1860 - Voices from Auckland - VOICES FROM AUCKLAND NEW ZEALAND AS A FIELD OF EMIGRATION, p 13-91

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VOICES FROM AUCKLAND.

NEW ZEALAND,

AS A FIELD OF EMIGRATION.

EXTENDING from north to south for upwards of eight hundred miles, and varying in breadth from fifteen to one hundred and fifty miles, the Islands of New Zealand comprise an area somewhat greater than that of the United Kingdom; and, being more generally indented with estuaries and deep bays, they have a sea board exceeding considerably that of the Island of Great Britain. Mountainous in their character, they are irrigated in every direction by fresh water rivers and streams: they are still partially covered with forests of valuable timber; and the open country, with its fern-clad hills and grassy plains, even in its natural state, affords good pasturage for sheep and cattle. From various animals, and venomous reptiles of every kind, the country is entirely free; its climate is famed for its mildness and salubrity; and the soil is suited to the growth of every description of English farm produce. In both the principal islands gold has already been discovered; and though the mineral resources of the country have as yet been but very imperfectly developed, coal, copper ore, manganese, iron sand, and sulphur, have been found in various localities. Owing to the irregular shape of the islands, their snow-clad mountains, their forest ranges and open plains, the climate of New Zealand is considerably modified by local influences; but, allowing for disturbing causes, the temperature becomes gradually colder from the North Cape to Stuart's Island, in the South; and the difference between the climate of Auckland and Otago is as great as between that of the Isle of Wight and Aberdeen.

The great demand for every description of farm produce in the Australian colonies, has had the effect of demonstrating the agricultural capabilities of the country, and of stimulating the enterprise of the people: and as a field for the exertions of the industrious poor, New Zealand is probably without a rival. For those, however, who have already failed at home --for decayed tradesmen, for clerks and shopmen, for candidates for Government employment, for young men who have neither capital nor skill, and who are too proud or too weak to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow--New Zealand cannot be recommended as a field of emigration. But for the stout agricultural labourer, for the industrious artizan, the domestic servant, the small hardworking farmer, with a thrifty wife and stalwart sons and daughters; for every class of our countrymen who are able and willing to earn their daily bread

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by means of their daily labour, the country affords a congenial field on which an early independence may with certainty be earned. 1

THE PROVINCE OF AUCKLAND.

OF the Provinces into which New Zealand has been divided, the Province of Auckland is the largest and most important. It comprises about two-thirds of the northern portion of the northern island, nay an European population more than double that of any other Province exclusive of Naval and Military Forces, and more than a half of the whole native race. It is distinguished also for the extent of its coast line, the number of its harbours, and the facilities it affords for inland navigation; and probably no better proof can be given of its attractiveness, as a field of emigration, than the fact that while people from various parts of the neighbouring colonies were crowding to the gold fields of Australia in the year 1852, the population of the Province of Auckland, at the end of that year, exceeded by some hundreds the population of the province at the end of the year preceding; and has since continued steadily to increase.

Two of the most valuable natural productions of New Zealand are peculiar to the Province of Auckland: neither kauri gum nor kauri spars being found to the south of its southern boundary. The value of New Zealand spars has long been known in England; but the Report of the French Commission on the comparative strength of timbers of various kinds, has recently been made known abroad--the superior quality for ship masts--of the New Zealand Kauri Pine, and cargoes of valuable spars are from time to time shipped from the northern ports. But, besides valuable timber, the kauri tree produces large quantities of resin or gum, which has recently become an established article of commerce, both in the English and American markets. It is used as a size for glazing calico, as a substitute for gum copal, and for other purposes not yet generally ascertained. Its price in the English market has varied from £20 to £50 a ton. The natives, by whom it is collected, receive from the exporters £10 or £12 a ton. The amount shipped from the province varies considerably from year to year: the largest quantity (1,660 tons) was exported in the year 1854, the declared value in New Zealand being £28,000. Besides timber and kauri gum, the principal articles of export from the Province of Auckland are grain, potatoes, copper ore, wool, and oil. In the course of two years after the discovery of the Australian gold fields, the exports from the

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province increased three-fold. With its numerous rivers and harbours, the Province of Auckland possesses great advantages for maritime pursuits; and more than a hundred vessels are registered as belonging to the port of Auckland alone, besides upwards of a hundred and fifty licensed small craft under fifteen tons. Seven or eight hundred vessels, of all sizes, foreign and coastwise, enter the port in the course of a year; and English and American whalers still continue, in large numbers, to resort to the northern ports. 2

STATISTICS OF THE PROVINCE OF AUCKLAND, FROM THE GENERAL STATISTICS OF THE COLONY OF NEW ZEALAND, FOR 1858.

The total European Population of Auckland for 1858, exclusive of military, 18,177, with military, about, 19,027, nearly one-third of the total population of the whole Colony.

Wooden houses still form the great majority of the dwellings in New Zealand. Out of the 307 brick and stone buildings, Auckland owned 160, the majority of them really substantial and extensive structures, and the census for 1859 will show a very marked increase in that number in the province where the manufacture of bricks is becoming an important branch of business.

In Auckland there were 10,218 males to 7959 females. The total number of married males, exclusive of military, 2977, females 2845; unmarried males 7049, females 4890; shewing a large deficiency in female population; widowers 122, widows 224.

For Auckland the immigration and emigration stands thus, though the land order system did not commence till November:-- Immigration: adults--2150 males, 627 females; children, 325, males, 296 females; sex not stated 237, total 3635. Emigration: adults--1032 males, 304 females; children--106 males, 123 females; sex not stated 222, total 1787; showing a clear excess of immigration over emigration, in this province, of 1848.

Out of 229, which forms the total of deaths at Auckland for 1858, no fewer than 68 (male and female equally divided) were children under two years of age.

130 vessels with a tonnage of over 50,000, and crews of over 2600, were entered inwards, at Auckland. Outward 138 vessels, tonnage 40,268, crews 2624; so that in both cases more than one-third of the shipping trade of New Zealand falls to the share of Auckland.

Imports. Auckland Province, with its large Maori as well as European population, takes £345, 52 11s. 7d. Exports, £91,749. Auckland exported grain to the value of £5859; Kauri Gum, £20,036; Oil, £4928; Potatoes, £13,042; Timber, £16,882; Wool, £10,717.

153 registered vessels, with a tonnage of 5179, belong to Auckland.

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Horses, 3839; Cattle, 31,700; Pigs, 11,461; Goats, 3079. In Sheep Auckland was still behind, but she has been working hard to pull up since then. Number of acres fenced 90,467; under crop 60,201; in sown grass 50,319; acres in potatoes 2508.

Auckland contributed £65,507 to the general revenue.

The Auckland Savings' Bank was established 1847. Depositors: Europeans 393; Maoris 17; total 410. Deposited by Europeans £11,362 6s. 8d.; Maoris £552 18s. 2d.; total £11,915 4s. 10d. Amounts withdrawn by Europeans £4637 12s 11d.; by Maoris £14 1s. 10d.; total £4851 14s. 9d,; from this it would appear that there is in the Auckland Bank a balance to the credit of the depositors of £7263 10s. 1d.

[From the New Zealander, May 26th, 1860.]

From official Returns, published in the Provincial Government Gazette, we learn that in the month of January last the sales of Waste Lands in this Province amounted to 9842 acres, 1 rood, and 17 perches. That the sum of £1341 16s. 6d. was received in cash, and £1007 10s. in Scrip, and that Land Orders for 7092 acres were exercised. There remained at the close of that month, according to the Returns furnished by the Deputy Waste Land Commissioner at Auckland and Mongonui, 48,607 acres surveyed and open for sale or selection.

In the following month, February, the Return shows that 4795 acres were disposed of, for which were received £1024 16s. 6d. in cash, £1470 7s. 6d. in Scrip, and Land Orders for 3920 acres. On the 29th of February, there remained open for sale or selection, 43,812 acres.

The Land Sales for the month of March, according to the official Returns prepared for publication, and which are now before us, amounted to 9380 acres, 3 roods, and 20 perches. The cash receipts were £1800 3s. 6d.; Scrip £104 10s.; whilst Land Orders for 7464 acres were exercised.

It thus appears that, during the Quarter ending March 31st ult,, 24,018 acres, 2 roods, and 37 perches of land were disposed of by the Provincial Government; that £4166 16s. was received in cash; that the sum £2582 7s. 6d. in Scrip of the Land Claims Court, was taken, and that Land Orders for 18,576 acres were exercised. There remained on the 31st March, 55,656 acres, surveyed and open for sale or selection.

It will be evident from these figures that, nothwithstanding the large requirements made upon the Waste Land Department, the supply of surveyed land has been kept, steadily and unceasingly, in excess of the demand. On the 30th April, 1859, the quantity open for selection was but 27,760, and now, after so many months active operation, during which 62,939 acres have been disposed of, the quantity of land remaining ready for sale has been more than doubled.

From these figures it will be also seen that the process of settlement goes steadily on, unaffected by the untoward state of

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the relations of the Government of the Colony with the Native tribes at Taranaki. Northward from, and in the neighbourhood of, Auckland, where at present the work of forming new settlements is principally carried on, the Natives are perfectly loyal and peaceful. Tamati Waka Nene, and his friends at the Bay of Islands, have even offered to take up arms on behalf of the Queen, if necessary.

The Immigration from Europe under the Free Land Order system, has added greatly to the European population and to the Revenue.

[From the Illustrated London News, May 19, 1860.]

CITY OF AUCKLAND.

As many of our countrymen have emigrated to Auckland, New Zealand, taking advantage of a gift of land under certain arrangements which the Provincial Government of that province nave held out as a temptation to divert people's attention from the gold-fields, we here present our readers with a View of the City of Auckland, and the new Commercial Embankment called Custom House Street Quay, which is carried right across from its junction with Albert Street at Smale's Point to the foot of Britomart Barracks. This reclamation from the shore will give an extensive additional site for commercial establishments. A sale of leases for ninety-nine years at a nominal rent was advertised to take place there, on the 22nd of December; of lots of building land, ranging in size from 30 to 100 feet to 56 by 75 feet, and 55 by 100 feet. The upset prices for the lots ranged from £300 to £560 per lot. This great embankment and the projecting wharf jutting out from Queen Street have eminently advanced Auckland as a commercial port. It was not till 1840 that Auckland could be said to have had an existence. It was then judiciously chosen for the seat of Government in New Zealand. Strenuous efforts have been and continue to be made to remove the Government establishments to Wellington, and the General Assembly is to hold its next Session there; but, although Wellington is as central as Liverpool for the meeting of the British Parliament, nature has rendered Auckland the only place in New Zealand suitable to be the abode of the representative of majesty. The province of Auckland contains more than double the European population of any other province in New Zealand. Its northern position, placing it nearer to the tropics than the

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southern islands, gives it a more genial climate than is to be found in the southern parts of Europe. Persons who visit Auckland on the score of health generally fix their abode there. The remarkable longevity of the pensioners who emigrated twenty years ago affords an evident proof that the change from Great Britain to Auckland has lengthened their days. The European population of the province exceeds 20,000, exclusive of a large military and naval force. About 10,000 Europeans inhabit the city itself, and the trade of the province is rapidly augmenting. There is a great preponderance of the male over the female population. In addition to Europeans, a large body of civilised natives inhabit the province, conforming to European habits of industry; adepts in house-building, agriculture, and other useful occupations. Many of our own people would do well if they could become as well conducted as the Maories of New Zealand. These people are large consumers of English manufactured goods, and contribute to a great extent to the increasing exports from Auckland. Persons who intend to emigrate to New Zealand should not neglect to obtain, if possible, land orders for themselves and for each qualified member of their family. No persons are entitled to a land order as a right, or in respect of the payment of passage-money, but must satisfy the agents of the Provincial Government that they are persons of good character, suitable colonists, either by the judicious use of their capital in the employment of labour, or by their capacity and willingness, prior to their embarkation, to work hard at any occupation they can find in so young a country. The land orders are given to eligible persons to encourage their settlement in the province. There are no free passages to Auckland at the cost of the Government, but land orders are given to wealthier emigrants, who pay the passage of eligible artisans or mechanics, and servants of all kinds, and thus those classes of persons obtain a free passage. Assisted passages are only granted to such persons as may be nominated to the Provincial Government by their friends or relatives in the province, when instructions are given by that Government to their agents in London, Messrs. Ridgway and Sons, 40, Leicester Square, to provide them with a passage. In Auckland, occupations and amusements are similar to those in England. There are churches and chapels for every sect of Christians, synagogues, theatre, temperance halls, Christian associations, horticultural and agricultural associations, public companies, colleges, schools, acorn exchange, a mechanics' institute, literary lounges, musical entertainments, horse racing; and the port of Auckland is frequented by steam and seagoing ships of very large burden, beside innumerable native craft. In December 1858, when the census was taken, there were

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1224 houses or buildings within the city of Auckland, and the number was rapidly on the increase. In the province there were 3,889 horses, and 7 mules and asses, 31,700 head of cattle, 58,792 sheep, 3,079 goats, 11,461 pigs. The fenced lands belonging to Europeans in the province of Auckland comprised 90,447¼ acres, and 60,201¾ acres under crop, exclusive of large tracts of ploughed land and open pasture land. The lands in the province of Auckland are as varied in quality as in England; there is abundance of coal, lime-stone, timber, and other valuable products. There are no poor people in Auckland, except drunkards and other dissolute persons. Provisions and clothing are as cheap as in England, in many cases cheaper. House-rent is somewhat dearer than in England. The upset price of country lands is 10s. per acre: they are put up in lots of from 40 to 320 acres each. Town lands and suburban lands are put up at prices ranging from £1 up to £100 per acre, according to their position; but the choice lands in the city of Auckland, reserved for special purposes, are put up at reasonable prices from time to time. Lands belonging to proprietors are constantly being sold, or let, as in England; and it is necessary there, as here, for people to see that they deal with honorable persons. Choice suburban land has fetched, at public auction, for building purposes, after the rate of £1200 per acre. Messrs. Ridgway and Sons, of Leicester Square, the agents of the Provincial Government, have in their possession an extensive library of works upon New Zealand, files of newspapers, gazettes, specimens of gold, coal, flax, gum, wood, ferns, native implements, sketches of the natives and country, and everything that can interest persons desirous of emigrating, and those gentlemen are at all times ready to afford trustworthy information for the guidance of such parties. The London ships engaged in the Auckland trade are those of Messrs. Willis, Gann, & Co.; and Messrs. Shaw, Saville, & Co.; and the increasing traffic has induced Messrs. Wilson & Chambers and Messrs. James Baines & Co., of Liverpool, to embark in the trade. Messrs. Pearson & Co., of Hull, have established the Intercolonial Mail Packet Company in New Zealand. Persons of small capital requiring a good sound rate of income can invest their money upon the best securities in Auckland at 10 per cent interest. There are three well-conducted and well-printed English newspapers in Auckland, and everything is indicative of a steady and continuous progress; and, although, as in most new countries, it is rare to meet with persons of conventional rank, the society in Auckland is good.

The harbour of Auckland, the Waitemata, is acknowledged to be one of the finest in the world. Passing numerous head-

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lands, promontories, bays, and inlets, with curious islands of every size and form--ships enter between two heads a mile apart, the one on the Island of Rangitoto, and the other forming the cape, which terminates a narrow peninsula, over which the eastern sea is seen from the heights of the city. The haven of the Waitemata, within the heads, are from three to four miles in width; winding onwards to the south-west, and a few miles from Auckland, it is separated from the Manukau harbour by a narrow isthmus, which our young enterprise already proposes to cut through; thus opening a passage for ships from the Western Ocean. The situation of the city is noble and picturesque. The houses nestle in trees and shrubs along the heights of the coast, and then repose in green meadows along the sides, and up to the summits of numerous hills, many of which enjoy a vast and varied view of water and land, spread out into every conceivable variety of form.

NEW ZEALAND.

WHY IT IS A GOOD COUNTRY.

Because, during the shortest days, men can work from seven in the morning till five in the evening by the genial light of Heaven.

Because, during twelve months in the year men can cultivate the soil, neither oppressed by the heat of summer, nor incapacitated by the frosts of winter.

Because, during the twelve months the soil will yield its fruits for the food of man and beast--neither scorched by the sun, nor buried in the snow.

Because, in New Zealand, according to the Government returns, the sickness and mortality among Britons is less by 10 per cent, than in any other British military station in the world.

Because, in New Zealand a man with small capital can easily obtain a good farm, a comfortable homestead, and be contented and independent for the remainder of his life.

Because, the industrious man and woman can obtain a maintenance and save a surplus, without becoming the slaves of their masters.

Because, both the climate and the productions of the country are so adapted to the constitution of Anglo-Saxons, that their posterity are not likely to deteriorate either physically or mentally.

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WHY IT DOES NOT SEEM TO BE A GOOD COUNTRY TO IMPROVIDENT PERSONS.

Because they purchase too much land and make use of too little.

Because they embarrass themselves by borrowing money and bills, instead of depending upon their own energy and perseverance.

Because they speculate too much and work too little.

Because they do not steadily remain in one place and devote themselves to one object. "As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place."

Because they are more the slaves of drink and pleasure than the masters of any handicraft.

Because they depend too much on contingencies, and becoming the dupes of unprincipled men--regard neither the God who made them, nor the Saviour who redeemed them. "Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant." --Deut. viii.

