1862 - Voices from Auckland, New Zealand - [Advice to settlers on farming] p 58-112

       
E N Z B       
       Home   |  Browse  |  Search  |  Variant Spellings  |  Links  |  EPUB Downloads
Feedback  |  Conditions of Use      
  1862 - Voices from Auckland, New Zealand - [Advice to settlers on farming] p 58-112
 
Previous section | Next section      

[Advice to settlers on farming]

[Image of page 58]

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

[Image of page 59]

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

[Image of page 60]

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 up.

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

[Image of page 61]

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

[Image of page 62]

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 settlers 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, 1,233 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

[Image of page 63]

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

[Image of page 64]

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

[Image of page 65]

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 Hock, 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 6O 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

[Image of page 66]

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,

[Image of page 67]

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 forgiving 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.


[Image of page 68]

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 animadversions.

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 philanthropy--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 untilled 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 Genii, 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-

[Image of page 69]

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.

[Image of page 70]

And why docs 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 he 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

[Image of page 71]

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 too; 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 NEW-COMERS--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-

[Image of page 72]

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 home sickness 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,

[Image of page 73]

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 it 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 of 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

[Image of page 74]

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 be 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

[Image of page 75]

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.


[Image of page 76]

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 &c.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 £7 10s.

15 0 0

£56 0 0

[Image of page 77]

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 benefited 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 wav, 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

[Image of page 78]

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 28, 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 £7 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

[Image of page 79]

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.

[Image of page 80]

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 newcomers, 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.


[Image of page 81]

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.

[Image of page 82]

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

[Image of page 83]

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

[Image of page 84]

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.


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.


[Image of page 85]

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.

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 New-comers 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 & 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.

[Image of page 86]

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, blacky brown, or grey soils. Nor can they understand the advantages peculiar to each.

Again, they are puzzled by what is said about fern-lands 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, every thing 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 "bush-man" 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.

[Image of page 87]

"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 new comer.

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 benefited.

With regard to the questions.--

1. How to select the land?

2. How to settle upon it?

[Image of page 88]

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 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 ready 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:--

[Image of page 89]

Omitted, all the voyage of our life
Is bound in shallows, and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures."

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

[Image of page 90]

Auckland to the scene 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 hush in a week; and as we give the whole of the five 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 oti 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

[Image of page 91]

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 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:

[Image of page 92]

we must wait two years for a crop: certainly we can plough up the ground, say in September, and sow it the next May 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,

[Image of page 93]

using no means whatever to cover the seed; and early in 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 uninitiated 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

[Image of page 94]

£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

[Image of page 95]

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 labour 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

[Image of page 96]

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 day-light, 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

[Image of page 97]

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.

If 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-

[Image of page 98]

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 he 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

[Image of page 99]

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 dashing 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 ochreous 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.,
LOCOMOTIVE.
Coalbrook, 13th October, 1859.


[Image of page 100]

AN "UNFORTUNATE" FORTY-ACRE MAN.

To the Editor of the New Zealander.

SIR, --I am one of the 40-acre new-comers, 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 favour, 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 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:

[Image of page 101]

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.


SMALL HOLDINGS.

From the New Zealander, March 2, 1861.

There seems to be a general ignorance on the part of new comers of the fact, that cattle not only live, but thrive exceedingly well, upon such feed as they find growing in a natural state on the unimproved lands of the Province. We mention this particularly, laughable as the idea may appear to old settlers, having so frequently heard new-comers express their opinion on the subject. Nay, having known in one instance a most desirable settler return to the Australias, at the same time stating "that he would not have done so had there been any possibility of his at once commencing a small dairy of ten or a dozen cows, until such time as he could have brought his open land into something like payable order." Very many of the fat cattle sold in our markets never had any other than bush feed. The assertion "that they will stray into the bush, and after a short time not be seen again," is contrary to all experience, or at most but some exceptional case. On one point precaution is necessary, that in purchasing cattle for a bush run, the settler procure only those bred in the bush; for to take cattle from grass paddocks, and place them at once upon a totally different feed, would be attended with unfortunate results in more ways than one. The outlay of a considerable portion of a poor man's capital in breeding stock, at the very first, and before he has been tempted to encroach upon it for other purposes, has always been one of the wisest steps, and one to which he has looked back in after years with satisfaction. Where, then, the capital is small, one hundred pounds, or thereabouts (too small to admit of entering into active farming operations),

[Image of page 102]

at least one-third cannot be better expended than in the purchase of milch cows or heifers in calf.

