[Advice for emigrants]
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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 have 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, a corn 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 3,839 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 90,447 1/4 acres, and 60,201 3/4 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, is 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' 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 6 1/2 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 £2 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 he 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 Remuera, 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 ami 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 their 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 1 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 artisans 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. Or 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, im-
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migrants must, before leaving their home countries, enter into 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, 2 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 27th 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,
20th September, 1859.
SIR, --The Rev. Mr. Morgan, of Otawhao, 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 a 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:--
No earnest entreaties, no expressed willingness to do any thing, should prevail with the agents to give Land Orders to clerks, shopmen, or persons of that class. Such people only go to Auckland to be miserable, and to be a burden on the public. Some few young and energetic lads of that class do, after a little suffering, manage to get on; but there is the greatest difficulty in getting a chance of doing well for any one not accustomed to energetic manual labour. People with capital, who are, at the same time, willing to rough it for a time; good agricultural labourers, carpenters, brickmakers, bricklayers; and, in genera], men who have a trade such as is wanted in a new country, and who are steady and industrious, may all come, with advantage to themselves and the colony, but no others.
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Persons with capital who are about to emigrate might be recommended to bring out servants with them. The value of the Land Order will be more than the expense they will thus incur, so that they need not be very anxious about binding them to serve them for any length of time. If such agreement is made, however, it is advisable that in all cases the agreement should be to give them the current rate of wages of the district, as any other way is almost sure to engender heart-burnings. A person who intends to invest money in the purchase of land will find that to bring out a good class of agricultural labourers and a few respectable female servants, even without any agreement, will be the cheapest and best way of remitting his money to Auckland. He can bring each of them for £16, and if of the right class will receive for them £20 worth of land.
The Immigration Agent, feeling it to be a very important duty, both for the sake of the immigrants and the province, that they should not be discouraged at the outset, and that everything should be done to make matters as smooth for them as possible, has provided himself with a list of houses and furnished apartments to let, and of boarding houses, with their terms; and, on his recommendation, the Superintendent has rented a large building for the purpose of affording temporary accommodation to those whose limited means may make it advisable that they should be saved the expense of lodging until they have time to look about them.
It is well that applicants for Land Orders should exactly understand their position. There is no land belonging to the Government for sale near Auckland, nor, the writer should think, within thirty miles of it; and the best land that is coming into the market--a good deal of it very good--is much further away. To any one who knows this country this will not appear a matter of much consequence, as every part of the province is near water communication, and new settlements are springing up in all directions. The writer has had experience of a farm between twenty and thirty miles from Auckland, abutting on a navigable creek, such as they have almost everywhere, and he was able to send his produce to Auckland at a considerably less cost than if he had been only five or six miles from Auckland, close to one of the main roads. In fact, the most flourishing farmers in the province--Messrs. Williams, Brothers--have the principal part of their land at the Bay of Islands, from whence they send large supplies of sheep, cattle, and horses, to Auckland; and their manager at Auckland informed the writer that it cost them just one shilling a-head to bring sheep there. Many immigrants imagine that they are to be set down on a cultivated farm, or at least on one bearing good grass. They should all be undeceived as to this. The land is naturally covered with fern, shrub, or trees --the last, by far the best of the land--if level, or nearly so. Good bush (forest) land costs about £2 10s. an acre to fell the trees and burn them off-- that is, if the labour has to be paid for. The writer's sons have had a quantity cut down last spring, by contract, at 35s. and 37s. 6d. per acre. This will be burnt off in March; and afterwards grass, and even a fair crop of wheat, will grow upon it if sown on the surface among the ashes. Every emigrant should understand that he must calculate upon supporting himself for twelve months in some other way than by the produce of his land.
There are no such things as "Free Grant Lands," as distinguished from any other lands belonging to the province. A Land Order for 40 acres, issued by a duly authorised agent, is just the same to any person wishing to purchase any land belonging to the Government as a £20 note, with this difference, that its possessor must remain in the province to reap the benefit of it, and will not be in a condition to sell his land for five years after he has arrived at Auckland.
