CHAPTER XII. HABITS AND MANNERS OF THE SETTLERS.
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CHAPTER XII.
HABITS AND MANNERS OF THE SETTLERS.
ON this subject I shall in a great measure speak from personal experience. In the wild grassy wildernesses of Australia and New Zealand, where pastoral pursuits or sheep-farming are carried on, the habits and manners of the people vary according to their respective breeding and tastes. In New Zealand, at one sheep station, I was as well treated as in England, having almost the same attention, comfort, and good attendance of servants, as could be met with in the old country. At another, where the proprietor was one of high respectability, he was not at all too proud to take his meals with his servants in the kitchen, and all his visitors, of high or low caste, had to undergo the same. An old Australian squatter told me that, in the neighbourhood of the diggings, he met with the high-sherriff of a county in Ireland, who had suddenly become metamorphosed into a waiter. In New Zealand I saw two of the finest-proportioned men possible, costumed after the fashion of the lowest of the low. I made inquiries concerning them, and ascertained that they were men of high aristocratic extraction. This I quickly dis-
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cerned from their noble features. These men had undergone every possible physical and moral degradation through indolent habits and a drunken career. They had slept out in the open air, lived and cohabited with the worst New Zealand savages, and had become filthy in the worst sense of the word--I allude to that filth that generates new creatures upon the epidermal covering. The descendants and relations of high English aristocracy have known what it is to suffer semi-starvation in the colonies, in a great measure and in most cases arising from imprudence, carelessness, or improvident habits.
From a New Zealand senator of high standing I had the following recital:--
Some years since I was anxious to obtain a sheep-run in Australia, whither I went. After visiting one of the sheep stations, I had for a guide one of the shepherds, who in his speech and manner gave certain indications of having been bred a gentleman. On leaving him for ever, I said, "Well, old fellow, I shall never see you again: I am sure that you have not been a shepherd all your life--you need not be delicate in telling me all about it." The shepherd made no reply. I addressed him a second time, but without extracting from him any information whatever on the subject.
"Well," said my friend, "I am now ready to find my way by myself, and can dispense with your services," at the same time eyeing him keenly, "I know you are a gentleman by birth, although garbed as a shepherd."
"Well," said the shepherd, "if you must know, I am related to the so-and-so's of such a county,
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and connected also with the duke of another part of England."
The son of an English duke entered an inn in Australia where I was dining alone, or rather after I had finished my dinner, in a manner so ill-bred and so disgracefully drunk, that I instantly quitted the room. A lady to whom I was introduced in New Zealand, who was born in the country, said to me, believing that I intended settling amongst them, "Well, sir, I congratulate you on having arrived in a country where you will enjoy true liberty." The liberty that she alluded to was the freedom from the social tyranny of the old country, which sometimes throws a greater restraint upon a person than if he were born under the Czar. The manners of the well-bred old Australian squatters possess a frankness and ease that render them far more agreeable than the same class in the old country. In Sydney the descendants of the original convicts now form the leading aristocracy of the place. They possess wealth, higher position, and many of them are the great leaders in social as well as political life. The manners of our ignorant people at home, when they emigrate, frequently improve from the facility they have of associating with their superiors. When, however, they do not, they form sometimes the most objectionable and intolerable bores to be met with. I have alluded to some of the habits and manners of the higher orders; let us now take a glance at the lower.
I remained for some time in one of the best inns in one of the finest towns in Australia, where I
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gave an order to the chambermaid. Not knowing her name, I addressed her as Mary. She suddenly coloured as red as a pickled cabbage, tossed her head high in the air, and feeling that all her dignity and self-complacency were annihilated by having given her a misnomer, she said with an air and tone that fully expressed the indignity she had suffered from my remark, "It is not Mary; my name is Jane." At Wellington a member of the Provincial Council was my boatman, and a very exorbitant one too, for he charged me ten shillings for that which would be done in England for half-a-crown. That restraint and systematic code of etiquette so characteristic of the old country, is to a certain extent thrown aside, which gives a charm to colonial society, when it is truly well-bred. In many instances the loss of it, in not restraining young and forward colonial youth, who go ahead far too fast, is deeply to be deplored; it tells both ways--it has its pros and its cons. I saw one instance of a rough, raw hobble-de-hoy of a fellow, a common shepherd, who had under him, at a sheep station, the son of a gentleman, over whom he tyrannized in the most horrible manner, threatening one day to do for the young gentleman if he did not alter his manners. In Melbourne, when the diggers had pretty much their own way, if they saw even in the streets, any one that was not dressed after their own fashion, the invariable custom was to hoot and shout the new chum, as he was termed. These rough manners have, however, happily to a certain extent fallen into disuse, and been succeeded by another and a better style. I have heard of a writer who suggested to a city missionary the
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HABITS AND MANNERS OF THE SETTLERS.