"New Zealander"

EDUCATION AND PUBLIC WORSHIP.

A glance at some of the Public Schools for European children, in the City and neighbourhood, as well as in the outlying districts, will serve to explain how it is that the proportion of our youth receiving education is so high. In connection with the Church of England, there are the Epsom Grammar school; St. Paul's schools, for boys, girls, and infants; St. Matthew's, for boys and girls; St. Barnabas, for girls; St. John's College has just been re-opened, and there are schools at Remuera, Onehunga, and other places, while four schools will shortly be opened in the Papakura, Drury Hunua, and Wairoa districts. The Wesleyans have Wesley College, the Academy in Victoria Quadrant, and another in Freeman's Bay. The Presbyterians have schools for boys and girls in Symond's Street and Hobson Street; they have also schools at Tamaki, Otahuhu, Mahurangi (to the north), and Drury (to the south). The Roman Catholics have schools for boys and girls in Hobson Street, Freeman's Bay, and Parnell. A large proportion of these schools are in connexion with the Board of Education; and though they may be called denominational schools, there has been in this Province, from the first, a remarkable admixture of children of various denominations at most of the schools referred to. In addition

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to these, there are purely Public Schools, immediately in connection with the Board of Education, but not with any particular Church or denomination. There are also in Auckland about thirteen private schools for boys and girls, mostly conducted by very competent teachers, and there are two on the North Shore. When the report of the Board of Education is issued, we shall be able to give a more complete resume of the Educational Machinery of the province. But we have here cited sufficient proof that the Province of Auckland is already provided with schools of a very superior quality, to an extent that could have hardly been expected in so young a country.

In connexion with the Board of Education of this Province, 35 schools have been returned in operation on 30th September, 1859, with 1857 children in attendance. Assuming that children between 5 and 12 are of an educational age, we find, on reference to the General Census of December, 1858, that for the Province of Auckland 2924 children are returned as between 6 and 12, and 3566 as under 6 years; 600 of this number we may fairly assume to be 5 years old: we shall then have 3524 children of educational age. It appears from a return furnished in September, 1858, to the Board of Education by their Secretary, that, in round numbers, 1000 children were in attendance at private schools. Allowing 200 as a fair increase upon this number, we shall then have 1200 in attendance at private schools, and 1557 at public schools; making a total of 2757 under instruction--that is, 1 in 6½ of the whole population. As an indication of the progressive tendency of the Educational interests of this Province, we may add that, in 1857, only 20 schools were in connexion with the Board of Education; while for the year 1859, 35 schools have been returned. A marked increase upon this number is anticipated for 1860.

The assistance afforded by Government is administered through the Board of Education to all schools, on certain specified conditions. The allowance so given is at the rate of per annum for each child in average attendance, except in remote or thinly-populated districts, where the Board, if they think fit, may grant an additional £2 for each child. The patrons or managers of all schools aided by the Board are bound to contribute, by children's payments or otherwise, not less than an equal amount to that granted by the Board. Before such aid shall be granted to any school, the Board must be satisfied of the Teacher's moral character and fitness to conduct a school; and they shall cause such teacher to be examined in their presence, either by their Inspector or such other person or persons as they shall appoint for that purpose. --Education Act, sec. 17.

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"Every teacher, with whose qualification the Board shall be satisfied, shall receive a certificate of the first or second degree, according to the order of merit." --Education Act, Sec 18.

"The salary granted by the Board to teachers receiving a certificate of the first degree shall not exceed £75 per annum for a master, and £50 per annum for a mistress; and the salary granted to teachers receiving a certificate of the second degree shall not exceed £50 for a master, and £35 per annum for a mistress." --Education Act, sec. 19.

The Provincial Government have guaranteed to Teachers, after a term of five years' employment in connexion with the Board of Education, a free grant of 80 acres of land, which, in the event of death, is secured to the Teacher's legal representative.

In estimating the state of education in this Province we must also remember that many children are also educated at home by tutors and governesses; such education we have reason to believe, is, in many cases, of a superior character.

From statistics furnished to us in reference to Sabbath schools, we have much pleasure in being able to inform our readers that this most important branch of instruction is well attended to. Within the past two years a considerable amount of emulation has been displayed by the different churches in the Province with regard to their Sabbath Schools. The teachers have been placed under able leaders, and thus, acting together, every district is attended to. A great number of young men and young women have devoted themselves to this duty, and the result is that the parents are aroused, the children are cleaner and better dressed on the Sabbath than they used to be, and the teachers themselves have the noble satisfaction of feeling that they have been useful in preparing the heart as well as the mind for the services of the sanctuary.

The above statements must convince our readers that a vast amount of private energy is devoted to the intellectual and religious improvement of the youth of this colony.

Another point to which every parent desirous of emigrating, must attach great importance is, the provision for PUBLIC WORSHIP in the intended new home? In this respect also, Auckland will bear a strict scrutiny. The Church of England has two Churches in Auckland, and a third projected; one at Parnell; one at the North Shore; two at Remuera; one at Epsom; one at each of the Pensioner Settlements and at Tamaki; one at Waiuku; besides arrangements for visits to various outlying districts. The Wesleyans have three chapels in Auckland, chapels at Parnell, Onehunga, and

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several preaching stations. The Presbyterians have chapels in Auckland, Otahuhu, Papakura, Drury, Waiuku, Mahurangi, Waipu, &c. The Roman Catholics have churches in Auckland, and in each of the Pensioner Settlements. The Independents have two chapels in Auckland one in Remeura, and one, we believe, in projection in one of the adjoining districts. The Primitive Methodists and Baptists have each a chapel in Auckland; and the Jews have a synagogue. Whatever, therefore, the denomination or church to which emigrants may belong, they will see that there are numerous places of public worship, both in town and country. In several other districts we have not named, movements are now on foot for erecting churches or chapels; while there is hardly a district, in which only a few families are settled, where, sinking for the time differences that would be thought of moment in more populous places, they do not meet for the purpose of keeping the Sabbath.

THE LAND GRANTS.

In other countries land is sold, but in this it is given to immigrants. The motive for giving it is to bring population, and convert the wilderness and solitary place into a populous and wealthy nation. This plan is not now necessary in Australia, as the abundance of gold was quite sufficient attraction there; nor in America, for that country was for ages the only known outlet for British emigration. But the remoteness of New Zealand from the mother country, and the competition of the colonial fields of Africa and Australia, with the near attraction of the valleys of the Mississippi, rendered it needful that some striking feature should mark New Zealand colonization. Hence the religious and almost denominational schemes of Canterbury and Otago arose. Hence also arose the broader and more British idea of giving our acres in cultivateable quantities to men adapted by ability and inclination to clear and plant them. The men who struck out that thought, sagely foresaw that it carried with it a light which, in the towns and villages of the home countries, should outshine the waving corn-fields of America, vineyards of South Africa, and the gold of Australia and California. And the ships which have lately brought us 500 souls in a fortnight have even surpassed their expectations. An impression has been current not only throughout the three kingdoms, but in some of the less genial colonies, that the

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Province of Auckland is the place for settlers; --and that conviction has taken hold, not of the lighter and wandering portions of the people, but of an upper layer of society--the industrious--the skilled--the men whose ability and worth have in many instances enabled them to save a few hundreds of pounds--the very men whose integrity and uprightness, whose power and perseverance, qualify them both to originate and exalt a nation.

Immigration is, however, always a difficulty--sometimes a hardship--and those who undertake the business of a colonist, counting the cost, do not fail to calculate on drawing heavily upon their patience and endurance. The Pilgrim Fathers who, nearly three centuries ago, landed from the "May-flower" amid the thickets and dense woods of Cape Cod, without a living soul except the savage Indians to receive them--without shelter from the harsh blasts of winter till they had built one--those men had counted the cost; and when lighter minds and inferior men would have grumbled themselves to death, they spent their first Sabbath under the forest trees in singing hymns and in prayer, and on the six days they laboured and did all they had to do. And now that an Empire, second only to Great Britain in vastness and energy, has grown up, the posterity of those noble men celebrate the anniversary of their landing under the honorable distinction of "Forefathers' day."

There are difficulties for us in settling in New Zealand; but there are none which are insurmountable. There are no dangerous Natives--no freezing to death; no gloomy dread of being years without a sail in sight, or the arrival of a single visitor. The work of all colonists is of course up-hill work. But our hill is less steep and rugged than other hills; and like that of all our fellows, our work is free, of our own choosing, and the fruits will be all our own. But staying in the City of Auckland and spending money in self-indulgence, or listening to those who "talk fast" against the country, and the land, and the Government, is not colonising. Gathering up a party of fifty or one hundred persons, and selecting a quantity of land at the entrance of some kindly waters, fifty or one hundred miles from another settlement, and going to live and labour upon it--this is colonizing.

But there appears to be a difficulty in the minds of some of our new friends as to where they shall select their lands. That, of course is their own difficulty. Had there been only one block offered, there had been no hardship of choice between many; but as every man can select his few acres out of some thousands in different parts of the Province, either inland or coast-land, hilly or level, forest or fern, flax or ti-tree; the

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advantages of a large choice should not excite a complaint that the variety is perplexing--but satisfaction that the field is so large and varied. "But the Auckland capitalists buy up the best lands." Some of it they do; but even for the very best, the "free-grant men" can compete with them in the lot (and many have thus beaten the capitalist); though they had much better make a selection from the many thousands of acres which are open to them without any competition; and no doubt some of the lands so opened are as good as those for which many compete, for the run for a block does not always arise from a well-founded opinion that it is really superior. The wisest and safest way, perhaps, is for a party to agree to send two or three of ther body with the guide which it appears the Provincial Government would provide to accompany them, to inspect and report upon some block open for selection, and let the whole party bear the expense; and then, having made choice, let them go off together, and build their small dwellings, helping each other as Colonial neighbours cordially should do.

And our Auckland patriots, who having grown rich, feel that they should be also conspicuous, could hardly find a work more worthy their wisdom and benevolence, or even more remunerative for their efforts and capital, than that of taking the lead of a large party of persons who should obtain and settle upon a new district of the country, founding another town, and bringing thousands of acres into cultivation, and producing such provisions 3 as are now imported from other countries at an enormous expenditure of capital which might be well retained here, and find beneficial employment in the development of the numerous resources of our own Colony. There is at this moment ample scope for the formation of

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settlements which, at some future time, cannot fail to become of the first importance for agriculture, grazing, sheep-farming, and especially for whaling and general commerce, on the rivers estuaries and ports which give entrance to those large tracts of land, which are already available for the purpose in the interesting littoral districts, situated to the north of Auckland. Here is an object worthy the intelligence, ability, and capital of men who owe their distinction to the country they would serve: an object which would prove a blessing at once to hundreds of men who are not in a position to take the lead in such a movement, but who would be happy indeed to follow those whose character and experience and wealth both qualify and warrant them to lead.

Thus would they fulfil the designs of the Creator, and become the founders of new ports, towns, and groups of farms; would be in a condition to establish the means of education and worship--and thus escape the worst evils and the greatest hardships of colonial life.

"Uncle John."

PARTIES ABOUT TO EMIGRATE.

Persons in the home countries who may in future intend to settle in the Province of Auckland, should be advised by their friends to enter into combinations of fifty or one hundred individuals, or twenty or more families, with the intention of settling on the same block of land. An agent should be sent out from England, or some one already here appointed by them to select the land, and make application to the Provincial Government to have it set apart as "Special Settlement" land for "Immigrants expected to arrive." It would be well for each party to comprise men of some capital, say from £400 to £ 1000 each, also artizans and farm labourers. They should also bring a School teacher and a Minister of Religion. In order to carry such a plan into effect it would be requisite for the immigrants, before leaving England, or their home country, to obtain the land orders in the form required under the Land Regulations for "Special Settlement." They would thus secure the selection of a location from many tens of thousands of acres, in all varieties of situation; and, in addition to obtaining some of the best land in the most desirable locality for land and water communication, the very fact of a small community being at once grouped upon it, with the prospect of a town, and trade with the capital, and ere long with Australia also, would immediately raise the value of their selection from five to ten-fold, apart from the additional value of the improvements they would

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make on their farms. This plan has already been acted upon by a number of persons from "Nova Scotia," and they present every indication of a contented and thriving community. Already some of them have saved money enough from their farm produce to enable them to purchase additional land, which they have selected from the portions remaining unsold in their own neighbourhood. It might occur that, on the party arriving here, some one or more of them, looking over the maps in the Land Office, and seeing vast tracts of 30,000, 50,000, and 60,000 acres, each actually open for selection, and still larger districts in course of transfer from the Natives in various parts of the Province, might be tempted to regret that he was previously limited to one block; but all such temptations should be resisted, for the advantages of the Grouping System, and of the subsequent mutual aid in erecting residences, felling trees, &c, as well as the enhanced value of the land, will be great enough to outweigh all other considerations. Of course care should be taken to send a competent and trustworthy person to examine the country and select the block. All the parties should bring their implements, and the Teacher his books and other school requisites. In conclusion, I would only add the inspired words of King Solomon, "In all thy ways acknowledge God, and He shall direct thy paths."

"Uncle John."

UNITED SETTLEMENT.

It cannot be questioned that united action is of great importance to settlers. To them unity is strength, and indiscriminate dispersion is weakness; but how to constitute and work out a safe plan of co-operation, is by no means so easy to explain. The leading design may be good, but the details of the working drawings may be difficult, yet, if the design be right, and in harmony with the divine rules of equity and order, the details will come out, as earnest and practical men give thought and heart to the subject.

The question to be considered is this:--In what manner can a sufficient number of suitable persons be brought to combine their energies in the formation of a settlement, on land of good quality, well situated in the province of Auckland?

It appears that there is provision in the "Auckland Land Regulations" for the grouping of settlers, but, in order to avail themselves of the "Special Settlement" clauses, immigrants must, before leaving their home countries, enter into

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arrangements with the agents there, for the selection, by some one here on their behalf, of an eligible block: and then, before they leave, obtain from the agents a "Special Settlement" land order, which will entitle them to select their acres within that block.

But it will naturally be demanded how similar advantages can be secured by a number of persons already in Auckland and unassociated? --The first thing is to find a sufficiency of persons disposed to combine in the work, and to exercise their land grants upon one block. Let their names be first recorded at the Newspaper Office 4, or some other convenient place; when a sufficient number of persons are recorded, let them meet and agree upon a good locality, where forty or fifty thousand acres are open for selection; send off a deputation, with a Government guide, to inspect the land; and having fixed upon the locality, there is nothing more to do than to go to the Land Office and write their names on the pieces selected. No selection should be made until after the party is formed, and then the land should be secured without delay, because the knowledge that a community was about to settle there, might attract some newly arrived speculators to compete with them. I say "newly arrived speculators" because the colonists who are long resident in Auckland, and feel deeply interested in the progress of the country, I hope, on behalf of the new settlers, would on principle abstain from the competition, however great the temptation might be to purchase.

One of the first things after the land is obtained, is to make a road to it from some trunk road or landing place: and this could I believe be done by the settlers giving half the cost, either in money or labour, and the Provincial Government finding the other half. Having thus by combination obtained a site, the settlers would continue their cordial aid to each other, in building their houses, felling large trees, and any other matters in which united action would be for the advantage of all.

If my rough hints should lead some of the earnest and practical minds recently arrived, to work out and carry into life a judicious system of voluntary and united settlement; by which families may be grouped so as, without serious delay and inconvenience, to have roads, houses, schools, and churches for their own use and benefit, I shall rejoice to witness their success.

"Uncle John"

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With reference to the Special Settlements, the following Extract from a Letter from the Immigration Agent at Auckland., dated 9, 7th July, 1859, may prove interesting:

"I would also desire to see much of our Immigration conducted on the principle of Special Settlements. People settling down singly and unsupported in the bush, are under great disadvantages. They cannot make roads, and have difficulties that many are unfit to cope with; but a community of a few dozen families would easily overcome all these difficulties. I know places where there is plenty of very good land--and in places that, ere long, must be very important--where I could not advise single families to settle, but where a dozen or two, acting in concert, would do admirably."

To young Unmarried Men, intending to Emigrate, the Rev. Richard Taylor,in his Book on "New Zealand and its Inhabitants," gives the following advice:

"To single men, intending to Emigrate, I would say, marry before you go out; a good wife is a great treasure and stay to a young man. Many have been ruined, because they have not had a bosom friend to sustain them in times of trial, besides the social comfort thus derived; for none can tell how dreary a young settler's home is without a wife, and how many temptations she saves him from. Therefore, to every single man I again say, marry, for wives are not to be had abroad; property is of little consideration, compared with that of a partner."

Letter from Immigration Agent at Auckland to an intending Settler.

Immigration Office, Auckland,
90th September, 1859.

Sir, --The Rev. Mr. Morgan, of Otawhoa, having sent your letter to him (dated June 14), to His Honor the Superintendent of this Province, with a request that he would cause such information as you wanted to be forwarded to you, the Superintendent has requested me to write you on the subject.

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Mr. Morgan states that he has replied to your letter as far as the Waipa is concerned; so, I presume, he has informed you that the whole of that district is still in the hands of the natives, that in fact very little land to the south of Waikato river has been purchased by the Government, the natives in the southern part of the Province having, for some time back, refused to sell any of their land. This state of things I do not think will last long; even now, there are symptoms of a coming change.

