New Zealand, or Zealandia, the Britain of the South [Vol.II.]

Charles Hursthouse

First published by Edward Stanford in 1857

Digitised and made available online by the University of Auckland Libraries and Learning Services.

Epub © 2013 Early New Zealand Books Collection

ISBN 978-1-927288-18-4

[MAP]

MAP OF THE WORLD ON MERCATOR'S PROJECTION,
ILLUSTRATING THE POSITION AND THE ROUTES TO AND FROM NEW ZEALAND.
[Full-size map may take some time to download.]

[TITLE PAGE]

NEW ZEALAND,
OR
ZEALANDIA,
THE BRITAIN OF THE SOUTH.

With Two Maps and Seven Coloured Views

BY
CHARLES HURSTHOUSE,
A NEW ZEALAND COLONIST, AND FORMER VISITOR IN THE
UNITED STATES, THE CANADAS, THE CAPE COLONY,
AND AUSTRALIA.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.

LONDON: EDWARD STANFORD, 6, CHARING CROSS.
1857.

[TITLE VERSO]

"For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass." – Deut. viii. 7-9.

LONDON: PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINDER, ANGEL COURT, SKINNER STREET.

[CONTENTS]

CONTENTS AND INDEX OF VOLUME II.

CHAPTER XII.

AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE . . .329
Wild Lands and Mode of Clearing .... 329
Soils........... 331
System of Farming....... 332
Farm Stock – Hand Labour...... 335
Implements...... . . . 336
Wheat – Barley – Oats......341, 342
Maize – Potatoes...... . . 343
Turnips and Root Crops...... 344
Hops.......... 345
Laying down Lands in Grass...... 345
Dairy Farming........ 349
Fences......350
Farm Houses and Buildings...... 353
Blights, Insect and Animal Pests..... 355
Purchase or Hire of Farm Lands . . . .356
Profits of Farming....... 357
Horticulture......... 360
Banana Blunder........ 361
Flowers – Bees – Shrubs....... 364
English Trees........ 366

CHAPTER XIII.

PASTORAL PURSUITS....... 368
The Home of the Golden Fleece..... 368
Australian Testimony....... 369
Numbers and Breed of Sheep..... 377

PASTORAL PURSUITS – continued. .
New Zealand Wool....... 379
The Wool to Grow......382 and 394
The Negretti Breed . ..... 384
Getting up Wool........ 391
Exemption from Disease...... 395
Lambing......... 396
Sheep Farming – Squatting...... 397
Young Beginners . . . . . . . . 398
Profits of Squatting...... .399
Evils of the Squatting System..... 400
Cattle.......... 406
Horses.......... 408
Pigs.......... 410
Goats .......... 412
Taking out Choice Breeding Stock . . . .412
The Sturgeon Merinoes.....414 and 662
Dogs.......... 416

CHAPTER XIV.

GENERAL INVESTMENTS AND PURSUITS . . 417
Capitalists and Capital....... 417
Loan Company........ 420
Professional Men........ 421
Mercantile and Trading Pursuits..... 422
Retail Traders........ 424
Manufacturing Industry...... 425
Whaling......... 427
The New Zealand Flax....... 429

CHAPTER XV.

OUTFIT AND DEPARTURE PREPARATIONS . . 445
Taking Goods for Sale....... 446
Domestic Outfit........ 446
Packing...... . . . 449
Shipping Goods........ 450
Wardrobe......... 451
Ladies' Outfit........ 454
Miscellaneous Outfit....... 455
Taking Money........ 459
Letters of Introduction....... 461
Taking Servants........462
A Labourer Partner....... 465
Life Insurance........ 467

CHAPTER XVI.

SHIPS AND PASSAGE MATTERS..... 468
The New Overland Route...... 468
New Zealand via Australia...... 474
Transient Ships...... 475
The New Zealand Lines....... 476
Choice of Ship........ 477
A Bill of Fare........ 479
Proceeding Direct to the Settlement .... 482
Colonists' Rooms........ 483
Terms of Passage, &c........ 485
Engaging Passage........ 488
Cabins and Berths....... 489
Which to Choose . . . . . . .491
Pitting up Cabins........ 493
Insurance......... 496
Time of Year for Sailing...... 497
Sea Sickness and General Health..... 498
The First Week at Sea....... 500
Occupations and Amusements..... 501

CHAPTER XVII.

THE LAND REGULATIONS...... 504
The Pre-emptive Right....... 505
The Six Systems . . ...... 507
Vestry Legislation........ 511
The Auckland Regulations . . . (See Appendix) 513
New Plymouth  "  ...... 517
Wellington   "  ...... 518
Nelson   "  ...... 518
Canterbury   "  ...... 519
Otago   "  ...... 519
Remarks on the Six Systems..... 520
Selling on Credit........ 521
Selling by Auction....... 523
The Evils of the Six Systems..... 525
Colonisation Quackery....... 531
Suggested Uniform System...... 533
Selling Land in England...... 539
Mr. Bridges' System....... 544

CHAPTER XVIII.

STATISTICS AND PRICES......553
Population Table........ 555
Births and Deaths........ 556
Export and Import Tables...... 557
Cultivations and Stock ....... 558
The Infant Marine........ 558
Shipping......... 561
The New Tariff........ 561
Shop Prices......... 564
Commercial Imports . ..... 566
Price Currents........ 567
Agricultural Produce Prices, &c...... 573
Wages.......... 573
Value of Improved Properties..... 574
Postal Regulations ....... 574
Distance Table........ 578
Directory......... 578
Current Books on New Zealand . . . . . 580

CHAPTER XIX.

EMIGRATION.........583
Emigration's Enemies . . . . . . 583
Emigration Truths.......588
The National Benefits of Emigration . . . .589
The "Excess of Emigration" Cry . . . . .593
Waste Lands at Home.......594
Cohesion of our Home and Colonial Empire . . .596
A System of State Emigration.....600
How to Agitate for it.......607
Why and how Emigration is beneficial .... 608
Capitalisation of Profits......611
Increase of Social Rank.......612
Settling Families........613
Rural Life.........614
Less Care and Toil .......615
Retrenchment and Reform......616
Emigrationary Qualifications......617
Hint to Bachelors........621
The Dangers of Delay.......621

CHAPTER XX.

EMIGRANTS, FIT AND UNFIT..... 624
Those who go to the Wrong Place..... 624
Canada and America....... 625
American Liberty........ 628
Those who should Stay at Home..... 630
Emigration Bugbears....... 633
Home and Friends....... 635
The Future......... 637
The New Life........ 638
Society, Social Life, and Amusements . . .640
Work and Play........ 645
Governesses ......... 646
Retired Genteel Families...... 646
Brussels and Boulogne Emigration . . . .649
Professional Men........ 650
Training Sons for Professions..... 653
Bachelor Heirs and their Careers..... 654
Invalids.......... 655
Tradesmen......... 657
Tenant Farmers ....... 658
The Counter and the Desk...... 659

APPENDIX: –
The Auckland New Land Regulations .... 661
The Sturgeon Merinoes...... 662
Emigration from our North American Colonies to New Zealand.........663
The Author's Address....... 664

[ERRATA]

ERRATA IN VOL. II.

Page 555, fourteenth line, for January, 1857, read June, 1857
  "  555. In Population Table read the number of Auckland Natives as 40,000 and Wellington 20,000, and consider the note as blotted out
  "  558, third line, for May, 1857, read June, 1857
  "   645, fifth line from bottom, for blown read bloom

CHAPTER XII. AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE.

THE "SACRED PLOUGH."

1

CHAPTER XII.

AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE.

"Earth's increase and foison plenty;
Barns and garners never empty;
Vines with clustering bunches growing;
Plants with goodly burden bowing;
Springs come to you, at the farthest,
In the very end of harvest;
Scarcity and want shall shun you,
Ceres' blessing so is on you."
"Ceres' Song," Shakespear.

DESCRIPTION OF WILD LAND AND MODES OF CLEARING. – New Zealand agricultural wild land is composed of three chief varieties: Fern, Grass, and Bush.

The Fern, is land covered with a dense growth of the common fern, four to six feet high, intermixed with a bushy shrub called tutu. Choosing a dry gentle breezy day (in any season) the fern is fired in half a dozen places to windward; when the fire, running slowly through, shrivels up the tutu, and consumes the tops and branches of the green fern together with all the dead bottom-stuff. The fire-softened fern stalks, are then swept down with a short scythe, just raked in ridges and burnt;

FERN AND GRASS LANDS.

and the tutu stumps grubbed up, thrown in heaps, or carted off. The land is then broken up five to seven inches deep, with a strong iron plough (wrought-iron share) drawn by two or three pair of oxen. After lying a week or two to dry and pulverize, it is harrowed, when the fern root is raked-up, heaped, and burnt. A light, levelling, cross-ploughing is then given, when the new land, (after lying in a kind of "maiden-fallow" for three or four months) 2 will be reduced to the finest tilth and be fit for any crop. The expense of this process may vary from £2 to £4 per acre – according to the heaviness of the fern and tutu.

Grass land, consists of coarse grasses, intermixed with scrubby fern, flax, dwarf tutu, toetoe, and ti tree. Where these intermixed shrubs grow thickly, they are swept down with bill-hook or brushing-bill, and burnt; but the lighter, more open, lands of this description may be broken up and cross-ploughed at once, lie fallow a month or two, and then receive the crop. The cost of reducing wild grass land to "crop-state" may vary from £1 to £2 an acre.

Bush land, is the common forest land. In the early summer of November, the brushwood is

BUSH LAND. – SOILS.

slashed down with bill-hook and hatchet, and the trees are thrown with the x cut saw and American axe. The fallen-stuff lies withering and drying through the summer, and is burnt-off in early autumn. If the first, or "running," fire acts well, everything will be consumed save trunks and heavy branches; when the latter are lopped-off, the trunks rolled together, and the whole slowly burnt-up, in heaps. The cost of clearing bush land may vary from £5 to £10 per acre; and the first crop, grain or grass seed, may be "chipped-in" with the mattock for about 20s. per acre more. The unsightly (surface-root) stumps remain in the land about three years; when the smaller ones may be torn up with a pair or two of bullocks, and a strong stump-chain, and the land made roughly ploughable. Bush land is richer than either Fern or Grass land; and for small dairy farms, where there might be family hand-labour at command, or for hop-grounds, orchards, kitchen-gardens, or home paddocks, Bush land is best. But the process of first clearing and cultivating it is, comparatively, both so slow and so expensive, that nine-tenths of all our agricultural operations are carried on on Fern and Grass lands.

SOILS. – There is, of course, some difference in the quality and constituents of the soil of these three chief varieties of agricultural land – but it is a difference little felt, in the actual practice of farming. Poor Dieffenbach, one of the first and best

ELEMENTAL GUANO.

writers on New Zealand, remarks that the extraordinary luxuriance of all indigenous vegetation, and of all introduced farm and garden crops in New Zealand, is far more attributable to fineness of climate than to richness of soil: a remark, which the experience of ten years, has amply confirmed. The climate is, in fact, New Zealand's elemental guano, and unquestionably does much to equalize soils. I have seen scrubby-looking, cold-clayey, lands at Auckland and Canterbury, (such as an English farmer might well refuse to plough) produce heavy crops of wheat equal to anything obtained on the vegetable mould of that soi-disant garden of the country, New Plymouth. The commonest soil of the best agricultural districts of the North Island, appears to be a volcanic, or a vegetable, surface-soil of six to ten inches, lying on a deep, porous, yellow, subsoil (singularly pure and free from stone, shell, gravel or clay); and in the South Island, a vegetable surface soil, not unfrequently lying on a light gravelly clay.

SYSTEM OF FARMING – ROTATION OF CROPS. – Owing partly to scarcity of labour, partly to that rude "rough-and-ready," quick-and-slovenly, mode of doing things, common in young colonies, it cannot be said that there is yet any System of farming in New Zealand. Indeed, I can easily imagine one of our Holkham, North Lincolnshire, or Carse-of-Gowrie men (full of beef and science) going to New Zealand and gravely asserting that

NEW ZEALAND FARMING.

there was no Farming there, of any kind. One startling peculiarity of New Zealand farming is that it commonly ignores both stock and manure! That combined arable and grazing system, which we call farming in England, is (as yet) almost unknown in New Zealand. A man buys his 100 or 500 acres of wild land, gets a pair or two of oxen ploughs it up by degrees, rudely crops it till it will crop no more; and then either lets it lie fallow, or lays it down in grass, and begins to think of stock. There is no country in the world, however, where the produce of a farm would be so increased by the abolishment of a primeval system like this, and the substitution of the British, combined "arable-and-grazing" plan. The application of a little animal manure, a night's folding of sheep, produces effects on New Zealand soils which I know not how to describe save by terming them magical 3 The "grazing-side," too,

IMPROVED SYSTEM.

of a farm in New Zealand, would not only double the produce of the "arable-side," but would be just as valuable, per se, as the "arable-side," so doubled – for stock, beef and mutton, dairy produce, and above everything, Wool – fine combing wool – will always find an excellent market in New Zealand, when Wheat, all wheat, nothing but wheat, grown by every farmer, might prove a drug.

The system I should follow, then, were I now recommencing farming in New Zealand, would be to lay half the land down in permanent grass for sheep and cattle; devote two-thirds of the remaining half to wheat, bailey, oats and potatoes; and take the residue, for root-crops for working stock and for a small dairy farm. And on my arable portion, I would take oats first, slightly manure for potatoes second, wheat or barley third and fourth, then manure, and so round again; putting in cole-seed or a turnip crop now and then, and feeding-off with sheep.

One of the most remarkable features of New Zealand farming, is the extraordinary ease with which the soil (once broken-up) can always be worked, at all seasons of the year. In the famous Carse o' Gowrie, there are not, I think, more than twenty weeks in the year fit for ploughing; and thirty weeks is probably an over average for Eng-

FARM STOCK. – LABOUR.

land. But in New Zealand, it would be difficult to find a day in the year when, as regarded the state of the soil, ploughing or any other operation could not be performed with perfect facility.

STOCK. – Horses, cattle, sheep and pigs thrive and multiply in a remarkable degree, and are singularly free from disease. Oxen are generally used for breaking-up new land, and for all the rougher work of a new farm; but horses are better adapted for the lighter implements used in all after-tillage. Unlike England, America, and the Canadas, New Zealand requires the farmer to make no winter provision for stock. The winter is only a cooler spring, vegetation never ceases; and the pastures and natural herbage are almost equally good and fattening at one season as at another.

The working stock of a farm, therefore, is seldom housed or stabled. When the day's work is over, oxen and horses are unyoked and turned loose to graze in some paddock, or to browse about the bushy skirts of the farm. A little manure, however, goes so far in New Zealand, and produces such magical effects, that it would be a far more profitable custom to turn all working stock into the straw yard every night among the pigs, and to feed them there on roots and artificial food.

FARM HAND - LABOUR. – Agricultural labour, considering the shorter hours, is full three times

FARM LABOUR.

dearer in New Zealand than in England. But, owing to the easy-working character of the soil, and the greater dependence on climate to perfect the crop when the seed is once sown, much less hand-labour is employed, and less, in fact, is needed than in England; and the actual annual expenditure on a New Zealand 200-acre grass and arable farm would not, I think, be more than 100 per cent, greater than on a similar English farm. Labourers who have bought land, and who are rising into the small-farmer class, are generally willing to devote a portion of their time to taking contract work on neighbouring farms; and with this and the help of a regular farm man or labourer's family kept on the farm (and the master's own hands from time to time) the common work of a farm is got through better than would be expected, looking at the scarcity of common day labourers. Whilst, from the fineness of the weather and the fact of everybody turning out to help, crops are cut and carried without any extraordinary difficulty or expense at harvest time. Nevertheless, the scarcity and dearness of hand-labour are considerable obstacles to the arable farmer's quick creation of an estate in New Zealand; and constitute a very strong additional argument in favour of the plan of making New Zealand farms partly labour-saving grazing farms, and in favour of the introduction of machinery and improved agricultural implements.

IMPLEMENTS. – As an arithmetical proposition,

HAND-LABOUR AND MACHINERY.

we might say that as farm hand-labour is three times dearer in New Zealand than in England, the profit consequent on the introduction of "labour-saving" machinery, would be three times greater in New Zealand than in England. True political economy unquestionably prescribes machinery as more necessary in young countries than in old. America acts on this truism: she applies machinery to many operations which we perform by manipulation; and in the department of agriculture, had invented and used the celebrated McCormick "Reaper" long before such an implement became common in English fields.

Referring to the chapter on "Exports and Markets," the reader must see, that if the New Zealand agriculturist would make sure of retaining the first place in the markets of Sydney and Melbourne, and would not run any chance of being driven thence by the wheat-growers of Chili and South Australia, he will have both to improve his cultivation, and to reduce the cost of production by the more general introduction of better farm-machinery. Many of the New Zealand-made implements one still sees in use in the colony might have figured in Old Tusser's "Hundred Points of Good Husbandrie;" and during my late mission among the settlements, I remarked more than one plough at work, bearing about as much resemblance to an English farmer's plough of 1857, as Noah's Ark might have borne to a Screw Frigate.

The observations made in the chapter on Outfit

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

as to the prudence of taking the plainest, but the best of everything for New Zealand use, apply specially to agricultural implements. The stoppage or breakdown of any implement in an English field, is no improvement to the farmer's temper – but it becomes a serious loss in New Zealand, where the wheelwright may live ten miles off, and where his wages may be 12s. a-day.

Messrs. Ransomes and Sims maintain such a world-wide repute as kings of the agricultural implement province, that emigrant-agriculturists would do well to procure any farm implements which they may require of these eminent manufacturers, whose name on an article may be taken as a warranty of its goodness.

List "A" comprises the half-dozen things which would be found the most generally useful for a small New Zealand farm; and which any one now going out to create a little estate by the Plough might most advantageously take. List "B" enumerates other articles well suited to improved New Zealand agriculture, and which I think would generally prove saleable at a good percentage; but the taking of any of which should mainly depend on the capital of the party, and on the scale on which he proposes to commence his agricultural and estate-creating operations.

All or any one of the articles in "A" or "B" may be procured, at the understated manufacturer's prices, through Sheppard Ransome (the London agent), 31, Essex Street, Strand; or, to save trouble,

MESSRS. RANSOMES' PLOUGHS, ETC.

through Messrs. Richards, Twallin and Company, 117 and 118, Bishopsgate, London; who (free of charge) receive and securely pack up the implement for the sea-voyage, along with any of the smaller articles of common outfit named in Chapter XV., – an arrangement which often economises freight-charges, and prevents the cumbersome multiplicity of case, cask, and package.

Messrs. Ransomes and Sims (Ipswich) forward an illustrated priced catalogue, on application, free by post. This catalogue gives the description, uses, and what we may term the "Prize-Pedigree," of their various implements; and a copy of it might usefully accompany any articles carried to New Zealand.

LIST "A."

£.s..d...

Ransomes' "general-purpose" iron Y.F.L swing-plough for light land; with steel mould-board, one cast and one wrought iron share (Useable also as a one or two wheel plough – one wheel 6s. extra; two wheels, 16s. extra.)

4 1 9

Ransomes' "breaking-up "Y.F.S iron swing-plough; with steel mould-board, two best-steeled shares (Useable also as a one or two wheel plough – one wheel, 6s. extra; two wheels, 16s. extra.)

4 16 6

Ransomes' East-Anglian iron harrows for general purposes

4 10 0

Ransomes' improved Scotch cart and raves ...

17 0 0

Ransomes' winnowing machine (complete) ...

10 0 0

Ransomes' hand drag-rake; with two of Sillet's (curved) digging forks...

1 7 0

The most useful of these six excellent articles would be the Y.F.L plough, the harrows, and the Scotch cart.

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

LIST "B."

£..s..d..

Ransomes' one-horse Y.O.H plough, with wrought-iron frame, extra share, and one wheel

3 14 0

Ransomes' wrought-iron S.C.W swing-plough, with steel mould-board, three steeled shares, trussed iron whippletrees ... (Useable as a one or two wheel plough – one wheel, 6s. extra; two wheels, 16s. extra.) 1

7 17 0

Ransomes' Y.M.T plough, with fittings for a horse-hoe

5 0 0

Ransomes' East-Anglian five feet seed-harrow and pomeltree

2 10 0

Medium capacity, small farm, corn-drill about

24 0 0

Ransomes' (extra) Scotch (or Windsor, £17 10s.) cart and raves

17 0 0

Ransomes' M'Cormick's prize Reaper, with Burgess & Key's improvements (small size)

40 0 0

Ransomes' prize two-horse, portable, thrashing machine; jointed spindle ...

44 0 0

1   I conceive that this plough, with six good bullocks, would prove equal to the work of "breaking-up" the heaviest fern land after the fire had run through, and would thus save the expense of sweeping down and burning up the fern stalks, and that it would also prove equal to the work of "breaking-up" light scrubby fern and grass lands, without any preparatory clearing away of the wild indigenous vegetation. (See article at commencement of chapter on the modes of clearing wild land.)

"SUB-SOILING" has not yet been practised in New Zealand. I am inclined to think, however, that our new and sour Fern lands, would be much benefited by a little "stirring-up" of the virgin sub-soil; when Bentall's Patent Plough (page 24, in Messrs. Ransomes' Catalogue) might prove a most useful general implement. Crosskill's celebrated Patent Clod-crushing Roller would, I think,

CULTIVATION OF WHEAT.

prove another most useful implement in the work of reducing wild land to good cultivation in New Zealand – but at £17 it is an expensive article, – and I have not ventured to incur the responsibility of placing it even in "List B."