necessity of reforming the better class of English society by the aid of missionaries--knowing full well that the example set by the rich is too readily adopted by the poorer classes. The same authority, if he were aware of the irreligion, savagism, and barbarity practised by the white races at some of the wild and distant sheep stations of the antipodes, where the uneducated stockman, and in some cases the educated as well, have for years in succession never seen the inside of a church--I think that they also ought to be provided with missionaries. In many cases of colonial life the gentleman has to come down a peg or two, which accounts for the sudden elevation of the working men. I have seen, however, as many delightful, and amiable, and excellent people in the colonies, and quite as well-mannered, as I ever met in Great Britain. I breakfasted with a gentleman related to one of the best families in England, where one servant was kept. The servant-maid either was too incompetent to cook the meal, or very unwilling; so the head of the house set to in good earnest, by blowing the fire, toasting the bread, brewing the coffee, and, in fact, doing the servant's work, whilst the maid herself attended to some other duty or else took recreation in the garden, for I saw but little of her during the repast. A lady remonstrated with a servant-girl for not having rubbed her mahogany table so as to produce the necessary polish. She answered in the following manner:--
"To tell you the truth, ma'am, I did not come out to New Zealand to rub furniture, but to get married."
I dined with one of the leading personages of
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a young settlement at the antipodes, where it was a regular dinner-party. I arrived rather early, before the cloth was laid, and was met by the lady of the house, who shook hands of course with her right hand, while she held the table-cloth in her left. She very soon began to cover the mahogany, whereupon I gave her a helping hand by laying hold of the other extremity, and in a very short time we together quickly summoned the casters, salt, knives, forks, and spoons, and all the other etceteras, without the aid of a servant. An Australian squatter will ride his horse forty, fifty, and even sixty miles, without feeding him, and at the same time perform all the offices of groom, and ostler, and blacksmith into the bargain. He can shoe his horse after he has ridden him. I took lodgings, for which I paid very handsomely, and I invariably found that the children had their little wants attended to before I got either shoes, water, breakfast, or anything else that I might require. I had two rooms, the bedroom, and the other for taking my meals. The latter was so small that I could not dine comfortably. An easy chair, covered with a smart-looking texture, was the most hypocritical apparatus possible. I believe it was made by a tailor, as the angles were all wrong, cramping the body. It might have been sent during the days of the inquisition, to that abominable institution, as a new invention, and as an exquisite means of torture. Once or twice I laid down upon the sofa, and got the cramp, also from it being badly constructed. Neither of my windows opened. I therefore ran considerable risk every day of being poisoned by my own expirations of carbonic acid gas, to prevent which
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I opened the door frequently, upon which occasions a host of young urchins, with rosy cheeks and hungry stomachs, would stand looking at me in the passage, as if I had been one of the seven wonders of the world. These young noisemongers and starers had paid a visit to my landlady for the purpose of obtaining a halfpenny-worth of sugar-stick, a penny-worth of nuts, or a piece of that renowned brown ginger-bread that had a space of the window allotted to it in such a conspicuous manner as to set the mouths of the young urchins in the town a-watering. The reader must not suppose that I have been describing the best lodgings to be had in the colonies. All the best had been taken, which left me no alternative but to go where I found myself so peculiarly situated. Ample amends, however, were made for this discomfort, as my landlady dished me up every day some of the finest mutton-chops, tarts, and puddings. She was one of the best cooks I ever met with, either in the colonies or out of them.