All the land, or nearly all, that is in the hands of the Government, lies to the north of Auckland, --a good deal of it from 40 to 70 miles from Auckland. There are at present several places in the market, or about to come into the market, very suitable for settlement, by small communities of energetic people with a moderate capital. All the surveyors in the Province are at present engaged in making surveys for the Government, and as the surveys are completed, the surveyed blocks are proclaimed as open for sale or selection.

Persons who wish to settle together as a community should advise the Provincial Government here, through their agents some time before coming, of their intention to do so, and should obtain their land orders for "SPECIAL SETTLEMENT LAND." Unless this is done, they might find it difficult to obtain their land contiguous to one another.

North of the Waikato there are no grassy plains, and no natural grass worth mentioning. The land is all covered either with forest shrubs or fern. Generally speaking, the forest land is the best, although there is also very good fern land. Some of the fern land, and almost all the shrubby land, is indifferent. Cattle (a few) often do very well where there is forest, and even in some places chiefly covered with fern; but sheep will not do at all until artificial grass are produced.

Forest land, 40 to 50 miles from Auckland, can be cleared, sown down with grass, and fenced with a rough fence, at about £4 10s. per acre. The trees are cut down in winter, or early spring, i. e., before, or early in October, burnt off in the following March, and the grass seed sown on the ashes as they are cold. One of my sons has now a considerable number of cattle on land of this description, the timber on which was cut down twelve months ago.

Vegetables of most kinds grow here, more or less vigorously, all the year round; potatoes, however, don't do well to be planted earlier than July, or later than the end of this month.

The Country, I consider, to be a very healthy one--I do believe one of the healthiest in the world, --and I know no reason why people upwards of 50 years of age might not come along with the younger members of their families. They

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would be more likely to lengthen their days than to shorten them by so doing.

I do not think that in ordinary seasons any inconvenience will be felt from the climate. The heat is not greater than it often is in England, and is very rarely sultry; but the warm weather continues longer, say from December till the end of February, and occasionally (twice since I came here 10 years ago) we have had very warm and dry summers.

I honestly believe that for persons who ought to emigrate to any Colony this is an excellent Country to settle in; but I would earnestly impress on you that it is not every one who is fitted to be a settler in a new Country, and that it is impossible for persons residing in Britain to form any distinct idea of the sort of life they must, for awhile, live in any new Colony.

To be a successful Colonist, a person must either possess considerable Capital, be shrewd, steady and not fastidious in his habits; or he must be possessed of strong arms and a stout heart, be able and willing to work, sober, and hopeful; such men I have not known to fail, nor do I expect I ever shall.

There is work recently published in England on New Zealand by a Mr. Swainson (late Attorney General here) which I have no doubt will contain reliable information. And Messrs. Ridgway and Sons (40, Leicester Square, London) Agents for this Province, will be ready at all times to give such information as they from time to time receive from this country.

(Signed) R. B. LUSK,
Immigration Agent for the Province of Auckland.

GENERAL INFORMATION FOR INTENDING EMIGRANTS TO AUCKLAND.

We have been favoured with the following extracts from the letters of a settler in the province, of considerable standing and experience:--

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From the New Zealander, Sept. 10, 1859.

The work of colonization progresses with steady pace in the Province of Auckland, notwithstanding the sundry neat artifices of those who object to the existing Land Regulations, because they interfere with pet plans for the foundation of Earldoms, or with the business of clever agents who purchase for distant clients, blocks of "native land," which, on actual

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measurement, turn out to be about one-sixth the quantity for which those clients have paid in hard cash.

That there are some who have lately arrived among us who are temporarily disquieted in their minds, is very possible. It would be strange were this not the case. As in every young colony, so here in Auckland--as we have more than once had to say--we have here an active band of blatant Job's comforters, who are ever ready to warn new comers not to exercise their land-orders, but to buy or lease "improved farms;" while we have also a certain per centage of immigrants arriving per each ship, who would never be satisfied or self-supporting anywhere.

Some new comers are impressionable enough to be led away by this cheap sympathy. They find out their mistake when too late, and the "improved farm," which has done duty with more than one victim, reverts to the owner or mortgagee plus the money deposited, and the labour and time and capital expended upon it. There is more than one land-agent in Auckland who has warned new comers against hasty bargains of this kind, that can bear out our statement.

But while this is the case, the great majority--we think we may say five-sixths of the bona-fide immigrants now arriving --are the right stamp. They are prepared, if not capitalists, to rough it; if capitalists, they know that, just as they did at home, they must look before they leap; if working immigrants, they are prepared to do as the first settlers (who had no land orders) did, --take the first employment that comes in their way, and bide their time to settle down upon the land which they have a right to under the Land Regulations.

To the northern portion of the province, more particularly, is the attention of the most energetic and practical of our new fellow-colonists now directed. At Mahurangi, Matakana, Omaha, Pakiri, Mongawai, and sundry adjacent blocks, large accessions are being made to the ranks of our settlers. In the Waipu and Wangarie districts, the same work is going on; and hardly a post reaches us but we receive confirmation of the testimony borne to the steady growth and increasing prosperity of the different settlements in the County of Marsden, so well described by our correspondent, "A Prince Edward Islander."

Looking still further northward, we perceive most gratifying symptoms of a growing tendency on the part of new comers to direct their attention to Mongonui, where the Provincial Government has large blocks of land of the very best description, which will very shortly be open for settlement. But while many are looking to the north, others are looking as earnestly to the south, so far as the land is in the

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possession of the Government; and it will not be long before the as yet unoccupied allotments in the Drury, Hunua, and Wairoa blocks are taken np.

Reverting to a suggestion by one of our practical and bona fide settler-correspondents, --that the Government should give a general indication of the location and quality of each block as it is declared open for selection, and afford other reliable information, --we may observe, that the Provincial Government has already made provision of this kind, and has duly notified the fact. But, unfortunately, some of the "sympathizers" with the "poor immigrants," who did their best to prevent those immigrants from ever getting any land-orders, and who still aver that the Government has no good land to exchange for the orders, tell the immigrants that they must not trust to anything the Provincial Government says or does. They must only trust to them, and buy "improved farms" at 200 per cent, advance on the original cost and the expenditure since incurred thereon. Happily, we are getting out by each vessel more thoroughly practical agriculturists and more observant labourers, and business men; and so the work of permanent colonization progresses healthfully.

"New-Zealander" Office,
Auckland, October 26, 1859.

It would be extremely difficult, without entering in greater detail into the history of local politics than our present space will permit, to convey to our more distant readers a picture of Auckland "party," and thereby to render intelligible the opposition which is being made with so much recklessness to the existing system of immigration. Let it suffice to say, that there are two political parties in the Province:-- the one, representing a vast majority of the colonists, is styled the Constitutional party; the other, a very small minority, yet active, and having command of a newspaper, names itself, the " Progress" party.

On the question of the disposal of the waste lands, the policy of the two parties are diametrically opposed. The land regulations at present in force, embody the principles of the Constitutionalists. They promote the actual settlement of the country.

Some time since it was stated that the immigrants were

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suffering great distress; that some of them were actually starving; that they could not obtain land; that they could not find employment; and it was gravely proposed, that a general rate should be levied without delay for the immediate relief of their necessities. These statements have been copied into some of the journals of the other provinces, and thus, obtaining a wider circulation than they could have obtained by the medium through which they were first made public, may cause much anxiety to the friends in Great Britain of those persons who have already arrived here with land orders, and may affect the future proceedings of many intending emigrants to Auckland.

In recent articles in this journal, and in numerous letters from indignant correspondents, the utter wickedness and falsity of those statements have been conclusively demonstrated. Having premised this much, we leave the following facts to speak for themselves.

From the returns issued by the Deputy Waste Lands Commissioner, from November 30, 1858, to August 31, 1859, it appears that during that period land orders were exercised by immigrants to the extent of 32,525 acres. The first immigrants under the present Auckland Land Regulations arrived on the 4th of November, 1858, and the "Harwood," the vessel in which they came, will probably be out with another party within a little more than a year from the date of her arrival as the pioneer ship under the new system of colonization.

On the 30th of April last, according to the official returns the quantity of land already surveyed and opened for sale or selection was 27,760 acres; on the 31st May, 31,551 acres; on the 30th June, 34,273 acres: on the 31st July, 35,302 acres; on the 31st August, 31,041 acres. It will thus be seen that, notwithstanding the large demands made for land, the quantity prepared for sale has increased. On the 23rd of August, 8024 acres were gazetted for sale or selection on the 3rd October. On the 19th October, 7989 acres in addition, were gazetted for sale or selection on the 21st day of November next. Some 20,000 acres more are now, as we are informed, surveyed, and will be proclaimed, in a few days.

On the 26th ultimo, two days after the dispatch of our last Month's Summary, the Matoaka (1,092 tons), from London arrived in our harbour, bringing 170 immigrants, and amongst them Mr. Thomas Ball and his "special-settlement" party. A place called Kohumaru, in the vicinity of the Harbour of Mongonui, in the northern portion of the Province, having been fixed upon, Mr. Ball and his friends and followers have already departed from Auckland to take possession of their new home, and to lay the foundation of a new Colony which

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cannot fail to succeed. Mongonui is an excellent harbour, and is the port of resort for a large portion of the whaling fleet of the Pacific. The supplies for these ships have hitherto been furnished from Auckland, but the new settlers will find a market at their doors for the sale of much of their surplus produce for years to come.

The immigrants from Prince Edward's Island are also about to locate themselves at Mongonui. There is already a large extent of land in that neighbourhood at the disposal of the Government. The Natives---who anxiously desire to have settlerg near them--have promised to sell the celebrated "Victoria Valley;" and thus, if a good harbour, good land, capital, labour, and a ready market, can make a settlement prosperous, the future of Mongonui is secure.

The "Tornado" (1,075 tons), the first of the Liverpool clippers, with 245 passengers, arrived a few hours after the "Matoaka." Many of her passengers have already selected their land; others are "prospecting; " and of those who desire to labour for hire, not any, so far as we are aware who are able to work, have failed to find employment.

On the 19th instant, the "Mermaid" (Capt. White, 1,235 tons)--the second vessel of the well-known Liverpool "White Star" line--arrived in harbour, with 322 passengers, all in good health and spirits. The immigrants by this noble vessel will form a highly intelligent and eligible addition to our population; among them are a large party from the Isle of Man; and we are glad to learn that another special settlement will be formed out of their number.

We have now before us a "List of Immigrants in respect of whom land-orders have been issued, who arrived in Auckland on the 8th of January, 1859, by the 'William Watson,'" which was the second vessel arriving under the present Regulations; and this list shows how this party, consisting of 130 odd, were located or employed up to nearly the present date. Out of them 8 (a family) have gone to Melbourne; 4 to Sydney; 2 to Otago; 1 to Canterbury; 2 gone back to England; and 2 about to leave. Say that in round numbers 20 have left, there are still remaining 110 in the province, engaged in various occupations either in town or country, many of them, to our certain knowledge, doing well! while, also, to our personal knowledge, some of those who left, did so because of the disheartening reports with which they were greeted on landing, by the loafing old hands to whom we have above alluded. Now, this list affords a fair sample of what would be the result of an investigation into the history of almost every ship-load of immigrants arriving here with land-orders. The discontented and incompetent compose but a very small

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per-centage--the great mass, the really desirable settlers, remain behind and become permanent residents.

One word of advice to persons about to emigrate. Whenever it is possible to form associations at home, of from one to two hundred individuals, for the purpose of establishing "a special settlement" in this province, that mode of colonization should be adopted; the experience of every day proves its advantages. Capital and labour may be combined in such associations, and with a favourable location, such as may be secured by proper arrangements, success will, under ordinary circumstances, be certain.

The natural tendency of a large immigration is, in the first instance, by increasing the supply of labour, to lower the rate of wages. The Emigration Agents are regularly advised of the current rate of wages, of the price of provisions, and of the sort of labour which is most in demand. Intending immigrants should inform themselves accurately upon those points, and prepare for all that may await them on this side. Here are no gold-diggings, where men grow suddenly rich; hard work, privation, discomfort endured for two or three years, are the inevitable conditions of success. In the struggle with the wild land, those who have patience, courage, strength, conquer; the weaker vessels go to the wall.

To the Editor of the Southern Cross.

SIR, --I have read with much surprise the article headed "The Forty-acre Men," in your issue of yesterday.

You appear to have been informed that a number of labourers among the lately arrived immigrants cannot find employment, and that "some among them have been reduced to begging for food."

As Immigration Agent to this Province it has been my duty to render every assistance in my power to all Immigrants desirous of being employed. I have therefore publicly invited applications--both from labourers and the employers of labour--and I believe that as a general rule, every Immigrant desirous of employment applies to me, so that I can speak pretty confidently as to the real state of the labour market, and I can positively assure you that the information you have received is altogether incorrect.

A very few persons, unfit for labour, or only accustomed to some employment not to be found in a young colony, may be unemployed, but I do not believe there is, among all the

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number who have arrived here, one efficient labourer who is not employed, or, at all events, who cannot find employment if he chooses.

I have at present commissions from various settlers to send them ploughmen, ditchers, spadesmen, and married couples fit to take charge of dairies, &c, while I do not know where to find any of them.

In corroboration of what I have stated I may mention that on Monday, I sent a note to the person in charge of the Immigration Barracks, requesting him to send me any unemployed labouring men in the Barracks, as I could offer employment to some of them, and I received a note from him, in reply, stating that there were none; in fact, that, with the exception of one or two families about to settle on land, and another the head of which was ill, the Barracks were empty.

However strange it may appear, it is a fact, that the Immigrants who have arrived lately have found employment much sooner than those did who came three or four months ago.

R. B. LUSK,
Immigration Agent.
21st September, 1859.

SHEEP FARMING IN THE PROVINCE OF AUCKLAND.

To the Editor of the Southern Cross.

SIR, --It is difficult to conceive why people of easy, tolerable, and comfortable means, cannot settle down contentedly in this province, but are tempted by the representations that fortunes are to be amassed in an incredible short space of time in the South, just merely by getting a lease of extensive sheep runs, as if that were all, and without further consideration precipitately determine upon going there to try their luck, and as if to make one believe they had effected their object in every sense of the word. Some of them return and report of the wonderful extensive runs they have secured--the number of white sheep and not black ones these will keep, and that in a year or two they cannot but be men of independent fortune; while others have entered into a co-partnery with some settlers, who, having already secured extensive runs, are in want of the primum mobile to stock these runs, and thus lay the basis of a rapid fortune. Poor dupes, and that is a significant term, they seem not to dream of the future, but fancy that it must be all gold that glitters, little do they think

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of the expense, the hardships, the difficulties and the many disappointments attending and to be contended with, for no person who is not ignorant, no person of experience and real common sense would embark in this wholesale manner in one of the most precarious of all agricultural pursuits, and which must in a very few years darken if not destroy their golden prospects; for that fickle dame Fortune does not always smile on every fair and bold adventurer, and many of these golden dreamers will be found leading a regular Robinson Crusoe life far far back in the wild cold uninhabited dreary regions. If I had space I could easily demonstrate that in a few years time sheep runs in the South will be at a discount, and that sheep will scarcely pay for looking after; this, Sir, was the case in New South Wales prior to the discovery of the gold fields. At present the reason why sheep runs in the South are so profitable is owing to the number of settlers ariving from England and elsewhere, which creates a great demand for sheep to stock their runs with; but this is not to last for ever; bye and bye when the runs get more numerous and the flocks equally large, that demand will diminish and gradually subside. A re-action will ensue, flockmasters being unable to get rid of their increase their runs will get overstocked, their flocks consequently will be in danger of getting starved; for to boil down poor lean sheep to thus reduce their number would be out of the question, it would not pay; and as a natural consequence the flocks will become diseased, and when scab makes its appearance on a confined run it can only be got radically rid of by destroying the whole flock, and when once a flock gets infected there is no escape for the neighbouring flocks, for it is a well known fact that the fine wooled sheep are too delicate for the climate of the South. In the Canterbury plains, a stretch of 60 miles, when a storm comes on the sheep are actually driven with the violence of the wind from one end of the plain to the other; and the different flocks get so mixed that one scabby sheep in any one flock will infect the whole; and that scab has already commenced its ravages there can be gathered from what appeared in the public print only the other day, about certain gentlemen being fined for running scabby flocks. This, Sir, is rather a gloomy picture, but were I to paint it in another shade I should not be doing justice to the subject, nor to those for whom it is intended.

The Northern Province, the one from which this is dated, can be painted, I am happy to say, in milder and more substantial colors. The character of the Provinces in the South and that of this is vastly different. The Southern Provinces are decidedly pastoral. There food for sheep or cattle

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grows spontaneously. The country seems to be covered with grass, but of a very thin weakly kind, three to five acres being required to graze one sheep, and which, after a few years, in many districts being an annual, and where not allowed to shed its seed becomes thinner and thinner, and ultimately disappears. This Province is an agricultural one; the country is either covered with brush or fern, which can only be got rid of by manual labour. And the plan pursued by the settlers is not to lease extensive runs of country, but to purchase a few hundred acres of land, and after clearing the surface, to plough and lay it down to artificial grasses, and divide and sub-divide into moderate sized paddocks. The beautiful farms around Auckland and its neighbourhood, which can vie with any in old England, are a proof of the great capabilities of the land in this Province. On some of these farms one acre of grass will keep and fatten from five to eight sheep, and two acres of grass will keep and fatten three head of horned cattle; and the land thus managed, when cultivated with potatoes and other crops, give incredible returns.