The Government is constantly purchasing blocks of land from the natives; and a number of surveyors are then set to work upon them and subdivide them into farms of different sizes. When two or three blocks have been thus divided, the Superintendent advertises that on and after such a day such and such lots of land in such a district will be open for sale; and in applying for these lots, or any unsold lots previously open for sale, the holders of Land Orders are on the same footing as if their Land Orders were money, with the single exception to which the writer referred above. If a person has a 40-acre Land Order, and buys an 85-acre farm--as one did yesterday--he hands in his Land Order and
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£26 10s.; or, if he buys so much land as he has orders for, he has nothing to pay.
There is a good deal of work for land surveyors in the colony, and there are a good many land surveyors (not many, however, of a superior class). The Provincial Government does all its surveys by contract, at a fixed price for the different kinds of work. A land surveyor's life in New Zealand is rather a hard one, but they generally make a tolerable income. My private opinion is, that there is a want of a person thoroughly qualified. Everything, however, depends on his ability and industry. If, indeed, well qualified in these respects, he might, very possibly, after a time, be employed by the Government, and, at all events, could not fail to find private employment. This, of course, is only my opinion, formed from observing the very moderate qualifications of some who are employed. You will ere long have correct maps of the province.
Means of education in Auckland, both for boys and girls, are abundant and of good quality.
Families in which there are grown-up daughters, able and willing to take situations as domestic servants, have a great advantage. Female servants are much wanted, and meet with great encouragement. A good carpenter and wheelwright is sure of employment.
The land orders are just equivalent to the price of twenty or forty acres of land, as the case may be, to be selected by the holder from any land that the Provincial government has, or may have, open for sale. New blocks are continually being surveyed, and brought forward for that purpose; thus whether the whole, or only a part, or no part, of any lot selected may be fit for cultivation will depend wholly on the wisdom of the selection. If the immigrant chooses, he will get at the Land-office, without fee, all the information they have as to the quality and nature of the land open for selection in the different blocks, or he can employ a recognised land agent to select for him, or to assist him in making his selection, at an expense, I believe, of 6d. per acre. It would be an easy matter to send home plans from the Survey-office, as the different blocks of land are cut up and ready for sale; but it would only mislead intending emigrants to do so, as on their arrival here they might very likely find the greater part (at all events the best part) of these blocks already taken up, and that in order to get a good choice they must select from still more recent surveys. The surveys are going on rapidly.
Mr. ----- writes chiefly to inquire what would be the effect of servants or children, in respect of whom land orders have been granted to the head of a family, leaving the province before the stipulated five years has expired. It is quite plain by the act, that in such case, a Crown grant could not issue in respect of land held in respect of these orders. Any peculiar circumstances involving hardship, such as having expended money in improving such land, would doubtless receive a fair and equitable consideration from the Government then existing, and the matter would without doubt be arranged as favourably as possible for the holder of the land orders. Every person, however, bringing; out servants should make such arrangements with them as will, as far as possible, secure their remaining in the province, while at the same time there is little fear if the proper class of servants is brought out, that they will have any temptation to leave the province, whether they leave their master's service or not.
There is no difficulty in obtaining employment for good agricultural labourers, or girls willing to go to service. A lot of fine men came by the Harwood from the North of England, chiefly from the county of Durham--shipwrights, carpenters, and blacksmiths. They are all doing well, and are now sending home for their families.