In all these cases the amount of land to be at first cultivated must be necessarily small, as it will all have to be performed by hand labour. Two acres for the first year is as much as he will be able to till, but if he can let him get this ploughed at once. It must afterwards be broken up with the hoe, the fern roots gathered out and burnt, and if at all wet a good underground drain opened, to carry off the surplus water. Drainage on some soils, particularly heavy clays, is most beneficial--nay, absolutely necessary, for a high state of cultivation. Last year we had an opportunity of observing the force of this remark in a field, part of which had been manured but not drained, and part drained but not manured, the remainder had been neither manured nor drained. The whole was sown with autumn wheat and received in other respects exactly the same tillage. That which was neither manured nor drained was a thin crop, the heads were, however, well filled; the manured but undrained portion was visibly superior; but that which was drained but not manured far surpassed the other two, indeed, during almost the whole time of its growth it could be distinctly pointed out from either of them; while along the line of drains where the yellow clay from beneath had been mixed with the upper soil during the operation of draining, the wheat grew in tall dark green ridges, and yielded an extraordinary increase. Drainage, either natural or artificial, is the foundation of all good farming. Any fertilising properties whatever, with which the soil is enabled to recruit itself, must be derived from the atmosphere and the rains. It stands then to reason that the first object must be to allow both these elements to penetrate and freely circulate in the soil, and in no way can this be accomplished but by deep drainage. The first summer after draining, innumerable cracks and crevices in the clay branch forth laterally from the drains, penetrating in every direction throughout the soil; these become partially filled in wet weather by the lighter and more porous soil which is washed into them, and ever afterwards act in wet weather as conductors from all parts of the surface to the main drain, to which they all converge; while in summer they act in an exactly opposite manner, enabling the heavy clay, by the force of capillary attraction, to draw moisture upwards to the roots of the plants. Well then, if his soil require it, by all means let him not neglect to put in one or two underground drains, and these should not, unless the fall hinder it, be of less than three feet in depth. We have already, in another place, entered more fully into the method of constructing these drains.

[Image of page 103]

In selecting his two or three acres for cultivation he will of course endeavour to pitch upon the best part of his farm, and with regard to the house, with so small a capital the most economical plan must be adopted. With the labour of a week or two he can construct a raupo hut, or if raupo is not convenient, one of stakes, ti tree, and nikau. Indeed, we have seen a very comfortable make-shift built by a forty-acre man, a baker by trade, the walls of which were built of dry fern sods and the roof of rushes, in which with his wife and child he both appeared and professed to be very comfortably settled until he should be able to turn himself round and make the means to build a more elegant and commodious one. Any of these substitutes if neatly put together and properly roofed are comfortable enough, and possess the main requisite, that of being wind and weather proof. To a man of small capital it is absolute madness to lock up one unnecessary shilling in so unproductive an investment as a house. False pride leads many a one to his ruin in this respect, and we have seen settlers afterwards bitterly repent that they had not roughed it at first, and laid out the money so wasted in young stock, which would by that time have been both a source of present income and have afterwards afforded them the means of building a house more suitable to their requirements. Nothing too is more likely than after a year or two, when the settler has become more thoroughly acquainted with his location, he will discover some other more convenient site for his house--and he will then be glad that he did not make himself a fixture in the first instance. In the same locality where we saw the turf house mentioned above, we were shown the house of a substantial settler who with his family had inhabited it for the last four years, and was then building a more commodious wooden one. It was constructed entirely, roof and sides, of cutting grass or tui-tui tied on to poles the same way as raupo. Higher up on the same creek, within a stone's throw of a newly built comfortable weather-board cottage--and standing in the midst of some thirty acres of highly cultivated land--was the original paling hut of the proprietors, two young men who with a comparatively small capital had commenced farming three years back. Five pounds had been about the cost of the palings, nails, &c. They had wisely roughed it at first, and are now reaping the advantage of their self-denial, while some of their neighbours who went upon the opposite plan, and with far larger means, are now too crippled to make the same headway. But to return, the two or three acres we would recommend him to securely fence. The nature of this fence must to some extent depend upon circumstances, but a four-railed pig-proof fence, where timber is near at hand, would be quickest and best.