It is not impossible for new arrivals with comfortable means, to purchase land at ten shillings an acre, and convert it, in a year or two, into as good looking farms as any in this district; but before committing themselves to any particular locality, they ought first to ascertain the nature of the soil they intend selecting, and the facilities of locomotion. By adopting these and other precautionary measures their success and independence is inevitably certain.

FIDES.

BRIEF HINTS TO NEW-COMERS.

Don't be in too great a hurry, either to purchase land, or to exercise your land-order, but wait a bit, and look around you.

Don't listen to the croakers and grievance-mongers, for they are only a mischievous and bilious set of men.

Don't spend one shilling which you can avoid for the first twelve months, as you will not find shillings so easy to get back again.

Don't despair, although you may be discouraged at the outset of your new career, but be assured that persevering industry always must and always will succeed in the colony.

Don't frequent taverns, public houses, or billiard-rooms, for they cannot do you any good, and may do you a deal of harm.

Don't think, because you have just arrived from England,

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that you are brim-full of wisdom, for you will in all probability find a few here wiser than yourself, having added Colonial to English experience.

Don't be in too great a hurry to set everybody else to rights, but wait patiently and see if you cannot learn something,

Form yourselves into communities to locate in the bush; but don't entangle yourself hastily with partnerships. The former is very good, and the latter frequently very bad. Hasty partnerships and hasty dissolutions show a want of stability or judgment.

Don't grumble if you can only make a living for a year or two; but be sure that "the good time is coming," when your exertions will be crowned with success.

Don't hang about town longer than you can help, for you can gain very little by it, and may lose much.

Don't despise moderate wages at commencement; for, remember, you are not likely to be as valuable as more experienced folks.

Don't locate yourself on bad land at any price, for it must of necessity end in disappointment, if not ruin.

Be civil and courteous to all, and don't think it necessary to be rough in your manners because you see much that is rough around you. Civility is always esteemed, and costs nothing.

Don't imagine that good, honest, upright conduct is not prized here, for, be assured, that a man's good character, when tested, is as valuable to him here as in any part of the world.

Don't talk of how much better off you were at home, for no one will believe you, and you may be apt to be told, "It's a pity you ever left home,"

Don't grumble and talk of not having been used to light your own fire and cook your own dinner, but do such work as you find you have to do here, or it may be suggested that, perhaps, you had no dinner to cook at home; and be thankful that you have one to cook, and a good appetite to eat it. It is almost an invariable rule, that parties (both male and female) who have moved in the best positions in England assume the least here, and that those in the very lowest ranks at home arrogate the most.

Don't call Old Practical a fool for giving you these hints, for, be assured, they are well meant, and he can have no interest in giving them.

I am, yours, really truly,
OLD PRACTICAL.

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A QUERY.

"Will the Forty-acre Men ruin the Country?

To the Editor of the New Zealander.

SIR, --An attack upon one of the wisest measures of the Provincial Government has been made by an organ of the Auckland Press, whose uniform condemnation of the policy of our Superintendent so clearly emanates from a spirit of opposition, if not animosity, as to cause those who have been long acquainted with its tactics to give a wary and cautious ear to its animal versions.

Anxious to induce the very calamities it pretends to deplore; in contravention of all experience in colonization--in direct opposition to the true facts of the case; a theory, based upon hearsay and misinformation, has been raised--too flimsy, it is true, to pass current with any one at all acquainted with the practical formation of a new colony--but calculated to mislead the more unwary and unsuspicious of the friends of New Zealand at home and abroad.

Whence comes this sudden and uncalled-for burst of amiable philanthrophy--this touching sympathy for "men of a coarser mould"--these patriotic fears and lamentations! Truly, the wind has shifted since the never-to-be-forgotten Editorial of this same journal announced to the world that "grass was growing in our streets." "'Tis an ill bird that fouls its own nest; nor need we envy the feelings of a man, or of a party, who would precipitate a panic on their country for the purpose of hampering the opposite party when in power.

The baying of the bull-dog of the 19th has been followed by the howls and yelps of all the smaller curs who take their key-note from its own. "The forty-acre men will ruin the country!" Doubtless--much in the same way that Free Trade ruined England some few years back--or that Victoria sank into insignificance on the discovery of her gold fields!

Why has New Zealand--with her copper mines, her forests of magnificent timbers, her untried fisheries, her thousands upon thousands of untitled acres ready for the plough, --comparitively languished, unless bolstered up by foreign loans or the accidental high prices of 1854 and 1855? Wealth was, and is there; but like the gold in the Robbers' Cave, we wait for that mighty Geni, the surplus labour of England, to give us the " Open Sesame," without which it will lie as hidden and as useless as it has heretofore done.

To believe such notions, we might suppose the "forty-acre man" to be an animal altogether sui generis-- useless to himself and to the state--one who can exist without increasing the reve-

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nue of the colony. Naturally of an idle and vagabond disposition, he will prefer destitution and poverty to the alternative of hard work and independence! Numbers join in this foolish cry, forgetful that they themselves, though now in far different circumstances, began life in the colony literally without a pound.

Then, again, they put the converse of the proposition, and the "new arrival" is told to his discouragement, that he has no chance of success; that the market is over-stocked; and a volley of abuse is fired off at that great kidnapper, the Superintendent, that political Blunderbore--who has "inveigled" so many "poor new chums" into his enchanted castle! "Min Allah! they laugh at our beards!" Let us take the case and examine it for ourselves.

IMMIGRANTS we may divide into four classes:--1st. The man with a capital of £150 and upwards. 2nd. Gentlemen, clerks, &c, with smaller means, all unused to menial labour. 3rd. Mechanics. 4th. Unskilled labourers or agricultural servants.

For the first of these four classes we need have no apprehensions. With prudence and economy, and a not too precipitate investment of their capital, they may look for an adequate-- nay a liberal return. Their own good sense will tell them that they need not look for fortunes:--ex nihilo, nihil fit. -- The man who commences business with only a thousand pounds, may be well satisfied if the interest of his money afford him a comfortable living while his capital is yearly increasing in value, as the district in which his farm is situated is improving. The second of these classes are undoubtedly in the worst position of all. Yet they can blame no one but themselves. Capable of reasoning on the subject, with all means and appliances for gaining correct information, how could any reasonable man come to the conclusion that the services of persons of their description would be at a premium in a comparitively new and as yet thinly populated country! The best advice for such among them as possess some little means, though less than the sum stated above, viz., £150, is for three or more to club together (if they intend farming, and can obtain their 40 acres adjacent to one another)--throw all into the common lot--and, if at last the exchequer run low, one or more by working away from home, could keep "the firm" going. This has been done--and might be done again. Otherwise, if unable to obtain situations as clerks, &c, they must be content to sink to the level of the last two classes, and trust to sobriety and economy to advance their position--a hard, though not necessarily a vain endeavour in a country where working men can obtain 10, 12, and 15 shillings per week besides board and lodging.

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And why does the mechanic emigrate? Partly to increase his daily rate of wages, but mainly because, at home, the increasing numbers of his craft preclude the possibility of anything like a steady and regular employment. Take 5s. as the average daily wages of a mechanic at home (putting war-times out of the question), and I maintain that--let matters come to what the "Progress" (?) party pretend to dread, but secretly wish for--I maintain that he would be better off here with regular employment, and 7 or 8 shillings a day, which, as things now are, is only a little more, and in some trades less than half the present rate of wages. At home, too, the mechanic out of work may pass the time with his hands in his pockets, unable to keep the wolf from the door. How different here!--the unskilled labour market is open to him and (should wages throughout the country drop to 3s. 6d. or 4s. per day), as his worst alternative, as a common labourer, he can earn nearly the same rate as his trade provided for him in England.

These calculations are based upon the supposition of a fall in the rate of wages in consequence of increased immigration --such a fall, as I shall endeavour to show, is necessary for the advancement of the Province, and fair upon the labourer himself. The present high-pressure system must end in stagnation and atrophy. Who can afford to give twenty shillings for labour that reproduces but the same amount or less? Now, under the present system of a mixed-class in emigration, need we fear that these changes will be effected in a too rapid or too startling a manner. A large, a very large proportion of our new arrivals are employers, rather than competitors for employment.

But the unskilled labourer; --this is the man who gains more perhaps than any by the change, The Pariah of civilised England--living in many cases less comfortably than the cattle he tends--worked hard from daylight until dark--badly fed, without the smallest hope of bettering his condition--his only refuge in sickness or old age, the workhouse, --is this the man to be ruined by the free-grant of 40 acres of land, and the advance of his wages from £8 a year to £30, or from 10s. a week to 20s. O, fortunati Agricoli, si sua bona norint!

Away with such cant--such sickly sentimentality. Once let the tide of immigration reduce wages to this point, and where one man is now, there would be ten then employed. Why do we hear the too common exclamation, "Oh, cultivation won't pay--grass is the only thing?" The high price, the uncertain supply, and the inferior quality of the labour cause all this. With wheat and potatoes at the same price-- with oats at nearly double the price as at home--without rent

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and without taxes--we cannot do what the English farmer can--cultivate our land; and why? Because the exorbitant price of labour more than counterbalances these otherwise advantages. "Eh, mon! but he couldna live on twenty shillings a week!" No?--does he not live on ten--aye, and on less than ten, at home? Meat, tea, sugar, and potatoes, I find, by reference to London and Auckland prices, vary but little either way: wheat has not, except till lately, averaged dearer than at home; house-rent, if engaged on a farm, would cost him nothing here; clothes, I own, are somewhat dearer, and boots to; but the balance would be far, very far on the side of the labourer, to say nothing of the physical and moral improvement of himself and family. Ask any servant if he appreciates the difference between working for a master here and at home--between the feeling of manly independence on the one hand, and the cringing servility on the other; between the toil exacted to the utmost tension of his physical power of endurance, and the fairer amount claimed here by the master, more fitted for the labour of a human being.

No, sir, it is no sincere apprehension of evil results to the country at large which has raised this outcry against the present system of immigration. The cloven foot peeps out. The "forty acres given away, is the whole gist of the matter. "What! make 'Hodge' a landed proprietor! put him on the same footing as the man whose 'ancestors came in with the Conqueror!'" Oh fie! this is too bad! never mind, though the weekly revenue be nearly doubled, our exports increased, the colony opened up, such a "moving of landmarks' and "opening of flood-gates" must end, as the whole race of Dedlocks declare, in our utter ruin! How much nicer it would have been to have introduced "direct purchase," to have allowed the sale of land only in sections of not less than a square mile--to have kept capital "capital," and labour "labour,"--and gradually to have grafted the effete and worn-out institutions of European countries upon this.

I am, Sir, &c,
A COCKATOO SETTLER.
The Wade, Sept. 25, 1859.

THE NEWCOMERS.--WHAT TO DO.

To the Editor of the New Zealander.

SIR, --I have been told by recent arrivals in more than one ship, that hardly have they dropped anchor than certain parties have boarded them, telling them they had been de-

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luded, --had made a great mistake, --had better go home again, --would be ruined if they stayed, and so on; endeavouring in fact to fill their minds with all manner of gloomy forebodings. I think this conduct most reprehensible. Under the most favourable circumstances immigrants have enough of discouragement to meet with on their arrival in a new Colony, without people doing their best to make the natural difficulties of their position wear the gloomiest of aspects. They miss many of the accommodations to which they have been long accustomed. The absence of the familiar faces of the old house at home is but poorly supplied by the croaking tones and cold shoulders of the Job's comforters they too often meet with here. Is it surprising that they should for a while feel that love of country, call it homesickness if you will, which lays them open to receive impressions unfavourable to the new land of their adoption.

Is it not, then, a shameful and a cruel wrong for any one to take advantage of these and other difficulties natural to an immigrant's position, and make use of them to dishearten, to embarrass, and let me add, to ruin him?

I would fain believe, sir, that the efforts of these parties are the result rather of thoughtlessness than of malice aforethought; were it otherwise they would justly deserve to be branded as traitors to their country and enemies to their Queen.

I have been led to refer to this matter by the announcement that, induced by the land regulations now in force, 1200 people are on their way to this province, and that 4000 or 5000 may be expected during the next six months. If such be the fact, it becomes the duty of every good citizen to facilitate as far as possible their settlement, or at least to throw no obstacles in their way.

Whatever may be said against the land regulations now in force, it can hardly be denied that they will give us a large direct emigration from home. If they do this--they will do much to settle many of the troublesome questions of the day. Increase the population of this new country and you develope its resources--you add to its strength--you lessen the native difficulty--you counteract and remove much of that wretched politico-personal squabbling too common amongst us. You will--as in the south--give us men capable of helping us to manage our affairs in a manner more creditable to us.

Now to the question--"What are the new-comers to do?" Perhaps this will be well answered by one of themselves. "They tell me, sir," said he, "That I have made a great mistake in coming here--that there is nothing to do. However,

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when I found you were importing wheat, maize, beef, cheese, drays, blocks, tubs, and fifty other things besides which might all be produced here--I concluded that instead of there being nothing to do, there was nothing done."

If this observation be true--and in the main I believe it is --the chief difficulty will be found to be the adaptation of every one's particular skill or abilities to the wants of the country. This requires time and patience.

Every new-comer with a useful trade in his fingers need not be long in finding something to do in the way of producing some article at present imported. Others will find various employments, which if not as well paid as they would like, will at least give them time to acquire experience and a knowledge of the ways of the country which will be invaluable to them, and which all that have ever succeeded in a colony have had to purchase--sometimes at a heavy cost. After all, the land which induced them to come out, must be the main stay of the immigrants. By far the larger portion of them must settle upon their land. To do that, they came out. To do k as soon as possible is their wisest policy.

When they reflect that the 20,000 people in this province in 1858 required for home consumption each 6 bushels wheat per head, whilst they hardly produced more than 1/2-bushel per head, they need not hesitate to turn cultivators--the advantage of doing so is apparent.

The hardships in doing so, great as they may be, are not to be compared with those which an American settler in the Far West has to encounter. Let those who are so ready to discourage new-comers by telling them there are no roads, no houses, no nothing--remember the trackless leagues, the terrible winters, and the miserable fevers and agues of Canada. Making reasonable allowance for the short time this colony has been in the hands of the British Government, and the consequent want of knowledge and experience in handling in the most advantageous manner the qualities and characteristics peculiar to it, I do not think I say too much, when I state my belief, that few countries offer more advantages for settlement to an industrious man than the Province of Auckland.

I shall be told of failures. Granted. Failures and mistakes are the parents of success. The individual who enters upon a new trade has many a little lesson to learn before he achieves success, and the community that undertakes to settle and subdue a new country must be prepared to encounter many unforeseen difficulties, and to make many mistakes before experience becomes so strengthened that he who runs may read.

The grand point then for the consideration of those who

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wish to facilitate the settlement of new-comers on their lands, is to ascertain the peculiar difficulties with which they will have to contend--and to point out the means which successful settlers have pursued to overcome them. If trustworthy information of this character can be put into the hands of new-comers--a world of time and toil will he saved them.

Yours, &c,
J. C. FIRTH.

CHEAP HOUSES FOR NEW-COMERS.

To the Editor of the New Zealander.

Mr. Editor, --A little practical experience will be worth a deal of theorising. I will therefore give my own case in the building of a "cheap habitation for a family." Although not a new-comer, I am comparatively a new settler in the Bush. I have for two years, lived (not existed merely) in a split slab house, which cost me £20, and in this same cottage or hut-- myself, wife, and family--in all six of us--have lived really comfortably; seeing at times not a few visitors, and scarcely a week elapsing without our mustering round a social, cheerful fire of an evening, 15 or 16 friends and neighbours.

Now, how to proceed:--Go into the Bush with your axes, maul, and wedges--Fell a Rimu, Totara, Kaikatea, or Kauri, as the case may be--cross-cut it into lengths of six or seven feet. Then, with your wedges, quarter these lengths, and split them into slabs of about ten or twelve inches wide and two inches in thickness; cut some good posts for the corners, stringers, wall plates, and also ridge pole, rafters, and divisions. This is all the stuff you require, and up to this point, excepting your own labour, has not cost you 1s. If you can get a few thousand shingles split in the neighbourhood at 10s. or 12s. per thousand, do so; and, if not, thatch with nikau and rushes--a good slab chimney, 6 feet wide and 4 deep, is quite desirable; it should be for about 4 feet high inside, piled up with stones. After a bit you can cut slabs, and put them down for a floor.

Now, if you are not able to do this yourself, there are plenty of men who will do it for £15 to £20.

If you are in the neighbourhood of a saw-pit, and get sawn slabs cheap, so much the better. Doors you can make of slabs, or palings, and a window or two can be purchased in Auckland very cheap. A week or ten days will suffice to ensconce you in a snug and comfortable, although not showy or elegant habitation.

My own was originally 20 feet by 12 feet, but has now

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sundry additions, making in all, six rooms; and in this house, humble though it be, I shall be contented to live yet a little longer.