WHEAT. – On all new, "first-crop," lands, two bushels and a half per acre should be sown in May; on old farm lands, two bushels in June suffice; whilst on rich forest land (as far north as New Plymouth, at least) one bushel an acre has been sown with success as late as August. Wheat is generally sown in the old broad-cast fashion; but drilling, especially in first-crop fern lands, where the fern is apt to spring again, and has to be (or rather should be) hand-pulled, would be a great improvement. In the North Island, mid-harvest comes on about the middle of January: in Canterbury and Otago, a fortnight to three weeks later. A yield of 50 to 60 bushels per acre is by no means uncommon; 70 has been obtained in Canterbury, and on one occasion nearly 80 on Bush land, at New Plymouth. But the average yield of the general wheat crop of New Zealand under the present rude mode of farming, cannot certainly be estimated at more than thirty bushels per acre, averaging say 65 lbs. per bushel. The reader, however, should remember that this is an average yield under the most unfavourable circumstances: a rude and slovenly tillage, no manure, crop after crop till the land is exhausted,

BARLEY AND OATS.

frequently bad seed, and bad and wasteful harvesting and threshing. It is my deliberate opinion, and I believe the opinion of every practical man who has paid any attention to New Zealand agricultural matters, that if farming in New Zealand were carried on more in conformity with the first principles of English agriculture, the yield of wheat and of all grain and root crops might easily be increased 50 to 75 per cent.

BARLEY. – On fresh new lands, which are the most subject to the barley caterpillar, I should recommend a very early sowing of three bushels an acre in June; but on old lands, two bushels and a half in September. Owing partly to the caterpillar, and partly to the circumstance of barley requiring a finer tillage, it has not, hitherto, proved quite so successful a crop in New Zealand as wheat. Nelson stands first in barley, and has produced some splendid samples of the Norfolk chevalier variety.

OATS. – Generally sown in August, at the rate of three bushels an acre. Canterbury and Otago (the latter, New Zealand's Scotland) have beaten all the settlements in oats. One hundred bushels per acre of the black Tartarian have been obtained at Canterbury; and splendid crops of Poland and potato at Otago. In relative weight and positive fineness of sample, oats exceed barley and equal wheat: forty pounds per bushel is a common weight;

MAIZE – CHANGE OF SEED.

and some Lincolnshire Polands, which my brother once grew at New Plymouth (white as a hound's tooth) reached nearly fifty pounds a bushel. 4

As a general rule, in the cultivation of these three chief white crops, I should recommend an early Winter and a moderately thick sowing, in preference to a Spring and a thin sowing.

MAIZE. – Grown by the natives in the north, in warm spots of bush land, but will not ripen as a common-farm, field-crop. Maize forms a good "climate-index." The summer and autumnal heats necessary to bring maize to perfection exceed the degree of temperate, and become semi-torrid, distressing or injurious. America, Africa, and parts of Australia are maize countries – Devonshire, Van Diemen's Land, and New Zealand are not; and the climate, which will nearly, but not quite, ripen this grain, is a climate which in respect to heat will bring every English grain, grass, fruit, and vegetable, to full perfection, and which will prove mildly bracing, salubrious and congenial to the English constitution.

POTATOES. – Next to wheat, by far the most common crop in New Zealand. They are generally set

POTATOES – ROOT CROPS.

in the North Island in September; but the Canterbury and Otago fanners prefer planting a month later. In my own small practice, moderate-sized sets of middle-sized tubers (ten to twelve hundredweight to the acre), the sets a foot apart, and the rows two feet and a half apart, has proved the best planting. The quality of potatoes is excellent, and the crop is a certain one. On common light soils, without manure, seven tons per acre is a fair yield; but twelve to fourteen tons have been obtained on bush land. A monster potato plant (or "bush"), growing in a cottager's beach garden at New Plymouth, where the soil was intermixed with the black iron-sand, is said to have produced nearly 200 tubers, of which 70 were of fair cooking size; and another goodly root is named at page 233.

Turnips, carrots, parsnips, onions, and all root and vegetable crops, are very prolific in New Zealand, and of the finest quality: thirty-five tons per acre of turnips is not an uncommon yield – specimens of the white Belgian carrot have been shown at the Canterbury horticultural show, weighing nine pounds – two rods of the bush soil, at New Plymouth have actually produced forty hundredweight of the white Altringham carrot, equal to the almost incredible yield of 150 tons per acre – 300 lbs. of onions have been obtained from less than a rod of ground at New Plymouth (nearly twenty-five tons per acre) – and cabbages grown on bush soil have been cut weighing forty to fifty pounds each at Otago.

TOBACCO – HOPS – GRASS.

TOBACCO. – The tobacco plant grows luxuriantly on bush land; and there appears to be no reason why it should not eventually be raised for a crop, as in New South Wales. Its cultivation would be a branch of industry well suited to the Natives; and there is already a surprisingly large and increasing consumption of tobacco among both races. As, however, the duty levied on it (1s. 3d per lb.) forms one of the principal items of the customs' revenue, the government would probably prohibit its general cultivation: the wiser course, however, would be to encourage its free cultivation and manufacture, and to meet the consequent deficiency in revenue by imposing a higher duty on spirits, and on articles of luxury which could not be produced in the colony.

HOPS. – A few acres of hops have been grown as an experiment, and have answered remarkably well as to yield. The sort introduced, however, was one of inferior quality; and any agricultural emigrant proceeding - out from an English hop county, would do well to carry with him cuttings of the finest varieties of his district. The native women and children would make capital hop-pickers; and poles are cheap and plentiful.

LAYING DOWN LANDS IN GRASS. – It would seem that the soil and climate of New Zealand are equally well adapted for artificial pastures and farm grazing, as for the growth of grain and

ARTIFICIAL PASTURES.

root crops, and arable agriculture. One hundred acres of the Tamaki meadows, near Auckland, have carried nearly 100 head of cattle through the year, many of them fat for the butcher. At New Plymouth, thirty-five acres of fern land, laid down in grass (white clover and Italian ryegrass), have been known to carry nearly 300 sheep throughout the year. Bush land, after bearing four heavy wheat crops in succession, has been sown with grass in March, and afforded a good bite for cattle in May. Indeed, sufficient has been seen of the luxuriance of artificial grasses in New Zealand, to show that ordinary lands, laid down in grass, are quite equal to the grazing of five sheep per acre throughout the year. Grass seeds, for permanent pastures, are best sown in the autumnal months, March, April, and May. March is, I think, the best month. Grass seeds (and the observation applies to all seeds in New Zealand) cannot be covered too lightly. Thirty pounds per acre is considered a sufficient sowing, and the following has been a common mixture: –

Pacey's perennial rye grass

26 lbs.

White Dutch clover

3

Cow grass (perennial red clover)

1

30

I should, however, prefer a much greater variety of grasses, and in laying down new wild land, would sow some such mixture as the following: –

PASTURE GRASS SEEDS.

1.

Pacey's perennial rye grass

8 lbs.

2.

– – – – -Italian rye grass

2

3.

White clover

4

4.

Perennial red clover

2

5.

Red suckling

2

6.

Sheep's Fescue (Festuca ovina)

2

7.

Meadow Fescue (Festuca pratensis)

2

8.

Red Fescue (Festuca rubra)

2

9.

Smooth-stalked meadow grass (Poa pratensis)

2

10.

Cocksfoot and foxtail

2

11.

Trefoil and lucerne

1

12.

Sweet vernal and Avena flavescens

1

30

This mixture, or any other, may be obtained of Messrs. Gibbs and Co., Half Moon Street, Piccadilly, London, Seedsmen to the Royal Agricultural Society, properly packed for the voyage in a zinc-lined cask, at the rate of about 25s. per acre; and emigrants who intend to embark largely in agricultural and grazing pursuits, would do well to provide seeds for a few acres – for grass seeds, owing to the increasing demand, are dear in New Zealand, and some of the excellent varieties here enumerated could not yet be obtained in the colony, pure and genuine.

Grass seeds have generally been sown on old, crop-exhausted, arable land, or on new lands ploughed up on purpose; but experience seems to show that the expense of breaking-up the surface, and of ploughing and working new lands, for artificial pastures, might frequently be saved. Some of the richest pastures at Auckland, are those where all

PASTURES – HAY.

that has been done, has been, merely to set fire to the indigenous vegetation, scatter the seed on the rough unbroken surface, and then rudely harrow it in. Indeed, this plan is frequently preferred there; and from what I have remarked myself with reference to the germination of wheat, I am inclined to think that if the seed were steeped, and advantage taken of showery weather, even the single operation of harrowing might be dispensed with: especially if a flock of sheep or herd of cattle were driven two or three times across the sowing, so as to fray the surface, and to tread the seed down a little. However, be this as it may, there are millions of acres of wild fern and grass lands in New Zealand which might be converted into permanent pastures, equal to the grazing of four to five sheep per acre, at an expense of not more than £1 per acre in burning-off a portion of the indigenous vegetation, in scattering the seed on the partially-charred surface, and then cross-dragging a strong harrow over the surface. 5

DAIRY FARMING.

DAIRY FARMING. – The richness of the artificial pastures, the easy growth of all fattening, milk-giving roots and vegetables, the quick breeding and increase of stock, the suitability of the climate for the making and curing of butter, cheese, bacon, and hams, and the fine price these articles always command in the port-towns, and the Australian markets, – all indicate that Dairy-farming is likely to become a considerable branch of agricultural industry.

Fifty-acre lots of bush land are well adapted for small dairy and garden farms. Industrious families landing in New Zealand with a hundred or two, understanding dairy work, and the curing of hams and bacon, and buying fifty acres of the light Bush land, might now realise little fortunes in New Zealand. With ten acres of the most broken parts of the lot, left standing for browsing-ground, and for shade and shelter for the stock; with twenty acres laid down in grass; with ten devoted to the growth of carrots and the best dairy roots and vegetables; and with the remainder devoted to patches of wheat, maize, potatoes, onions, and garden produce, such families might easily milk a

LIVE FENCES – OSAGE ORANGE.

dozen cows, kill fifty bacon pigs every winter, and send a good deal of fruit, vegetables, poultry, honey, and small produce, to market as well.

"Dairy produce maintains very high rates, and supplies sometimes are not to be had: dairy farms would meet with great success in this place, in the hands of persons well acquainted with the occupation." – Late Auckland Paper.

FENCES. – The commonest fences are the ditch and bank, and the post and rail, costing at the present rates of labour about 10s. a chain. Quick or furze is generally planted inside. Furze is remarkably luxuriant in its growth; and when trimmed and properly attended to, makes an excellent live fence. To please the eye, it may be mixed with the wild-rose, broom, and geranium, all of which attain a great size in New Zealand, and become strong thick shrubs. The best plant, however, for permanent live fences, would I think be one which has not yet been tried in New Zealand; but which would prove a most valuable introduction, the Osage orange. It is said to grow with great rapidity, and to form a permanent hedge far superior to Quick. Messrs. Gibbs, the eminent seedsmen, inform me that it was introduced into the United States some years ago by a Mr. Pitkin of Manchester, Connecticut, who devotes his whole attention to the growth of it, and who carries on a large business in the sale of the seed. They believe that the plant has somewhere been tried in this country, and have promised to make further inquiries. If

IRON FENCES – BUSH WIRE FENCING.

the emigrant reader, therefore, were to communicate with Messrs. Gibbs (Address, page 347), he would probably be able to ascertain, by-and-bye, whether the seed is procurable in this country. If it be, I would strongly advise him to obtain some, for should the Osage orange be equal to its reputation, nothing would prove more valuable in New Zealand, or indeed more saleable.

Little or no iron fencing has yet been imported; but iron hurdles would, I think, be a valuable introduction. The first cost would be three times greater than that of the common fences; but hurdles are easily shifted from place to place, and would serve as a protection to the young live fences several times, where the common stationary fences would serve such purpose only once. The taking-out of iron fencing however (like the larger agricultural implements) must depend mainly on the agricultural emigrant's purse; but if I were now going to New Zealand with a clear thousand or two to purchase 300 or 500 acres of land for a regular arable and grazing farm, I should be much tempted to expend £100 or £150 in strong iron hurdles. Messrs. Hill and Smith, Brierley Hill, Iron-Works, Dudley; and Messrs. Hernulewicz, Main and Co., Eglinton Iron-Works, Glasgow, are the best and largest manufacturers of all sorts of iron and wire fencing that I have been able to discover; and their prices of iron hurdles vary from 2s. to 2s. 6d. per yard. 6

FARM ROADS AND HOUSES.

ROADS. – Within a radius of some six to ten miles of the six chief provincial towns, the main roads are tolerably good; but the common agricultural bush-roads of New Zealand are little better than rough cart tracks, thickly studded in wet weather with many a mud pit and "slough of despond;" and generally speaking we might say that the road's tractive power, which would draw two tons in England, would not draw more than one ton in New Zealand. As the local legislatures, however, are bringing into operation a judicious system of highway rates, the common roads will soon be much improved; whilst from the peculiar configuration of New Zealand, the long line of coast, the near interior, the number of harbours and small port-towns, nine-tenths of the farm produce of New Zealand will seldom require a cartage of more than a few miles to convey it to some market of the District.

FARM HOUSES AND BUILDINGS. – Most of the country or farm-houses in New Zealand are substantial wooden buildings, many of them of the one story, verandah-cottage style. In this Land of brick and stone houses, we are apt to picture a "wooden

NEW ZEALAND HOUSES.

cottage" as a sort of flimsy, make-shift, band-box dwelling. But in such a climate as New Zealand's, these cottages are wind and weather proof; neither hot, cold nor drafty; and neatly painted, backed by a clump of trees and embowered in gardens – their eaves and verandahs covered with jessamine rose peach and vine – they present an air of rustic elegance and sparkling beauty, to which the plastered "bell-and-brass-knocker" deformities of our streets and villages can make no possible pretensions.

A substantial verandah-cottage of this description, 32 feet square, containing two front rooms 14 feet by 18 feet, and two back rooms 14 feet by 14 feet, with a kitchen detached (amply large enough for a family of half a dozen) would now cost about £200. Stone houses are occasionally put up where quarries are handy; but next to wood, cob houses (costing some third less than wood), constructed of tempered layers of clay, are the most common in the rural districts. In clayey localities, or where timber is scarce, as on the Canterbury plains, "cob" answer well: it is a common style of building in Devonshire. Wood, brick or stone houses are generally covered with shingles, (narrow wooden slates) – "cob" are generally thatched.

Raupo cottages are frequently put up as temporary "make-shifts." These are post and pole buildings, (constructed best by the natives,) lined outside and inside and thatched, with the raupo-rush, tied

FARM CARPENTRY.

with the Phormium tenax. With a rustic verandah, they are snug enough dwellings for three or four years; and cost from £20 to £50.

As yet, farm buildings are very humble erections in New Zealand, and might well make a "Mechi" gasp and marvel. A small barn and granary, a potato house, straw yard, and implement shed, costing some £100, would be made to suffice for a mixed arable and grazing farm of two to three hundred acres.

I may here hint to any estate-creating emigrant reader, that he would find it a capital plan to provide himself with a few common tools, and to put up a little carpenter's shop among his outbuildings.

If this were done, he might lend a hand in the erection or gradual improvement of his house and premises; and on rainy days step into the shop and make door, gate, garden seat, wheelbarrow, rocking-chair for his wife, or capacious cradle for the antipodal baby. I took lessons in carpentry before I went to New Zealand, and, with a few tools, was enabled to make myself master-architect in the building of two cottages, and to execute all farm-carpentry work which offered.

The following tools would enable the emigrant to perform all rough-carpentry jobs; and as it is essential that the quality of tools, like the quality of everything else carried to a colony, should be the best, he would do well to procure them at Fenn's, 105, Newgate Street, London, – a shop famous for colonial tools.

FREEDOM FROM BLIGHTS, ETC.

2 Saws (a half-rip and a hand).
1 Iron-back saw.
1 Hatchet.
1 Jack-plane.
1 Smoothing-plane.
1 Pair match-planes.
4 Screw-augurs (1 in. to 1 3/4).
4 Socket-chisels (ditto).
1 Draw-knife.
1 Spoke-shave.
1 Spikebit.
1 Pair compasses.
2 Screw drivers.
1 Marking gauge.
1 Mortice gauge.
3 Large firmer chisels.
1 Dozen gimblets.
1 Dozen bradawls.
1 Dozen saw-files.
2 Rasps and files.
3 Hammers (assorted).
1 Pair pincers.
1 Pair cutting-pliers.
1 Rule.
1 Measuring tape.
1 Twelve-inch square.
1 Oil stone, mounted.
1 Joiner's basket.
1 Bench vice.

BLIGHTS, INSECT AND ANIMAL PESTS. – Rust, mildew, and other diseases, which frequently damage and sometimes destroy the farmer's crop, are unknown in New Zealand; and there is, I think, no country in the world where, the seed once sown, the harvest is so sure and certain. Partial failures of wheat have been experienced; but these have not been caused by any "climatic-blight," but by a long course of the most slovenly farming, aggravated by over-cropping and by a long repetition of the same crop and the same seed.

Such insect pests as the wire-worm, and the insect which is occasionally so destructive to the wheat crop in North America, the turnip fly, and the devouring locust, are all unknown in New Zealand. The only insect which can be called seriously injurious to the farmer, is the barley-caterpillar; but this is very partial in its attacks, and seems to

PURCHASE OF FARM.

disappear, as lands become well stirred and cropped. The introduction of the rook and the sparrow, however, would, I think, be attended with beneficial results in destroying the larvae of this caterpillar; and in clearing off from the fields and gardens two or three other insects, which, though they do not seriously damage or emperil any crop, would, nevertheless, be better out of the way.

There being no wild animals in New Zealand, farmers never have their fields or gardens ravaged by blundering elephant, or by marauding monkey or raccoon; and none of the birds, with the exception of the little parroquet, which will occasionally pilfer an ear or two of wheat, are in the least destructive to anything sown by man.

Rats (and now mice) are numerous; but with great good taste and discretion they evince a wholesome horror of cat and dog; and confine themselves principally to the bush-banqueting in safety on the innumerable wild roots and berries which the wilderness affords. Rats are found about homesteads; but I never lost a bushel of wheat by them; and they are certainly not so much a "pest of the farm" in New Zealand, as in England.

PURCHASE OR HIRE OF FARM LANDS. – The estate-creating, emigrant-agriculturist, generally purchases his wild land of one of the Provincial Governments under some of the public regulations described in chap. XVII. But private Proprietors who have foolishly purchased too much land, and

RENTING AND LEASING.

left themselves with too little money to cultivate it (a very common blunder in New Zealand) are frequent sellers at low prices. Cleared, and partially-improved farms, too, are occasionally in the market for sale; but these are generally too costly for the pocket of the common buyer. Small farms may also be rented occasionally; but in good situations 20s. or 30s. per acre would be asked for them. Wild lands are let on lease; and the following is an arrangement which is sometimes adopted, and which I regard as a very fair one: – Lease twenty-one years; annual rent of first seven years, 5s. an acre, – second seven, 10s. an acre, – last seven, 20s. an acre: with a fixed price purchasing clause – giving the Leaseholder the option of buying the property at any one of three periods, and at any one of three fixed prices, during his occupancy.

PROFITS OF FARMING. – The elements of a rough calculation on this point exist in the following memoranda: – 7

1. Outgoings for hand labour, say £100 per cent, more than in England.
2. No outgoings for rent, rate, tax, or tithe.

PROFITS OF THE FARMING.

3. The wild land purchaseable for 10s. to 20s. an acre, and reduceable to "crop state" for £2 to £4 per acre.

4. The fee-simple of the cultivated virgin soil thus purchaseable say for £5 per acre.

5. Such soil capable of yielding thirty to forty bushels of wheat per acre; or of grazing five to six sheep per acre, or other stock in proportion. 8

6. The average cash market prices of the chief productions of the three divisions of the farm assumed as follows: – Wheat, per bushel, 6s. – wool, 1s. 3d. per lb.; beef and mutton, 3d. per lb. – butter, cheese and bacon say 9d. per lb. 9

But the emigrant reader, in roughly estimating the profits of investing £500 to £2000 in New-Zealand agricultural pursuits, must not confine his calculation to the mere annual outgoings and incomings of the farm.

An English farm is a rented manufactory for the wholesale production of food; and when the tenant has paid all the year's "outgoings" (rent, taxes, tithes, labour), and received all the year's "incomings" (crop and stock), the difference between the two, is his annual profit or loss; and the year's calculation is complete.

But in New Zealand, when the annual balance

PROFITS OF THE ESTATE.

between "outgoings" and "incomings" has been struck, the year's calculation is not complete. There remains a further and a distinct item of profit to be put down on the credit side – namely, the increased value of the young farm.

If, at fair market-price, I buy a little estate in England in 1857, and sell it again in 1860, I may get a little more, or a little less for it than I gave – but, probably, I have not the means of buying this little estate in England, therefore the little I might get, or the little I might lose by it, is, to me, a mere matter of moonshine.

But I can, and I do buy it in New Zealand; and if, in 1857, I buy a hundred acres of wild land near any of the settlements, and convert it into a little farm, I can sell it in 1860 perhaps for double what it has cost me – and I can do this by virtue of, what we may term, a natural law, almost as certain as gravitation: – "golden population" has flowed-in around me, and doubled the value of every acre of cultivated land in the neighbourhood. 10

HORTICULTURE.

To define farming in New Zealand, therefore, as the "profitable production of food," is not a sufficient definition – we must make a great addition to the sentence, and say it is "the profitable production of food," and, the "creation of an estate by means of plough and fleece."