[Image of page 104]

Otherwise a two-railed fence and a ditch. Let him eschew brush fences on the bank of the ditch, they are neither cattle nor pig proof, though nothing can be better if intended only for sheep. Now, as he can only grow a comparatively small amount of produce on a few acres, it becomes a matter of consideration what kind of crops he had better grow. Potatoes should be the main crop, for these reasons--first, because they are, acre for acre, decidedly the most money returning of the farmer's produce; secondly, because a longer time will be at his disposal for preparing the ground for them, as they need not be planted until September, and again because for the first two or three years there is always in new districts a regular demand for them by new arrivals, both for seed and other purposes. One half of the ground should be devoted to the growth of this plant. Half an acre may be sown with wheat, a portion of another half acre with such garden vegetables as may be thought fit, and the remainder of it with oats to cut green for the cattle. Whatever ground remains over the two acres may most profitably be sown with swede turnips. These will be useful for the cattle, will enable him to keep several pigs, and will be the means of forming a heap of manure for the land in the second year.

During the following autumn as many fruit trees as possible of the best sorts should be planted out, at distances of not less than 16 feet from each other. After the potatoes are taken out, the ground may be sown with oats for green food to be cut for the cattle, and again planted with potatoes in the second year. The piece of wheat ground may likewise be sown with potatoes, as likewise the other half acre, and as soon as the second year's crop of potatoes has been dug, grass seed sown upon the two acres. For this the land will require no other preparation than that caused by the digging the potato crop. The ground on which the swedes were grown the first year may have wheat chipped in with the hoe, in June, for the second crop, and come into potatoes the third year. Meanwhile a fresh piece will have been broken up to supply the place of that laid down to grass. Every year the potato land should be laid down in grass. Not only does the grass come best in New Zealand when sown in March, after the potatoes are dug, than after any other crop, but as no extra amount of labour beyond harrowing or raking in the grass seed is required, the working settler will have the more time to devote towards breaking in a fresh piece of ground, while the increased quantity of butter from the use of the grass will materially assist him.

By this time the settler may expect to have become possessed of a pair, or more, of bullocks from his own stock, and will be in a fair way of getting the remainder of his land into

[Image of page 105]

cultivation, and his cattle will be yearly increasing. The turnips grown the first year, and the small potatoes, will keep few pigs, and will, with the consumption of the green feed by the cattle when stockyarded at night, enable him to manure the potato ground for the second year. Both this year and the first, guano or bonedust should be applied to the soil--for the potatoes and turnips 5 cwt. of bonedust per acre sprinkled in the drills along with the sets. To the wheat at least two cwt. of guano per acre sown broadcast before a shower when the young wheat is about three weeks out of the ground. The best time for sowing swede turnips is October. Much after trouble will be saved by sowing these in regular rows at about two and a-half or three feet from each other, thinning the plants out afterwards to a distance of twelve or fifteen inches apart in the drills.