Above all I say to the new-comer, "Do not spend your little capital in aiming to put up a fine house, and thus, impoverish yourself as many have done before, and perhaps never finished their houses. Build a good house when your farm will afford the means of your doing so; but a grand attempt at a fine house, with little to eat, or no comforts within, is a sorry look-out."

OLD PRACTICAL.

CHEAP FIRST HOMES.

We have already stated that Mr. Bunting--a new-comer-- has acted upon our suggestion of the desirability of showing at how cheap a rate "first homes" could be supplied to new-comers and other working settlers, particularly where there is near available land or water carriage. Where such means of carriage are not so ready to hand, or where Natives or friendly settlers are located in a district, there a commodious raupo house could no doubt be erected quite as cheaply and speedily. And where the new-comer and his sons are at all skilful in the use of tools, then they could not do better than act on the hints thrown out for their advantage by our friend "Old Practical," respecting "Slab Houses." But wherever there is fair land or water approach to a settlement, there we are convinced it will be found true economy, both of money and time, for new-comers to provide themselves with such a "first home" as we have suggested.

Holding this conviction strongly, and being fortified in it by the most intelligent of our fellow colonists, we are glad to be able to announce that another kind of "first home" has been designed by Mr. Sanderson, and now lies for inspection at the Waste Lands Office. The house is to be 14 feet by 10 feet--7 feet walls--the roof sloping up about 3 feet. It will have a door, two windows, and a plate for stove-piping to pass through. It consists of some 196 pieces, all fitted one into another, and so arranged that the whole can be conveniently packed, conveniently humped even through a bush cutting, and easily put up in the course of a day. The total cost to the purchaser, we learn, should not exceed some £14 or £15. Accompanying the plan is an estimate of the exact quantity of material required. A house, built from this plan, will shortly be ready for inspection in some public place.

NEW ZEALANDER.

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THE SETTLER'S FIRST SEASON.

To the Editor of the New Zealander.

SIR, --I have noticed several well written letters addressed to new-comers, still I think there is a want of information as to a settler's operations the first season. To all, but to a man of slender means especially, a very important matter. That want I will endeavour to supply, addressing myself to the man of £60 and 40 acres.

First as to choice of Land--carefully inspect the various Plans in the Land Office; do not be led away to make a selection without seeing the Land because others are selecting in the same locality. It is perhaps a case of success or non-success in life, if others err, do not you. --Provide a tracing of the survey and go upon the ground; most likely you will be rewarded with information enabling you to make a good selection. As a general rule wood land is most profitable for the small settler, unless too much broken kauri land excepted, which is generally bad; choose, if possible, dry lying land, with an Eastern or Northern aspect and free soil, all of which are very important matters; volcanic soil above all if to be obtained.

Be not afraid of distance. I remember the time when Tamaki settlers were considered almost out of the world. Let good land near to available water carriage or land carriage to Auckland be your aim.

I will now suppose your land selected. If a carpenter, or can handle tools, put together a frame of a cottage 24 by 12, studs and rafters 3 by 2; sashes and door you can buy ready made; and get at once on your land. You may be able to get a raupo house of same dimensions erected by Natives, but generally speaking, the man who can handle tools will find the other the best plan. I would by all means recommend new arrivals, if possible, settling in communities; they can thus help and cheer each other on.

Purchase or lay by, first, for 12 months provisions at once, then two good English or half-bred sows in pig, and if in your power two heifers in calf; avoid cows even if in milk, few cows are sold unless for some defect; while with heifers, hand-fed, of which there are plenty, you will have little trouble and most likely have kindly beasts. You will now have expended--

One year's rations ................................ £15 0 0
2000 ft. timber, doors, sashes, & nails ....17 0 0
Expenses of removal ............................... 5 0 0
2 Sows, each 40s...................................... 4 0 0
2 Heifers, each £1 10s............................ 15 0 0
............................................................. £56 0 0

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Having housed yourself, let your first effort be to provide a good warm sty for your sows. They will get their own living, and what little refuse you have will, with a good bed, make them attached to home, and they will prove of more value to you the two first years than two cows.

Go over your section, select the best piece of land, then lay your section down on paper, plan it out as simply as possible, and lay your selected spot, five chains square, Two and a half acres for your first year's operations: do not attempt more, less cannot be advantageously fenced; let this include your garden for the present; fence it pig-proof. I would suggest a ditch three feet wide, two deep, with a brush fence upon the bank; this if well done will be secure against pigs or cattle two or three years. Sow furze seed inside your brush fence, and with a little care and trimming you will soon have a substantially fenced piece of land.

If your land is open and you can get it ploughed, do so in dry weather; if unable, or it is wood or heavy brush land, you must go to work with spade or hoe. Bear in mind your first crop is very precarious, and by all means, if to be got, do not attempt to sow or plant anything without a dressing of Peruvian guano, even if you spend your last pound for it. In a first season on which so much depends, its value cannot be overrated.

If you have bush land, cut down and burn upon the land all you can; it is not so much the ashes, as the ground is benefitted by the action of fire.

Do not plant anything until your land is in suitable order, lay it as dry as possible, and get your potatoes in in August or September. Some swede turnips to transplant in November; all the pumkins you can spare time to plant in September or October, in any vacant corner or along your fences, and vegetables generally at odd times. A small patch of each will supply your personal wants, but everything green will be of value for your stock, and any seeds you can raise will sell in Auckland or to new settlers. If you can obtain a little choice wheat, spread it on your table carefully, pick from it every grain unsuitable, to have pure seed of only one kind. Dibble this in six inches asunder each way, and if your land is good it will be quite thick enough, and five pints will set an acre. You will readily sell it for seed, if good and clean, for two or three years, for more than its value to you for flour.

Above all avoid attempting too much the first season, let whatever you do be done in the very best manner, so as to insure a crop; the mistake of many a new comer is to take too much in hand, and then fail from inexperience or some mishap. Do not lay out one shilling on labour in cultivation the first

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year (unless in ploughing). If you have any spare means lay it out in stock. Do what you can with your own hands without outlay.

I will now suppose you settled on your land. A few months will supply you with abundance of vegetables, your sows will have pigged: when their time is nearly up, get them home and shut them up till they have farrowed, for if allowed at this time to go to the bush you will lose them altogether; boil them any wash and green stuff you have, and if you have a bag of sharps so much the better. You may in two days turn out sow and pigs, they will again provide for themselves, and the young pigs will keep fat, and if within reach of a market some of them may soon be sold off; but it is preferable to retain them until twelve months old, when on bush food they will weigh 100 lbs. nett, and be worth 25s. each. Each sow will with care produce nearly two litters in a year. You will thus perceive the great value of the pig to the new settler.

PIONEER.
August 23, 1859.

"PIONEER."

To the Editor of the New Zealander.

I was sorry to see in so generally practical a letter as "Pioneer's," some very palpable fallacies, and I am sure he will not be offended at my correcting them; at least as far as my judgment goes--our objects both being the same, namely, to give as far as we are able our own experience for the benefit of our newly-arriving friends.

I shall take "Pioneer's" case of a man with £60 and 40 acres of land, and my first advice would be, place £20 of your little capital safe, and scarely reckon that you have it; at all events decide not to touch it for the first twelve months, as it will then be doubly or trebly valuable to you. Thus I should say, instead of expending £17 for a house, spend £1 for windows, and nothing more: with two days' labour you can put up a house of stakes, ti-tree, and nikau, which will be very comfortable, and serve you very well for the first few years. I speak knowingly, as myself and another put up such a habitation in two days, in which three of us lived very comfortably for three months in the bush. Do not spend an unnecessary shilling at first. "Pioneer's" advice to bestow all your energy on two or three acres the first year is very good, and also the expenditure of a few pounds on guano, bone-dust, or other manure, for your first crops; but the purchase of two

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heifers, before you have any food for them, or anything to entice them to their home, is decidedly bad:--the chances are that they would wander in the bush, and after a short time not be seen again--you cannot afford to fence them in, having no feed for them, and they would thus ramble far away for food, and have no tie to home. Young cattle, like young people, must have something pleasant at home to render it agreeable to them. The two heifers may do very well after the first year, and perhaps part of the saving fund of £20 could not be better expended. --Then again, the two sows are much the same. --If £15 is to cover the cost of rations for the man for twelve months, there is but a sorry look-out for piggy," --they must stray for food, --and be assured it will require something more than bush food to bring young pigs up to 100 lbs. weight each, in twelve months. It might be wise soon to get a couple of young pigs two or three months old, that would take tilled food, and become attached to the place.

I should say, therefore, something like the following scale would be more in order. I should wipe out the £5 for removal, for a newly-arrived immigrant with £60 capital is not likely to have a large dray, or boat-load of furniture, goods, &c. --

One year's Rations ................ £20
Windows for Hut ....................... 1
Grass and Clover seed ............... 2
Two small Pigs.......................... 1
Fowls, axes, spades, &c............. 2
Cooking utensils, &c................. 2
Guano ..................................... 2

and I should leave £10 to be expended during the year as circumstances may require, and remember that after the first year, your farm is not likely of itself, or without expending much labour, to produce you a living. It is no use you deceiving yourself, or allowing anybody else to deceive you. The land will not give you a living for two or three years, and the selling anything off the farm during the first year is a thorough fallacy. If you have not therefore any capital to live upon at first, you must labour for others part of your time, as nearly all have done before you. And although my account may appear somewhat discouraging, think, is it no encouragement, after two or three years' labour, to find that you have your own little Farm and 40 acres which will actually give you a living, and an independent one too, without harassment and vexation; whereas at Home, in all probability, you never would have possessed a single acre of land of your own, if you lived 100 years, and laboured as hard as a nigger.

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I do not like exaggerated or over statements as to what may be expected, for they only disappoint. But still worse are the base and wicked discouragements dinned into the ears of new-comers, so well described in Mr. Firth's sound and sensible letter. And I perfectly agree with that gentleman, that those croakers deserve to be drummed out of the country. If the country is so bad, why do they stay in it? Is it as Victims and Martyrs? The country could do better without them, and would cheer their departure to more congenial shores. I believe there is an organized set of these vipers, who seem to be the only venemous reptiles in our colony.

Yours, &c,
OLD PRACTICAL.

REDUCTION IN THE COST OF PASSENGER AND GOODS' TRAFFIC.

Competition is the soul of business, and decidedly beneficial to the public. Not very long since, if a person wished to visit Papakura or Drury, he had to hire a horse and trap specially, and the road was so bad that he might not unreasonably have made his will before starting. A spring van was next ventured upon, running once or twice a week, and passengers thought 5s. per head was reasonable; but in winter this juvenile mail was laid up in ordinary, so impassable were the roads. This winter there have been two "lines" (Young's and Hunt's) running regularly, so that there has been, we believe, by means of the two, uninterrupted daily communication between Auckland and Drury, via Otahuhu and Papakura. The cost of the conveyance of heavy goods and produce to and fro in the first period spoken of was something fearful to think of, as the early southern settlers found to their sorrow; but they have been gradually relieved in this respect, as the road has been improved and fresh enterprise been imported into the van and dray business. A further improvement in both respects is announced in this day's paper. A new van is building, and when that is completed the Drury line will run daily: meanwhile there is a considerable reduction in the charges both for goods and passenger traffic. A van to Waiuku three times a week, commencing next month, will be a boon to the settlers in that district.

NEW ZEALANDER.

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NEW COMERS--AND WHAT CAN BE DONE FOR THEM.

To the Editor of the New-Zealander.

MR. EDITOR, --Without being any approach to a croaker as to the ultimate result of the very large influx of population which is coming upon us, there is of course reason to suppose that there may be in the first instance considerable distress, as there is likely to be from any great and sudden change; at the same time fear preponderates over reason in all such cases, particularly if fanned by bad men, who prophesy, wish for, and then foster, discontent and misery, and simply from bad political motives. But it undoubtedly behoves all sincere well-wishers to the Colony, instead of grieving over what may be, to use their best endeavour to ameliorate, as much as in them lies, any distress which might arise from this large and sudden addition to our population, and every one should give out in some way any idea which may suggest itself to him for the mutual good of our newcomers and the Colony; although such ideas may at times be crude and perhaps difficult to work out. Now as I am far away in the bush, and not able therefore to converse with my fellow colonists on this point, I take the liberty, with your permission, of using the press, to give out a few rough notions, worthless as they may be.

Well then, sir, an ample supply of food, and at as cheap a rate as possible, will be the first desideratum; and it then behoves us to see what crops may still be put in. Some producers are delighting themselves with the expected high prices of provisions, but there is little good in this for our new friends, who are at present only consumers. How then could they most readily do some good for themselves? Potatoes seem the only article of food which there is now time to plant, and it would be well for every new-comer who can, to direct his attention to supplying himself with a good store of that most useful article of food; (although Cobbet did call it the curse of Ireland). I should think there are few landed proprietors who would not lend one, two, or three acres of land for spade husbandry in cropping with potatoes, supplying the seed and allowing half the crop for their labour in attending to it. Thus many a poor man who might only be able to get one or two days' labour in the week, would after a time find himself possessed of a few tons of potatoes. I would gladly lend land and supply seed to any who would thus like to cultivate; but mine is too far away to be of much use in this way; but doubtless many nearer farmers would do the same, as the well turning up of the soil with the spade would be so much benefit to the land.

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Then again I am convinced that the manufacture of rough strong farm gates, might be profitably carried on to a considerable extent, if sold at moderate prices, and assist to do away with those abominations--slip rails. Cheap hurdles would also form another article, in which many new-comers might find employment--and many parties I think in various neighbourhoods would let them go into their bush for such purpose.

Thus far I have spoken of labouring men, who, after all, are by far the easiest class to help themselves. But young gentlemen, clerks, shopmen, &c, are decidedly the most difficult of all classes; for although there are amongst them some, and I hope many, who, possessing common sense and vigorous energy, will readily set to work at a new occupation, whatever it may be, there are also many who are perfectly useless, and absolutely not worth their food for labouring purposes. What are these to do, and what can be suggested for them? for really I know not, and only hope there are few such.

I would recommend any gang of labourers, or men willing to labour, to offer to dig land, and plant potatoes by the acre. I should say it would be well worth two or three times the price of ploughing to dig the land for many purposes.

I have simply thrown out but a few hints, and should be delighted, if to any one of our new friends they can be made of the least use.

Yours faithfully,
OLD PRACTICAL.

A VOICE FROM MANGAWAI.

To the Editor of the New-Zealander.

SIR, --"Where are the new-comers?" "Where do they get to?" "And what are they to do?" are questions which I have heard repeatedly put, with too often very damaging rejoinders given by certain parties, both as to the immigrants themselves and the Government that, "induced" them to come out.

Now, I will not argue on the abstract question, whether the system of free grants of land is good or bad politically; but this much is certain--and demonstrated--that a great number of the new-comers have gone to their land so acquired; that very many of them will succeed in turning the wilderness into green pastures, and so produce food for man and beast; realising for themselves, in time, comfort, plenty, and independence; thereby not only attaining their main object of

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securing a home without paying crushing taxes, and rendering the occupation of the several outlying districts much easier to those who may still follow--and adding to the general wealth of the Province.

It is not the bare possession of so many acres of land, whether good or bad, that will keep the Province of Auckland in her position, --that is, the first in New Zealand, --but energetic men and women who will be content to go into and endure the bush for a season. Very soon they will not exchange their country life for any other. They will thus spread the influence and effects of their labours and lives over whole districts, and lay the foundation of healthy and intelligent society worthy of the land they came from--society that will last when they themselves are gone. These are the settlers who make a colony.

But it is incumbent on the Government to assist the newcomers as much as possible. In the first place, let the actual settler have good land; let the poor land remain in blocks, not going to the expense of surveying it in small pieces: then there will be more money left for the making of bridges and roads. There ought to be a passable road for bullocks into every block: this would facilitate the occupation of the country much; and, where at all practicable, there should be a branch-post or postal communication by some means--only let it be regular, and it would confer an inestimable boon upon the- residents of the bush.

The majority of the new-comers are away to the various ports of the North, or preparing to go. There are several in the Mangawai and Te Ikaranganui blocks--where they have for the most part excellent land, and, moreover, they are satisfied with it. But, then, one of the greatest drawbacks is the want of a Post to that place: a trifling expense would suffice to extend the Matakana mail "through" as far as Waipu or Wangarei, and such an arrangement would include all the settlements on that portion of the N. E. coast. The wants of the country would then be better known; also its resources; and the few would become many--difficulties would vanish before the energy of Anglo-Saxons; and instead of a few settlers ever beseeching Government to help them, the settlers would help the Government, not only to make but keep roads, bridges, and every other thing in order.

There is plenty of land, and good land, if it is looked for. If a man select his land without looking over it, he cannot be pitied if he gets a poor lot. Let Government aid in filling the country as fast as they have good land in their possession, with means to bridge, &c, to enable persons to settle, and there is no fear as to the result. I think the Government

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which accomplishes this great work will deserve well of the country, and I have no doubt, notwithstanding all your City croakers, that the public, and our new-comers especially, will notice and appreciate for themselves the importance of the work which the present Provincial Government is carrying out.

I am, &c.,
A MANGAWAI SETTLER.

OLD HANDS HELPING NEW HANDS. --NEW HANDS HELPING THEMSELVES.