HORTICULTURE. – On this subject it must suffice to say, that without, I think, a single exception, every vegetable, fruit and flower which flourishes in the open air in Great Britain flourishes equally well in New Zealand; whilst some plants, such as the taro, sweet potato, loquat, 11 standard peach, geranium (geranium hedges will grow eight feet high); and various delicate flowers which either would not succeed in England, or which would there require the greenhouse in winter, grow and flourish in the north of New Zealand almost as luxuriantly as if they were indigenous to the soil.

All New Zealand vegetables, growing very quickly, have a most delicate flavour; peas, onions, potatoes, and beans, are, I think, unrivalled in their quality; and I have eaten as fine greengages at Nelson, and almost as fine ribston-pippins, cherries, and peaches in Auckland and New Plymouth, as I

MESSRS. CHAMBERS' BANANAS.

ever saw among the picked and highly-cultivated fruits of Covent Garden. The grape succeeds moderately well as fruit; but in no part of New Zealand can we find that steady continuance of dry autumnal heat necessary for the vineyard; and we shall never, in New Zealand, pay honours to the god – "who first from out the purple grape crushed the sweet poison of mis-used wine."

Before we leave the garden for the pastures, sympathy demands that we free Messrs. Chambers, and a victim of theirs, from certain horticultural hallucinations into which they have fallen, and which may tend to impair the general veracity of their respective statements "In re New Zealand." The author of a recent work partly on New Zealand, 12 says: –

"Every word in the following interesting account – taken from 'Chambers's Papers for the People' – with reference to the capabilities of the land, &c., in New Zealand, we, from our own personal observation readily indorse. But without such attestation, the respectable source from whence

BUMBLEDOM.

the account originates is a sufficient guarantee for the truth thereof."

BANANA BLUNDER.

Now one passage of this credible account of the Messrs. Chambers runs thus: –

"The Banana and a few other fruits of an oriental character form immense orchards in New Zealand."

There are, I think, three little exotic Banana plants in the horticultural gardens at Auckland, and there may be three more in other corners of the hotter north; but Bananas no more grow in New Zealand than cocoa-nuts or coffee grow in Norfolk. The Banana is a fruit matured only under a fierce tropical sun. Even in the comparative oven of Sydney it does not flourish; and the best Bananas eaten there are grown at Moreton Bay.

The statement that "immense banana orchards are found in New Zealand" might do serious injury to the immigration interests of the colony. The vegetable productions of a country form the popular index to its climate: tell an ordinary Englishman that the mean temperature of New Zealand is 58 deg., and you tell him nothing; but tell him that wheat, potatoes and apples grow there, and that dates, cocoa-nuts and oranges do not, and you at once give him a general and a truthful idea of the climate of the country. If a retired Indian, or an invalid emigrant, whose chief object in emigrating was improvement of health by be-

FLOWERS – BEES.

taking himself to some cooler, more bracing, climate, were to read and to credit that the tropical Banana was an abundant common fruit in New Zealand, he might well pause ere he went to New Zealand.

I trust, therefore, that I may be permitted to hint both to the "Englishman" and to the Messrs. Chambers, that when they next set forth our New Zealand fruits before the world, they would do well to strike out bananas, for "Banana Orchards" are found in New Zealand, just as orange groves are found in Edinburgh.

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

Most English flowering plants become larger in New Zealand, blossom more profusely, and lose none of their beauty or fragrance. Alluding to flowers, I may remark that bees bid fair to become a considerable nuisance in New Zealand. A pains-taking, industrious clergyman, who seems to have believed in bees, actually wrote, and then published a book on New Zealand bees; and some enthusiastic honey-eaters have gravely set down honey as a New Zealand export. If bees and honey could be exported together, once for all, the country, I think, would be well quit of both; but in deference to popular opinion and the prejudices of my readers, I must admit that the "bee statistics" of New Zealand border on what Mr. Nott and enthusiastic bee-fanciers would term, prodigious – one hive is said to have produced, in the course of four years, nearly one ton of honey!

HONEY – SHRUBBERIES.

The insect waxes strong and vigorous on the wild-flax and the garden flowers; and numerous swarms go off, independent, into the bush. Cooper's bee-hunter might have made his fortune in the New-Zealand forests; and lumps of honey-comb in every second baby's fist, tureens of limpid honey, and a diabolical compound, called metheglin, said to have been consumed largely by the Saxons, and which probably accounted for their overthrow at Hastings, are cloying proofs of the power and progress of that insect pest which strangely enough has been fixed on as the type of industry – industry carrying a sting!

Many of the small bush trees, and wild shrubs, and a few wild flowers, such as the laurel-like karaka, two elegant veronicas, the fern and ti trees, the perfumed manouka, the scarlet myrtle and giant fuchsia the red and yellow parrot's bill, the splendid clematis or virgin's bower; and various elegant creepers are occasionally introduced into the shrubberies and gardens with lustrous effect. Indeed, looking at the easy cultivation, the vigorous and certain growth, the size and beauty of all English plants, fruits, flowers and vegetables, and at the profusion and beauty of these forest shrubs, and their adaptability for garden growth, I should conceive that New Zealand would prove a true Garden of Eden to any enthusiastic florist or horticulturist; and can easily conceive that if we could once persuade a Sir Joseph Paxton to go to New Zealand – trees, shrubs and flowers would enchain him there.

INTRODUCTION OF TREES.

In a country boasting millions of acres of forest, and possessing a hundred varieties of forest trees, it may seem almost a joke to call for more – but in truth, the general introduction of our English trees would be very beneficial. There is no wheelwrights' wood in New Zealand equal to the ash, and no shipwrights' wood equal to the oak – but our English varieties are needed far less for timber, than for shade and shelter, in the open plains. New Zealand trees grow so thick in the green twilight of their dark, dank, forests; and are so lapped up with creepers, protected by brushwood, and coated with grassy parasites, that they seem quite unable to bear up against the light and air of broad day on the breezy plains; and there are not, I think, three varieties which would grow as hedgerow trees. On the plains of the south island, and even in many parts of the wooded north, round the farms and homesteads, belts and clumps of English trees would be a great pastoral and agricultural benefit, and would much increase the beauty of the scenery.

The magnificent Norfolk Island pine, the blue gum of Australia, and various acacias which have been introduced into New Zealand, seem likely to flourish there as well as in their own regions; and all English varieties which have been tried grow vigorously and well. The ash, that supple Venus of the woods, and the elm, appear to delight in the New Zealand soil and climate; and the oak, beech, birch, poplar, weeping-willow, chestnut, larch, Scotch

PRESERVING SEEDS.

and silver fir, and the American white ash (Fraxinus Americana, a better wood than the common ash), would all be most valuable introductions.

Seeds of all, or most, of these varieties may generally be procured in autumn of any of our country friends; if not, they may be procured of Messrs. Gibbs of London, or of any country seedsman at a trifling cost, and I would urge every emigrant to take a few out with him. All seeds, as before observed, should be put up dry in little bags or packets, and then inclosed in some zinc-lined case or cask.

1 "In ancient times the sacred plough
Employed the kings and awful fathers of mankind."
Thomson's Seasons.

2 Fresh fern land is at first infertile through what we call "sourness." An acre, broken-up and sown at once with any crop, say wheat, might not yield five-fold. The next acre, fallowed a few months, might yield fifty-fold. Animal manure does not destroy "sourness." The new soil is full of raw vegetable matter, and lime would probably prove the true "quickener." Grass land is less subject to "sourness;" and Bush land not at all.

3 New Zealand lies within a few weeks' sail of the Peruvian "guano-mines;" and a little guano has lately been imported and applied on the small, over-cropped, garden-farms around the towns. The following is one of several of the extraordinary instances of its good effects.

To the Editor of the "TARANAKI HERALD."
"SIR, – The fertilising properties of guano being imperfectly known to the agriculturists of this settlement, may I request you to publish the result of an experiment tried this year by me on a crop of Swedish turnips. Wheat stubble, free from weeds, was ploughed, and the guano (mixed with short manure) was drilled in with the seed. On one part of the field four hundredweight of guano per acre was used, on a second three hundredweight per acre, and on the third none at all.

"The yield with four hundredweight, was forty-nine tons of turnips per acre; with three hundredweight, a trifle less; and without guano scarcely a crop at all. – I am, Sir, yours, &c,
"New Plymouth, Glenavon-Farm,
"Geo. Tate.
"August 7, 1856."

4 Frequent change of seed is good practice in New Zealand. Any emigrant coming to farm would do well to procure among his agricultural friends, quart or bushel samples of any wheat, oats, barley or grass seeds, for which their locality might be famous.

All seeds should be put (dry) in bags, and then be enclosed (dry) in some zinc-lined case or cask.

5 "In the north, grass seed is sown and harrowed in with two strokes of a light harrow, immediately after which it is rolled, and within four months there is a considerable herbage on which sheep or young cattle are turned to graze, where they are kept until the end of September. They are then withdrawn for three months, and by the 1st of December there is a heavy sward of hay, and as soon as that is cut, made, and stacked, the field is again fit for turning cattle on, until the following September, and so on for many consecutive years; the same rotation of alternate grazing, and hay-making following without intermission. (Pressed hay bids fair to become a considerable export to Sydney and Melbourne. – Author.)

"Stubble land to be laid down to permanent pasture is treated in a similar manner, the chief difference being that the stubble is ploughed in before the seed is sown; though hundreds of acres of the best pastures on the rich volcanic soils around Auckland merely had the fern burnt-off, and the seed sown and harrowed into the hard surface in which a spade or plough had never entered: yet the grass and clover start away with a rapidity of growth truly astonishing; at once subduing and superseding the fern, and becoming a most luxuriant pasture." – Canterbury Farm Calendar.

6 For fencing off portions of wild Bush land – say a dozen acres for browsing-ground, or wooded dells, or patches for cover, belts for shelter, &c. – stout iron wire (say 1/4 to 3/8 inch) with straining bolts and due supply of staples would prove very useful: no posts would be necessary; three or four rows of the wire-rod would be stapled about every six feet to the stems of the trees and make an excellent fence. Messrs. Hill and Smith's price for the best No. 4 size is £15 per ton, or £23 if galvanised – which would be a great advantage. The ton is 4800 yards. (See Address, page 351.)

7 The average price of farm labour in New Zealand say for the next five years, cannot I think, be taken at less than 5s. a day, or full double the price in England. But as under the "mixed-system" which has been advocated, nearly two-thirds of the New Zealand farm would be pasture, and as a little labour goes a long way in New Zealand, I conceive that in actual practice it would be found, that where the English farmer paid away £l for hand labour, the New Zealand farmer farmer would not pay away more than £1 10s. or £2 at most.

8 The productive acreage-power of the farm may seem high. But there can be no question that under the improved, manuring, " mixed-system" which is here assumed, the acreage-power of the farm would prove quite equal to the figures put down.

9 These prices may, I think, be taken as the mean average prices for the next five years. Some colonists might estimate them rather lower; but most, I think, would estimate them considerably higher. As to wool, I calculate that the quality and the getting-up would be considerably improved under this civilised, home-growing, anti-squatting, system.

10 There is probably scarce a farm in New Zealand that would not now fetch double what it had fairly cost to create. Many of the little homesteads near the towns and settlements would now bring £20 to £30 per acre.

The following extract is from a late Auckland Paper: – "There was a large attendance at this sale (some meadows on a high road near Auckland), and for some of the lots a good deal of competition ensued. Thirty-nine lots were disposed of; their aggregate contents amounted to 14 acres 1 rood and 22 perches, and for these the sum of £686 10s. was obtained, being something like an average of £48 per acre. Lot 46 containing 1 rood and 32 perches was withdrawn at £30, and with this the transactions of the day were brought to a close: the proprietor declining to effect a further sale at the prices which purchasers seemed disposed to give."

11 It should be observed however that the loquat will only just ripen at Auckland. It ripens much as the orange does in England; and is by no means equal in flavour to the African and Australian loquats which I have eaten. The sweet chestnut would probably flourish in the north.

12 The "Rise and Progress of Australia and New Zealand," by an "Englishman," the author of Five Dramas and other works. (15s. Saunders and Otley, London.)

The New Zealand Provincial Councils have been called Vestry Parliaments, and the reader may think that the name is not inapposite when he hears the "Englishman's" amusing statement as to the display of "Bumbledom," with which certain of our vestry officials received his applications for information.

Our dramatic friend shall relate his own griefs in his own words.

"Otago, Royal Hotel, 14th January, 1856.
"SIR,
"I am at present compiling a work on the rise and progress of New Zealand; for confirmation of this fact, I beg to refer you to his Excellency the Governor, to whom I have been introduced by a letter from the English Government.

"If you will favour me with the name of some gentleman (for your own time will, no doubt, be fully occupied previous to the departure of the steamer), who can furnish me with any information that would be likely to interest the English public, and benefit the province of which you are the head, you will much oblige
"Your obedient servant,
" – – – – –
"His Honour the Superintendent, Otago."

"Although this epistle was considered sufficiently deferential to merit some sort of notice, it failed to command even a reply."
* * * * * * *
"It would have given us much pleasure in supplying our English friends with a more interesting and minute account of Canterbury, a settlement which, ere long, will rank with any in New Zealand. But on applying to the all-important Superintendent of this province for statistical information, his Honour majestically observed, – 'I have not time to give the required information, nor am I in favour of any book on the colony by a stranger; but if a work were needed on the province of which I am the head, the Superintendent himself is the only person qualified for its production.'"

Now their "Honours" of Otago and Canterbury are justly-esteemed as good colonists, courteous gentlemen, and clever men, and if the "Englishman's" application was received in this unseemly manner, it was the office, not the officer, who was guilty of the offence. Should the "Englishman" ever visit New Zealand again, and give himself the trouble to find out my "whereabouts" in the colony, I should be most happy to procure for him all the information which my neighbourhood might afford.

CHAPTER XIII. PASTORAL PURSUITS.

PASTORAL PURSUITS.

CHAPTER XIII.

PASTORAL PURSUITS.

IN natural advantages constituting a perfect "habitat" for the sheep, there is perhaps no country in either hemisphere superior to New Zealand. The surface for the most part is hilly or undulating; the soil is light, percolative, and freely impregnated with all congenial oxides, sulphates and phosphates; 13 the climate is the happy mean

PASTORAL MERITS.

of temperature and moisture; no destructive animal exists; and there is perpetual natural pasturage with a profusion of the finest water: – a rare combination of natural gifts, creating marked exemption from disease, great prolificness, fat and early mutton, fine wool, and heavy fleece.

The sheep farmers and shepherd princes of Australia are justly reputed such high authority in all matters of their craft, that I shall commence this chapter by laying before the reader the following testimony of one of them as to the natural fitness of New Zealand for the growth of the "golden fleece." The gentleman who gives it, is an eminently practical man: a thriving Australian Squatter, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in New Zealand; and who, tempted mainly by the better climate, purposes some day to move over his flocks and herds to the Plains of Canterbury, or to some new Dumfriesshire of Otago.

"Tinwald Downs, Dumfriesshire,
Feb. 1, 1857.
"DEAR HURSTHOUSE, – You ask me to give you my impressions of New Zealand, and more particularly of the Canterbury Province, as a grazing country. I comply with pleasure, but you must bear in mind that my present experience of New Zealand is merely that of a visitor. You must not look upon my remarks, therefore, as infallible dogmas, but as the opinions of an Australian Squatter,

AUSTRALIAN TESTIMONY.

paying a visit to New Zealand for the purpose of judging whether he could make an advantageous exchange from one colony to the other: a visit which has resulted in his determining to remove from New South Wales to Canterbury, or possibly to Otago.

"Before visiting New Zealand, I sometimes heard it spoken of as a country in which sheep and their owners throve; but accustomed as I was to the dry Australian climate, I could not comprehend how sheep could do well in a country possessing such a wet climate, as common report ascribed to New Zealand. On my arrival there, however, I soon saw that I had been labouring under a wrong impression: for although a great deal of rain falls in the country, the land generally is so well drained (naturally) and possesses such a porous substratum, that water cannot remain on the surface for any length of time. The excellent condition of all the stock I saw, too, convinced me that there was something in the pasturage, which did not meet the eye, peculiarly favourable to domestic animals. Australian Squatters will readily understand what is meant by this observation; for on the one hand, they must all have seen very fat stock on inferior-looking country; and on the other hand, districts where, though the grass was always beautifully green and luxuriant, no animal could be made fat. This remark, as to the condition of the stock, applies to all the provinces I visited, namely, Canterbury, Nelson, Wellington, New Plymouth, and Auckland. At Nelson, I certainly saw inferior mutton exposed in the butchers' shops; but this was explained by the circumstance of wethers having just been driven from the Wairau, over a very rough and mountainous road. At all other places the meat I saw on the table, and in the butchers' shops, was of excellent quality.

"There is little doubt, I think, about Canterbury being the best province for an emigrant possessed of a little capital, who intends to make sheep-farming his principal occupation. Otago, I imagine, is the next best, and may

SQUATTER'S LETTER.

perhaps dispute the palm with her sister. They lie so near each other, however, that emigrants may easily visit both, and judge for themselves. Otago, from all I can learn, possesses one advantage over her neighbour in having abundance of wood everywhere; while Canterbury is so level and unbroken that she possesses the best, or, I may say, the only natural roads in New Zealand.

"Canterbury consists principally of an immense plain, extending from the chain of mountain, (forming the backbone of the island,) to the sea. This Plain contains about three and a half millions of acres, covered with natural pasturage of an excellent description. It is abundantly watered by streams, issuing from the mountains, but is deficient in timber; or rather what wood there is, is not well dispersed: for I think there is plenty for all practical purposes, if only it were more scattered and spread about. The whole Plain is available for depasturing sheep and cattle, except a strip along the sea (extending back a few miles) which is adapted for cattle only; but this is also first-rate agricultural land. To the north of the great Plain, there is a tract of country, about five hundred thousand acres in extent, chiefly of a limestone formation, and consisting of ridges and low spurs, extending from the mountains to the sea and well adapted for sheep; and at the southern end of the plain, there is another piece of country also available for sheep, consisting of ridges, low downs, and small plains.

"I visited several Stations in the northern portion of the Plains, and met with gentlemen of experience in sheep-farming, from Port Phillip, who gave me much useful information relative to the pastoral qualities of the Province. They all agreed that sheep-farming could be carried on with more profit, and much less trouble than in Australia. In the most favoured localities of that colony, three men (two shepherds and a watchman) are required for four thousand sheep; and in many districts the same number of sheep require six men; while on Canterbury Plains, that number of sheep can easily be

AUSTRALIAN TESTIMONY.

attended to by one man, at all times except lambing time, when extra men are required in both countries. In Australia, the sheep are followed by the shepherd from morning till night, and require constant watching to prevent havoc by native dogs. At Canterbury, there being no noxious animals, the only mischief to be apprehended is mixing with a neighbour flock, and this is not a difficult matter to prevent at present, though it will of course be more liable to occur when the Runs become fully stocked. At the Stations I visited, the sheep were looked after by boys, who went out once or twice a day to see that all was right; and who were employed at other work during their spare time. In some cases, the boys went on horseback, and I think this is likely to become the custom, as much trouble is saved by the superior range of vision afforded by the elevation. Glasses are also used, and are of great assistance in distinguishing the sheep among the long grass.

"The greatest drawback to the Plains is the want of shelter in the strong gales, 'Southerly Bursters,' which occasionally occur. As the country becomes older, shelter in the shape of hedges and plantations will be provided by the more prudent flockmasters. The whin or gorse is well adapted for this purpose; as it thrives in the country, and is of rapid growth. Another drawback is the plant called 'tutu' or 'toot,' which appears to be universal over New Zealand. If eaten by sheep or cattle with empty stomachs, it acts in a similar manner to green clover, and sometimes causes death; but if partaken of sparingly, and with grass, it is said to possess highly fattening qualities. None of the graziers, however, except one, with whom I conversed on the subject, seemed to consider Toot worth notice, so it is scarcely worth while putting it down as a disadvantage; especially as it is rapidly disappearing in the older settled districts, and will doubtless soon disappear here.

"Of common sheep diseases, the province may be said to be quite free, and there are none peculiar to the country.

QUALITY OF WOOL.

On some of the runs where the soil is rich, they have occasionally a little footrot after a heavy fall of rain. Scab was introduced by some of the imported flocks; but is now all but eradicated, and with little chance of its recurrence, if the excellent laws on the subject, passed by the Provincial Council, are carried out.

"With respect to the capabilities of the country for carrying stock, the Squatters seem to consider that, in its natural state two acres are requisite for the maintenance of a sheep; but as the grass is improving every day by being eaten down, there is no doubt but that in a few years one acre will be amply sufficient for one sheep. The pasture can also be very much improved by sowing clover and grass seeds, which grow without any preparation of the soil. An energetic settler may therefore soon have his whole run covered with artificial pasturage at a trifling cost, and thus treble or quadruple its capabilities.

"As a wool-growing country the whole of New Zealand ranks high: although generally the wool has been sent to market in a very rough state, and consequently sold at apparently low prices. It possesses a peculiar softness, which is prized by manufacturers; and is much longer in the staple than the wool of similar sheep in Australia. In Canterbury, the sheep are principally of the Merino breed (the original stocks having been imported from Sydney and Melbourne), and the average weight of fleece may be set down at 3 1/4 lbs. – about a pound more than the Australian average. I heard 3 1/2 and 4 lbs. spoken of as the average; but allowing half a pound for grease and dirt, which might have been removed by a little more care in washing, I am of opinion that 3 1/4 lbs. will be found to be nearer the mark. Most of the runs possess great facilities for washing the sheep and getting the wool up well; but the scarcity of labour has prevented the Squatters from taking the pains they otherwise would have done; and consequently the wool has always brought from 1d. to 3d. per pound less than it should have done.