Wherever he is so situated that there would be no fear of annoyance to his neighbours, or where two or three together would agree to work upon the same system of thoroughly fencing in two or three acres for cultivation, and leaving the land outside as a run for their stock-pigs and goats could be profitably kept, the latter anywhere, the former more especially if contiguous to a sea beach or salt water creek. The cost of such an undertaking for a man and his wife would amount in broad figures to something like one hundred and ten pounds. After the first year his cattle and farm will support himself and family, while after the second he will have a team of his own for more extended operations. The outlay will run somewhat as follows:--

£ s. d.

2 cows at £13 each

26 0 0

4 heifers at £4

16 0 0

2 steers at 4

8 0 0

One year's rations

35 0 0

Windows for hut

1 0 0

Tools, cooking utensils, &c.

4 0 0

Seed potatoes, 1 acre, 14 cwt. at 6s.

4 4 0

Seed wheat 3/4 bushel, oats 2 bushels, and turnip seed

1 0 0

5 cwt. bonedust for potatoes

2 10 0

2 1/2 " " for 1/2 acre Swedes

1 5 0

1 cwt. guano for wheat

1 0 0

40 fruit trees at 1s. 6d.

3 0 0

Carriage of goods from Auckland

3 0 0

Pigs, goats, and poultry

5 0 0

Cash retained in hand

5 0 0

£115 19 0

[Image of page 106]

In all new districts he will find opportunities occurring, whereby he may earn a few pounds in the course of the year --though of course if he can proceed without this drain upon his time, the progress upon his own farm will be so much the greater. We are acquainted with the past history of the settlers of many now flourishing districts, and could point to numbers of individuals whose means at starting were less than the above. But with these narrow means they possessed energy and determination, unceasing industry, and a dogged resolution to undergo any hardship rather than lose the objects for which they started, and which they have now attained--perhaps the most independent situation in which a man can be placed, that of farming his own freehold. By the use of artificial manures, and by their use alone, the land can be depended upon to produce a good crop the first and second years, after that time with proper management the manure made upon the farm will decrease this expenditure to some extent.

One great object with new comers is to curtail as quickly as possible the ruinous waste of time and money consequent on a lengthened stay in Auckland. The future carefully planned out, the cost counted, and the step, when taken, entered upon with energy and perseverance he has little to fear, aye, even though it leave him with but a small margin of cash in pocket; no matter, the way he is setting to work will soon rectify that deficiency, and he stands every chance, nay, may consider it as certain, that in a few years he will be comfortably and independently situated upon his own farm, a result cheaply earned by those hardships and inconveniences which all early settlers in a new colony must expect to pass through, and upon which in after years he will look back with the pleasurable feeling that he had the energy and manliness to overcome them.


EXPERIENCE OF A WORKING SETTLER.

To the Editor of the New Zealander.

SIR,--Ex uno discant omnes--What one man has done hundreds of others may do again. Many newly arrived immigrants when they first land, unused to the ways of the country, perhaps experiencing some little difficulty in selecting or getting upon their land, and depressed by the croakings of those who seem to make it their business, instead of affording useful information and assistance, to discourage him as much as possible--give way in despair, and taking ship for Sydney or Melbourne in all probability travel farther and fare worse. When first I landed in Auckland, a little more than three

[Image of page 107]

years ago, I met with exactly the same disheartening accounts which are, with varying effects, used to the present time. I was advised to give up the idea of attempting to farm, and to turn to anything else in preference.