It is the desire of the Provincial Government rather to have five hundred Immigrants arrive here who will feel contented and satisfied, than to have as many thousand grumblers and disappointed persons accusing the Government here and its Agents in England of having deceived them. Many of those who arrive here come with exceedingly incorrect notions about what they are coming to. This, to some extent, is inevitable; the difference between a country such as our mother-country is and any young colony being so many
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and so great that nothing one can read or hear will enable them to form a correct idea of it. A good deal, however, may and ought to be done to correct erroneous expectations, and with this object the writer will mention a few particulars. In the first place we have in this Province, at least in that part of it as yet purchased from the natives, no grassy plains. All the land is covered either with forest shrub, or fern. The land in the neighbourhood of volcanic hills, all of them long ago extinct, is generally a light soil and is very easily brought into cultivation, but does far better with grass than anything else --in fact will speedily be well grassed by mere surface sowing. Next to that is the land covered with forest trees; where this is not much broken (the writer means where it is tolerably level), it is the best land generally. In most places the trees can be cut down by contract at from 35s. to 40s per acre--it is even done at 30s. This is done in winter and early spring. The felled trees are allowed to lie over the summer, and in the end of March or early in April they are burnt off: the unburnt remains are then tumbled together in heaps, and upon the ashes grass seed, wheat, or oats are sown, and generally do very well. Fern land can be laid down with grass at about half the cost of forest land probably, but in most cases not so successfully, and in almost all cases it will be a year or two longer, before you can have good grass upon it. It has to be cleared by burning off the fern, very lightly ploughed, and allowed to lie fallow for a good while to sweeten it, before it can be sown to advantage. In newly opened districts, where cattle have not been kept before to any considerable extent, cattle, properly selected, will thrive well in the bush for some years, but such runs deteriorate in place of improving; they, however, enable a settler, who understands what he is about, to get a good herd of cattle while he is by degrees getting land into grass. Bush runs don't do for sheep, but our made pastures are far superior to the natural grass runs in the southern provinces, and sheep farming is rapidly increasing here.
Every person thinking of coming here should distinctly understand that for at least twelve months after his arrival he must expect to support himself from some other source than from the produce of his land. All young men, in fact, all men accustomed to work, the writer advises to take service for a time --by so doing, they save their money and gain the needful experience. Where the men are of the right sort they have not hitherto found much difficulty in getting employment. A considerable number of immigrants of the superior class have selected their land in very good localities, and if rightly directed will, I doubt not, after the struggle which we have all had to go through, do very well. There is no land in the hands of Government, at least, none worth having, at all near Auckland. That, however, the writer considers of much less consequence than it may appear to a stranger. Population is rapidly spreading northwards, roads are being made, settlements are springing up, and such is the nature of the country that every part of it is near some navigable creek or river by which farm produce can be brought to Auckland from even great distances at far less cost than it could be brought a short distance by land. I have had a farm between twenty and thirty miles from Auckland, and brought my produce here at two-thirds of the cost of bringing it five or six miles by one of the best roads.
It will be well for immigrants to make up their minds really to rough it for a while, and not spend their money in building comfortable bouses or furnishing them nicely. When I came to this province, nearly ten years ago, I got two natives to build me a raupo hut--that is a hut with a frame of poles crossed by supple-jacks, to which are tied bundles of a sort of broad reed that grows in the swamps. I got a carpenter to floor it and make doors and windows; altogether it cost me about 20l. It was more comfortable either in summer or winter than a weather-boarded house, and I think looked better; it being, however, dangerous for fire, I had no fire-place in it, but had the cooking carried on in a separate place. We lived there five years; we never were, either before or since, so free from colds, &c. As for furniture I brought scarcely any with me, as I was not sure when I left home where I would settle, and I believe I did not in those five years expend 5l. on furniture, and we did very well without it.
At first they felt it somewhat odd to be without so many things we used to have, but by-and-by we did not mind it. Such, too, is the mildness of the
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climate, that I don't think there were more than three or four days in each year that I wished we could have had a fire in our sitting room.