"The wethers attain a weight of sixty pounds at two

FAT MUTTON MARKET.

years, and are generally sold to the butcher at that age; but, in my opinion, as long as a Run is not fully stocked it would be more profitable for the grazier to keep them another year: the wool and additional weight of mutton would afford a high rate of interest for the value of the sheep; the expenses of the station would be very little increased by keeping them another year, and the grass which they consume would otherwise be wasted.

"In a country like New Zealand, where all stock increases so quickly, it becomes a question whether there will always be a meat market for the fat stock without resorting to the wasteful practice of 'boiling-down.' 14

"I conceive that there will be; for as New Zealand appears likely to become the favourite 'home-planting' emigration field of the day, we may reasonably expect that port and city populations will arise to consume the

FRENCH WOOL SHIP.

mutton of the hills and plains. At present, there is an excellent market for butcher meat in Auckland and Wellington and the various provincial towns; and should fat stock eventually increase to such an extent in New Zealand that 'boiling-down' must be resorted to, you may console yourselves with the reflection that fat stock in New Zealand is fat stock, and that the quantity and quality of your tallow will produce you a goodly annual income. So much for sheep and shepherds.

"Provoking to relate, I, an old Squatter, half my life in the saddle, and used to chasing wild cattle over countries where no fox would be fool enough to go, took a gallop with our hounds the other day, got a fall and came home with fractured leg: this, keeping me in doors, makes writing an amusement, and hence the long letter which you get.

"I wonder where 'La Lucie' is, and whether Dieppe has recovered from the excitement of our arrival. 15 My mother-in-law and wife are well; and your old friend, Jamie, strong and hearty as an infant Squatter ought to be.

"Hoping we may eventually meet in New Zealand to see the Waitera thrown open; and to discuss short horns and merinos under the peach trees,

"I am, dear Hursthouse,
"Yours truly,
"ROBERT WILKIN."

To this Australian testimony I append the statement of Sir William Congreve (an English

PASTORAL MERITS.

baronet who appears to have turned New Zealand colonist, and like a second Jason to have sought and found the "golden fleece"), and some remarks on the wild herbage of the colony from the published "Journal of a Somersetshire Farmer:" –

"I have just returned from the Far West, which, after having settled my shepherds, &c, at Nelson, I travelled to see. The more experience I acquire of the country, the better satisfied I am that I never acted more wisely than I did when I embarked for New Zealand: indeed, the only regret I now have is, that I did not start two or three years sooner. Advise all those who are disposed to emigrate to come here: they will be independent, and happier than in any other of the English colonies. The salubrity of New Zealand and the great internal resources it possesses, render it a most eligible place for parties who have only a moderate capital. People at home have no idea of the nature of industry to which this country is best adapted. For instance, a short time before I left home, Capt. – – – informed me that New Zealand was not in any degree suitable to sheep-farming: whereas the reverse is exactly the case; as no country possesses, to the same extent, the necessary requisites for the abundant and successful growing of wool. I mention this, to show you how little reliance is to be placed on the opinions of parties who have not lived some little time in the country. We live here much as at home, with this difference, that there is infinitely less formality and slavery to the rules of society than with you. We also have our amusements, such as horse-racing and shooting * * * * * * "

THE HERBAGE OF THE COLONY.

"A great portion of this north island is covered with fern; but in a few years, I have not the least doubt but it will nearly disappear, by the sheep and cattle

BREED OF SHEEP.

feeding on it and treading it down, and from their feeding on the clover and other grasses when seeding, of which they are very fond. They then carry the seeds to different parts of their feeding ground, uninjured by mastication, and this proves an excellent way of propagating it; so that in a few years this country will be covered with herbage of this description. I will not presume to give an estimate of what the pastoral exports then will be. They will be immense; as the hills, which are very numerous, will be our best land for depasturing sheep and cattle, as they are rich and fertile. The middle island is more adapted for sheep at present, being more grassy and more free from fern. I prefer this, however, as I consider the climate is superior, and which I think cannot be surpassed in the world."

NUMBERS AND BREED OF SHEEP. – The number of sheep at, present in the colony may be estimated at upwards of a million, chiefly Australian Merinos; 16 and the value of this year's clip may perhaps be estimated at nearly £200,000. The sheep, like every domestic animal introduced from Australia into New Zealand, becomes larger in the new land: the Australian Merino fleece averages 2 1/2 lbs., the New Zealand Merino nearly 3 1/2 lbs. Common two-year New Zealand Merino wethers will weigh 15 lbs. a quarter; half-bred Southdowns are frequently killed at New Plymouth weighing 30 lbs. a quarter; and of a 100 Merino wethers, killed at Welling-

THE MERINO SHEEP.

ton, the loose inside fat, averaged the astonishing weight of 30 lbs. each carcass.

The uninitiated reader should understand that the Merino is the sheep of Australia and New Zealand, because of the fineness of the wool. 17 In size, meat, and fattening merits, the Merino stands low on the list. But the fleece is so fine compared with any other, that whilst the finest wool of our English mutton-producing breeds is never worth more than 2s., Spanish and Saxon Merino have frequently realised 3s. to 5s. per lb.

Nevertheless, although the Merino may remain sheep-king of New Zealand, it may be questioned whether the more general introduction of pure Cotswold and Southdown, for the "crop and meat growing" purposes of the arable and grazing farms, would not be attended with considerable profit to the agriculturist. Fine-dressed gentleman as Merino, especially Saxon Merino, may be, his coat is very scant; he is one of the tenderest and least prolific of breeds; and where fine meat and plenty of it is wanted, Saxon Merino certainly is not the sheep to supply it.

COTSWOLD AND SOUTHDOWN.

With deference to Mr. Weld, 18 we might perhaps say, Merino for the Squatter on the hills and plains; and Southdown, Cotswold and Leicester for the farmed-fields and the butcher; whilst if quantity of wool, meat and tallow should ever become a desideratum in New Zealand, the Lincolnshire sheep might well turn emigrant and astonish the natives with his coat and legs. The rich farm pastures of New Zealand would graze this fen countryman of mine to his full proportions; when he would weigh 200 lbs., carry a twelve pound fleece, and in wool, meat and tallow, would be worth almost as much as a little cow." 19

NEW ZEALAND WOOL. – New Zealand Merino does not command quite so high a price in the London market as the Australian Merino. The imported Australian Merinos, which have formed the New Zealand breeding-stock, have consisted not so much of the purest of the Australian flocks as of mongrel-culls; and the comparative inferiority of New Zealand wool, thus created, has been further increased by the want of that practical knowledge in the art of "getting-up" for market, which the tyro young flockmasters of New Zealand have naturally displayed.

NEW ZEALAND WOOL.

Now, however, that wool-growing is becoming one of the organized pursuits of the colony, pure Merinos are being imported from Europe; and as the great "washing-advantages" of the New Zealand sheep-farmer endow him with extraordinary facilities for cleansing his wool, we may expect that New Zealand fleeces will soon come to market materially improved both in staple and condition. The New Zealand Merino may never be so fine in fibre as the Australian; but it possesses a peculiar "softness," and a greater length, which may make it quite as valuable per pound. And if not, the extra weight of fleece would more than compensate for the inferior quality, as may be evidenced by half a dozen figures: –

Australian Merino, 2 1/2 lbs. fleece, say 1s. 3d. per lb. in the colony.........3s 1 1/2d per fleece.
New Zealand Merino, 3 1/2 lbs. fleece, say 1s. per lb. in the colony............3s 6d

Since writing these remarks on the breeds of sheep best adapted for New Zealand, and on the quality of New Zealand wool, I have been favoured by the kindness of Messrs. Willis, Gann, and Co. with Mr. Tiffin's admirable article on the same subject, supplied by their late files of New Zealand journals.

"Our readers will thank us for printing to-day some valuable suggestions on the kind of wool likely to form the most profitable export from New Zealand; by an English manufacturer. These have been kindly furnished to us by Mr. Tiffin, who has also placed at our disposal some notes of his own; the results of a careful

THE "GOLDEN FLEECE."

examination of the wools of different European breeds of sheep exhibited at the Paris Exhibition, notes made by him with the view of selecting, for importation into the colony, certain breeding-stock from the flocks best adapted to improve our breed of sheep in New Zealand.

"The question, which is the best sort of wool for New Zealand, the wool the colony is best adapted to produce, the wool which would be the most profitable export, and best remunerate the wool-grower, is one of great importance to the colony and to flock-owners; and affords a theme for profitable and interesting discussion to practical men. Hitherto, we believe, not much attention has been paid to the subject; the sheep in New Zealand have been imported from the Australian colonies, and any difference in the wools has been a difference produced by the change from a dry to a moist climate. The chief difference seems to be a greater length of staple, that is to say, the wool is of greater length; consequently, the fleece is of greater weight in New Zealand than it would be from the same sheep in Australia. It appears that the effect of good feed and a more humid climate, is to increase the length and strength of the wool; while in a dry climate like New South Wales, if the wool be finer, it is shorter in staple, and the fleece is consequently less in weight, and not equal in elasticity and strength to New Zealand wool. The advice given in the suggestions printed below by a practical manufacturer point to this result; namely, that the most profitable wool to be grown in New Zealand is that which in a certain amount of fineness is combined with length and strength of staple, and that it is better to try and attain this result, than to aim at fineness of wool alone to the neglect of the other qualities. Our object in these remarks is to draw attention to the papers we have referred to; so as to provoke discussion on a subject of great importance; for wool will constitute the chief export of our colony. The demand for Australian wools by the French manufacturers which has lately arisen, and which it is probable will

WOOL-STAPLER'S TESTIMONY.

become still greater, has been frequently noticed by the colonial papers. One cause which we have heard assigned is interesting and worthy to be noted – it is the falling off in the quantity of fine German wools brought into the market; and this is attributed to the improved condition generally of the people on the Continent, and the greater consumption by them of animal food than was the case some twenty years ago. This makes it more profitable to the German flock master to look to the weight of carcass than to the quality of wool. Such a cause is likely to be permanent, and its effect will be to keep up the value of Australian and New Zealand wools in the market. Another cause which has brought wools of the quality produced in New Zealand into more general request, has been the great improvement in machinery, which allows combing-wools to be used for carding purposes, and this, it will be observed, is strongly dwelt upon in Mr. Beard-sill's remarks.

"The following is the letter from Mr. Beardsill (an experienced English wool-stapler)to Mr. Tiffin: –

"'I have examined your samples of wool, and enclose you my opinion upon them. Your object will be, no doubt, to grow that kind of wool which will pay you the best; and in order to do this, I am confident your best policy will be to increase the weight of your fleece, and at the same time to grow a wool which will make a good useful combing-wool, a sort for which there is sure to be a great demand for many years to come. The sound long wools would be taken for clothing purposes; but the cloth manufacturers cannot compete with the combers in price: the combers can afford to give more than the clothiers. I have little doubt you might produce a fleece of 4 1/2 lbs., of which the wool, being well adapted for combing, would be worth as much per lb. as a fleece of 3 or 3 1/2 lbs. of clothing-wool: this would make a good deal of difference in a flock of 5000 sheep. From what I have seen of New Zealand wool, I am convinced the colony

THE MOST PROFITABLE WOOL.

is as well calculated for growing combing-wool as any country in the world; but I don't think it is so well calculated for growing fine clothing-wool as many parts of Australia. If you aim at growing a fine clothing-wool, you will, I think, be disappointed. You should aim to grow wool with length and strength of staple for combing; and by a judicious crossing with the improved Spanish you may also get weight of fleece. This kind of wool is sure to fetch a better price than the short wools, if they are even considerably finer. You should endeavour to avoid breaks in the staple. I have noticed the working-up of nearly all kinds of wool for many years, indeed, all my life; and can speak with confidence, both practically and theoretically. Beside the growing of the wool, a great deal depends upon the proper getting-up of it. You should keep the fleece of the sheep as free from seeds and burs as possible: let the fleece of the sheep be well washed before it is shorn, and care should be taken in packing not to have all kinds mixed together. The fleeces should not be tied up with string as is the case sometimes; the lint mixes with the wool, and makes what we call 'burls.' The best Hogg fleeces and the lower Hogg fleeces should be packed separate; and the same plan should be adopted with the ewes, wethers, rams, and lambs: the locks should be kept separate also. One great defect in New Zealand wool has been the slovenly way in which it has been got up: that is, washed and assorted for packing. In endeavouring to improve the breed of sheep, you would find the plan adopted by the careful sheep-breeders in Germany very useful: they put a ram to a certain number of sheep, the produce are numbered and entered into a stock-book kept for the purpose; a cut of the wool is taken and kept for comparison, and if not satisfactory, the breed is stopped, or promoted, if otherwise. I have seen them pick a sheep out of a flock, and they could trace its pedigree by its number or mark. If you will only aim at growing wool decidedly better in quality than the average of English wool (say 3d. to 6d. per pound better) and long,

THE FINE WOOLS AT PARIS.

sound, clean, and free in the staple, you are sure to be right, and sure to be producing the kind of wool likely to pay you best.'

"NOTES ON THE FINE WOOLS IN THE PARIS EXHIBITION. WITH REMARKS ON SOME OF THE MOST CELEBRATED FLOCKS ON THE CONTINENT.

"By H. S. TIFFIN, Esq., a New Zealand colonist visiting Europe for the purpose of selecting fresh breeding sheep for importation into the colony.

"The wool of the finest staple which I observed, was that of Moravia and Bohemia; next was that of Silesia. The whole of these are strictly carding-wools of a very high value; but as they have been for the last century bred entirely for their wool, and been depastured on very poor land, the breed has become exceedingly small; the sheep are very ill-formed, and weigh but 36 lbs. dead weight. Their fleece when washed scarcely ever exceeds 1 3/4 lb.; but the price of this wool is quoted at 4s. per lb. Beautiful as were these samples, I was from the first convinced that if we, in New Zealand, attempted to breed such a kind of sheep, our abundant pastures would develope the frame of their progeny, and the character would become quite changed. In this, I was confirmed by M. Yvart, the celebrated Directeur of Agriculture in France. He has made wool and sheep his constant study for many years; and his opinion is, that, unless fine-woolled sheep (such as those of Moravia) are kept low in condition, and are nightly housed, the quality of the fleece cannot be maintained. He moreover argues strongly that the demand for this kind of wool is fast decreasing: confirmatory of which, we find that superior carding-wool, washed on the sheep's back, in 1829, realised from 10s. to 12s. per lb. – at the present time the same sorts fetch from 3s. to 3s. 6d.

"I was particularly attracted by some wether wool from Saxony, which had gained the prize as carding-wool at the

THE NEGRETTI MERINO.

Agricultural Exhibition in Paris. Four fleeces were exhibited in the grease: –

1st Wether

5 lbs.

2nd do.

6   " 

3rd Ewe

4 1/2   " 

4th do.

4   " 

"I could not ascertain the value per lb. of this particular lot, as it scarcely ever appears in the English markets; but from samples somewhat similar, I believe, if well washed, it would realise 4s. per pound. This was, however, only a clothing-wool; and as the exhibitor has a flock of 4000, it is reasonable to suppose these four fleeces were picked from a large lot. The mode of treatment pursued with these sheep is similar to that of Moravia, &c. When I visited this flock, I became fully aware that the average clip would not exceed 2 1/4 lbs. of washed wool, and that the dead weight of the wethers would not exceed 52 lbs.

"The most celebrated of the Spanish flocks belong to the race of Leon. The rams have the horns of a middling size, close in; the ewes are well made, with particularly fine short wool, which is, however, deficient in strength: again owing to the poorness of their condition. This breed of sheep is very small: I should scarecely imagine that the wethers would net more than 40 lbs.; and the ewe fleeces certainly would not weigh more than 1 1/2 lb., when washed on the sheep's back. The actual difference between these sheep and the Electoral breed is very small: the Electoral is perhaps rather larger, is more leggy, has no depth of flank, and rather a larger head. The Negretti breed resembles both the Electoral and Leon breeds: it is larger, with better-rounded limbs, and more woolled than either; the wool is longer, too, of greater strength, elasticity, and abundance, than that of Leon; but it is not quite so fine. The Negrettis m,ay be known at once by the numerous plaits of wool round the neck, which forms a kind of collar. The average weight of fleece is about 4 lbs., the weight of carcass 60 lbs. In some flocks I have visited, the average

THE NEGRETTI MERINO.

weight of the fleece washed on the sheep's back would probably be 5 lbs., and the weight of carcass 70 lbs. to 80 lbs.; but in these cases leguminous plants and artificial grasses are raised so as to keep the sheep always high fed. In reality, the Negretti is of the Leon breed, which, by better feeding, has become more developed; it is not a necessary mark of their purity of blood, that they should be horned – some of the choicest rams that I have seen anywhere were polled.

"In the district of Gex (Ain) there is a very beautiful flock of Merinos, imported by General Girod in 1798. From the name of the farm on which they were first placed, they are called the breed of 'Naz.' They are of the Negretti race, and their wool is very valuable. This farm lying close to the Jura Mountains is very poor: the sheep have, therefore, gradually decreased in size; and at the present moment the live weight of the wethers is probably not more than 60 lbs. I believe, that if properly washed, the fleeces would average from 1 1/2 lb. to 2 lbs. The General is at all times ready to sell: as long back as 20 years, he shipped a lot to Sydney; and has exported to the Crimea and to the Cape of Good Hope.

"The Negretti, it became evident to me, was the best breed for New Zealand. The 'Royal Society of Bohemia for the Improvement of the Race of Sheep' has produced wonderful results with this breed: the samples of wool from the royal sheepfold at Frankenfelde, in Prussia, show how, by careful selection, the length of staple and weight of fleece can be increased without loss of fineness. At Roth-Schoenberg there is a celebrated flock, tracing its pedigree ninety years through the Negretti; the fleeces from this flock average 3 1/2 lbs. At Wrugen, in Brandenburg, the same breed averages 3 lbs.: the wool exquisitely fine. At Sevry there is a flock of Negrettis, no stain in their blood for eighty years: with this flock fineness of wool only has been taken into account, and their frame is no larger than that of the Leon. Their live weight may be taken at 60 lbs.; and fleece, at 2 lbs., valued at 4s. per lb. That

THE NEGRETTI MERINO.

this breed, by good feeding and careful selection, may be increased very materially in size so as to be useful for household purposes, the experiments carried on at Rambouillet afford convincing proof.

"The flock I have now imported from is of pure Negretti blood, raised without cross from 200 ewes and 11 rams. The entire flock contains 2400 sheep, which are now nearly of double the size of the sheep of the original family in Spain: they yield three times the quantity of wool, a trifle coarser, but more valuable, through its strength, elasticity, and length. I was at once forcibly struck with this flock, as being the most perfect type among all the fine wool-growing sheep adapted for our use; and in this opinion I was confirmed by the number of prizes that the proprietor has gained during the last ten years: the fine rams he annually reserves for his own use are irreproachable.

"From the first the owner of this flock formed an idea that the smallness of the Merino took its rise from their being reared in a half-starved condition. The name they had of being bad mothers he attributed to the same cause. He commenced with giving his sheep at all times abundance of food, and by selecting his breeding-stock with due regard to symmetry as well as weight and fineness of wool – it being a study in which he takes great delight, and having a correct eye for form, he has succeeded in performing wonders; his sheep are elegantly made, and the wool fine throughout. The rams clipped last year 14 1/2 lbs. in the grease, this year 8 lbs. well-washed wool. No cross has been allowed in this flock, therefore its present condition rests entirely in the careful selection that he has made of breeding stock; at the same time it is a convincing proof that the true Merino is capable of greater improvement than it has yet had credit for.

"Another striking example is in the Imperial flock at Rambouillet. The foundation of this flock was an importation from Spain in 1786 of the truest Negretti Merinos that could be procured. The intelligent Director Le Bon

THE RAMBOUILLET FLOCK.

Daurier showed me portraits of the sheep and samples of their wool at the time of their importation; hungry, stinted, bony, tucked-up looking animals (the sheep in Spain to the present time are no better). The flock at Rambouillet has now sheep three times heavier in carcass as well as fleece than they originally were. Earlier maturity is obtained and many of the defects of symmetry in the Spanish sheep are fast disappearing. It is a pity that the proprietors in the neighbourhood of Rambouillet, who procure sheep from the Imperial farm, do not aid in keeping up the breed to its present excellence; but unfortunately it is not so, a great number of Rambouillet sheep consequently are cross-bred; indeed the only ones that can be fully depended upon are those bred at the Imperial farm.

"At this establishment is exhibited a series of wool from 1786 to the present time; at the point of departure the wool appears as of short staple and brittle; from thence the staple increases in length and elasticity; the pile remains as close; and what trifle is lost in its value by becoming coarser is far more than compensated for by its softness and elasticity.

"Now they have the wool three times as long as that of 1786, and owing to the carcass being more than double in size, the clip is five or six times greater than that of 1786.

"The wool is said to have the ascendancy over that of Saxony and Silesia for clothing purposes; the latter has more silkiness, but is much less strong and elastic.

"In the course of my investigations it occurred to me that these large sheep would require far more room for depasturing on; but I have been several times assured that the small Spanish sheep eats as much, if not more, than the Rambouillet.

"My objections to this breed are the great looseness of skin about their thighs and flanks, and because they have been bred too much for mutton, and not enough for wool; consequently the thigh and breech wool is very apt to be too coarse; and I am inclined to believe that whenever

CLOTHING AND COMBING WOOL.

great improvements are aimed at in Merino sheep, the increase of size should not he carried to so great a pitch as they have done at Rambouillet. I have in every instance seen that where moderate size and great compactness have been observed, the wool maintains its original fineness, increasing in weight and strength.