I listened to all, considered that these were at best but empty words, that I had a more reliable source from whence to obtain information, and in the course of a few days during which I was detained in Auckland, I took long walks into the neighbourhood and arrived at conclusions which I have as yet seen no cause to retract. For miles away I saw homesteads which an English farmer might have envied, I listened to the accounts of the privations which early settlers, who had made these farms what they now are, had been compelled to undergo. I found everywhere men in comparative affluence, who ten or twelve years back were literally pennyless, obliged to leave their farms more than once to earn the means to return and improve them; and what was still more to the point--that in those days, these farms which are now almost suburban, were considered out of the way--and the same difficulties and objections which are now urged against blocks of land up the country, were used in reference to these districts, which are now only a pleasant drive from town. I had made up my mind to become a farmer. I knew that the colony of Victoria, from whence I had come, was, on account of the climate, incapable of ever becoming an agricultural country, at least for those productions to which the English farmer is accustomed, and I decided (as I now think wisely) upon making the attempt in New Zealand, trusting to my own energy, and allowing neither one nor the other to turn me aside from my purpose when once settled upon. I was not one of those fortunate individuals whom the Government have presented with free grants, and therefore did not consider myself so well entitled to "look a gift horse in the mouth," and rail at the difficulties which every new settler must look for, and grumble at the absence of a turnpike road to the very edge of my allotment, but contented myself with purchasing some 220 acres for 10s. per acre, at a distance of more than twenty miles from Auckland, to which there was what I considered tolerable access, feeling confident that as the country became located, roads would be opened up and bridges constructed-- nor was I wrong in my calculations.

A party with whom I had been connected on the gold-diggings having joined me from Victoria, we entered at once into partnership, and between us, after the first cost of the land had been defrayed, mustered a capital of exactly, £100. Our first step was the erection of a hut, and as it was out of our power to build a good house, and we had not an acre of bush upon the farm we cast about for the best and cheapest

[Image of page 108]

substitute. Six hundred of palings delivered upon the ground cost us £3; the round stuff for the upright posts, rafters, wall plates, &c., we cut in a neighbouring Government bush, and then cost us £1 for cartage, the nails may have cost us another ten shillings, and a few boards for doors, &c., about as much more. This, besides our own labour in putting it up, was the sole expense. The palings for the roof were sawn in half lengths, and split again. The sides were built of a double course of paling nailed upright. We had a wind and weather tight hut of fourteen feet square, which now that we have built a substantial wooden house and taken unto ourselves wives, still serves the purpose of store and wash-house. Our next purchase was that of a bullock, a plough, and then of two unbroken two year old steers. As these would not make a team, it became necessary to look out for one, and accordingly I entered into an arrangement with a neighbouring settler to work, week and week about, for the use of four broken-in bullocks. We had never been used to bullocks, nevertheless we managed to yoke up the two steers, and (I had held the plough for about a fortnight once before) broke them in, and that summer broke up sixteen acres of land. I may mention by way that we commenced operations in November. By the following June we had, with the assistance of a hired man, fenced in seventeen acres, under-drained seven, and cross-ploughed ten of them and sown them with wheat and oats. The exchequer was by this time run low, and it became necessary that one of us must look out for something to do to replenish it, and keep things going. An offer to make bricks turning up, my partner, who, bye the bye, knew no more than the man in the moon about the work, undertook to learn, turned out in less than a week a first rate moulder, and engaged himself at a high rate of wages for the ensuing season. It was well he did so. The first year's crop was not worth the reaping, the wheat turned out at the rate of two bushels to the acre, the oats about four--a small piece of ground of about one sixth of an acre gave, however, about twenty-three hundred weight of potatoes. The next year we were unable to obtain the four bullocks upon the same terms, and having but three, were glad to take advantage of another neighbour being in the same case--three bullocks each, made a team of six, and we broke up another five acres, working week about on either farm, cross-ploughed the newly broken land, and ploughed up the last year's stubbles. Our neighbour now procured three other bullocks of his own, and we were left to our own resources. We then commenced ploughing with a pair of bullocks, the land was light, and we found them more than equal to the work: the whole of the crop

[Image of page 109]