This may perhaps be egotistical, but the writer has said this much about himself thinking it may be useful to others and you. Every one may be assured that a man's respectability here will not in the least suffer by his doing any honest kind of work, or living as roughly as it suits him to do. The writer has seen a retired major of the ----- Regiment without a coat leading his dray laden with manure; and he has himself, when driving his own dray, been repeatedly stopped and spoken to frankly by such ladies as the Bishop's and the Chief Justice's wives. A man's position here depends upon what he is, not on what he has; it is so at least in a degree that is not understood at all in Great Britain. Emigrants may do well to lay this to heart. It would be well too if emigrants who propose to settle on land immediately after arriving would arrange so as to arrive here if possible between the end of August and end of April. The other months are not so suitable for travelling about (although May is occasionally a fine month), and there is generally so much rain, especially in June July, and the beginning of August, as to dishearten strangers who arrive about that time. Agricultural labourers may come at any time, as there is a good deal of work done during winter--only they won't like it much at first.
"Auckland, 28th January, 1860.
"Mr. -----, a member of the House of Representatives, and one of our largest and most energetic proprietors, told me to-day, that he found it more difficult to obtain agricultural labour now than he did last year. Since Saturday, applications have been made to the immigration agent to procure for settlers, six ploughmen, a drayman, a bullock-driver, ten men to reap, boys to milk and attend to cattle, and several others, and he has only found one ploughman and nothing more.
"I am sorry to say that the ships which have arrived lately have brought a very small proportion of working men of the right sort--not that there are plenty of people seeking employment, for a large number of them appear to have landed here absolutely without money, expecting to find employment next morning; but there are hardly any young men accustomed to agricultural labour among them, and a large number hoping to be employed as storemen, cigar manufacturers, light porters, overseers of labour, land stewards, &c. Quality is the thing not quantity. There are also carpenters, shoemakers, and such like; I dare say, for the most part, very proper immigrants, if they had not come here under the impression that they would not require to support themselves without work for a day. These will all get employed, but they can't be absorbed all at once at all times. It is not what are you willing to do will be asked, but what can you do?
"Some emigrants affect, or really do consider themselves deceived when they find that they are exposed to the competition of others when they apply for land which has not previously been proclaimed as open for sale or collection.
"'When an emigrant tells an Immigration agent he has land orders, he says, Go to the land office with them, taking with you all the persons named in the orders, as they must appear personally; the deputy commission will endorse upon the order that they have been duly presented on such a date, and will also inform you, if you ask him, in what district there is land open for sale or selection; also, where there are lands not yet open, but proclaimed, or about to be proclaimed, open for selection. Go, then, and see these lands first, those already open. If you see any thing to suit you there, on coming back to the land office, if no one has taken it in the meantime, you have only
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to fill up a printed application for it, and hand it in along with your land orders, and the application will be granted as a matter of course. In case, however, some other immigrant should have fancied the same land and taken it up while you were looking for it, do not set your heart exclusively on one allotment, but pitch upon two or three if possible, in order that if you fail in getting one you may be sure of the other. There is no competition for land that has once been proclaimed for sale or selection after the day upon which it was open for sale. The first applicant gets it. If, however, you fancy to have the pick of a new block proclaimed to be open, say three weeks hence, then you must give in your application with your land orders before noon on the day fixed by the proclamation. After twelve the applications are all opened by the commissioner in open court. If no other person has applied for the same allotment that you have applied for, it is marked in the office-book and on the plan as granted to you. If another person, however, has also applied for it, unless you shall settle between yourselves which shall have it (as we have not yet discovered any way of giving two or more persons the same piece of land), it is put up to auction between you (the applicants), the Land-orders representing the upset price of 10s. per acre, and the one that bids most above that gets it.' I can see no fairer way of acting than this, and I think that if it were so explained to them before leaving England, no one would think of grumbling at it. The Government keep a person in pay in the district where the most of the land is situated, to point out the land to persons who want to see it, when a party is made up to go and inspect it; and when a party is made up to go and inspect any other district, the Deputy Commissioner is always ready to supply a guide to show it them. Again, the Government don't want people to bid against each other for land, knowing that it is better for the country that settlers should expend their money upon the land than in buying it; but if two are determined to bid against each other, there is no help for it. This does not, however, very often occur, and when it does the opposition is of a very mild kind. It is inexpedient that immigrants should arrive here between the beginning of May and August, to men of capital it is not of so much consequence, winter being the best time for having forest land cleared; but laboring men, unless they are woodmen, or a few good ploughmen, may have to wait longer for employment than at other seasons of the year, and should it happen to be a wet winter, the spirits of newcomers are apt to fall very low for a short time.
