied for a situation in a lawyer's office, which he obtained, in a short time was articled, and in due course passed his examination and com-
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A JACK OF ALL TRADES.
menced business as a solicitor on his own account.
This diversity of experience is by no means confined to any particular class, though it is perhaps less surprising amongst illiterate men. Such an one I have known, who had been digging as a matter of course, a seaman on board a whaler, a hotel-keeper, an auctioneer, a contractor, had speculated in shipping horses from Australia to India, and at the time I made his acquaintance was proprietor of a butcher's shop. Doubtless these men gained great experience whilst engaged in their diverse occupations, but the acquisition of it by such means always reminds me of the old story of "paying too dear for one's whistle."
Many will perhaps think that this versatility of disposition is not a valuable attainment, though the ready adaptability to circumstances which it betokens undoubtedly is. By no means a large proportion of the inhabitants of the colonies have undergone such vicissitudes or changes, but those who have are sufficient
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to leaven the mass who acquire at second-hand some of the experience of the others at a cheaper rate; thus recalling what the old farmer told his spendthrift son on his return from a trip to the city, where he had expended of the paternal substance somewhat freely: "Ah! John," said the old man, "you should remember that a rolling stone gathers no moss." "Well, father, if it does not, it gets polished," replied the young reprobate as he superciliously surveyed the bucolic cut of his fathers coat. "If your polish only regulates the style of your clothes--and I don't see much difference in you, barring that--it's not worth the price you've paid for it, John, for have you not seen that since you came home several of the young bucks in the village have copied the pattern of your coat to a nicety, and so got as much polish as you for next to nothing."
There is a recklessness about many colonists which begets an unwonted degree of caution in others; this shows itself not merely in commercial life, but in almost every department.
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IMPRUDENCE.
An instance of this recklessness recently came under my notice, and though the scene lay in a neighbouring colony, it may be related as illustrative of my meaning. A man belonging to the middle rank of life had emigrated to Australia, and invested what little money he had in a quartz mine--for a time all prospered, and he wrote home to a lady whom he had for some years been engaged to marry, urging her to come and join him--before, however, the young lady arrived the quartz ran out, and the shares fell from a high value to absolutely nothing, and our friend was ruined. Just at this time he received a letter telling him his fiancee had sailed--he borrowed twenty pounds from a friend, and proceeded to the seaport to await her arrival--her ship came in before long, and he, like a fool, without apprising her of his altered circumstances, married her at once. The sequel is soon told. His wife's recriminations caused him to take to drinking; she followed suit, and the last I heard of them was, that this woman, born and educated a lady, was
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living in a miserable hut with several squalid-looking children, supplementing the small portion of her husband's earnings which he brought home, by doing a little washing for the surrounding diggers.
This is without doubt an extreme case, but I have sometimes seen men, in different ways, act with as much indifference to what were apparently the inevitable consequences of their actions, and perhaps, after all, we have not more of this sort of person in the colonies than could be found in the home-land, but there is this difference, that in the latter they sink more rapidly and completely out of sight.
In a country where labour is so dear as it is here, most people have had, at some time or other, to do things for themselves which, had they remained in the country whence they came, they would never have thought of attempting, besides having to "rough it" occasionally. If an unfortunate new chum ventures mildly to protest against some trifling hardships, he is at once silenced by being told
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THE COLONIAL WORKMAN.
that it is evident he is not "colonised" yet, and that he must get used to such things. If any particular philologist should read this, he will probably object to the word colonised in place of the more correct but uglier word colonialised, but he would find it a vain task to attempt to argue the colonists into the use of any other. A man of aristocratic proclivities would have to undergo more colonising than another; he would soon have to learn the meaning of the proverb that "Jack was as good as his master," as any appearance of what may be termed "uppishness" would be quickly resented.
One, recently arrived from England, on going to look at a property belonging to a friend, found a labourer leisurely surveying the premises. With an eye to his friend's interests, and thinking to annihilate the intruder at once, the gentleman pompously asked him if he was aware he had no right to be there. The workman, recognising that his interrogator was a new chum, replied, "Oh! we make rights for ourselves in this country." This unlooked-for
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reply caused the complete collapse of the would-be annihilator, but he relieved his feelings afterwards by storming to his friend against the insolence of the lower classes, and nearly quarrelling with the latter for his advising him not to use the adjective lower in this country. Fortunately for his subsequent peace of mind, this individual did not remain long in the colony.
Other men, again, are so wonderfully "green" and unsophisticated that, no matter where they went, they would have a vast deal to learn. One of the kind I refer to, on his being told that if he went up country, as he spoke of doing, he would have to rough it a bit, said, "Oh! I should not mind that much, so long as I can get a cutlet and a glass of sherry for lunch, I am not particular about the rest of the day." It takes many a hard rub before such men as these acquire any colonial experience.
The following pages contain a few of the writer's experiences, to which have been added
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AN APOLOGY.
one or two chapters giving a little information about the country. Some of the chapters were written before the idea of publishing them in their present form suggested itself, and to this is to be attributed any apparent disjointedness which it is now too late to remedy.