Two letters appear in our issue to-day both deserving the careful consideration of old and new settlers. The first is from Mr. Firth--the second from "Old Practical." One shows how settlers who have been long in the Province can help those now arriving--and that it is their duty, equally with the Provincial Government, to facilitate the beneficial settlement of immigrants on their land. It is characterized alike by sound common sense and a sterling good feeling which we wish were more frequently manifested by some of those parties who claim to speak with authority on the score of their many years' residence in Auckland. The other letter contains an excellent suggestion to immigrants who have come out singly--or in single families--without any preconcerted plan or previous knowledge of Colonial life, and who are now beginning to perceive the great advantage offered by the "special-settlement" principle of the Auckland Land Regulations; namely, that they should endeavour to devise means for meeting together, to talk over their plans, and to arrange for settling down several families together on this or that block.

Mr. Firth's suggestion of the publication of a cheap pamphlet, containing the most reliable information and advice as to the choice and occupation of land, will, we hope, not be lost sight of. "Old Practical's" suggestion we also hope will be taken up, not only by the new comers themselves, out by some of our fellow-townsmen who have the same desire as our correspondents, to lessen as much as possible those difficulties which unavoidably attend the first steps towards settling down in a new country like this, where the settlements as yet formed, or forming, lie scattered at considerable distances from each other.

With regard to a good supply of surveyed land being duly provided, we know that the Provincial Government is making strenuous and successful exertions.

NEW ZEALANDER.

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THE COMING POPULATION.

To the Editor of the New Zealander.

SIR, --There is a terrible outcry in certain quarters as to the "distress in Auckland," and the "distress which must of necessity be caused by so large an influx to our population." But is it ever considered that, in nine cases out of ten, parties emigrate because there was distress in England? and thus would be, or are, no worse off:--therefore, if they suffer a little temporary distress here, seeing that they have a moral certainty of their permanently settling their condition, and, within a few years, holding an independent position, which, during their lives, they would probably never have attained to at Home.

There is no doubt there may be some distress or perplexity caused by this sudden change; but it is merely distress removed from one country to another, --the country left being over-populated, and the country come to under-populated. Therefore, this is the country in which they must rise, if they are willing to persevere with energy and industry--while in the old country they are likely to go back rather than forward.

I think it so desirable that parties should locate in communities, or, at all events, that a few families should settle in the same district, that I would strongly recommend some measures being adopted to promote this end. If some room were opened in Auckland, (and some of our new agents who have lately started could well do this) wherein newly-arrived Emigrants could meet, and there let notices be fixed in the room thus, --"Parties professing to settle in the ------ Block, will meet here on Monday and Wednesday Evenings, &c, &c.;" thus parties might be brought together to talk over their plans. I am convinced that six families who would strive to act well together, would of themselves form a complete groundwork of a valuable district, and greatly enhance the value of the land.

Yours, &c,
OLD PRACTICAL.
" The Bush," 2nd September,1859.

HOW TO SETTLE.

To the Editor of the New Zealander.

SIR, --The suggestion of "Old Practical," in your last, that parties should make arrangements to locate in communities (and if I remember rightly, suggested by "Uncle John," in one of his letters,) I had an idea of, when I advertised a Registry for "Land Grants" in June last.

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I now beg to intimate that I am prepared to enter fully into any suggestions made in furtherance of such an object, and to devote my inner office here, as a room in which immigrants could meet and consult each other; and none but registered order-holders to be admitted.

I will be most happy to receive any suggestion from "Old Practical," or any one else, being quite a "New Practical myself."

I have, &c.,
GEO. R. LAURENCE,
September 8th, 1859. Wyndham-street

IMMIGRANTS' OFFICE,

ROUT'S BUILDINGS, HIGH STREET.

This Office has been opened for the purpose of assisting Immigrants to settle in the Colony, --of becoming a medium of communication between the employer and the workman--and enabling Settlers in distant parts of the Province, to conduct their business in Auckland without the necessity of personal attendance.

For a small subscription the Immigrant will receive information and advice upon all subjects upon which he requires it. He will be assisted in the selection of his land, and in his communication with the Government offices. And to those who require situations, the best means of obtaining them will be pointed out.

Settlers at a distance, both subscribers and others, will, upon application, have such workmen as they require sent out to them. Provisions and other articles purchased and forwarded at a commission of five per cent.; and all communications with the Government attended, smaller matters gratuitously-- larger ones at a charge according to circumstances.

A Public Room will be open for the use of subscribers, where shipmasters and acquaintances can meet and make arrangements for their mutual advantage; and where all general information interesting to Newcomers will be daily supplied.

All further particulars can be obtained at the office upon application to

HENRY SMYTHIES.
Secretary to the Ottahuhu Agricultural Association,

NEW-COMERS AND THEIR SETTLEMENT. CAN OLD SETTLERS HELP THEM?

To the Editor of the New Zealander.

Sir, --When the New-comers ask the question--"How are we to select and settle upon our land?" it may be supposed they are not a little confused and bewildered by the various and often conflicting replies they receive.

They hardly know the difference between the volcanic, the semi-volcanic, and the clay soils. They do not know the relative merits of the red, black, brown, or grey soils. Nor can they understand the advantages peculiar to each.

Again, they are puzzled by what is said about fern-lands

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and bush-lands. One tells them to select the fern and volcanic--another advises the land covered with very high fern, no matter whether the soil be clay or volcanic; whilst a third tells them not to have fern-land at all, but to secure 40 acres of bush.

Supposing the New-comer, by dint of many questions and much groping about for stray scraps of information, to have at length made up his mind what sort of land he would prefer, the question arises--"How to get to see it? and what the expense of doing so?" The isolated position of many of the blocks of land open for selection, together with their native names, and the difficulty of ascertaining the proper route to them, are sufficiently wearisome to a stranger who knows no one. Simple as it may appear to an old resident, it is no such easy matter for a new-comer to find his way to such blocks as "Ika-a-ranganui," or to know on which "Wairoa" river a particular piece of land may happen to be.

Let him have fought his way through all this, and having seen his land and selected it--then comes the question, "How to settle upon it?"

He looks at his 40 acres of bush, and is puzzled how to get into it, much less clear it. The dense mass of vegetation, varying from a rimu-tree, six feet through, to a supple-jack no thicker than his little finger, with all sizes between, almost alarms him. If he tries to clear it, with no more knowledge of such work than he acquired in England, it might cost him £10 an acre, if he reckons his labour at current day-wages, and yet, it is a fact, that large quantities of bush have this season been "fallen" by men used to the work at 45s. the acre, everything cut, lopping included.

He wonders what he shall do for a house. He is advised to take a tent, or a framed house from town--if the latter, at a cost of £12 or £14 exclusive of carriage, to nobody knows where, at an expense of nobody knows what. Why, a "bushman " would run up a "settler's first home" at a tithe of the expense. He knows that either raupo, ti-tree, tree-ferns, nikau-palms, bark, or slabs, are to be found everywhere, and in double-quick time--his trained and ready hand runs up his hut--"shanty," or whatever else you like to call it. Probably he would prefer a framed house, and, when he has more money and more time, he will have one, but meanwhile the other does very well.

"When to fall his bush? When to burn off? What to sow first, grass-seed or wheat? What to fence or leave unfenced? What cattle to begin with, bullocks for ploughing, or cows and pigs for milk and pork?" These and many other questions are sore puzzles to the newcomer.

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Now, many of the difficulties I have referred to have been encountered and overcome by many of the earlier settlers. In the midst of much toil and hardship, through a variety of conflicting and confusing theories, there are some amongst us who have worked out the problem for themselves to a satisfactory result.

These instances are, however, to be found in connection with such a variety of soils and circumstances, that as yet, and in their present form, they are not of much practical use to new comers.

This experience, so invaluable, has not yet worn out for itself a plain and beaten track. It must be collected, stereotyped, utilized in some plain and practical form, so that any man of industry can set to work at once.

Until this is done, we shall see labour uselessly expended, and the same mistakes made, which have hitherto done so much to retard the settlement and cultivation of this Province.

Why should the new comers have to fight through the difficulties the early settlers contended with? Why not, as far as possible, put them in possession of our knowledge, and let them begin with the experience we have already gained, instead of each one having to work it out for himself?

I have endeavoured to enumerate some of the "lions in the way" of the new comers. To the old settlers they have become "chained lions!" Ought we not to endeavour to render them so to our new friends?

To assist in doing so, I would suggest, that at the foot of every announcement of new blocks being open for selection, the Government should give a few lines explanatory of the general features of such block--say, whether fern, or bush, or clay, or volcanic soils, adding a few simple instructions as to the readiest way of getting to it, --naming boats, or other means available for reaching it, naming also some well-known block, inn, river, or harbour, nearest to it. If, in addition, the names of one or two well-known settlers near each block could be given, and with whom tracings of the block might be deposited, who would be willing to point out the lands and give such other information to new settlers, as would facilitate their location, I think all parties would be benefitted.

With regard to the questions. --

1. How to select the land?

2. How to settle upon it?

I would suggest that a small pamphlet be written, embodying reliable information on the points to which I have alluded, together with estimates of the cost of the articles absolutely required for the first six months' settlement on a 40 acre section; and of how much, or rather how little capital might be

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made to do, with such other hints as a man who has gone through the same thing would well know how to touch upon.

I think, sir, if a shilling pamphlet of this nature, with its statements well authenticated, could be prepared, much valuable information would become immediately available to new comers, and a great deal of useless suffering and unrequited labour could be prevented.

The Land Regulations which are bringing those people here may be good, or they may be bad. That is not the question. The question for our consideration is, the probability that within six months 5,000 souls will be added to the European population of this province.

Under any circumstances, so large and sudden an addition to a population of 20,000 would involve considerable difficulty. But if we reflect that the coming thousands are mostly without colonial experience, the difficulty becomes so much the greater. The Government is bound to provide land for them. It must keep the surveys well in advance of all probable demands. LAND MUST BE BEADY FOR ALL COMERS. If not, woe be to the Government.

We must not, however, say that the people have no responsibility.

In the present position of this hitherto feeble and insignificant colony, so large an addition to our population will be either a great blessing or a great curse. Which of the two will depend much on ourselves.

If we stand idly by, and let the whole matter drift as it will, without lending a hand to help or a word to encourage, we must be prepared to expect an amount of suffering, which may well be considered alarming. Then, indeed, the progress of the Province of Auckland, and the interests of every man in it, will suffer a blow from which we shall not easily recover.

This matter has ceased to be a party question. It will not do for any of us to say, "These Land Regulations are not our work, and we will not be responsible for the result." The time for such a protest has gone by. For weal or woe, we are--every man of us--committed to the consequences. THERE IS NO ESCAPING THEM.

The tide of immigration has set in with no measured flow; and if, with firm and steady hand, it be taken "at the flood," will lead on to fortune:--

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Interest and duty alike demand that we be ready and willing towards the emergency. That degenerate Roman who could fiddle whilst Rome was burning, ought to have no imitators amongst us. Nelson, when he gave the signal, "England expects every man to do his duty," struck a better chord, a chord to which the heart of every true Briton loyally vibrates all the world over.

At this crisis our countrymen expect us to do our duty. They have a right to expect it. Let them not be disappointed.

Yours, &c, J. C. FIRTH.
Auckland, Sept. 6th, 1859.

FORTY ACRES OF HEAVY BUSH--WHAT USE ARE THEY?

To the Editor of the New Zealander.

What can a man do with forty acres of heavy Bush? He can, in five years, almost by his own labour, become the owner of forty acres of excellent grass land--by no means a discouraging prospect.

His first object on arriving upon his ground will be the erection of a suitable house. This, with the timber all around him, is by no means a formidable affair--its size will, of course, be suited to the requirements of his family-- its materials to his own judgment or peculiar fancy.

Slabs split from the kauri, totara, rimu, or kahikatea-- or palings from the first two--will in either case be the most suitable and most expeditious; let him shingle his roof, avoiding the use of either nikau or grass: time is money, and he will find that to split his own shingles and put them on himself, will be after all a quicker method than using either grass or nikau--certainly a more durable, a neater, and more weather-proof roof. If single-handed, he will for the first month require the assistance of another man in cross-cutting the logs for slabs or shingles, and in putting up the building. The doors and sashes (which he can buy ready-made in Auckland) and nails, will be the only money outlay in the erection of his house.

Allowing then a month for the completion of a moderate-sized house, say, 20 by 24, his next step is the immediate removal of his family from the expensive residence in Auckland to the scenes of their future operations. It is a settled fact, that, leaving aside the largest trees, say all three feet and over three feet through, that a man can fall one acre of bush in a week; and as we give the whole of the five

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years for the reclaimation of forty acres, and we shall only suppose ten acres to be cleared every year, the clearing these ten acres would take them as many weeks; but making allowances for the want of experience, &c, in a new hand, let us say for the first year fifteen weeks or even four months.

Now, supposing him to comence on his farm at this present time, January 1st, taking one month for the house and four for the felling ten acres of bush, would bring him to the 1st of June. And then comes his next step--the formation of a good garden. It was quite right for him (as he will see bye-and-bye) to make this secondary to the clearing--for, in fact, it is the very first acre which he cleared which must constitute this garden, for by this time, that will of course be in the fittest condition for burning. He will then, in February, when he commences clearing, begin in such a place as he deems most suited for a garden--a northern aspect is best--a gentle slope better than flat ground; and between this acre and the remaining nine he will be careful to leave a strip of uncut bush, of not less than ten yards in depth, lest when he burns off the acre the fire becomes communicated to the other nine, which would be utter ruin to it. Some prefer a garden round the house, others at some little distance, otherwise the poultry are obliged to be kept away from the house--gardens and poultry being "opposite principles." If our settler is of the former opinion, it would be better to clear one acre at the very first before building his house, as every month gained before burning off, the easier, the cleaner, and the more complete the work, at the same time lopping off the branches of all the trees and cutting the trunks into lengths convenient for rolling, by the aid of levers, into twos and threes, where they will burn one another out, and to which the smaller pieces left after the running fire may be carried and consumed.

He must take the greatest possible care that the fire does not lay hold of the remaining nine acres, which will not be burned until the following March or April, for his whole success depends on keeping all fire from the fallen timber, until properly and sufficiently dried.

Burning this acre (which will be double the trouble it would have been had it been cut down twelve months sooner) may probably take him a fortnight or three weeks. In cross-cutting the heavy logs, if he cannot afford to hire labour, or if his family is too young to assist him, then it follows that he has a young wife--if one of the working-classes, she will readily give him a hand at the cross-cut for a few hours in a day--if really a lady, she will be equally willing. And now that the rubbish is all burnt off, this acre he must commence

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preparing, say half of it, for the immediate growth of vegetables for the house; nor need he fear but that his crops of potatoes, peas, pumkins, cabbages, in fact all garden produce, will be remunerative the very first year. I have seen the very finest vegetables grown in bush land just burnt and dug up. This he will find the most tedious part of the whole work, breaking up the ground with a heavy adze and cutting out the roots as he goes on, which traverse the surface of the soil in every direction. The stumps of course he will not attempt to meddle with--they will remain for years as monuments of his industry. He will find that he can manage to break up the half of the garden in about a month, which brings him to about the end of July, and allows him another month to fence the garden in before he need commence sowing his vegetables. October even will be early enough for potatoes, though I would recommend September as the best month in the year for a general crop.

If he has no neighbours very close, it is likely that it might be profitable for him to fence in his garden, pig and chicken proof (a paling fence is the best and easily come at in the bush); and as he will have no crops of his own for two years, to purchase two or more cows, a sow, a goat or two, and some poultry at once, giving them the open run of forest outside. Goats will thrive well in the bush, breed fast, and be a very useful substitute for what he cannot get--mutton-- provided always they can be kept from annoying himself or neighbours.

"What!" I hear him exclaim, "no crop for two years?"-- No, sir, no crop for two years, or you will fall into the common error of too many bush cultivators, for if you attempt to burn off your fallen timber before it is thoroughly dried, you will find that the fire will not properly consume it, but destroy so much of the lighter wood only as will render a second attempt to burn off, if not useless, at least excessively laborious: whereas if the wood is left till well rid of the sap, and thoroughly dry, the fire will clear all before it. Take a walk round most of the clearings in any bush district and see their two or three acre patches that have been burnt too soon but half cleared, and that with double labour--the crop only half what it should have been:--many have given in, in despair, and turned to the occupation of splitting shingles, and sawing their timber for the market, while the land on which they expended so much labour is allowed to relapse into a wild state.

Neither are you of the bush worse off than we are of the fern: we must wait two years for a crop: certainly we can plough up the ground, say in September, and sow it the next May

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or July with oats or wheat as we think best--but what is the result! The crop so obtained will not pay for the expense of seed, reaping and threshing, whereas the same land, if cropped for the first time the year following, would allow a profit on these expenses and the ploughing too. Of what use then is it to crop, if for every twenty shillings worth of produce you must expend thirty? And yet we are told that this is one of the finest agricultural countries in the world!-- And so it is; but its soil in most instances possesses this one peculiarity--that overcome, the soil and climate of New Zealand may compete with any in the world.

But not to digress: when the bush-settler has sown the half of his garden, already broken up (the largest portion I should advise with potatoes), he may commence breaking in the other half, which he may plant with maize or Indian corn and pumkins. Time enough if he plant these in November. This done, he must lop and log the nine acres already fallen, and then he can commence falling another ten acres - for the next year's work. As a rule, however, the timber should be logged and lopped while green, cutting up more easily when in that state. Nor let him forget to leave a strip of from ten to twenty yards deep of uncut bush between the first and second ten acres, as the first clearing will be burnt off a year before the second ten. Thus every year after the first he will have ten acres ready for the fire. His fencing, which he may procure by splitting the larger logs into posts and rails, he will have all ready, so as to be put up as soon as the piece of ground is burnt off.