(some seventeen acres) this second year were put in with a single span or yoke of oxen. This year we again attempted to grow wheat and oats, and there was a marked improvement in the crop. One piece of land one and three quarter acres which had been manured from the straw of the preceding year and about three cwt. of guano, gave over £40 worth of potatoes, and another portion manured with guano produced an excellent crop of turnips. From this we concluded that this description of soil, which is naturally a poor one, was even when manured more adapted for the growth of root crop than of cereals; on this supposition our crops this present harvest consist of about three and a half acres of wheat, five acres of potatoes, two of turnips, two of grass, and the remainder (some twelve or fourteen acres) of oats, a portion remaining uncropped, lying fallow, to sweeten for the succeeding year. The soil is a peaty black loam, in many places three, four, and even five feet, overlying a white clay; it requires underdraining, and if cropped the first year, requires manure to carry a crop. Towards the end of the second year we were enabled to make up our team by the purchase of a fourth bullock, as well as to invest a further sum in the purchase of several head of young breeding stock. This year we have used bonedust as a manure for both potatoes and turnips, and are quite satisfied as to its superiority over either guano or pig and cattle manure.

Numbers of intending settlers are met with the same discouraging information that we were, that the soil would grow nothing, that unless we had heaps of money that it would be useless to attempt farming, and that because we were unaccustomed to farm work, that we should never be able to carry on operations, and a great many other particulars which we have found to be equally false. We have in our own experience given the lie to these foolish--I had almost said wicked--discouragements. It is with the hope that some who read this account may be led to put less faith in the grumblings of those worthless loungers about town, who, themselves too idle to live by their own exertions, would fain bring others to their own level, that I have thus intruded our own particular experience, as an example of what may be done with small means, backed by hard work, hard living, and perseverance. Difficulties we have had to encounter-- for nine weeks, during which we were engaged in the hardest and most exhausting work, underdraining, we were compulsory vegetarians--our cattle, few as they were, have all had to be dragged out of waterholes, our garden broken into and pillaged by stray cattle, for nine weeks was one of us laid on a bed of sickness, we have had our share of disagreeables, but

[Image of page 110]

the end for which we were striving has been gained. We have established our position, passed beyond the land of difficulties into one of independence, and would beckon on those who are afraid to pursue the same track.

Scores who read this will at once recognize the farm, nevertheless, though not without thanking you for your staunch advocacy of the cause of Auckland farming, and the earnest and consistent position which your journal has taken in advancing the colonization of the province, I shall, from a natural bashfulness, entrench myself behind the anonymous signature of

AN AUCKLAND FARMER.
Jan. 23rd, 1861.


WHAT HAS BECOME OF THE FORTY-ACRE MEN?

From the New Zealander, May 4, 1861.

What has become of the "forty-acre" men? Where do they go to? are questions which we have frequently heard asked, some few days after the arrival of two or three large vessels from home. For a time we notice, in our streets and elsewhere, strange faces, with their unmistakeably English complexion, and observe a more than usual intermixture of well dressed loungers about the town. A few days more and they are gone. For a solution of these questions we must wend our way to the back settlements of the North, to the valleys and hills which stretch away from the many navigable rivers and harbours which intersect the country: and there, with bearded face and in plain blue shirt, we may recognise our quondam acquaintances, busy in the great work of colonization, subduing the land, that they may enjoy and possess it. Back at the head of the Wangarei--on the furthest boundaries of the Kaurihohore--nine, ten, twelve miles back from the Parahaki--at the foot of the Maungakaramea itself, and up and along every tributary, creek and stream of the Wangarei, houses are springing up, of all shapes and kinds, from the humble Nikau whare, to the substantially built wooden dwelling with its promising honeysuckle or rose just shewing itself about the verandah; the plough is busily putting a new face upon old things, and ever and anon, as we pass through the heavy forest, we come upon the open clearing of some more adventurous backwoodsman.

Experience, in the same manner that science and knowledge have dispelled the mists of superstition, is rapidly proving the character of those bugbears which have so long been held up to terrify the credulous and damp the energies of the less determined amongst us. Lands which have been cried down as worthless are found to be amongst the most productive.

[Image of page 111]

Grass sown upon the ashes in forest land, kauri or otherwise, which had been previously simply cleared and burned, still maintains, in its second and third year, high luxuriance, proving the ignorance of those who so loudly asserted that, sown on these lands and with this preparation only, it would after one or two years die away altogether.