I have given the above, not as general and invariable types of colonial manners, but as specimens which are still characteristic of the colonies, and may still, and will very frequently, be met with.
In all the colonies that I have visited at the antipodes an intense selfishness is the leading feature. I allude to that quality as it exemplifies itself in money-making, and in a manner that is deeply to be deplored, viz., that of pigeoning a new chum, or stripping him of his last halfpenny. Indolence, such as is thoroughly unknown in the United States, prevails more or less throughout all the antipodean colonies, except in Victoria, where
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they are weeding out the black sheep, and employing the idle grumblers, who form leagues to impose upon those who are liberal.
That democracy has been progressing gradually and imperceptibly for many centuries past, for weal or for woe, and is now rapidly advancing, is fully borne out by those who are at all acquainted with colonial life: to wit, the ballot has been carried at Melbourne; a common working man at Wellington is a member of the Provincial Council; where, besides, the lower orders have petitioned the Government to make them a present of the soil, simply because they are poor men and settlers.
POLITICS.
The form of government in New Zealand is somewhat analogous to that of the United States of America. There are six provinces in New Zealand, which are all empowered to elect their own representatives. These, again, elect other members to form the general parliament, or federal government, of the country, who meet once a year for the transaction of business, at Auckland, the capital of the country. The electors of the provinces possess also the qualification of voting for a representative of the federal government. The qualification of an elector is so small, both in Australia and New Zealand, that it approaches very near to universal suffrage. The superintendent is the highest functionary in the six provinces of New Zealand. He is the speaker of the Provincial Council, and possesses the power of placing a veto upon the proceedings of the House. I had the pleasure of dining with the speaker of the
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general parliament, who informed me that their first debate was carried on with as much vigour and talent as if it had been discussed in the House of Commons. Each province has laws peculiar to itself, Other laws are enacted by the General Federal Government at Auckland, while in some instances the laws of England are still in force; and, as there are six provinces and a general government at Auckland, the New Zealand settlers are under eight different systems of government. At times this has led to many ridiculous and anomalous proceedings, in consequence of some of the provincial governments acting for themselves without consulting the fountain-head at Auckland. The system of electioneering in New Zealand is of a most anomalous and farcical character. It is not only colonial, but completely antipodean to the system carried out in the old country. I have heard it frequently asserted that men have voted very often without the legal and necessary qualifications, and that sons of dead men long since departed, have had their shades numbered to take part in the uproarious proceedings of an election, by having their votes duly recorded.
The vote by ballot has been adopted in Victoria, and is said to work well. The land question, at the time that I visited the antipodes, was the exciting and general topic of the day all over Australia as well as in New Zealand. The following letter, which appeared in a Sydney paper, throws no little light upon this all-important topic:--
"It is a common observation, that there is nothing so short-lived, nothing so changeable, as the breath of popular favour; they who have spent the greater portion of their lives in the arena of
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politics are fully aware of this changeableness in the temper of the populace. Men are led, without reflection, to follow a new phantom, and collectively deport themselves in a manner they would be ashamed to do individually. The man in political life who acts conscientiously and according to the best of his judgment, is sure, some time or other, in the course of his career, to displease many of his admirers, and then he must bear the weight of their indignation and wrath, which are poured upon him with the utmost unrelenting fury. His motives are misconstrued, his former services are forgotten, and he is at once represented as nothing but a designing, unscrupulous, and unprincipled schemer. Every man who has taken an active part in political movements has at one period or other experienced the bitterness of feeling arising from this species of ingratitude amongst sections of the people."
Though there is much truth in the preceding paragraph, the author should have known that what men, when disappointed in their views, call ingratitude, the masses may generally designate well-merited retribution; it being a notorious fact that not a few of those men who during the present century have bawled most lustily for the people's rights, have done so, not so much to procure for the masses any amelioration in their condition, as to elevate themselves to political power, that in due time they might secure a few of the loaves and fishes for themselves and their dependants. Had he done so, he would not have written the following:--
"I am not therefore at all surprised to find that the present ministry are just now the object of
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most unmerited slander, &c., by some parties, while a few months ago they were in the same proportion the objects of their most intense admiration. No doubt the present ministry have brought into the legislature a bill for the settlement of the 'land question,' which has given almost universal dissatisfaction, and which, should it ever pass into a law, will, in my humble judgment, be found impracticable. But I can see no reason in this for heaping upon them such loads of abuse as seem to have been hurled at them a few evenings ago at a meeting held in Wynyard Square."