"The great arguments against importing sheep that will yield only an extremely fine clothing-wool, are these: – Firstly, that the demand is annually decreasing, and will, probably, be far less than the supply. Secondly, because combing-wool of good quality fetches nearly as much per lb. as the average of clothing, whilst the clip is doubled or trebled, and the demand unlimited. Thirdly, because we cannot, in the colony, house our sheep during inclement weather and at night, as they do in Moravia, Bohemia, and Silesia; and as sure as the exceeding fine-woolled sheep are allowed to feed out during wintry weather, so sure, will their wool become coarser. Fourthly, the carcass of a sheep producing a medium carding-wool would not net more than 50 lbs., whilst that of a sheep yielding a prime combing-wool may, by careful selection of breeding-stock, be raised to the net weight of 80 lbs.; indeed, some Negrettis I am expecting next year are said to kill at 100 lbs. weight, and the wool to be of a very superior combing quality.

"Kind of Wool most profitable. – The object of all no doubt is to grow that kind of wool which will return the greatest profit to the breeder. In order to do this, it is necessary that we should increase the fleece in length and weight, paying a due regard to fineness; thus producing a prime combing-wool, for which there is sure to be a continuous demand, – as a good combing-wool can be well used for 'clothing' purposes; and is eagerly sought after by the clothiers, if only of the requisite degree of fineness.

"A fleece of 5 lbs. weight of combing-wool can be easily produced of equal value per lb. as a 3 lbs. fleece of clothing-wool.

"The greater humidity of the climate in New Zealand than in Australia, renders it impossible, I think, for us to be

THE MOST PROFITABLE WOOL.

able to compete with Australians in growing fine clothing-wool: their wool, in many instances, equals the best samples from Saxony; on the other hand, their pasture is too scant for sheep producing combing-wool.

"In the extremely fine wool-growing countries, as Moravia, Bohemia, Silesia, the sheep are always housed at night, and also during inclement weather; else the wool would lose its character for extreme fineness. A celebrated breeder told me that if fine-woolled sheep 'camp on the damp ground,' the great silkiness, which the wool from the choicest flocks exhibits, would be, in a measure, destroyed. If, by importation and very careful breeding, we brought our flocks to a like excellence with those of Moravia, &c, without adopting similar precautions, the fineness of the wool could not be maintained; and if we attempted a similar course to that practised there, the expenses on every 1000 sheep, according to the rate of wages in this country, would not be less than £500. If, in New Zealand, we attempt growing clothing-wool without similar precautions, we shall find we are only producing a very inferior article; far less in value than that grown without extra care in Australia. The demand for such a kind of wool is never great, and is fast diminishing; the greatest proof of which perhaps is, that many breeders of clothing-woolled sheep are taking steps to change the character of their wool into combing.

"Length, strength, elasticity, and fineness are the four things necessary. 20

"At the London November wool sales, in 1855, I met one of the most extensive woollen manufacturers, who informed me that if Australian and New Zealand wool, being of similar fineness, were sold ou the same day, the New Zealand wool would fetch 2d. per lb. more than the

GETTING-UP WOOL.

Australian, owing to its superior length and elasticity, and through its being so free from joints.

"WASHING. – The washing must be more carefully performed, and the sheep be shorn sooner after they are washed. The yolk is generally allowed to rise too much after washing; consequently, when the wool reaches England, it is found caked in the bales; such being the case, when the wool is sampled, it has the appearance of broken wool.

"In 1855, some wool, hand-washed on the sheep's back, was sold in England, and it was evident great pains had been taken to make it thoroughly clean; but the rubbing had knotted the points of the wool so much, as to decrease its value 3d. per lb. When so washed, no process can lay it fit for combing.

"The following statement will show that wool washed on the sheep's back pays better than either if scoured or in the grease: –

160 lbs. Wool in the grease is equal in weight to
90 lbs. washed, or to
60 lbs. scoured.

£ s. d.

Greasy. – 160 lbs. at 10d. per lb. -

6 13 4

Expenses, 3 1/2d. per lb.

2 6 8

Balance

4 6 8

Washed. – 90 lbs. at 18d. per lb.

6 15 0

Expenses, 4d. per lb. on 90 lbs.

1 10 0

Balance

5 5 0

Scoured. – 60 lbs. at 2s. 4d. per lb. if well scoured ....

7 0 0

Expenses, 8d. per lb. on 60 lbs.

2 0 0

Balance

5 0 0

"SORTING. – The clip should be sorted: the fleece wool

PREPARING WOOL FOR MARKET.

into three or four classes as the case requires; the fine combing, coarse combing, and clothing, being kept distinct, and marked accordingly; the broken wool should be kept by itself also.

"Complaints are made of New Zealand wool that too many of the locks, and too much 'stained' wool are rolled up with the fleeces; the locks should constitute one-twelfth of the clip, or nearly so; an extra bale or two of this kind gives confidence to the buyers, and will always be found to raise the value of the remainder; no further sorting is necessary, and indeed, if attempted without a thorough knowledge of the trade, may be prejudicial. Some samples sold at the July sales were materially diminished through injudicious sorting. A purchaser, from Bradford, of some of the Wellington wool, at prices varying from 1s. 8d. to 1s. 6d., told me that the same wool, a little better washed, and better sorted, would have fetched from 1s. 6d. to 1s. 8d.

"SCOURING. – Wool is found to lose one-third in weight by scouring – that is, supposing it to have been, in the first place, from a well-washed flock. The cost in England is for scouring, about 6d. for 80 lbs.; the subsequent drying, which is done by the aid of stones, costs double that sum; it is highly probable that it might be sun-dried with us at a much cheaper rate. It is necessary that the quality of the wool be very even for scouring; otherwise, clothing-wool and combing-wool of different qualities will, in the process, become so intermixed as to reduce the value of the whole to the lowest-priced kind.

"Again, if the wool is not thoroughly cleaned, it is more difficult to cleanse on arrival in England; and, from numerous trials. I am inclined to believe it loses a portion of its strength on passage home.

"LAMBS' WOOL. – A great quantity of wool that is sent from New Zealand as 'Lambs'' is actually shorn from sheep nine months old. Great dissatisfaction has occasionally been expressed at this, and the brokers wish par-

PACKING WOOL.

ticular attention to be called to it. No fleece that will hold together should be called lambs' wool.

"PACKING. – The fleeces should not be tied up with strings; the lint mixes with the wool, and makes what are called 'burls;' no tying is requisite.

"The bales should be pressed about 300 lbs. in a small bale – a neat, square-looking, well-packed lot carries a better impress with it that care has been taken in the 'getting up,'and is not unlikely to turn the scale in favour of the seller. It is oftentimes found that a few greasy fleeces are packed with the washed; in all cases, this is a serious detriment to the whole. If a few unwashed sheep are shorn, and their fleeces are not sufficient to fill a bale, either retain them, put them among the locks and pieces, which nearly assimilate in value, or else pack them in a bale, and mark thus: –

Washed

Grease

A similar course should be pursued in all cases where two kinds of wool are packed in the same bale.

"Occasionally, when the wool arrives in England, the brand is obliterated through getting wet on board the vessel: it is therefore recommended that both ends be marked. Never mark the bales ou the sides only, as they are exhibited for sale end on.

"BROKER. – With every parcel of wool, an invoice should be forwarded, handing marks, numbers, weights, and any specifications calling the broker's attention to any superior kinds. This is not of so much consequence where the broker samples and lots the wool on sale, for his own in-

THE WOOL TO GROW.

spection; but in cases where such a duty devolves on subordinates, it is not unlikely that good and indifferent wool may occasionally be lotted together.

"If all the New Zealand wools were intrusted to one or two brokers, buyers of that kind would pay more attention to the sales of these brokers than they would to small parcels offered by several salesmen.

"CONCLUSION. – New Zealand wool is decidedly a favourite article with the manufacturers; but, although they admit we have a little improved in our mode of getting it up, still they complain of our slovenly manner. All assure me that we lose 3d. per lb. through not attending to the sorting, and through leaving it too 'wastey' (that is, with too much grease in it), either by not washing enough, or by letting the yolk rise too much after washing.

"Clothing-wool has, within the last twenty-seven years, fallen from 10s. 6d. per lb. to 3s. per lb.; it is now very little above the price of prime combing, and it is highly probable a very few years more will find it lower. Sheep bearing a good clothing-wool will not clip more than 2 1/2 lbs. on the average, and their carcasses will not average more than 50 lbs. A prime combing-wool can he produced with us, averaging 5 lbs. per fleece, and the carcass be brought to an average of 80 lbs. I have samples of wool of the finest kind, varying from 5s. per lb., scoured to 3s. per lb., hand-washed, in all cases, from sheep of about 48 lbs. (dead weight). I have also samples of combing-wool which handwashed, fetched 3s. per lb., averaging 4 1/2 lbs., and which would slaughter at a weight of 90 lbs.

"In every instance, I have had my inquiries met with this advice: – 'Aim to grow a prime combing-wool, for which there will be a certain demand for many years to come.' One manufacturer writes, in addition to this: – 'If you attempt to grow fine clothing-wool, you will be sure to be disappointed; you should aim to grow wool with length and strength of staple for combing, and by judicious cross with the improved Negretti, you may also get weight

IMMUNITY FROM DISEASE.

of fleece. This kind of wool is sure to fetch a better price than the short wools, if the latter is even considerably finer.'"

– – – – – – – – – – – – -

DISEASES. – Of the three fatal epidemics which so reduce the profits of sheep-farming in Australia – catarrh, rot and scab – the latter, only, is known in New Zealand. It was introduced by some one of the Australian importations; but is disappearing under the beneficial operation of the various local "scab acts." Foot rot, and the various minor diseases to which the animal is subject in England, are of very rare occurrence; 21 and a flock of New Zealand Merinos generally presents an appearance of bright-looking plumpness and robust health, indicating both fine wool and mutton – and verging even on the "picturesque." 22

FATNESS OF SHEEP.

BREEDING. – Some difference of opinion exists as to whether spring or early autumn be the best season for lambing. By choosing the latter, there are no young lambs in the way to interfere with the early summer clipping; and autumn lambs are weaned on early spring grasses and have good fleeces by shearing time. On the other hand, more and finer lambs are dropped by spring

LAMBING-INCREASE.

lambing; and assuredly in the colder parts of the country, where the winter nights would nip the ewe and lambkin, and perhaps everywhere, Spring is the preferable season. Ewes will lamb twelve years in succession; and the net annual increase of a flock of ewes will average nearly, if not quite, ninety per cent., or about ten per cent, more than in Australia – a high ratio of increase when we remember that the sheep is the Merino, one of the least productive of breeds; and the one the most liable to casualties of parturition.

SHEEP FARMING. – Four-fifths of the New Zealand flocks are depastured on wild lands of the colony. Under some of the regulations of Chapter XVII., the sheep-farmer, or "Squatter," as he is generally called, leases of the Government 15,000 to 30,000 acres of some of the wild grassy districts of the country – where, pastoral Robinson Crusoe dwelling ten miles from a neighbour, he puts up a hut or two for himself and shepherds; procures his flour and groceries by bullock-dray from the nearest village; and rudely breeds, feeds, clips, and fattens his flock, under what is popularly termed the "Squatting system."

The profits of this peculiar pursuit have been variously estimated. The smallest capital on which it can fairly be commenced is about £1000, starting with a flock of some 700 ewes; but a more economical and profitable commencement is one with a capital of some £2000 and a double-size flock.

SHEEP FARMING.

Any young man landing in New Zealand with a clear £500 or £600, and desirous of embarking in pastoral pursuits, should never attempt to make an independent beginning on his own account. His best plan is to get acquainted with some practical flock-master in the neighbourhood, and to make the arrangement of "thirds." He will buy, say 400 or 500 ewes, and place them with the flockmaster, who will generally take them on his run, on condition of receiving "one-third" of the wool and annual increase; and will sometimes provide the young beginner with free quarters on the station for himself and horse, and make him an inmate of the hut or household, in consideration of his giving his services in the general management and business of the station. The Tyro thus practically learns the pastoral craft at little or no expense; and, at the expiration of two or three years, may lease a station, drive away his increased flock and little stud, and commence business on his own account – an accomplished squatter and pastoral cavalier, sans peur, sans reproche. 23

YOUNG BEGINNERS.

Of a dozen squatting "balance-sheets," composed by lettered shepherds of the plains, I give the reader the gist of two: 24 – No. 1, the result of a

PROFITS OF SQUATTING.

balance sheet drawn up by my Australian friend, whose calculation is most careful and minute; and No. 2, the mean result of various balance sheets, drawn up by myself and by other New Zealand colonists, who have paid attention to the subject: –

Capital to start with.

Flock to start with.

Nett Cash Profit at the end of 5 Years.

No. 1.

£1000

Say 700

£800

No. 2

£1000

Say 700

£900 1

1   The difference in the result, arises mainly from the circumstance of No. 1 assuming the ratio of annual increase and the value of stock at the end of the term 1862, to be less than No. 2 assumes them to be. No. 1 shows the flock increased to 3100 at the end of the five years; No. 2 makes it 3400.

The mean profit here, £850, is a profit of not more than seventeen per cent, per annum on the capital employed; and if the reader assumes £1500 to £2000 to be the "commencing-capital," and will estimate the profit to be about twenty per cent, per annum, he will obtain a fair idea of the first profits of Squatting begun on a small scale and on a moderate scale. Those larger cumulative profits of colonial sheep farming of which we read, are not pocketed until a later period than five years, when annual clip and increase of flock have become considerably greater, under the figures of arithmetical progression.

EVILS OF THE "SQUATTING SYSTEM." – "Squatting sheep-farming" – a pursuit of which the motto might well be "great cry and little wool" – was

EVILS OF SQUATTING.

introduced into New Zealand from Australia; and it is a pastoral system about as suitable for New Zealand, as the agricultural system of Timbuctoo might be suitable for Great Britain.

The inherent evils of the "squatting system" are these: – More or less, it entails on its votaries a rude, isolated, semi-savage, existence; whilst, locking up immense tracts of territory as pastoral deserts and preserves, it stops the plough, blights the growth of farm and village, prevents the peopling of the wilderness, and arrests the spread of humanizing civilisation. The one good it returns for all this evil, the one crop it grows from the desert it creates, is the "golden fleece" – but it grows even this one crop so scantily, that the "farm-field system," which it prevents, would grow a ten-fold larger crop. True, these evils have been little felt in Australia. Australia is a vast country of hills and plains, where flocks and herds might roam for ages, and bar no peopling of the desert waste. Australia, too, is a country where "squatting" is the only system of grazing which is possible – for owing to poverty of soil, heats and droughts, that artificial field-pasturage, essential to the success of any other system, cannot be obtained there.

But New Zealand, as compared to the droughty continent of Australia, is a garden clothed with perpetual verdure: a land of which some future bellman may some day sing –

"Each ram so fat he never ran;
Each rood of ground maintained its man."

THE SQUATTING SYSTEM.

A country of such narrow limits, that flocks and herds could not roam almost "force naturae," as in Australia, without committing trespass, or creating an injurious monopoly. In New Zealand, too, thanks to soil and climate, that artificial field-pasturage, essential to any better system of grazing, can be obtained; and that, too, in the greatest luxuriance and perfection of feed.

In truth, no two countries, so near together as Australia and New Zealand, are so unlike in physical features; and to argue that the "squatting system" is suitable for the one, because it is suitable for the other, is to argue that the sugar-cane and coffee-plant are cultivable in England and Scotland, because they are cultivable in Egypt and the Brazils.

However, though there can be no question that, if all New Zealand's wild-depastured stock could be converted into farm-stock, grazed on field pastures, the annual production of corn, wool, meat, and tallow, would soon be quadrupled, such conversion, practically, would be an agricultural revolution impossible to bring about. It is to be hoped that New Zealand farmers will see the necessity of changing their wretched, "no-stock," exclusively arable system; and that, adding grazing to corn-growing, they will double their produce by enriching their fields with short-horn, south-down, or Merino. But for a few years, at least, until population flows in and actually requires the wild lands of the country for the plough, the pastoral

IMPROVEMENT OF THE SYSTEM.

pursuit of depasturing stock on such lands will remain a distinct industrial pursuit; and "squatting," though inherently an evil in a country like New Zealand, must for some time to come remain a necessary evil. We cannot convert the fertile wastes of New Zealand into rich pasture fields by stroke of pen – spread of population can alone do that, and until spread of population does that, it is better that our wild lands should feed sheep at the rate of one on three acres, than that they should feed no sheep at all.

The "squatting system" cannot be at once abolished. All, therefore, which, in these days, we can hope to do, is to increase its fruits, to moderate its evils, and to train it in such a way that it shall smoothly and gradually convert itself into that "home-field system" which we desire to set up in its place. This is what we want to do; and, with the aid of the provincial legislatures, this is what we easily could do.

To see clearly the desirableness of improving our "squatting system," the reader should hold together the following commonly-admitted facts: – 1st, that the natural wild land pastures of New Zealand will not, on the average, graze more than one sheep to three acres; 2nd, that owing to the large tracts of these lands which monopolist squatters have been allowed to lease, squatters are not able, on the average, to do more than quarter stock them, even at this meagre rate; and that, thus, these wild pastures are not in reality supporting more than one

SELF-MADE PASTURES.

sheep, on ten acres; 25 3rd, that the same wild lands, rudely sown with English grasses, would graze four sheep to one acre – that is, they would become forty-fold more productive; 4th, that full half such wild lands (seed included) is capable of being laid down in English grasses at a cost of £1 per acre; 26 and

ADVANTAGES OF THE FIELD SYSTEM.

5th, that the diseases of sheep are fewer, the annual increase greater, the mutton earlier, the wool finer, the fleece capable of being better "got-up" for market, when the flock, domitae naturae, is farmed on semi-artificial pasture, than when (as under the rude "squatting system") it is suffered to roam, all but ferae naturae, over the wild lands of the colony, exposed to every vicissitude of a semi-savage life. The desirableness of improving our "squatting system" is thus clearly evidenced – the practicability of improving it would, I think, at once be found in the

FAIR PLAY AND FULL FLEECE.

adoption of some such squatting regulations as I have ventured to suggest in Chapter XVII.

Let us deal fairly and sensibly with our Squatter. Do not abuse him for being a Squatter, and at the same time debar him from becoming anything better than a Squatter. Lease him never more than 10,000 acres for ten years, and demand a fair rent and a full "stocking." But do away with the ridiculous eighty-acre cabbage-plot, and extend his pre-emptive right of purchase to 1000 or 2000 acres. Do this, and we should convert our "Robinson-Crusoe" Squatter and his shepherd "Man-Friday" into a clean-shaven, estate-creating grazier prince; make him a popular productive member of society, instead of a barren obstructive nuisance; dot our distant hills and plains with a thousand pastoral frontier farms, and produce more of the "golden fleece" export in one clip, than we now do in a dozen.

CATTLE. – Counting native and European owned herds, New Zealand may possess some 100,000 head of cattle.

Like the sheep, the original stock was imported from Australia. But unlike the sheep, Australian and New Zealand cattle make no pretensions to be of any particular breed: short horns, long horns, no horns, a dozen varieties, are so crossed and blended that Youatt himself would scarcely distinguish the predominant strain. 27 New Zealand, in

CATTLE – BEEF.

some respects, is even a better habitat for cattle than for sheep; as many of the rugged tracts and forest districts, inaccessible to sheep, constitute excellent grazing and browsing ground for horned stock.

New Zealand beef, like New Zealand mutton, is excellent in quality. Four-year old, wild-grazed, bullocks, frequently weigh 1200 lbs. During my last visit to New Plymouth I saw a herd of native-owned cattle, browsing among the wild shrubberies of the Waitera, some of which would have done for the Smithfield Christmas show; whilst the richness of the natural and artificial pasturage for dairy purposes, is tastefully proved by Canterbury's fat cheeses, and New Plymouth's Devonshire cream.

Like sheep, three-fourths of the New Zealand cattle are grazed by the Squatters on the wild lands of the colony. Generally some portion of a Run (either some lower-lying, moister, pasture; or some more broken or bushy "browsing" ground) is better suited for horned stock than for sheep; and such portion is frequently devoted to a herd of cattle, as a sort of second string to our Squatter's bow. The two descriptions of stock do not, however, mix kindly; and in Australia, and indeed on the larger New Zealand runs, "cattle-squatting" and "sheep-squatting" are generally followed as semi-distinct pursuits.

HORSES – RACES.

As bullocks are much used for farm draught-stock; as dairy produce is a very profitable commodity; and as there is already a considerable demand for beef, for the supply of the towns and the shipping, "cattle-breeding" bids fair to become an important pursuit in New Zealand; and will unquestionably figure as the second great branch of Pastoral Industry.

HORSES. – Of native and European-owned horses New Zealand may count about 12,000. The original stock was imported from Australia; but has been considerably improved by fresh blood from England. The Hon. Henry Petre (a fellow-passenger on my first expedition to New Zealand) took out the two thorough-breds Ether and Riddlesworth; and several fine animals have been more recently imported. The horse is a favourite animal in New Zealand: pastoral colonists and natives are bold and dashing riders; gigs and carriages are scarce, and roads bad; and country ladies frequently visit friends and descend on the towns, shopping, on horseback. Well-conducted annual races are held in every settlement. Those of Auckland (attracting the Governor, the court, the regimental band, and a mixed concourse of colonists, citizens, soldiers, sailors, and thousands of natives, all in gala array) form a most picturesque and animated scene; and save for the absence of the "thimble-rig" fraternity, the Guards' "drag," and the nymphs of St. John's Wood, the Auckland

HORSES FOR INDIA.

Races might well pass for the New Zealand Derby.

There is a considerable and an increasing demand both for draught and riding horses, in New Zealand; and the prices rule high and remunerative to the breeder.