"The immigrants chiefly required are, either men having at least £500, if not, men accustomed to work--if working farmers they will do as well with one-third of that sum as the other will with the whole of it--good ploughmen, some agricultural labourers accustomed to hedging, ditching, &c., &c., and a sprinkling of other tradesmen from time to time, as country blacksmiths, wheelwrights, &c,
"My only desire in thus writing to you is to make matters plain, so as, as far as possible, to hinder persons from emigrating who are not likely to prosper; for, assuredly, unless the individual immigrant prospers, he cannot add to the prosperity of the province."
"Auckland, New Zealand, Oct. 24, 1859.
"Dear Sirs, --I arrived here in the Matoaka, on the 24th of September, after a pleasant passage of 106 days, calling at Wellington, which lost about 10 days.
"I lost no time in having my land orders endorsed, and found an allotment of land at the mouth of the Wangurei River, 50 miles north of this city, to be disposed of, applicable to land orders, and to be allotted on the following Monday, Oct. 3. There was just time to make the necessary inquiries, and having got a satisfactory account of it, I put in my claim, and, after some slight competition, was put in possession of 339 acres of good tall fern land
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upon the eighth day after setting my foot in the country. It is, as I said before, 50 miles from this by sea, three trading schooners constantly running on the line, which put their passengers and goods on the beach within three miles of the land I have selected. There are roads marked out, but as yet only a cattle track to it. There is a frontage of over a mile to a river navigable for boats, and running into the sea about 10 miles north of the Wangurei River. On the other side it is bounded by a road to be made by the provincial authorities.
"The quality of the soil is good, as tall fern will not grow on inferior; there are 20 or 30 acres of wood, and perhaps 20 or 30 of natural grass. My two sons are now on the spot with oxen, plough, and other implements to break up and fence, the greater part of which I expect to get done by contract. The neighbourhood is well settled, and in a few years I hope to have it in good productive order.
"The system of preferring the purchaser by auction, where more than one claim the same land, is much complained of; but I see no other mode of fairly settling their claims. The lots brought from 4s. to 5s. per acre advance, which is paid in cash, and the unsuccessful party has only to apply for some other parcel, as the Government warrant 40 acres for each of land, worth at least 10s.; mine was laid off in five lots. I overbid competitors, and got the whole in one compact farm. By the old system of lottery I could not have got everyone, and would have only got two or three disjointed lots of 50 to 70 acres each, and, probably, obliged to take the balance in another locality.
"I give you these particulars at the suggestion of my old friend Mr. Lusk, the immigration officer, as it may satisfy parties proceeding on the same route. I have met with several who neglected taking land orders in England, and have been disappointed here, land being as yet refused them.
"A Mr. Ball, who came out in the same ship with me with a special settlement party of 150, got 10,000 acres set apart for him at Mongouni, distant 150 miles by sea with which he declares himself satisfied, and has sailed to enter into possession.
"I shall be glad if this letter serves to encourage others to come to this magnificent climate. Everything in nature is most beautiful. I am told about seven tons of peaches fell from the trees on my grounds last year for the wild pigs to consume, and that some of the trees are large; one in particular took five men to span it.
"Emigrants should arrive here between October and June, after the winter is over. All those in the Matoaka who were willing to work got employment at once at full rates--from 6s. to 10s. a day for men, and 5s. to 8s. and 10s. per week for female servants, and found.
"I am, dear Sirs, your obedient servant,
"JOHN REID.
"Messrs. Ridgway and Sons, London."