The burning off should be driven as late in the season as it is safe to do so--that there may intervene as little time as possible between the burning and sowing, for, otherwise, the weeds, which immediately commence growing, gain the start of the grain, and retain the mastery, the crop is lost, and the land is in a worse plight than before it was cleared, as it must then be broken up by hand for the next crop, a more laborious and costly undertaking than the clearing and burning. I think March a good time for burning off-- the wheat may be sown in April: this is early for wheat, but it is unsafe to leave the operation of burning later in the season than the end of March. Supposing then the timber to have been fallen--as we have laid out for our settler--in the present February, March, and April of 1860 (another year he will be forwarder with his work and commence two months earlier), in March, 1861, he commences burning off. Some time in the next month (April) he sows the whole of it with winter wheat broad cast over the ashes, using no means whatever to cover the seed; and early in

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the spring sows at the rate of two bushels of mixed grass seed, and eight pounds of clover to the acre over the young wheat--thus every year his farm will produce him ten acres of good wheat, and a fresh ten acres of meadow for the use of his cattle. Oats or barley, I know, are better crops to sow grass with than wheat--but he cannot do it, for the timber must be burnt off in the autumn, and if the ground were not sown till spring, the crop would be choked with weeds. Again, he must sow grass the first year, for to sow a second crop on the same ground would entail the necessity of breaking it up by hand--a piece of madness which would ruin him.

Now if the Bush cultivator pursue any other system what is the result? instead of quickly getting his farm into good pasture, he remains half his life struggling for a living on a few acres--his first year's clearance--which keep him ever after too busy to take another paddock in hand, and he thus remains a poor man all his life.

I have seen excellent crops of wheat taken off land simply fallen and burned, better indeed than patches alongside, where the additional trouble had been taken of chipping the wheat in. The grass grows luxuriantly. As for the stumps they may be unsightly, but they do no harm to the land beyond the mere loss of the ground they stand upon. And to remove them would be paying very dear indeed for the extra land so gained. If the settler wishes to save a few of the handsomest trees scattered over his farm, either singly or in clumps, and he ought so to wish, he can do so by leaving at least a quarter of an acre of bush uncut around the tree he wishes to save--the fire will scorch and destroy the outside ones but not reach the centre: these may be afterwards removed at leisure: the same will be the case with the strips left between each year's clearing, part will be destroyed and part saved, and the latter should be allowed to remain for shelter and for ornament.

And now that the uninitated has before him this rough sketch of how to proceed upon a farm, whether of 40 acres or 400, he can almost as well as a more experienced person estimate the necessary outlay and probable returns. He should at once possess himself of at least two milch cows (they will find plenty to eat in the wild bush, though he may stare when told so) according to circumstances, pigs, poultry, and goats--he must have the means of maintaining himself and family for at least two years, unless his land is so situated that his timber can be made available at once as a source of income. His seed the first year, for nine acres of wheat and grass, will not cost less than £14 or

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£15, and then there are the many incidental expenses of a family, of which as a single man, I neither know nor wish to know anything. After the second year he will have the produce of ten acres of wheat, perhaps some 150 bushels or thereabout, and his cows, as soon as he has some grass for them will begin to return some profit in dairy produce. The sooner too, that he commences planting well worked fruit trees of the best sorts (which he can do the first autumn or winter in his garden), the sooner will another available, although much neglected source of income turn in. He can always, after the second year, save his own grass seed by reaping a sufficient quantity of grass for that purpose, which will be a saving of some ten pounds for grass seed every year. Every succeeding year, too, his dairy produce will increase. Thus after the second his garden, orchard, wheat, and dairy produce will afford him a comfortable living; the income from his dairy and orchard increasing every succeeding year, till at the end of the fifth he will receive the title to a farm worth in all probability from £400 to £600.

BAY OF ISLANDS.

To the Editor of the New Zealander.

SIR, --I have extended my travels as far as the valley of the Waima--which empties itself into the Hokianga. I am delighted with the whole of the country between it and the Kiri Kiri: it only requires to be known. A number of small farms might be laid off by the Government within a short distance of the township, which would become the centre of operations--embracing the districts of Kawakawa, Waimate, the Lake, and the districts of Tarairi and Wangaroi, all within about 10 miles.

The survey of the Township is going on rapidly; the buildings are likely to be very substantial--as there is no end to the Scoria and Limestone on the ground, the principal streets are a chain wide leading to the waters' side--but a road connecting the Township with the Suburban and Country districts is very much needed; the distance not more than a mile and a half or two miles; if these were at once completed, the town lots would sell for something like 50 per cent more than they would without it.

My former conjecture is I believe right--as I have been told that the whole of the seven Claimants have cordially seconded the views of the Government--by offering the whole

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of their unoccupied ground, adjoining the Township--at the Government rate of compensation--each one making a small reserve--to this should be added the Lands of the Church Mission at Waimate and Kiri Kiri, in particular. If the road I speak of is opened at once and some of the best farms ready for selection, the sale of the first Town Lots will in all probability fully realize the expectations of the Government.

A SUBSCRIBER.

NOTES ABOUT THE NOVA SCOTIANS AT WAIPU.

To the Editor of the New-Zealander

Sir, --Much has been said about the present influx of people to Auckland, and Sir, it is a matter of regret, there are so many who promulgate their childish fears and dark forebodings respecting its result. What does a young sparely-settled Colony require but additional population? What has caused the United States' rapid progress in prosperity, or the Canadians,' or our sister Colony Australia's, but the tide of immigration which has flown to their shores? yet some of these countries do not hold forth as many advantages to the Immigrants as New Zealand does.

I had occasion to hurriedly visit the chief Nova Scotian Settlement, Wangarei and Waipu; and conceiving that some who have lately arrived in Auckland, would take an interest in the affairs of those who only a few years ago settled on these lands, I shall endeavour to bring before them what came under my own inspection.

I do this mainly to allay the ungrounded fears of those who have recently come amongst us, and who find many Job's comforters among certain old hands in Auckland, if they have found little else as yet. I have myself seen strangers arrive in other Colonies, and know well the difficulties they had to encounter, both in respect to the labor they had to undergo, and the rigorous climate they had to contend with. Being thus enabled to form a just estimate of the relative advantages and disadvantages of this country and America, I conceive it no more than my duty to assure New Comers here, however desponding they may now be, that in coming to this country they have made a wise selection.

About 3 p. m., off Auckland Pier, the sails of the Clyde were hoisted to a wind that brought us to Wangarei Heads the following morning at day-break. The general run of the land upon the N. E. is rather broken. The harbour is a good one, although a sand-bar runs out some distance from the

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S. W. side. Entering it, only two or three houses are seen scattered along its shore; the land rising to a considerable height behind. The river Wangarei, running E. and W., here empties itself into the sea. As yet no Wharf exists, so, landing upon the beach with a Highlander, we directed our steps to the Ferryman's house, as we were anxious to proceed immediately to Waipu. A strong wind not abating we remained there awhile, and after partaking of his hospitality, he accompanied us along the shore in search of an assistant oarsman. In a walk of about half a mile, we passed several farm houses which presented an air of comfort, all the farms showing signs of improvement. The land on the shore is hilly and of fern description, but to appearance possessing a good quality. The river as far as the eye can range is well settled. The greater number of the farmers about this part commenced with small means and are now comparatively in comfortable circumstances. Fish are numerous in proximity to the shore, and oysters abound on rocks by the banks. The course to Waipu is to follow along the sandy beach to the South. The land we passed in this part is by no means good.

A walk of several miles brought us to the Ruakaka river, where we were obliged to remain till midnight to wait for low water to enable us to ford it. Continuing our walk six or seven miles, we were forced to encamp till day break, as we were not able to find the road leading from the beach. Ascending an eminence at daylight, we observed several snug houses of the Waipu settlers about a mile inland. The land is of the same description here as along the coast, but it materially improves as you proceed inwards. It is fern land of a level nature, and the broken ranges extend along the back ground. The Waipu river and its several branches run from the most part E. and W. fertilizing the soil and affording convenient water carriage to the settlers. This settlement is chiefly formed of the followers of the Rev. Mr. M'Leod who accompanied him from America, and settled there some five or six years ago. Mr. M'Leod is an elderly gentleman, possessing a mind of clear perception and great energy, and is looked up to by his people as a patriarch was in the olden time. They have their Church, which also serves for the purpose of a School-house.

I breakfasted at the house of a Mr. M'Lean, and I am certain his table is not surpassed by many of the hotels in Auckland. All are exceeding hospitable, and their housekeepers may be well proud of their cheer. I did not expect to find the farmers in such comfortable circumstances, and I know, had they been located for the same period in any of the British North American Colonies, they would not have been so well to do as fortunately they are. They seem to be satisfied with

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the yield of their farms and cattle, and that is a favourable point indeed. I must say I heard less discontentment there than in Auckland. Many cases could be quoted of persons settling there with a mere nothing, while they can now count their goodly number of cattle and entertain a stranger in a comfortable house.

The crop they chiefly cultivate is wheat, which they are obliged to convey to Auckland to be ground to flour, as they have no grist mill of their own as yet.

I was pleased to observe they had some very nice cattle, which are in good condition.

I asked several of the older farmers if they regretted coming to New Zealand? and they invariably replied in the negative, and that the winters here are both more profitable and pleasant than in North America.

The Nova Scotians continue advancing as they have hitherto done, they will in a short time prove that New Zealand is an advantageous field for immigration.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLANDER.

RAILWAYS.

To the Editor of the New Zealander.

SIR, --In my former communication I said nothing of the great probable consumption for the Drury Coal by the opening up of the Panama route; nor have I calculated upon its consumption in the manufacture not only of gas, bricks, and salt for home consumption and export, but of articles, too numerous to detail in a mere glance at the subject, the beautiful freestone quarries of Mr. Ligar and the limestone quarries of Messrs. Smith and Cooper, would also give their quota of traffic to a railway; and Auckland would then have its freestone footpaths, and reap the benefit of cheaper and more substantial buildings. A Railway from Auckland to the Waikato, would open up a short and speedy route, to Ahuriri on the one side, and New Plymouth on the other, by means of flat-bottomed steamers on the Waikato, which is navigable for such class of boats for about eighty miles. Those two Provinces could be reached in little more than a day by making a road from each to the head of the navigation of the Waikato; this would tend to develope the coal of that district, and thus check monopoly. But if a Railway could only be laid down from Auckland to Drury, it would be the commencement of the opening of a channel through which the present dormant wealth of the country would flow, and unlike a comet, would leave a good substantial trail behind, to enrich the producer, the share-

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holder, and the country at large. A Railway from Auckland to Drury would only give one mile to 2000 of the present population, whilst go-ahead America has one for every 1000 and upwards of 3000 miles of canals-- her commerce exceeding that of every other nation except that of Great Britain. But supposing such a line of Railway to be commenced at once, it would take at least two years to complete and get it into working order; and in that time the increase of population-- if it continues at the present ratio- would very much alter the foregoing figures, and the calculation would be nearer one mile of railway for every 3500 of inhabitants. The figures, in accordance with my previous communication, would stand nearly as follows:--

CAPITAL.

Cost of forming and laying down single
line, with proper sideways and stations ... £150,000
Cost of rolling stock and 4 Engines ... .......... 50,000
Contingencies ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ............ 30,000
Interest for half time of construction... ...... 20,000
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..............£253,000

INCOME.

From Passenger traffic ... ... ... ... ... ................... £30,000
From Coal at 7s. 6d. per ton ... ... ... ...................... 15,000
From Wheat, Potatoes, Flax, and Wool .................. 3,000
From one-fifth of the imports of £120,000
worth of merchandize ... ... ... ... ... ... ...................... 4,000
From Miscellaneous ... ... ... ... ... ... ...... ................... 1,500
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..........................£46,500
Deduct for working expenses 50 per cent.............23,250
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..........................£23,250

Thus, leaving a balance sufficient to declare a dividend of 8 per cent, on capital, and a small amount for reserve for laying down another line, and that in the face of sure and certain increase of traffic as the country becomes settled and cultivated. But even supposing the worst-- supposing that only half the amount of income is realised as above, at first, although in every instance railways have made their own traffic (just as the four-horse mail-vans between Auckland and Drury are now doing), and the receipts have invariably far exceeded the calculations of the projectors of such undertakings; is there not a sufficient inducement for a beginning to be made? For such a work is not to be done in a day. We have no Ordnance Maps of the country, as they have in England. (It is a pity that this country was not mapped by the Sappers and

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Miners years ago; this would have much facilitated its settlement, and lessened the labours of obtaining the best and most practical line for a trunk line of railway.) Still, something should be done in the matter at once, before the land through which a line may run, becomes fenced and cultivated or greatly enhanced in value; and it would much facilitate the projection of a railway if the owners of land meet the promoters in a liberal spirit-- in a spirit becoming the age of great undertakings, and fractional profits, in which tens of thousands are invested, and tens of thousands are set afloat with the prospect of being recovered in farthings and fractions of farthings. Never was there a greater faith existing in the force of numbers and the accumulative results of "small profits and quick returns," a faith everywhere discernible in all those departments of commerce which have to do with the hidden resources of a country, and the necessaries and requisites of every-day life; but in none is it more patent than in that of girdling the world with the means of flashing thoughts to thousands of miles with lightning velocity, or piercing tunnels through the hearts of the most obdurate mountains, and spanning the vast prairies of the world with iron roads on which speed along the leviathan engines of commerce and civilization.

It is time, too --high time-- that our clay should be made into brown ware, our fine clay into fire-bricks, our coal into gas, tar, or camphine, our iron ore smelted, our dye-woods exported. (Tanaka bark was highly extolled in the Great Exhibition as a valuable dye), -- our ochresous earths made into paint, old rags collected, bones ground for manure, and manure made for agriculturists; and what would more facilitate this than a cheap and expeditious mode of transmit? It is time, too, that Auckland capitalists should look for other investments, which would be found quite as profitable and certain, than that of land speculating; for what avails it that we have fertile soil, an equable climate, a genial atmosphere, minerals beneath our feet, vast forests of valuable timber, rivers and harbours not to be excelled, abounding in fish only waiting to be tickled, and labourers flocking to our shores; what avail all these things unless we use the means which science and mechanical art have discovered, to bring them to the world's great mart. Seeing there will be no sacrifice, I call upon the capitalists of Auckland to come forward and fulfil their high mission, and keep Auckland up to the level of her high position, remembering that no man or nation can become or continue great without acting greatly.

Yours, &c, &c,
Coalbrook, 13th October, 1859. LOCOMOTIVE.

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RAILWAYS BETTER THAN TRAMWAYS.

To the Editor of the New-Zealander.

SIR, --The New-Zealander of Saturday last invited "the attention of the citizens of Auckland to a meeting for the formation of another company for the working of a second coal mine, the coal produced to be brought by a tramway to the Tamaki river, and thence direct to Auckland." On reading the foregoing to-day, I thought of the quantity of goods, produce, and passengers, that pass between Drury, the intermediate places, and Auckland, the cost of a tramway to the Tamaki, and the shifting of the coal when there; and to me it looked a little like beginning the wrong way to adopt such a mode of transit, when we know that to construct tramways to be useful to commerce, they must be constructed on a perfect level throughout, or very slight gradients. This would be attended with the same expense as the formation of a road for permanent rails and, if not so constructed, the general unevenness of the road would entail a serious loss of the drawing power. Friction and unevenness are the grand things to be overcome. It is computed that a horse cannot, on ordinary roads, draw more than fifteen-hundred weight for any length of time, and from two to three tons on a common tramway; while on a railway it will pull with ease nine or ten tons. It should be borne in mind, that tramways and towing horses have been superseded by the iron rail and the fire-eating locomotive, and that the latter have been adopted, not only because less expensive in a given time, but for the saving of time which they effect, and the less expense and rapidity with which mineral, agricultural and other products are brought to the place of disposal. Tramways cost two thirds as much as railroads for the first formation, and more frequently require repairing; for the "horse way" has to be kept equal to the best macadamised road, and then the speed is not in proportion to the outlay unless a locomotive engine be used, which would necessitate the laying down of iron rails.

If a company intend to make the coal-fields of Hunua and Drury available, they must sooner or later embrace in their scheme A RAILWAY TO AUCKLAND, and the influential men of the Province should take the matter up, as those of Melbourne and Canterbury are doing, and press upon the Government to hold out some inducement to the capitalists of England and elsewhere to embark in the undertaking. The present low rate of interest for money in England should be taken advantage of in starting such a company. We are about to have a large influx of population added to our number-- are they to be drones in the industrial hive, or turned to profitable account for themselves and this their adopted country, by developing its various resources? Their utility would be greatly en-

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hanced if capitalists could be induced to invest their money in productive employment in the Province, more particularly in such undertakings as will tend to develope its mineral and agricultural resources; to strengthen its military defences, by means of expeditious transit; to draw the colonists from the adjacent colonies to visit the beautiful Waikato, or ruralise at the hot springs; to increase our exports of flax, bark, or timber; to give productive employment to merchant and tradesman, mechanic and labourer; in a word, to profit by the lessons of experience which age teaches, but which are too commonly overlooked by young countries, as they are by youth: instead of taking advantage of those lessons of experience, they waste much valuable time and money, and learn painfully the lessons a careful observation of the past would have taught them to avoid. Hence we may learn from the past of other countries, that tramways have cost nearly as much in making as railways, and have therefore been superseded by iron rails and locomotives, almost in every instance, in England, and elsewhere.