A few horses are generally bred with great advantage on the sheep runs; and the second extract below (taken from the letter of an Indian officer settled in Canterbury) suggests the establishment in New Zealand of breeding studs for the Indian cavalry service.

"Before I turn from this part of the subject, it may not be amiss to add a few words with regard to cattle-breeding. There is decidedly less risk in cattle than in sheep breeding. The stock is less subject to disease, and requires far less care and expense. On the other hand, the profits are more uncertain; and I am inclined to think (even when a system of salting down shall be established) will fall somewhat short of those of sheep farming. I am not, however, sure, but that for a small capitalist I should rather recommend cattle. I do not approve of mixed stations of sheep and cattle. They do not do well on the same ground; and one or other is generally neglected. Horses, on the other hand, thrive on a sheep station. A certain number of course are necessary, and, consequently, it is no extra expense to keep a few well-selected breeding mares besides the work-horses. They are little or no trouble, disease amongst them being almost unknown. They run at large the whole year round; and their sleek coats and high condition bear another testimony to the superiority of our climate. But though every stock-master will take a pride in his little herd of horses, and will find them as profitable as they are interesting and ornamental, I should be inclined to consider

HORSES FOR INDIA.

it speculative for a man to invest his whole capital in horse breeding." – Weld on Sheep Farming.

"Any horses required can be bred on these plains, from the English dray horse to the English racer. This is a question that nearly touches the Indian Government, and one that should not be dismissed without some consideration. Are the horses for the artillery and the dragoons up to the work required? No; most certainly not. Where can the horses required be obtained? The objection to the Australian horse is that he is allowed to run wild till he can never be quite broken in. At any rate, those exported seldom are: the reason being that a large tract of land is required to graze them. Both cattle and horses in Australia become as wild as those of the Pampas, and many a broken bone does the Squatter receive in the desperate chase, and still more desperate encounter with these semi-wild animals. But in New Zealand they may be domesticated as in England, and with this extra advantage: the climate is so good, they require no cover, and as no snow lies on the ground, they can graze all the year round. I maintain, that were the Indian Government to take up a Run, lay a portion of it down with English grass, and import stallions from England and mares from Australia, they could breed horses cheaper than they could procure from any part of the world. For such a trade too, New Zealand is at least as well placed as any settlement in Australia, save Swan River. The route, for all, is through Torres Straits. When the monsoon is from the south-east, when the Straits are shut, the eastern passage through the China Seas with a cargo of horses on board would be preferable to beating round that stormy Cape, the Lewin, and in this case New Zealand has the advantage." – Letter from Canterbury.

PIGS. – No data exist even for guessing at the number of wild pigs in New Zealand. Their name is legion (see page 124), and poor Hood,

HALF-TON PIGS.

probably had New Zealand in his eye when he wrote: –

"There is a land of pure delight
Where omelets grow on trees,
And roasted pigs come crying out,
Oh! eat me if you please."

Of English sty-fed pigs, and native tame pigs, the various settlements may number some 100,000.

All fattening roots are so easily grown in New Zealand; fine hams and bacon command so good a price in various Australian and foreign markets; and the home and colonial shipping promise to create so brisk a demand for salt-pork, that "pig-feeding," as a branch of dairy farming, bids fair to become an important branch of agricultural industry.

The animal fattens kindly and attains a great size in New Zealand. The "Wellington Independent" has seen one weighing over six hundredweight; but the author has seen one, of a celebrated local breed, fed at the New Plymouth Brewery, which, to the best of his recollection, weighed nearer half a ton.

"Messrs. Luxford and Ling slaughtered five large pigs this week, the smallest of which weighed, when cleaned, upwards of four hundredweight. Notwithstanding the immense size of the animals, the meat appeared to be of a very fine quality. The five taken together are the largest we have ever seen killed in Wellington; indeed we only remember one which surpassed them in weight, namely, that fed by Mr. M'Masters, which weighed upwards of six hundredweight." – Wellington Independent.

GOATS AT A DISCOUNT.

GOATS. – I trust the reader will not think I mention the goat as an animal worthy to rank with pastoral or farm stock. Capricornus is a nuisance in any civilised country where he may be tolerated; and I only name him here in caution to any patriotic emigrant Welshmen. Accompanying some friends once, to select our cabins in one of Messrs. Willis' Liners, I met a gentleman on board anxiously inquiring about the accommodation for two goats he was taking out – the couple, landed, would have cost some £10; and the profitable character of the venture will be made evident to the reader, when I tell him that a flock of fine goats once sold at auction, by my brother in New Plymouth, realized sevenpence halfpenny per head.

– – – – – – – – – – – –

EMIGRANTS TAKING OUT BREEDING-STOCK.

Emigrants of small means cannot take out too few things and too much money; and the investment of any portion of their little capitals in a costly article like breeding-stock, would be, as a general rule, a rash and ill-advised proceeding.

With that increasing class of emigrants, the men of larger means, however, those who go in time, the case is somewhat different; and any gentleman acquainted with stock and now going to New Zealand to invest a thousand or two in agricultural or pastoral pursuits, might do worse than take half a score sheep, a pair of young short horns, or a colt or filly.

TAKING OUT BREEDING-STOCK.

Choice breeding-stock commands high prices in New Zealand. Mr. Tiffin – whose excellent letter the reader has seen at page 384 – will, I think, make money by his "Negrettis;" and the following extract from a recent price current shows that pure Merino lambs have lately fetched £10 a head in Auckland.

"Wheat is held for 7s. to 7s. 6d., with large quantities coming in from the coast. Neither oats nor barley in the market. The season's wool and oil are both all shipped. The value of our New Zealand wool is at length being appreciated in the home markets, and a recent importation of Merino sheep will tend to its further improvement. Than the Merino, and the half-bred Merino and Leicester fleeces of the Auckland district, no finer wool is produced in the Australian colonies. The climate of our Province, combining the genial atmosphere of the south of Europe with more humidity to foster, and without either frost or snow to check the growth of wool, a staple is produced which, in strength and elasticity, is equal to the finest samples in the home market. In its felting qualities it is as yet unrivalled. With the attention it is now receiving, this staple bids fair to become a source of great wealth to our colonists. Pure Merino lambs, reared in the immediate neighbourhood of Auckland, are readily purchased from the only holder at £10 each. Large orders from sheep holders, both in New South Wales and Victoria, are now in hand for these Merino lambs, which cannot be executed before October or November. Hides are becoming an export of some value, and more attention than hitherto is being paid to collecting them."

Sheep would probably be found a safer and less troublesome venture than larger stock. Pure Cotswold, Southdown, or Leicester would all, I think, prove valuable introductions; whilst the following

THE ESSEX MERINOS.

extract from Milburn's popular Handbook on Sheep (price 1s., Stanford, 6, Charing Cross, London), would seem to show that Mr. Sturgeon's crossed Merinos would be admirably suited for New Zealand.

"Mr. Sturgeon (of the 'Elms,' Grays, Essex) states that our climate seems to affect both the carcass and the wool of imported sheep. He lately showed some tups which were bred from sheep selected in Silesia by his son, from the flocks of Prince Tichnowsky and Baron Bartenstein; and we noticed that the wool was nearly double the length of that produced by either the sire or the dam.

"Nature appears to refuse to give the finest wool to the largest carcass; but Mr. Sturgeon's exertions for the last thirty years seem to have induced some relaxation in his favour; for on sheep that would, if fatted, weigh ten or twelve stones, we find a quality of wool that can hardly be surpassed; and such sheep as (possessing the requisites of size and form, and the constitution peculiar to English-bred animals) must always be in request by our colonists, and have the preference over the German-bred animals, which seem to want the size, form, constitution, and length of staple they are sent to restore.

"Mr. Sturgeon's Merinos are the result of an amalgamation of the flock of his late Majesty George the Third with those of the late Lord Western and Mrs. Dorien, both of whose flocks he purchased at their death. To these he has added the best blood of the Continent; and now, we are assured, possesses such sheep as were never before bred in this country." 28

TAKING OUT BREEDING-STOCK.

The present rates of freight on breeding-stock are about, as follows: sheep 5, young bull 50, and horse 60 guineas – the insurance against death and accidents is about £20 per cent.

The following passage from a colonist's letter may supply the "stock-taking" emigrant reader with some useful practical hints.

"It is of the utmost importance, if you intend to be an owner of flocks and herds, to begin with stock which you know to possess genuine blood. By early application to the broker of the ship in which you are going, you may generally secure a free passage for a cow with her calf, in order that the cabin table may be supplied with milk; so that you will only have to insure against loss and to provide food. Otherwise, you have to pay also for the freight of water and provisions, for fittings and for attendance. A cow should be sent, if possible, with her first calf by her side. A bull should be two years old when put on board. The cost will vary according to the ship, and the arrangements that can be made. As some guide, here is a rough account of the expenses actually incurred on a bull that was sent from England to Wellington in the year 1844: –

£ s. d.

Cost of bull (say)

42 0 0

Provisions, fittings, and attendance on voyage

10 0 0

Freight, primage, and charges

20 0 0

Insurance of £50 at 21 per cent, (with policy 5s. 3d.)

10 15 3

Total cost landed

£82 15 3

"The provisions for the voyage for a cow and a calf will cost about £8. The insurance is against all risks, including mortality and jetsam, and varies from fifteen to twenty per cent."

TAKING OUT BREEDING-STOCK.

No more profitable Horse could, I think, be taken to New Zealand than a large-boned, and nearly thorough-bred, hunter colt or filly; whilst the Clydesdale and Suffolk Punch breed, would be extremely suitable for general draught and farm purposes. I should, however, regard Horses as a less safe and certain speculation than Sheep or Cattle. Of course, the reader will perceive that in taking out any stock to New Zealand, the breed should be one of the greatest purity and established celebrity: an Ewe whose lambs would not fetch £1 each in New Zealand, costs just as much to take thither as an Ewe whose lambs would fetch £10 each.

DOGS. – Dogs are occasionally taken; the freight is about £5. Sporting dogs and fancy dogs are not, however, as yet "the right dogs in the right place," in New Zealand: and the only three animals (at present) worth taking, are the Scotch colley; any strong, pig-catching, terrier; and any sort of retriever, equal to flushing and fetching a wild duck by river or lake.

13 "The wool itself is a very remarkable combination. It contains 98 per cent, of organic elements, and 2 per cent, of ash. The former consists of: –

Carbon

50-65

Hydrogen

7.03

Nitrogen

17.71

Oxygen [and] Sulphur

24.61

100.00

"The ash contains oxide of iron, sulphate of lime, phosphates of lime and magnesia; so that the sulphur is a very important element in the composition of wool. Some close statistical calculations have been made, which show that in the United Kingdom as many as five millions of pounds of sulphur are annually abstracted from the soil by the sheep. It is evident, therefore, that in order to have healthy animals, and a full produce of wool, there must be in the soil a good supply of sulphur, nitrogen, potash, and phosphorus; or the land will not enable the animal to secrete wool in perfection." – Milburn on the Sheep.

The New Zealand soil abounds in these things, particularly in sulphur, potash and oxides of iron.

14 "Boiling-down" was formerly practised to a considerable extent in Australia; the mere fat or tallow of the animal for export to England being worth far more than the meat for colonial consumption. "Boiling-down establishments" were formed in the pastoral districts, and the process became a regular business. The sheep or cattle were killed and skinned, the carcass thrown into the boiling vat, the fat skimmed off for export tallow, and the meat thrown away. "Boiling-down" will probably remain a permanent feature of Australian grazing in the districts remote from large towns.

I hold with my Australian friend though, that a butcher's market for fat mutton will long be found in New Zealand. Indeed, speculative peepers into the future, have asserted that "fat live wethers" will eventually become an export from New Zealand to Sydney and Melbourne. I do not go so far as this; but if ever screw clippers dashing across in five days from New Zealand to these cities, should be able to carry over deck-pens of prime New Zealand South Downs for some 2s. 6d. a head, I certainly think it possible that New Zealand mutton may occasionally appear as a delicacy in the Leadenhalls of Australia: just as English southdowns, carried back by the American steamers, now appear in the markets of New York.

15 I may remark that this gentleman and his family coming to Scotland on a visit to their friends, were fellow passengers of mine from Sydney to Dieppe in "La Lucie," a beautiful Dieppe-built clipper, and the first vessel of that port which ever made a voyage to Australia for wool. Two other French ships were loading wool at Sydney about the time of our departure.

16 Perhaps, a fourth of this "germ-flock," has been imported from Australia, and the remainder bred in the country. Australian sheep are still occasionally imported: the annual increase of the home flocks not being yet quite equal to the increasing home demand.

17 The structure of wool resembles that of a fir-apple, only it possesses the cylindrical instead of the conical form; and an idea of the intensity of the serrations, in some of the different breeds, may be gathered from the annexed list: –

Saxon Merino

2700 serrations in an inch

Spanish Merino

2400

Southdown

2000

Leicester

1800

Cheviot

1400

18 The New Zealand author of an excellent pamphlet on Sheep-farming. Saunders, publisher, 6, Charing Cross.

19 A Lincolnshire wether killed at Grantham, one of a lot of 27, clipped 17 lbs. of wool and weighed 308 lbs. – 250 to 300 lbs. is by no means an uncommon weight; and the united clip even of the shearling and the two shear, will frequently average 24 lbs.

20 "Wool curling excessively at the tip is not considered so useful as that which is only closely waved; it does not dye so well, owing to the impossibility of getting rid of the pitchy yolk which is always found at the tip of wool of this kind."

21 The wild shrub Tutu (Coriaria ruscifolia) greedily devoured by sheep and cattle, produces a sort of "hoven" effect, something like that of rich clover pastures when stock break-in and over feed.

Tutu is most pernicious to newly-imported animals, and occasionally proves fatal. Bleeding and a dose of spirits is the common cure. Belladonna, too, is said to be an antidote. Horses and pigs are not affected by it. Probably they do not eat it so greedily. Tutu, however, is soon extirpated from a district; and the entire loss caused by it even now, is probably under 1 per cent, for both islands.

22 "NEW ZEALAND SHEEP, FAT, AND WOOL.

"Proceed to Patangata. On my way had a most satisfactory sight in inspecting a beautiful flock of Merino ewes, from two to three thousand, just ready to lamb. They were as the phrase goes, rolling in fat. They had been in the neighbourhood about two or three years; and now I have thought of naming a most astonishing fact that I heard in Wellington connected with the prospects of this important colony, concerning the unprecedented weight of loose fat from the inside of one hundred wether sheep of cross breed, averaging thirty pounds each. This has nothing to do with the kidney fat. The average of 103 pounds each carcass, is nothing extraordinary in weight; but the loose fat, 30 lbs. each, for 100 wethers, I think I may venture to say, is not on record in any part of the world. I took much pains to ascertain the truth of this assertion, and find I may rely on the veracity of the person who killed them. I have had sheep nearly double that weight, and had premiums for the fattest sheep at our agricultural meetings at home; but I never had sheep turn out loose fat anything to be compared to that; although some of them have measured six inches deep in solid fat. It is a well known fact that sheep which only averaged two and a half pounds of wool in New South Wales, brought to New Zealand have clipped four pounds of wool. The reason is accounted for by the "droughts" in New South Wales. The wool that grows where sheep are suffering either from want of food or water, reduces the fleece, weakens the staple, and of course lessens the value very considerably. All these things, put together, speak much for New Zealand. What may we not expect from our exports of wool and tallow? I showed Messrs, Bethune and Hunter, of Wellington, a sample of combing-wool, of the description of which I have been speaking, and had an offer of 2s. per lb., could I produce a quantity like the sample. Our beautiful climate, so often watered by gentle rains, must be the foundation of these great advantages. I have not the least doubt, but in a short time we shall be able to send home the most valuable combing-wools in the world, if attention be paid to selecting rams and improving the present stock." – From Published Journal of a Somersetshire Farmer.

23 "I mean, that about a thousand pounds, or somewhat less, is the minimum capital with which a man, in the majority of cases, may without rashness count upon establishing a sheep-station on a secure and self-supporting footing. But at the same time, I am aware that he who brings his own labour and experience into the concern, and thus materially reduces its expenses, or who invests in sheep as an adjunct to a farm or other establishment, may of course commence with less capital and a smaller number. And again, where, as in the neighbourhood of a new settlement, the price of sheep is high, and likely to remain so for a few years, a very much smaller flock may be self supporting, and even exceedingly profitable from the moment that any of the increase can be brought into the market; but as a general rule, I should advise persons whose capital will not allow them to obtain above 800 ewes, and at the same time reserve something in hand against contingencies, rather to place their sheep with some respectable sheep-owner, paying part of the produce for their keep and care, than to risk running into difficulties by setting up a station on their own account with insufficient capital. This method has the further advantage for a young colonist, that during the period whilst his flock is attaining the size requisite to enable him to set up on his own account, he may be living inexpensively at a station, and be employed in acquiring that experience of pastoral matters which he will need, when he commences the management of his own flock." – Weld on New Zealand Sheep Farming. Stanford, 6, Charing Cross.

"If the governor be favourable to my application and a satisfactory answer be given to me, I shall write to the gentlemen who have applied to me about placing their sons under my care for acquiring the practical knowledge of the management of sheep and cattle, and state on what terms I would take them, what they would have to do, &c, &c. To make a good start, each gentleman should be possessed of about £700 on his arrival; though I have known many successful with £500. To forward his success, he could immediately commence buying a few sheep and cattle, so that no time would be lost, as from two to three years would be sufficient to gain practical knowledge of the business, and he would have the pleasure of overlooking his own stock." – Journal of a Somersetshire Farmer.

24 It is somewhat singular, that a rude pursuit like the Squatter's, should require an accomplished accountant to state its pecuniary results. To present the reader with these two balance sheets, in extenso, would be to present him with a labyrinth of items of thirteen pages, which he might well skip, under the impression that it was not worth while going through so much to learn so little.

25 Even in the Wairarapa, an old squatting district, where the runholders have had time duly to increase their stock, there were, some time since, nearly thirty runs averaging 18,000 acres each, on which the "stocking" was not at the rate of more than one sheep on seven acres; though the Wairarapa would probably carry one sheep to two acres: a fact almost disgraceful to the political economy and the industrial character of the colony.

26 See pages 315-348. The mere rude scattering of the seed from horseback, in wet weather, on the rough surface of the wild lands, would frequently be sufficient. It must be recollected too, that if one acre of wild land be sown with clover and artificial grasses, that one acre soon sows the next acre. Stock carry the seeds from place to place; and the rapidity with which artificial pasture extends itself in New Zealand when once a few grass and clover fields are planted in any neighbourhood, may be gathered from the following extract from "Hursthouse's New Plymouth."

"It has been frequently remarked how much the appearance of the country, and the character of the vegetation, in New Zealand, is changed and improved by the introduction and depasturing of stock. A remarkable instance of this came under my own observation in New Plymouth. On first landing there, my brother and myself, commencing an examination of the settlement with a view of purchasing land, went to look at a certain district, about three miles from the town, at the back of the whaling station at Muturoa. To walk over, or rather to get through, this tract, was then almost an impossibility: luxuriant fern, eight feet high, covering a dense mass of decayed vegetation on the ground, and close matted and interwoven with the largest tutu and koromika bushes, seemed to form a vegetable rampart alike impenetrable to horse or foot; and, after indulging in some pleasing speculations as to the crops such soil would produce, if it could ever be got-at, we retraced our steps, to search for a spot where nature had been less bountiful.

"For some three years after, it so happened that I never went near this spot again. In the interval, it had become a kind of "home-stock station:" a herd of cattle had been turned in first; and then some (alternately) "field-depastured" sheep, had been sent to follow. When I did visit the place again, I went for the purpose of gathering mushrooms! and any one who knows where mushrooms grow, the kind of soil they favour, will see that the cattle and sheep had proved most efficient cultivators.

"Cattle break-through, tread-down, and bruise the fern, in order to browse on the bushes. The fern when so bruised and stamped on, has a happy weakness of gradually bleeding to death. The bushes, thus in a measure deprived of the close shelter which they love, and cropped by the cattle, begin to fade and wither. Coarse grasses now spring up with almost magical rapidity. Cattle get fat; the more they eat, the more there is to eat; and the wild track is broken up into winding paths, broad tracks, and grassy knolls; mixed here and there with patches of dead fern, and dying bush. Sheep now get in: the natural grasses keep gaining on the fern, become finer and more luxuriant, and at last the "stock-sown" white clover and field grasses appear, and soon begin to trench on the domain of the wild varieties."

27 Some efforts, however, are now being made to improve this mongrel race. Various well-bred heifers have been carried over to New Zealand by grazing emigrants; and the celebrated bull "Master Butterfly," was lately shipped to Australia at a cost of some £1200.

28 The address is, Messrs. Sturgeon, the Elms, Grays, Essex. I have received a letter from these gentlemen on the subject of their Colonial Merinos, which, if I can afford space, I will endeavour to give. Of six rams which they lately sold for the Cape Colony, three, re-sold there, realised about £90 each.

CHAPTER XIV. INVESTMENTS AND INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS...

CAPITAL AND CAPITALISTS.

CHAPTER XIV.

INVESTMENTS AND INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS OTHER THAN AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL.

CAPITALISTS. – LOAN COMPANY. – The reader must not imagine that New Zealand capitalists are of the same family and status as the Goldsmid and Gurney leviathans of Lombard Street. An emigrant landing in New Zealand with £3000 to £5000 is a capitalist, a ruler of the money market. Ten per cent, is the common rate of interest on mortgage securities, twelve and a half to fifteen on bill-discounting; and the transactions in either line are quite as safe and bond fide as similar transactions in England, where the rates of interest would not generally exceed five to seven per cent. Where a necessary article is scarce, there it will be dear. Money is scarce in New Zealand, profits are high, and New Zealand farmers and traders, each having a lucrative little business and no rent, tythes, assessed or income tax to pay, can well afford to give ten and twelve per cent, for permanent and temporary loans to enable them to extend and nurse up their thriving little concerns. In New Zealand, even now, there are hundreds, (in a little time there will be thousands) of that

MORTGAGE INVESTMENTS.