See no reason! Why, if the bringing in of a bill obnoxious to the great body of the people be not a sufficient reason for hurling abuse at those who attempt to pass such a measure, what, in the name of common sense, will induce the masses to drive their rulers from power. What but a late attempt of this kind here compelled the late Liberal ministry to fly from Downing Street? And every future ministry, be they Whig, Tory, or Radical, will be made to take a similar flight, that may dare to offer so glaring an insult to the national feeling.
But although we do not agree with the writer on these points, nor altogether on the important land question, yet conceiving that his remarks on it deserve something more than a hasty perusal, I give them a place here, in hope that they may attract the attention of those who have both the will and the power of applying them to useful purposes. After a few more preliminary remarks, the author proceeds thus:--
"But I object to the Parliament in New South Wales, or the Parliament of Victoria, or that of
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Tasmania, making a final settlement of the land question, as they are now attempting to do in their respective colonies, each framing a separate and widely different law. The question is one of a purely federal nature, one in which each of the Australian colonies is as much interested as the other, and it ought, in its broadest sense, to be dealt with only by a federal parliament. The system now being pursued by the different colonies is neither more nor less than a bidding against each other for immigration; and such a system cannot be otherwise than injurious in the long run.
"But there is one species of legislation on the land question which, if acted upon, would go far towards its satisfactory settlement, and which it is the duty of each of the Australian legislatures, but more particularly those of New South Wales, to enter upon immediately. I allude to a tax upon the land; such a tax would do more towards the settlement of an agricultural population in the interior of the colony, and for the opening up of the land, than all the land bills that can well, or ever will, be invented. It would put an end at once and for ever to what all parties, whether sincerely or not, appear to dread so much as likely to come upon us--a monopoly of land, as if there were not a monopoly of land already. If a tax of a shilling or eighteenpence an acre were placed upon all country lands, no matter what their quality or situation, and at the rate of ten shillings an acre upon all town allotments, there would soon be an end to monopoly; and lands in all parts of the country, now locked up in the hands of private individuals, would soon be in the market
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in great abundance, and at a rate so cheap that every industrious man who was desirous of obtaining a farm could do so.
"When we remember that there are individuals here who are in possession of their 50,000 and 100,000 acres each, which they will neither lease nor sell, we can easily imagine how eager they would be to sell after the tax-gatherer had called upon them for a year's payment of their tax, amounting to some £2,600 or £7,500, as the case might be, and informed them that he would annually pay them a visit for that sum. Why, there is one company, the Australian Agricultural Company, which in one single district of the country holds no less than 464,640 acres in one place, which was given to this same monopolizing company--a company which for years has been a curse and obstruction to the colony, for nothing. Supposing a tax of 1s. 6d. per acre were imposed upon land--and there is no reason why it should not be, such a tax being just and equitable--this land-monopolizing company, residing in a foreign country, draining the colony of wealth, and contributing nothing towards its exigencies, would be compelled annually to pay to the Government the sum of £34,848 for this grant alone. But besides this, they hold thousands of acres in other parts of the country, which they have likewise received for nothing, and which they keep locked up from the people, selling and leasing it only at high and ruinous prices. If they were thus called upon to disgorge, they would be very soon glad to sell that which they now hold so tenaciously; or they would have to return the land into the hands of the Government, to be disposed of by
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them for the advantage of the people at large. I have not the means of knowing, in fact, I believe no return has ever yet been made of the quantity of land alienated from the Crown, but I have reason to believe, that if the plan I propose were adopted, a source of between £600,000 and £700,000 a year would he derived. Were this the case, the Government would have no occasion to borrow, and almost go a-begging to capitalists to induce them to lend; and what debt has already been incurred would be very speedily paid off, which, in spite of Mr. Donaldson's assertions to the contrary, I believe would be a very great blessing; for a state of indebtedness is in no way desirable, either for a country or an individual. This is a question which should be urged upon the attention of the ministry, and I believe that if the representations of the desirability of such a measure were made to them in a proper manner, and from all parts of the colony, they would not be slow to accede to it."