Yours, &c.
Coalbrook, 29th August, 1859. LOCOMOTIVE.

THE WAIROA SETTLERS AND THE RAILROAD.

To the Editor of the New Zealander.

SIR, --At the meeting of the Wairoa Settlers (Mr. Joshua Thorp in the chair) convened there, September 5th, with reference to the Report just published about the means to be devised for Coal and Limestone being sent to Auckland, it was resolved unanimously--

1st. That it is the duty of the Settlers in this district to cooperate in forwarding the matter, as the road to the River by the Kirk is not more than 4 miles from the Lime quarries, nor more than 8 or 9 from the Coal beds, and the river (much less tortuous than the Tamaki) is not more than 4 miles in a direct line to the Sea, and as there is also abundance of Kauri timber on the ranges adjacent.

2nd. That the Settlers here will give the land through which the necessary Railroad must traverse, and will take shares in the same.

JOSHUA THORP, Chairman.
JAS. S. WILSON, Secretary.
H. Allies, D. MacNicol,
W. R. Logan, J. P., William Steele,
W. Hampton Thorp, Thomas Hide,
Henry Hide, William James,
Francis Creighton, Charles Cooper,
Peter Smith, Benjamin Smith,
James Mattheson.

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That the Suttons, Fitness, and other Karaka settlers, as "Settler" says, vainly endeavoured to produce crops from the lands of Karaka, cannot be denied. Their error lay in not applying themselves wholly to grazing. The Brothers Clarks are a case in point. They commenced a few years ago with a few head of cattle, and now they can afford to sell to the butcher from 40 to 50 head annually, without diminishing their herd, besides making sufficient butter to pay up their current expenses. On the Karaka too. I don't know that the Clarkes supply the Auckland market with many potatoes, but if they grow the beef they do well. Let those on richer soils grow the potatoes. It is curious that "Settler," so well informed on what it has cost the Clarkes to grow three-quarters-of-an-acre of stunted clover, should have said nothing about their success in breeding stock. From Drury to Waiuku his attention has not only been confined to one side of the road, but also to one side of the facts-- the dark side.

The Hungerfords, it is true, made nothing by their farms; but that they expended £2,700 is absurd. The £700 is a large estimate, say nothing about the £2,000. "Settler" refers to Constable's as "another abandoned farm." There is James Constable's farm, and Edward Constable's farm, neither of which is abandoned. J. Constable's changed hands, and is now in crop, and in possession of Mr. McElwain. E. Constable still occupies his farm, and was busy harrowing the other day when I passed. It is evident "Settler" has not been in Waiuku lately, as we can now count about two dozen houses in the village, instead of one dozen as he represents.

With reference to the quality of the land of Waiuku, I will only say that by the best judges it is considered above the average of the general country land of the Province; comparatively little of it has yet been brought under cultivation, but, where under a proper system of farming it has, the expectations entertained of it have been realized.

The practice pursued by some newspaper correspondents of exciting unduly the expectations of new comers, is not only morally objectionable, it is also impolitic, as it ultimately recoils in a variety of forms to the disadvantage of the Province: but that practice is meritorious compared with the course taken by "Settler," whose representations would quench with cold water all their hopes, and lead them to believe they landed on a shore whose soil is incurably sterile.

That the fern lands of the Province are stubborn, and require time and labour to develope their productive powers; that the bush lands require considerable labour in clearing; and that some lands are not worth spending labour upon, are facts, with the details of which every one going farming should have made himself familiar; but if, through deficient

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knowledge, an over-sanguine disposition, or being afflicted with the farming mania, as many new-comers are, he makes a miscalculation, and breaks down: What then? He has made a false step undoubtedly, but the lands of the Province remain as good as ever.

Amongst the causes of failures in attempts to farm, are settling on land which has been bought purely with regard to its position; river frontages, for instance; and without any enquiry as to its agricultural capabilities. Such was the error of the Hungerfords. Another prolific cause is insufficient means, and another, a personal inaptitude for the task. Nine-tenths of failures may be traced to one or more of these causes, and there are plentiful instances on record of individuals who, short of patience, and disheartened of the task before them, have sold out to others, who, from the same land, have realised more than the original expectations. These instances have, I believe, been the origin of the proverb "Fools make farms, and wise men buy them," intimating that the first two or three years spent in breaking in the soil are all the struggle.

An interest in the province of Auckland and the Waiuku district, has induced me to write you these remarks, which, notwithstanding such interest, will, I believe, on examination, be found near the truth, and I hope they will tend to correct the depressing influence which the lugubrious communication of "Settler" may have exercised.

Yours truly,
ARCHD. CAMPBELL.
Waiuku, 10th October, 1859.

AN "UNFORTUNATE" FORTY-ACRE MAN.

To the Editor of the New Zealander.

SIR, --I am one of the 40-acre newcomers, settled upon the Maunga Karamea Block about 70 miles north of Auckland, and perhaps the experience of one of this class extending over a period of twelve months may not be uninteresting to you.

Like most of us, when we first arrive I was anxious to get possession of some of the best land and nothing but the best, or at all events such as was considered so, and accordingly made my selection in a block then high in favor, and for every lot of which there were from twenty to thirty competitors, and the consequence was I got none. Made wiser by this experiment, I determined to lose no further time in endeavouring to obtain what had the reputation of being best land only, and fancying that land quite as good might be found which had no reputation at all, I made my selection

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successfully in the next block which was brought to sale, and have had no reason whatever to be dissatisfied. When I arrived upon my land, now scarcely twelve months back, there was not a single white man to be found within a distance of five miles of me, but the change that has taken place in this short time is scarcely credible, and has been a matter of the greatest astonishment to me. Other settlers have arrived in great numbers, and I am now surrounded by a very considerable and still increasing number of excellent neighbours; from my own land I can get a view of five romantic looking dwelling houses, giving life and picturesque effect to the landscape, while nearly thirty families whose united numbers amount to nearly, if not quite a hundred souls are located within a circle of two or three miles of me. During the whole time I have been here I have never heard any settler complain either of his land or his lot, and believe that every one is perfectly satisfied with both. New and good roads are springing up around us, where there were none before. I have no longer occasion to go half a day's journey for my supplies, as there is an excellent store within easy distance; we have also our own Post Office, through which this letter will reach you, and society quite as agreeable as is to be found in Auckland itself.

As to the land, the general character of the whole block is of first rate quality, but as it consists of many thousand acres, it of course varies; it is generally undulating, but amongst it are some fine low levels, and there is scarcely any of it that will not repay cultivation. I was successful in growing vegetables of every description the first year, potatoes enough for my consumption; cabbages, pumkins, melons, cucumbers, &c, in abundance, as also Indian corn: apple-melons, I have grown, weighing twenty-five pounds each; there is abundant keep for our cattle, and cows and horses selected with judgment, all thrive well. I have several acres cleared ready for cropping next year, grass seed sown for the commencement of a paddock, a substantial and dry roof over my head, and next year I have no doubt my land will be entirely self supporting, that is, that it will grow sufficient for all my requirements in the way of food of every description for myself and animals, a prospect with which I am, and think I ought to be, perfectly satisfied.

Such are some of the results of twelve months' experience in the Bush, and if you think it will serve any useful purpose you are quite at liberty to publish it.

I am, Sir, yours, &c,
H. G. JAMES.
Maunga Karamea, 11th May, 1860.

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"The New Zealand Customs Duties Act, 1858," repeals all previous duties, and declares the existing tariff to be as follows:--

Duty Free.

Anchors and Chains, and Rod, Bolt, Bar, Sheet, Hoop and Pig Iron, and Nails, Sailcloth, Cordage, Twine, Cotton Yarn, Bags, Sacks, and Woolpacks, Spirits of Tar and Turpentine, Tobacco for Sheepwash, Huts of all kinds, Powder, fit only for blasting purposes, and all other Goods, Wares, and Merchandise, excepting those above enumerated.

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SHIPS REGULATIONS FOR STEERAGE PASSENGERS.

PROVISIONS, &c.

Provisions, Medical Attendance, Cooking, and Cooking Utensils, are supplied on Board without charge to Passengers. The following is the

DIETARY SCALE FOR EACH ADULT PER WEEK.

Women receive the same Rations as Men; Children between 1 and 12, one-half; Infants under 1 year, no Rations.

The following substitutions may be made, at the option of the Captain, for. 1 lb. of Biscuit or Bread, viz:- 5 lbs. Potatoes, or 1/4 lb. Preserved Potatoes, 1 lb. Oatmeal, or 1 lb. Rice. For Children and Infants an equivalent quantity of Sago, Flour, Rice, Raisins, Suet, and Sugar, will be substituted for Salt Meat, if required.

Emigrants would do well to provide themselves, in addition, if they can, with a Ship's Filter, Onions, Bacon, Cheese, Cod Fish Hooks and Lines, a Fiddle, old Newspapers, cheap Books, Needles, Thread, &c

OUTFIT, &c.

Passengers must find Mattrasses (which should be new, if possible, and of the following dimensions: -- For Men, 6 feet by 20 inches; Women, 5 feet 9 inches by 18 inches; Married Couples, 6 feet by 3 feet; Children, according to size), Bolsters, Blankets, and Counterpanes; Canvas Bags, to contain Linen, &c.; Knives, Forks, Spoons, Metal Plates, Hook Pots, Drinking Mugs, Water Can, &c.; also necessary Clothing, which, will be inspected at the Port of Embarkation.

FOR MALES

6 Shirts.
6 Pair Stockings.
2 Warm Flannel or Guernsey Shirts.
2 Pair New Shoes.
2 Complete Suits strong Exterior Clothing.

FOR FEMALES.

6 Shifts.
2 Warm & strong Flannel Petticoats.
6 Pair Stockings.
2 Pair strong Shoes.
2 Strong Gowns, one of which must be warm.

FOR CHILDREN.

7 Shirts or Shifts.
4 Warm Flannel Waistcoats.
1 Warm Cloak, or Outside Coat.
6 Pair Stockings.
2 Pair strong Shoes.
2 Complete Suits Exterior Clothing.

Also 3 Sheets for each Berth, and 4 Towels and 2 lbs. Marine Soap for each person.

Emigrants ought not have less than the above outfit; but the larger the stock of clothing the better for health and comfort during the voyage. It is not necessary that it should be new clothing, but it must be in good order, and cleanliness especially be observed.

Luggage can be put on board in the Docks, on payment of charges, a few days before the sailing of the Ship, when parties having families may find it convenient to prepare for embarking; but they must observe that Rations

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are not issued until the day of Embarkation. The whole quantity of Baggage for each Adult, allowed free of charge, is 10 cubic or solid feet measurement, not exceeding ¼ a ton in weight. Freight must be paid for Extra Luggage, at the rate of about 2s.per cubic foot. All Luggage should be distinctly marked in paint with the name of the Passenger, and the Ship, and whether "wanted" or "not wanted" on the voyage.

The Ship Brokers employ a respectable Licensed Agent at the Docks to take charge of and ship Emigrants' Baggage, and his small Fee and Dock Charges must be paid.

Emigrants can find Lodging with Mrs. Young, 45, Burr Street, and other persons near the Docks.

The Captain of a ship is supreme, and, with the aid of the Surgeon, regulates the comforts of Passengers; and it is the self-interest and duty of them to report to the Captain any acts of impropriety which come under their notice, and to do everything in their power to preserve cleanliness and good order during the voyage.

No class of Passengers can expect to be without occasional discomforts on board of any ship, nor can they reasonably look for a constant weighing or measuring out of "a Shylock pound of flesh."

Current Rate of Wages at Auckland in April 1860, subject to fluctuations.

Bakers from 20s. to 30s. per week, with board and lodging.

Bricklayers, 10s. to 12s. per day.

Blacksmiths, if able to shoe, &c., and do all sorts of country work, 8s. to 9s. per day.

Carpenters (House), Joiners, Wheelwrights, &c, from 7s. to 10s. per day.

Farm Servants (single), from £26 to. £40 per annum, with board and lodging.

Ditto (married couples), £50 per annum, with board and lodging.

Glaziers and Painters, 8s. to 10s. per day.

Female (domestic) servants, from £20 to £30 per annum.

Labourers, (in town) 5s. per day.

Ditto, (in country) 4s. per day.

Masons, 10s. to 12s. per day.

Sawyers, 6s. to 18s. per 100 superficial feet.

Shoemakers and Tailors earn on an average about 7s. 6d. per day.

Tinsmiths and Plumbers, 9s. to 10s. per day.

** Working men in town work only eight hours per day.

Clearing Forest Land, is usually done by contract; cutting down all the undergrowth, and all trees not exceeding three feet in diameter, is generally contracted for, at from 37s. 6d. to 40s. per acre; heavily timbered land-- cutting down all trees not exceeding four feet in diameter--40s. to 45s. per acre; or, cutting all down, 50s, per acre. A man accustomed to such work can fall at least one acre per week. Fern Land about 8s. per acre.

Good Ploughmen, Maid Servants, and Married Couples fit to manage a Dairy, are in demand. Young lads, belonging to families about to emigrate, should learn to milk.

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Price of Provisions, &c, at Auckland, in April 1860.

Beef, Pork & Mutton, per lb. 6d. to 8d.
Bacon, per lb., 1s.
Butter, fresh, per lb., 1s. 9d. to 2s.
Bread, per 2lb. loaf, 6 1/2d.
Cheese (Colonial), per lb., 9d.
Cheese (English), per lb., 1s. 3d.
Flour, first quality, 26s. per 100 lbs.
Milk, fresh, per quart, 6d.
Oatmeal, per lb., 4d.
Potatoes, per cwt., 10s.

GROCERIES.

GROCERIES.

GRAIN, &c.

GRAIN, &c.

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Price of Provisions, &c., at Auckland--continued.

WINES, SPIRITS, &c.

WINES, SPIRITS, &c.

ALE AND BEER, &c. (duty paid).

ALE AND BEER, &c. (duty paid).

SUNDRIES.

SUNDRIES.

The price of Milk and Butter vary with the seasons. The prices of Wheat, Maize, Flour, and Potatoes, depend very much on the state of the Markets at Sydney. New Potatoes begin to come into Market in November, and in December there is usually an abundant supply. Wheat harvest begins about the end of January.

Prices of Cattle, &c., at Auckland, in April 1860.

Fat Steers, £10 5s. to £14 17s. 6d. Yearling Heifers, £2 5s. to £3 17s. 6d. Heifers, £9 17s. 6d. to £10 10s. Store Cattle, £5 to £7 Dairy Cows, £10 to £16 5s. Calves, 38s. to 65s. Sheep, 19s. 6d. to 25s. 6d.

Ewes Hoggets, 16s. Half-bred Ewes, 24s. to 27s. 6d. Merino Wethers, 14s. 6d. Fat Lambs, 10s. to 15s. Pigs, 18s. to 31s. 6d. Wether Hogs, 17s. to 23s. 6d. Horses, from £40 to £70

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Cost of Clearing, &c.

All the available land in this Province is covered with fern, brushwood, or forest. It is now generally admitted that good timbered land gives a quicker and better return than the general run of open land.

The cost of clearing and laying down in grass heavily timbered land, allowing all trees above 3-feet diameter to stand, including fencing and the price of grass seed, has been found to be about £4 10s. per acre. The timber should be all felled previous to September, and burnt off in the month of March. In April, or as soon as the ashes are perfectly cooled, the grass seed may be sown upon the ashes; or if a crop of wheat is wanted, seed wheat may be sown in the same manner in June or July.

How to obtain the Land Orders.

First, write to us, to ascertain your eligibility; we will then send you a set of Forms, to enable you to make your application; on the return of these, duly filled up and signed, we will let you know if you are eligible. You may then engage your passage by a ship bound direct to Auckland, on application to either of the undermentioned New Zealand Shipping Firms:--

A. WILLIS, GANN & Co., 3, Crosby Square, Bishopsgate St. (E.C.), London;

SHAW, SAVILL & Co., 34, Leadenhall Street (E.C.), London;

H. T. WILSON & CHAMBERS, 21, Water Street, Liverpool;

JAMES BAINES & Co., Liverpool.

Presuming all your papers to be in due course, you will receive the Land Orders on your attendance, with all the Members of your Party, at our Office, for the purpose of signing the Counterfoils. This can be done when you come up to London for embarkation.

Parties embarking at Liverpool will, in like manner, receive their Land Orders from us, at the Office of Messrs. JOHN WRENN & Co., 10 & 11, St. George's Crescent, Liverpool.

Persons desirous of seeing Books, the Files of Auckland Newspapers, and Specimens of the Products of the Country, can do so, and receive every reliable information (gratis) on applying to us, between TEN and FOUR o'clock daily, except on Sundays.

ALEX. F. RIDGWAY & SONS,
GENERAL AND EMIGRATION AGENTS
TO THE
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT OF AUCKLAND,
40, LEICESTER SQUARE, LONDON.