"Bete noir" of the "high-price" colonisers, the industrious emancipated labourer, tilling his own fields. These, the hardy yeomen of the new-land, the steel sinews of the country, are safe and excellent customers to the capitalist. Indeed, it has always seemed strange to me, that in the exasperating difficulties which the "high-price" doctrinaires have met with in their efforts to construct that nice machine which should repress and regulate the rise of labour in new countries, and make the busy drag the idle up the hill, they never proposed to make it compulsory on their labouring-emigrant to borrow money of their capitalist-emigrant at fifty per cent.; so that the latter might have been relieved from all toil and trouble of cultivating the stubborn acres, and would only have had to step in at harvest time and pocket half the produce. Badinage apart, however, there can be no question that these small Yeomen-Farmers both can and will borrow a good deal of money in New Zealand, at ten and twelve per cent. The very fact of their industrious ambition having already raised them half a dozen steps in the ladder of life, justifies the belief that a continued display of industrious ambition will raise them half a dozen steps more. Thus, the moral, the personal, securities of such a class of borrowers are good; but such borrowers do not come to borrow capital on personal securities – all have their little homesteads and freeholds, and it is on these that they ask to borrow £50 to £100, to enable them

CAPITAL. – INTEREST.

to buy a few acres more, or to enable them to increase their dairy, or to get a few sheep, or to improve the fences, or to build themselves a better house barn or granary, – and such men as these may safely be trusted to repay principal and interest when their bonds are due.

But it is not among small yeomen only, that capital would find a good agricultural demand. Large farmers, dairy-farmers, sheep-farmers, cattle-farmers, numbers of thriving well-to-do colonists engaged some way or other in the cultivation of the soil, would frequently like to borrow a few hundreds at ten per cent, for the profitable improvement of their young estates, or for the purpose of enabling them to take part in some of the many excellent little speculations which are always offering to a man in a young and rising colony. A dozen times during my residence in New Zealand I would gladly have paid ten or even fifteen per cent, for the use of a ready hundred or two for a few months, to have enabled me to take part in some little enterprise or temporary investment, which would have returned me thirty per cent.; and hundreds of colonists in every settlement would have done the same.

The mercantile, the retail-trading, and the mechanic interests, like the agricultural and the pastoral, are also frequent borrowers of money on short terms. In England and in most old, occupied, densely-peopled, rich countries, there is far more of capital than of profitable employment for capital; and

NEW ZEALAND LOAN COMPANY.

there, millions lie almost waste and barren, or are dissipated in catching shadows. Millions lying with the old lady in Threadneedle Street produce their owners no more than a sorry four per cent.; and blundering London, the financial El Dorado of every clever scoundrel and swindling State in Christendom, will always throw the mackerel to catch the sprat, and cheerfully pay down millions sterling for Peruvian bonds, for Russian railways, Choctaw lead mines, Diddlesex death-offices, or Royal British Banks. But in a young colony like New Zealand the exact reverse of all this is the case – there, profitable employment for capital far exceeds the amount of capital; business is brisk and steady, profits are high and certain; the young commerce of the country is in its robust childhood, and needs but the "golden food" of capital to make it grow to youth's estate and expand to manhood.

Indeed, such is the legitimate demand for capital in New Zealand; such, at last, is the safe political and industrial condition of the colony, that I do not think any more certain and profitable commercial enterprise could now be started than a "New Zealand Loan Company." If fifty shareholders with £100,000 or so (some of them going out to reside in the colony) were now to organize a Loan Company, establish an office under good management in each of the six provincial capitals, and advance money on good securities, in £50 to £500 sums, and perhaps eventually add the purchase and shipment of wool to their business,

RUSSIAN RAILWAYS.

my deliberate opinion and that of many others, is, that such company might divide a nett annual profit of full twenty per cent. And I would respectfully hint to any capitalist reader looking out for an investment, that "New Zealand Loan Company" shares would assuredly be preferable to "Russian railway" shares, – inasmuch as Russia, in all human probability (about ten years hence), will despatch every fractious British stoker in her territories to cool himself in Siberia, and will sack every penny of British capital which Russo-British stockbrokers banded with "Oily Gammon" engineers, have lured stupid Mr. Bull into lending her – so prenez garde mes enfants, and rest assured, that "La Russie recule pour mieux sauter."

DOCTORS, LAWYERS, SURVEYORS. CIVIL ENGINEERS, &c. – I do not advise any gentleman to take the field in New Zealand with any one of these professions as the only string to his bow; but, taken as a second or minor string, any one might, more or less, promote the success of his shooting. To Doctors, I may hint that though cholera, typhus and small-pox are happily unknown in New Zealand, ladies, there, are generally in that interesting condition which in new countries is so commendable. Lawyers would find great activity in the markets of real property: lands, houses and hereditaments are often changing hands; and common law, conveyancing, special pleading, and forensic weeping, are not, I fear, at all likely to become

PROFESSIONAL MEN.

"lost arts" in New Zealand. Solicitors practise as barristers, and barristers as solicitors. Any gentleman of the law going out, should carry with him his diploma authorising him to bleed the pocket; but the forensic wig he may, I think, leave with his laundress. The theodolite finds work in opening-up new districts, in laying-out new towns and villages, reserves and public sections, and also in private field practice among the agricultural settlers; and roads and bridges are beginning to call for the civil engineer. Whilst even as to the fine arts we may say, that though most New Zealand colonists would prefer the "Wool-List" to the "Stones of Venice," and though none might buy the "Scapegoat" or the Apollo Belvidere, yet that many would patronise low art, and gladly pay a guinea or two for a daguerreotype of the New Zealand baby, or for a sketch of the Home they had hewn from the Bush. Experience shows that soldiers, sailors, lawyers, doctors, surveyors, engineers &c. may all succeed in the agricultural pastoral or mercantile pursuits of New Zealand just as well as farmers, graziers, or traders; and professional civilians buying wild land and engaging in the work of creating an estate, may now and then make their guinea or two, and add a little to their incomes by occasionally practising the old profession, without neglecting that new and principal business which they are prosecuting with success.

MERCANTILE AND TRADING PURSUITS. – There is

MERCHANTS AND TRADERS.

increasing room in New Zealand for active men of business, possessing £2000 to £3000, and good mercantile connexions in London, Manchester, and Birmingham, &c. They would establish their houses in some of the rising provincial towns; have their correspondents in Sydney, Melbourne, Point de Galle, Singapore, and other neighbouring marts of commerce; buy up native and colonial produce for shipment thither; bring back sheep and agricultural stock, sugars, teas, coffees &c.; consign wool, oil, ores, flax, and European exports to their agents or partners in London, and receive back British manufactures, for home consumption, in return. Even the present export and import trade of New Zealand is far more considerable than any one would suppose it to be who might casually hear that the population of the colony was scarce 50,000 Europeans. These 50,000 pioneer colonists are mostly young, vigorous, industrious, well-to-do people, engaged, more or less, in the work of producing, and well able to purchase and consume a large amount of British manufactures. Their annual raw-produce production, and their annual consumption of imported articles, is probably double the production and consumption of any 50,000 middle-class people in the United Kingdom. But it is not only the existence of a "free-consuming" European population which creates trade in New Zealand; there are some 70,000 natives who are every year becoming better customers to the merchants; and the united exports and imports of New Zealand even in this,

SHOPS AND SHOPKEEPERS.

the rising infant state of the country, probably amount to quite a million sterling a year.

It appears to me, too, that a considerable extension of native and general business would be created and nursed up in New Zealand, if enterprising mercantile houses on the coast, were to organize a better system of internal trade by pushing-out, among the natives, – frontier "trading-posts" (under the care of active native clerks), for the sale and barter of European manufactures, clothes, groceries, stores, &C.; and the collection of flax, gum, potatoes, wheat, cured-pork, and other articles, which the natives might thus be stimulated to produce in larger quantities.

RETAIL TRADERS. – -Small shopkeepers (in colonial parlance, storekeepers) are generally far too numerous a class in all young emigrant communities. Almost every colonial village displays half a dozen flimsy little band-boxes, called "stores," where the sanguine proprietors, having chalked up their names and put a bar of soap and a frying pan in the window, may be seen seated on a cask of negrohead, ready to sell you the worst possible article at the highest possible price; and placidly smoking their short pipes in the delusive belief that they are on the high road to fortune, – whereas if they knew what was good for themselves and for the community, they would be at work in the fields producing something, if it were only an onion, a cabbage or a potato.

Any active tradesman or brisk shopkeeper, how-

BREWERIES AND MANUFACTORIES.

ever, emigrating from this country to New Zealand, would succeed in creating his little landed estate just as well as the professional man; and it might happen that, if he chose to settle in some new or rising neighbourhood, he could keep both shop and farm – wife and daughter looking to the one, son and self to the other.

MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY, &c. &c. – Various small Breweries have been established with considerable success. Every man can afford to drink good ale; and it is a drink well suited to the climate, and to the active out-door pursuits of the people. Indeed, it is not improbable that pale ale may eventually become an export to Australia, where, as in every hot English-peopled country, there is an immense consumption of malt liquor, and where both climate and soil are unfavourable to home-brewing. New Zealand is both a barley and a hop country; the climate, with its sharp cold nights, is admirably adapted both to the malting and the brewing process; and there is a profusion of the finest and softest water, with an abundance of water power for cheap machinery.

The Provision trade and curing-business have already been alluded to under the head of "Exports." Soap and candles are made on a small scale; and this business, like Tanning, will probably be much extended, as tallow and hides become more plentiful. 29 Rope and cordage

MANUFACTURES.

making for the supply of the coasting and colonial shipping, and the manufacture of wool lashing from the Phormium tenax or wild flax, is even now a small but increasing business in New Zealand; and should the bad properties of this peculiar plant (described at page 430) be ever eradicated by some ingenious Arkwright, the preparation, the manufacture, and export, of the fibre will unquestionably become important industrial pursuits, profitably employing a considerable number of growers, dressers, and manufacturers.

No cloth manufactory has yet been established. I should, however, imagine that the colonial manufacture of coarse woollen clothing, like the Australian Paramatta tweeds, might now be successfully commenced. There is now plenty of wool, and water and water power are abundant; some dyes could be grown, others are found in the native barks; 30 and colonists and natives are large consumers of coarse clothing and strong woollen fabrics. Indeed, though New Zealand's manufacturing epoch has not yet arrived, and though the legitimate business of these her early days may be to reclaim

TIMBER AND CORN TRADES, ETC.

her millions of wild acres, and to produce wheat, wool, flax, and raw materials for man's food and clothing; yet the very abundance and variety of her raw materials for manufactures, and her profuse supply of water and cheap water-driving power for machinery, all tend to show that she is likely to become a (partly) self-supplying, manufacturing, colony somewhat sooner than has been usual with British dependencies.

The Timber-trade, in connection with saw mills; and the Corn-trade, in connection with flour mills, would now be profitable businesses; and there are various localities where "building speculations" would now return large and certain profits.

WHALING. – That branch of whaling called "shore-whaling," which consisted in the killing of the black, cow-whale, by coast-boat parties, when she came in-shore with the calf – a business which once employed some hundreds of men – is now almost abandoned in New Zealand. Indeed, it was a wasteful, exterminative practice; and coast "whaling-stations" were rude embruted little communities, which New Zealand, becoming an emigration field, could well dispense with.

New Zealand, however, is still on the edge of the finest Sperm whale grounds; numbers of American whaling vessels visit her harbours to refit and exchange oil for provisions; as many as a dozen sail at a time are occasionally seen in the favourite harbour of Monganui (Doubtless

SPERM-WHALING.

Bay, in the extreme north), and there appears to be no reason why New Zealand should not, by degrees, equip a little fleet of clipper-schooners, and catch the Sperm-whale at her very doors. Auckland and Wellington would even now be quite equal to the work of building and equipping small whaling craft; there are plenty of old whaling hands cruising about the coasts; the natives make fine whaling-seamen; and New Zealand schooners would have this advantage over American ships, that they would be sailed at less expense; and living, if we may so express it, in the whaling seas, would always be close to their work, and home fishing within a week's run of their port.

If the Messrs. Enderby, letting alone that desolate wilderness the Auckland Islands, and allying themselves with the whaling forces of New Zealand, had commenced the new fishery on a small scale from a civilised port like Wellington, and had gradually nursed up their national enterprise in New Zealand, it would probably have proved a fortunate one; and if the New Zealand colonists, with the many advantages they possess, do not in a few years retake a portion of the lost British sperm whale fishery from Brother Jonathan, they will unquestionably deserve, as an old American whaling skipper once hinted to me, to attain the distinction of being a maritime people "fit only to navigate a bumboat across a duck-pond."

MECHANICS AND LABOURERS.

MECHANICAL TRADES AND HANDICRAFTS. – Carpenters, cabinet-makers, painters, glaziers, masons, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, shipwrights, millwrights, coopers, sawyers, thatchers, gardeners, saddlers, tailors, shoemakers, all sorts of farm labourers, and handy jack-of-all-trade fellows, all men who minister to first wants, are certain to succeed in New Zealand – certain if only sober and industrious, to make what, to them, would be a fortune. It is literally true that hundreds of mechanics and labourers who landed in Nero Zealand a few years ago, are now substantial freeholders, cultivating their own little estates. Two substantial New Plymouth farmers, elected to the "vestry parliament," and addressed there as "honourable member," came to New Plymouth, the one a journeyman carpenter, the other a most industrious agricultural labourer, and excellent M.P. Vestrymen they make. Indeed, every colonist could name a score instances of the gratifying rise of sober working-men; and any benevolent person knowing some industrious family of this class and inclined to help them to New Zealand, might rest perfectly satisfied that such family would prosper there; and would soon be able to repay to their benefactor every penny of the money which he might have advanced to help them out.

PREPARATION AND MANUFACTURE OF THE " PHORMIUM TENAX." (NEW ZEALAND FLAX.) In combined length and strength of raw-fibre,

THE NEW ZEALAND FLAX.

there is probably no textile plant in the whole vegetable kingdom equal to the Phormium tenax of New Zealand; but textile manufacturers might well add, that there is no plant which exhibits such perverse and exasperating features. In profusion of growth, and in possession of certain good qualities, Phormium tenax might become a New Zealand export worth two millions a year – but unfreed as it yet is from certain parasitical bad properties, it is a New Zealand export scarcely worth two thousand a year. The fibre is said to be stronger than Russian hemp; 31 but the fibre is clogged with a resinous or gummy bark which virtually destroys its commercial value; and from which, no experimental efforts, yet made, can be said, practically, to have decorticated it.

The botanical character, mode of growth, and general abundance of the plant, are described in the article in Chapter VI., and in some following notes by a Mr. Moore.

In its live, growing, state, Phormium tenax forms the New Zealand farmer's green tying-stuff; and a plant or two is generally preserved near the door or about the barn. Indeed, independently of its useful-

USES OF THE PLANT.

ness, its vigorous beauty, as an ornamental plant, should give it a place in every shrubbery or garden. The leaf (just nicked with the nail) splits up into regular smooth-edged strips of any breadth. If string be wanted, a single three-inch leaf split into a dozen strips and knotted, gives fifty feet of flat green cord, which no light strain will break; whilst if pig or sheep has to be tied, a couple of leaves, split or whole, form a cord which no pig can break. In this green state, the leaf is frequently used for make-shift girths, halters, tethers, garden-lines, measuring-tapes, thatching-cord, boot-laces, and common string; and the Natives plait it into excellent kits (large baskets) and into various straps, and tethers for their pigs and cattle. When dressed, it once formed the material for all the clothing of the native population; in this state the Natives still use it for making their fine hand-rolled cord, and fishing lines; and in this state, it has been experimentally converted into linen, canvass, and paper; 32 and now forms the flax or hemp from which a large portion of the colonial-used rope and rigging is manufactured. 33

Twenty years ago, when flax mats were the garments of the country, the Natives had to dress large quantities of the plant for their own uses; and

PHORMIUM TENAX.

the Sydney adventurers, who then conducted the rude trade of the islands, becoming acquainted with the manufacturing quality of the article, stimulated them to produce it further, as an article of trade and barter. Thus, in earlier times, every New Zealand village was occasionally busied in flax-dressing; and Phormium tenax became one of the chief exports to Sydney, and occasionally found its way, in small quantities, to the English market.

In late years, however, this trade has entirely ceased. The Native, clothed in European fabrics, no longer needs the Phormium tenax for domestic use; and the fine markets which the colonisation of the country has opened for all his garden produce, relieves him from the necessity of drudging at flax-dressing as the only mode of procuring the white man's imported luxuries. Indeed, the natives never seem to have liked the work; and I do not think that (as a people) they could now be induced to resume the preparation of the Phormium tenax, save by the offer of such a price as would make Phormium tenax almost as dear as Silk. Moreover, they are a far less numerous people than they were: many of the old flax-dressers have leapt the Reinga, the young people have not acquired that quick and dextrous manipulation which the old process demanded, the art is becoming partly a lost art – and we may rest assured, that if ever Phormium tenax be made a leading article of export or manufacture in New Zealand,

THE FLAX DIFFICULTY.

it will not again be the Natives who will supply the material.

If New Zealand is ever to have any permanent flax or hemp trade worthy of the name, it will, I think, only be, when the finest varieties of the Phormium tenax are cultivated by the farmer; and when the flax-dresser receives the green sheaves of leaves from the grower, and by machinery converts them into the textile of commerce – ready for the export-merchant or the home-manufacturer.

The farmer's work would be mere agricultural A. B. C work. Any quantity of the long or the silky varieties could be grown with as little trouble as cabbages; and could be periodically cut and carried to market with a tythe of the expense entailed by wheat or potatoes; whilst as to quality, the Natives tell us that cultivation not only much improves the fibre, but renders it much easier to dress.

Whether the flax-dresser will ever succeed in accomplishing his portion of the task; or whether, if we may so express it, he will remain stuck fast, hands and feet, in the gluey-gum of the plant, is a question which time alone can determine.

The reader will understand that the flax-dresser's "difficulty," is the cleansing of the fibre, by some cheap and wholesale process, from that resinous "barky" substance which grows with it in the leaf. Various attempts have been made to overcome this difficulty – but hitherto, with no full, or practically proved, success.

THE FLAX ARKWRIGHT.

A Mr. Robinson, an ingenious rope-manufacturer of Auckland, who exhibited a splendid coil of New Zealand rope at the "Great Exhibition" of 1851 – a Mr. Whytlaw, whose letter appears in the following page – and a Mr. Ward Trent, 34 whose twenty years' experience, and perfect acquaintance with his subject, appear to me to entitle him to be heard with great attention on the point, may be distinguished as the three practical experimentalists who have done the most to elucidate the question. But I think we are still, virtually, only on the threshold of the inquiry – and our New Zealand Arkwright is unquestionably so far the "coming man," that he has not yet come.

It seems, to me, that the subject is worthy of serious consideration. Flax or Hemp is no mere luxury which the world could do without – it is a textile staple ranking with cotton, wool, and silk – a staple which Great Britain annually imports to the amount of some £3,000,000 sterling. The Phormium tenax flax (the raw material) flourishes in the greatest luxuriance in every district of New Zealand from north to south; and, by selection and easy cultivation, could not only be inimitably increased in

IMPORTANCE OF THE QUESTION.

quantity, but considerably improved in quality. The fibre of the plant is admitted to possess intrinsic manufacturing properties of the highest value; and to be an article which, if economically freed from the one destructive peculiarity which it possesses, would at once command an extensive and lucrative sale in the British market.

Indeed, looking at New Zealand flax as a possible export which might eventually prove worth a million a year to the colony, I think the General Assembly would do well to stimulate the experimental efforts of private enterprise in the matter, by the offer of some substantial pecuniary reward. If the New Zealand government were to advertise in the "Times," a reward of £5000 to any one who would produce in New Zealand, some wholesale, commercially-workable, process which should thoroughly dress New Zealand flax up to a certain value per ton, at a certain price per ton, I fancy that many ingenious practical men might be tempted to commence experiments; and that ere long we might hope to see Phormium tenax effectually decorticated, and New Zealand in possession of a second staple export equal to the "Golden Fleece."

REMARKS ON THE FLAX PLANT BY MR. MOORE, AN OLD NEW ZEALAND COLONIST.

"Throughout New Zealand the Phormium tenax, or native flax, is indigenous and abundant. The plant is totally different from the European flax, both in appearance and texture. It grows separately, like a giant flax plant; and throws out, from a cluster of gnarled tuber-like

MODE OF GROWTH.

roots, its leaves, which spring up to an average height of five or six feet. Each full-grown plant occupies about two square yards of ground. The leaves contain the fibre: they are slightly fleshy, and are flag-shaped, of a beautiful bright green colour, with narrow dark or red edges, and are about three inches in width. There are from forty to one hundred leaves on each plant; and these are constantly renewed when cut. The graceful and regular shape, and the healthy luxuriance of the plant, make it, at all times, a most pleasing object to the gardener or botanist. The leaves are very strong and flexible, and contain about twenty-five per cent. of fibre. Each leaf will give about three-quarters of an ounce, and the whole plant five or six pounds of fibre; which, for its silk-like beauty, length, and strength, cannot, I think, be excelled.

"The plant grows in almost every part of New Zealand – on tops and sides of hills, or beside woods; but it delights most in valleys, moistened by the drainage of surrounding hills. Many hundred acres are to be seen growing in favourable districts, where the plant stands so closely and grows so high that it is with much difficulty a rider can force his horse through; while a foot passenger has to thread his way by parting the long leaves with his arms in a sort of swimming motion, or by creeping under on hands and knees.