If the above be from the pen of a working man, he may well be proud of being a contributor to a newspaper, for the facility and fluency with which he writes, may take rank, and a vastly superior rank too, with many a man educated at a university; and, although I do not agree with all his statements, he fully proves that knowledge is power for good or for evil, no matter the quarter from whence it comes, --whether from the man of high or low position, the aristocrat or the plebeian. These colonies are the very hot-beds that force the intellect of the working classes, and develop mental qualities which might have lain dormant in the old country without coming to maturity.
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POLITICS.
In paying a visit to a lady at Melbourne, she made the following remark upon the legislature of Victoria, in reference at least to one of its members, --"The vessel in which I came out from England had a cuddy servant that now exercises his mental faculties in law-making for the settlement." Prior to my second visit to the colonies, for some years past, I invariably recommended all the working people with whom I came in contact, to pack up as soon as possible for some of our distant colonies, in order to better their condition; not forgetting to lay great stress upon the facility with which they might not only become cultivators, but proprietors, of the soil.
I have frequently remarked--If you are an honest man, uneducated, and not remarkable for being a skilful worker--if you will only make the best of your hands, and persevere in the right direction, you are sure, if your health does not fail you, of being on your own acres before you have been there a year and a half, or at most from two to three years.
That this has been a truthful statement can be fully proved by the innumerable cottage-proprietors who occupy the thousands of acres to be found in the Waimea, a short distance from the town of Nelson. This state of things, however, I found, on my last visit to the colonies, to have undergone a considerable change --a change that certainly acts in antagonism to the interest of the working classes. Cupidity on the part of large capitalists, in combination with the squatting interest, has produced that change which acts so detrimentally, and places the lands of the colonies in the hands of the rich almost exclu-
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sively. When lands are put up by auction at the upset Government price, say a pound per acre, the poor man, in nine cases out of ten, is ridden over, rough-shod, by the overwhelming influence of rich capitalists and wealthy squatters. I have been informed, however, that at Adelaide, South Australia, there still exist greater facilities for the poor man, and it is to that part of the world that I strongly recommend him to emigrate, where he may place himself upon soil on which he may enjoy all the privileges and advantages so desirable for the sons of poverty--a homestead with its acres. I was very much surprised when I paid a visit to Melbourne, to hear that the labour-market was over-stocked--a declaration which carried upon the face of it one of the greatest fallacies ever uttered in modern times. The poor men at that time were forming leagues for the redress and amelioration of their poverty-stricken condition. A country capable of containing a population of 20,000,000 when thoroughly developed, now not enumerating more than 400,000, clearly proves, I think, the maladministration of government affairs, and that cupidity and immense bungling must have laid the foundation of such an objectionable state of affairs in the colony of Victoria. That indolence on the part of those who constituted the league of working men was a predominant feature, was fully proved from the fact of a spirited Government contractor advertising to employ all who were anxious to be engaged, at a fair remuneration, on some of the Government works. The contractor offered to provide conveyances for the employed; and I believe that at the appointed time not more than some twenty or
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thirty accepted the invitation, although hundreds, and perhaps thousands, were out of employ.
The monopoly of the land in the hands of the squatter and great capitalist, with an extremely awkward, and inexperienced, and selfish government, must have been the cause of that anomalous state of things in a young country, where every immigrant ought to meet with employment. I was truly astonished to find many advocates, even amongst those who were old and experienced hands in the colonies, of the opinion, that the labour-market was over-stocked.
In mentioning this view of the subject to the celebrated Mrs. Chisholm, whose head and heart have been so well employed in developing the resources of the colony by means of immigration, I am happy to say that she repudiated the doctrine in the strongest possible terms.