The kauri forest land, with its fabled sterility, is found often to be of the richest quality, and the heaviest crops of wheat and potatoes have, to our own knowledge, been taken from ground, on which little else than this species of timber had recently grown.

It has ever been our object to set before those of our readers who seek for information as to the process of settlement, or the methods and systems of colonial farming, a true but unvarnished account of the expectations which new settlers might reasonably entertain, --of the privations and the difficulties to be encountered, and the profits and advantages to be reaped, -- neither concealing nor exaggerating anything, and we have the satisfaction of knowing that our labour has not been without useful results. On a recent visit to one of these out-settlements, we were not a little pleased to find that those reasonable expectations, which we had encouraged, were not only fully realised, but realised with less trouble and in a shorter period than that which our new friends had been led to look for. One great drawback usually described as existing to farming in this Province, is the time that, it is asserted must elapse before any return can be looked for. At Maungakaramea the other day, in the house of Mr. Donaldson, a settler by whom we were hospitably entertained, everything upon the table, potatoes, bread, meat, milk, butter, and vegetables, were the produce of his farm, and that too within fifteen months of his locating upon his land. So much, then, for what can be done by those who put their shoulders resolutely to the wheel. This is no solitary example. But what may be said of these individually, may be applied collectively to a whole settlement-- that which lies next upon the coast--Waipu. True these Waipu men have been located there a longer time, but this fact only shows more strongly the stability of the position which industry and perseverance will always attain. We believe, of all those who settled in this district not one has left on account of being unable to weather it out. Of 150 families, there are none who have not succeeded in comfortably establishing themselves, but then they came to work, not to grumble. In Waipu, this present year, when the yield of wheat has been scarcely more than half the usual average, 3000 bushels have been grown.

[Image of page 112]

We have before remarked on one pleasing feature exhibited in all these settlements which owe their present vitality to the new life infused into them by the existing Land Regulations, namely, the desire for places of worship and school accommodation. In the settlement of Mangawai, which has sprung up into vigour under the forty-acre system, two schools are already being established, and the inhabitants are combining for the very necessary purpose of bringing the district within the provisions of the "Roads and Works Ordinance," and thus entitling themselves to Government asisistance in the construction of branch roads, and of the necessary bridges to connect the back settlements of the Hakaru and the recent selections in Te Arai with the harbour. Much of the soil immediately around the harbour at Mangawai is of the same description to which we some time back alluded in an article on the soils of New Zealand, a deep, black, porous soil of a somewhat peaty nature. This soil has been, and very unjustly so, condemned as useless. We have ourselves attempted to raise wheat on this same description of soil, after having thoroughly underdrained and worked it, and failed. Our success however in the growth of potatoes, turnips and grass, with the aid of artificial manure, proved eminently gratifying, where wheat and oats were a complete failure.

At Matakana and Mahurangi the same appearances of advancement and prosperity are observable. A new mill at the head of Matakana is being erected for the sawing of timber and for grinding wheat; it would have been completed ere this but for the delay occasioned by the breaking of a part of the machinery, which can be replaced only from home.

Back in the bush, by the fresh water stream, a band of adventurous settlers have taken possession of a tract of excellent land, and at their own unaided expense have opened a dray road between two and three miles in length into the heart of the forest. Along this line some scores of acres have been already cleared and brought into cultivation.

Finally then, the experience of a tour which embraced the settlements lying between Auckland and the Mongonui district, the present limit of settlement northward, and which was undertaken purposely with the view of ascertaining personally the practical operation of the Auckland Land Regulations, has satisfied us that as a whole the system has proved completely successful; the community has gained a large accession of capital and labour of the right sort, both of which are being turned to good account. In the course of our journeying, we have encountered but a minute per-centage of grumblers, the great majority of the forty-acre men who have settled on their lands appear hopeful, thriving, and contented.



Previous section | Next section