"The best sorts of flax are the following: 35 – First in quality is the Tihori: in its wild state it grows in ground subject to the overflowing of a river, or mountain drainage. When cultivated in good soil, it is transplanted

VARIETIES OF THE PLANT.

and set in rows about four feet apart. The Natives formerly had large plantations near their villages. The fibre is much improved by cultivation, and is easier to dress. The Tihori is of moderate height, and is known by the thickness of its leaf and a red tinge on the edges. Next in quality is the Atiraukawa; next the Kuhiora; fourth, the Parakoritawa (remarkable for its length of fibre; it grows upon high land and tolerably dry soil, and was

NATIVE DRESSING.

much used by the Natives); fifth, Tuao; and sixth, Warariki. The two last are the largest, but least useful for dressing. They attain a great size, and grow by the banks of rivers or in swamps, and are mostly used by the natives and settlers as a substitute for rope, from the great length of the leaves. The fibre is neither so strong nor fine as the other four sorts, all of which are used for dressing; but the Tihori (or easy-skinned) is the best and finest variety.

"NATIVE MODE OF DRESSING FLAX. – After cutting as much as they intended dressing in a day, it was carried home bound in bundles of about thirty pounds' weight; and the leaves were divided amongst the family, every member of which formerly understood the process of cleaning it. This was done by scraping or peeling off the vegetable side from the fibre, with a mussel shell, broken at the edge to make it sharp for cutting if necessary. Before commencing to scrape the leaf, it was stripped of its outer edge, which is narrow and nearly black. This was done between the nails of the fore-finger and thumb: the flax is easily split into shreds in this manner. The bottom of the leaf was always cut off, if any of the stem had been cut with it. The shell was then applied to the top end of the leaf, about eight or ten inches from the tip, and a slight incision made across the outside of the leaf. The shell was held in the right hand; and the opposite side of the leaf to that where the incision was made across, was held lengthways over the shell, in the same manner as we hold a narrow slip of paper over the edge of a knife for the purpose of curling it. Beginning at the incision, the flax was drawn sharply through down the leaf, and this process left the fibre bare: the thick coating of vegetable matter that came off was thrown aside as useless, although this was still strong enough to tie up small articles. The leaf was then reversed, and the top part taken off in the same manner. Each leaf yielded from half an ounce to three-quarters of an ounce of fibre: what little vegetable adhered after scraping rubbed off easily when dry.

MR. WHYTLAW'S TESTIMONY.

The scraped or peeled fibre (generally tied up in little bundles) was then put into a running stream for the night; and the following day it was well shaken, and hung on a scaffolding of small poles to dry: by this process the husk easily came off. It was not exposed to the sun or rain; for the sun made it too brittle, and the latter discoloured it. It was hung under a rough cover; and three or four days were necessary for drying it. It was then fit for use, and was twisted or woven into any article required."

"The native flax of New Zealand (Phormium tenax), of which there are several varieties, has always attracted much attention from those who have visited the country, as an article which ought to form a valuable colonial export. The beautiful samples which have frequently been prepared by the manipulation of the Natives, show the great degree of fineness to which the fibre can be reduced; and its strength has been long considered as much greater than that of European flax.

"The chief, if not the only reason why it has not been more extensively used in British manufactures is, that the supplies of the raw material, as prepared by the Natives, have been extremely limited and uncertain; affording no encouragement to the parties at home disposed to use it, to alter and adapt their machinery to the peculiar character of the article.

"The mode of preparing the flax by the Natives, which has been often described, was very tedious; an expert hand not being able to produce, on an average, more than 10 lbs. weight per day: the work was chiefly done by the women. A simple and efficient method of dressing the flax by machinery has, therefore, been long felt to be a desideratum, and numerous have been the efforts to supply this. Hitherto, none of these attempts has been productive of more than mere samples. With the stronger inducements of mercantile and agricultural pursuits to realize speedier returns for capital, few have had the courage to

MR. WHYTLAW'S EVIDENCE.

persevere in their attempts to accomplish the important object. Of late, however, as the war in Europe has raised the value of flax so much, there is now greater encouragement to establish a trade in this article; and I am glad to say that one gentleman who has for some years devoted his attention to the subject, has recently brought out from England the materiel of a factory, now in process of erection at a short distance from me; and that his method of preparing the flax by machinery of his own invention (on an entirely novel principle) appears to be of the simplest and most efficient description. He expects to have his produce in the market in about a year from this date; 36 a short time, therefore, will prove whether his anticipations will be realized. If this establishment succeeds, doubtless many will follow the same course; and I do not despair of seeing this beautiful country possessing, in a short time, an export that may ultimately rival some of the most valuable of those of the neighbouring colonies.

"M. WHYTLAW.
"Auckland, I4th November, 1855."

– – – – – – – – -

"Sir, – In your wishing to have my opinion of the New Zealand flax, I can only speak of it as a manufacturer. My first acquaintance with it was in 1828. It came over then in a much cleaner state than it does now. At that time a ton could be purchased in New Zealand for a mere trifle; and great expectations were raised, that we should get a sufficient supply to compete with the Russian hemp. But as the demand increased, and the Natives became more civilized, the price not only rose much higher, but less pains were taken in its preparation. A much larger

MR. TRENT'S TESTIMONY.

portion of the gummy resinous matter was left in it, which vastly increased the difficulty of manufacturing it. Rope made from this, was found to wear out much more quickly. The reason was this – the yellow-looking bark (the resinous matter) added nothing to the strength of the rope, but increased the bulk by fifty per cent. Thus, a three-inch rope made with the flax, hackled without this bark being carefully removed, would be spongy and light – the resinous matter occupying a large space, and by constant friction soon working out, the fibres would become loose; and the rope would become soft and spongy, when wet, and dirt, alternately filling the interstices of the strands, would complete its destruction. The same quantity of flax, properly cleansed, would only make a two-inch rope; but such rope would be quite solid, and wear well to the last.

"I am convinced that New Zealand Phormium tenax, properly prepared, is equal to the best Russian hemp.

"Some while since, at a scientific meeting at the Botanical Gardens, Regent's Park, a gentleman present gave a botanical description of the Phormium tenax; and I was then invited to give some account of its value as a manufacturing article. When I sat down, a gentleman (a F.R.S.) asserted that Phormium tenax was commercially valueless, inasmuch as it broke when a knot was tied. Now I had provided myself with fibres of various textile plants, in order to illustrate any remarks I might be called on to make; and I showed that many valuable fibres broke in the same way. One specimen that I had, a very beautiful sample of plantain fibre (worth nearly £100 per ton), broke far more readily than the Phormium tenax – much to the amusement of the company and the discomfiture of my learned opponent.

"My first attempt at cleaning the New Zealand flax, from its resinous, "barky," matter, was by chemical means, such as are used in bleaching. I also tried boiling in a high pressure boiler for seventy hours, at a pressure of 60 lbs. to the inch, without producing the least effect upon it.

NEW ZEALAND FLAX.

At last I gave it up in despair; until some time after a friend, to whom I was showing some of my useless work, said, 'Why do you not attempt to clean the New Zealand flax by mechanical means?' 37 – I took the hint, and set to work. I found that experimenting with models, only, was very unsatisfactory; and that nothing could be fairly tested, without the aid of steam power. I erected an eight-horse engine; and after surmounting many difficulties, at last produced a machine that would cleanse from two to three tons per week – with the attendance of six boys, about fifteen years of age.

"I submitted samples of my prepared flax to some of the leading hemp and flax brokers of London; and received most cheering testimonials as to the value of my invention. I then procured introductions to some members of the New Zealand Company: they appeared fully alive to the importance of my invention, and desired me to prepare estimates for machinery, &c.; but unfortunately the New Zealand Company was then getting into difficulties, and the matter was suffered to drop. I offered to let Mr. J. Wakefield see a ton cleansed, and to take notes of every expense; but he honourably declined seeing the process – as the New Zealand Company could not entertain it in their then position.

"Some time after this (I think in the early part of 1854) an offer appeared in the Society of Arts Journal of the magnificent sum of £50 to any one who would invent a machine to clean the New Zealand flax, in a marketable state; and several hundredweights of the raw material were sent me to be experimented upon: one could

MR. Trent's invention.

scarcely avoid laughing at the simplicity of the offer. In our manufacturing districts, it is no uncommon thing for a private firm to give £30,000 for a patent or to spend £10,000 in merely improving a machine.

"As yet, I have obtained very little by my invention, for it is far more adapted to be worked ia New Zealand than here. After my case of 'flax specimens' was seen at the Great Exhibition, I was involved in no end of correspondence, and applications were made to me for small samples – which I think I have given away to the extent of nearly two hundredweight. This case is now at Kensington Palace (No. 41), and can be seen by any one applying; but it will be removed to the new building when the new building is finished.

"Several parcels of New Zealand flax have appeared in the London market, of late, prepared in New Zealand from the whole leaf by some newly-invented process. These parcels, however, are really rubbish; and no practical man would have sent them over. The stuff was more like split cane or rushes, than the old native prepared flax. The price it sold at, did not, I fancy, do more than clear the freight.

"The only valuable part of the leaf is the bright side: and the sagacity of the Natives led them to discover that making an incision across the leaf, and peeling this off, as it were, was the only means of getting a really good fine fibre – throwing the rest away. My machine is designed to get rid of the bark-like substance (left on by the Natives) and to hackle at the same time – thus effecting a double operation (cleaning and hackling); and effecting a saving of £5 per ton (English wages) for hackling alone. The Government of New Zealand should do as the British Government has done for years for the Irish Flax Society: allow £1000 per annum for the encouragement of the growth and improvement of flax.

"The great importance of a regular supply of hemp and flax for this country may be gathered from the fact of our having imported into the United Kingdom, in 1858,

PHORMIUM TENAX.

upwards of three millions of hundredweights of the above articles (worth more than as many pounds sterling); the greater portion of which came from Russia.

"I am, dear Sir,
"Yours truly,
"E. WARD TRENT. 38
"Park Hemp Works, Old Ford,
"Bow, near London."
"Mr. CHARLES HURSTHOUSE,
"Ramsgate."

29 The bark of the Rimu (Red Pine) one of the commonest trees, possesses good tanning properties.

30 The following are the principal dye-woods: –
1. Tanekaha, – a black dye from the wood and bark.
2. Hinau, – a black dye do.
3. Tupakihi, – a black dye do.
4. Tuhuhi, – a blue-black dye do.
5. Mako, – a blue-black dye do.
6. Whakou, – a blue dye do.
N.B. – The two best dyes for domestic purposes are the Mako and the Whakou.

31 Mons. Labillar, a gentleman who has instituted many-careful experiments on the comparative strength of various vegetable fibres, gives the following results: –
Agane Americana .... 7
Flax....... 12
Russian Hemp..... 17
Phormium Tenax..... 23
Silk....... 24

32 The late Dr. Murray, the chemical lecturer, published an interesting pamphlet on the remarkable adaptability of the Phormium tenax, for the manufacture of paper.

33 "New Zealand cordage is competing with the European, on our home markets; and for running rigging it is now greatly preferred." – Late Auckland Price Current.

34 Mr. Ward Trent (a Member of the Society of Arts) has been a rope and line manufacturer for upwards Of twenty years – both by the old system of hand-spinning, and by the new machinery, in which latter he has made various improvements. He is, I think, too, the inventor of some simple machinery for utilising the long fibre of the cocoa husk; and has been despatched to Russia, France, Germany and even to America, on the subject of improvements in flax and hemp-dressing!

35 Some confusion exists as to the actual number of the distinct varieties or sub-varieties of the Phormium tenax, owing to the difference of local names. One variety of apple in England may have three or four names in different counties; and the same confusion exists as to New Zealand flax. In the following list "Tihori" is used as a name indicating five varieties of fine flax, and not as the name of a distinct variety.

I am inclined to think that there are not more than four varieties which would be found to possess any great manufacturing differences.

NEW ZEALAND FLAX.
{Species arranged in order of fineness)
I. FLAX. – Scraped with the nail only. – (TIHORI.)
1. Paritanewha, found chiefly at Maungatautari.
2. Ratawa, found chiefly at Hauraki.
3. Kohunga, found chiefly at Maungatautari.
4. Rerehape, found chiefly at Maungatautari.
5. One, found chiefly at Maungatautari.

II. FLAX. – Scraped with the shell. – (Haro.)
6. Raumoa, found chiefly at Taranaki.
7. Ate, found chiefly at Hauraki.
8. Common swamp flax found in all parts.

III. Coarser kinds, used only for rough garments and floor mats.
9. Aoanga. Variegated flax.
10. Wharariki.

All the varieties of flax of the first class must be planted.

They require rich, moist, and flat land, but not swampy, and should be planted in rows five feet apart, with spaces of five feet between the plants. The ground must be kept clear of weeds. The best season for planting is April or May. The plants will be fit to cut in two years, and will yield a crop every year afterwards.

36 I have seen no notice in the colonial papers as to the result of this experiment: a process which, I think, Mr. Whytlaw himself invented, was not, I believe, found to answer, commercially.

37 The reader will remark that the old native mode of dressing described by Mr. Moore (and no process yet tried has produced fibre at all equal to the native best dressed) is chiefly a mechanical mode. It should be remarked, however, that Mr. Moore speaks of steeping in water only for the night (page 439), whereas in some parts of the island it was steeped for 3 days or 4 days.

38 I believe Mr. Trent is prepared to receive communications respecting the sale or disposal of his invention.

Since this article went to press, New Zealand Journals have reached the author giving an account of some enquiries which certain French manufacturers have addressed to the Baron de Thierry (an old French colonist in New Zealand) on the subject of the Phormium tenax.

CHAPTER XV. OUTFIT. – PACKING...

OUTFIT.

CHAPTER XV.

OUTFIT. – PACKING. – SERVANTS AND LABOUR-HELP. – MONEY. – INTRODUCTIONS. – LIFE ASSURANCE.

WHEN once we have resolved to better our fortunes in some new land, the most important question for us to settle is – what to carry with us? And among the many moot points which may arise to perplex the emigrant between the first conception of the great step and its actual accomplishment, none, probably, will perplex him more than the question of Outfit: one friend recommends him to provide everything, from house and mangle down to rolling pin – another, to land with little more than a walking-stick and a wallet.

Having occasionally discussed outfitting experiences with emigrant neighbours in the colony, and had to lament the bringing of one thing, the not bringing of another; having superintended the outfitting preparations of some dozen emigrant relatives; and having now outfitted three several times myself, I think I may say that I have purchased that practical experience in the matter,

THE OUTFIT-MAZE.

which may enable me to guide the tyro tolerably well through what has been, not inaptly, called the "Outfit-maze."

The emigrationary reader will please to understand, that the, various articles of the respective lists are those which I regard as the "happy mean" for the majority of our middle-class Emigrants: any one who regards his own as a peculiar, or as an exceptional case, can of course alter the list – -and take fewer things, more things, or different things.

For the sake of perspicuity we will treat Outfit under two heads: domestic and clothing outfit; and miscellaneous outfit. The taking of what we may term "speculative outfit," viz., any articles for sale (where, for instance, the emigrant may be in some business, and have certain stock-in-trade on hand) depends so much on the character of the articles, and on the peculiar views and circumstances of the individual, that it is a question on which no general, sound, advice can possibly be given: here, I can only say that if such question should happen to arise with any of my readers, I should be happy, if I am still in the country, to fulfil the offer made at page 8, in the Introductory Remarks.

DOMESTIC OUTFIT.

HOUSE-FURNITURE, AND FITTINGS. – When a family is about to emigrate, they generally call in the auctioneer, and bring the whole furnishing of

TAKING FURNITURE.

the house to the hammer. This, in New Zealand emigration, is a costly error: articles are sold for two-thirds less than their value, and similar but bad articles will eventually be bought in the colony at two-thirds more than their value. We do not go to New Zealand to live under a tree, or to eat out of a tub; and some little furnishing and adornment of a home is just as essential there, as here. The sight of an old article of furniture – a piano, a book, a picture – lends a homely charm to the new bouse in the new land which is actually profitable. If my hints are taken, the mere trouble of packing-up and taking a few of our best things, our Lares and Penates, is not worth naming; whilst as to the expense, the expense is a mere "item of outlay," which will make us an ample pecuniary return. A New Zealand emigrant family, in taking out a few articles of the furniture and fittings of their house, would take them not to sell but to use – but if, foolishly, they chose to sell them, they would find plenty of buyers. The cause and reason of this is plain. The pioneer colonists, who led the way to New Zealand, took little with them but willing hands and stout hearts; most of these people are now in easy circumstances – building good houses, smartening-up their homes, making themselves comfortable – and little articles of parlour furniture, little ornamental nick-nacks, &c, &c, are the very things they often want, but cannot get. Such things do not enter into the common category of commercial shipments;

HOUSEHOLD OUTFIT.

whilst to get many of them made in the colony is impossible. There is the demand, the non-supply, and the common consequence – the high price. A relative of mine received fifty acres of fine land for an old piano; for Landseer's "Challenge," I was once offered more than the reader would believe; the arrival of a handsome cheffonier, a turkey carpet, a new bonnet or baby-cap, would excite every Settler's lady for a week; and if it came to be a question of "selling," I believe that every article named below – freight and charges added – would fetch, if sold in the colony, quite 100 per cent, more than it would fetch if sold at home.

I would advise any family breaking up a small household, and going to land in New Zealand with a little capital of a few hundred pounds, to select and take with them the following articles: – Their plate, and their best cutlery, glass, earthenware) cooking utensils, and table linen; a best table, set of chairs, drawers or cheffonier; a best carpet and one or two hearth-rugs, window curtains, fender and irons, and mirror (or two); together with a small selection of the best books, prints, chimney ornaments, and nick-nacks. Drowsy matrimonial four-posters give place, in Zealandia, to elastic iron bedsteads and hair mattresses – but ladies can take the feather beds if they prefer, and will of course not forget the blankets; and if they happen to have a good cottage cabinet piano, that might be taken, too.

PACKING.

Of course any bachelor emigrant going out to live with some colonist, and gain a year's experience before commencing for himself, would not require this "domestic outfit;" and would only take the wardrobe, together with any of the little articles he might fancy in the miscellaneous list.

PACKING. – A freight (measurement) ton, is any case or package cubing 40 feet; and this measurement is got at, simply by multiplying the length of the case by its height and then by its breadth: thus, a case 4 1/2 feet long, 3 feet high, and 3 feet broad, would measure a fraction more than a ton:. 4 1/2 x 3 = 13 1/2 x 3 = 40 1/2 cubic feet. One case, about this size, would take six chairs (in couples, reversed) with some of the small articles. A second case, somewhat larger, but differently shaped, would take the table and (underneath) many more small articles; and a third (zinc-lined) ton case (shaped as might best suit) would generally hold the remainder of all the smaller and most valuable house-things, together with such best articles of wardrobe (dress-coats, silks, and satins), which would not be needed on the voyage. These three cases are best made of good red, unplaned, one-inch deal board, well nailed and battened (not dove-tailed); and the third, or "safe case," should invariably be zinc-lined and carefully soldered, airtight. Small drawers may generally be taken in a chief cabin; but of course if a piano or cheffonier

PACKING AND SHIPPING.

be taken, a fourth ton or ton-and-a-half case would be needed. In packing, it will be found advisable to keep all the cases as small as possible; for a one-ton case is moved about, shipped, unshipped, landed, and carted-off in New Zealand, far more easily than a three-ton case. Casks are exceedingly useful about a colonial farm-house: cut in two, they form washing-tubs, pickle-tubs, or seed-tubs; and any extra small articles of the Outfit may be advantageously packed in one or two good barrels. Generally speaking, the family emigrant might calculate that this domestic outfit would require three to five cases, measuring four to seven tons, and costing altogether (making, land-carriage, and freight) about £50. Any handy journeyman carpenter could knock up the cases, and advise and assist in the packing; and the whole job (all hands helping) might easily be finished-off in a week.

SHIPPING THE OUTFIT. – If it be a country family proceeding out, say, for instance, by one of Messrs. Willis' liners, the easiest mode of shipping is this: – Have the owner's address, the place of destination, and the name of ship, distinctly painted on each case; then nail on a card bearing "Care of Messrs. Willis, Gann and Co., 3, Crosby Square, London," and send the things up by rail to such address, with a letter of advice. They then go to the docks, and are put on board in regular course; and the land carriage, and the dock charges

CLOTHING OUTFIT.

are paid for,on settling for the passage-money. All country cases should be sent up as early as possible. Emigrants' goods, very properly, have place before mere trade shipments; but the latter often come to the docks in such quantity, that when country cases do not make their appearance until the last moment, some risk is run of their being unavoidably shut out and left for the next ship.

WARDROBE. – The emigrationary reader will observe that the following list is not what he need buy new – but what he should possess altogether. For instance, if the old wardrobe contained half a dozen good white shirts, he would buy only half a dozen new ones; whilst if there were any outer clothing not exactly of the character described, but still good or serviceable, he would save his money and make it do. Most men, dictated to by wives, mothers, sisters or sweethearts, are made to provide about three times as much clothing as is necessary, and will outfit as if they were going, first to Central Africa, and afterwards to the North Pole. I have seen men not ashamed to land in New Zealand with clothing baggage sufficient to set up a little shop. The feminine idea seems to be that the two gross and a half of shirts and flannels are necessary for the voyage. Now in these days, seventeen weeks is a long passage (my last trip in Messrs/Willis' "Joseph Fletcher," was made in about twelve weeks); the average run is not more than 100 days; and owing partly to the purity of the sea

CHEAP SHOPS.

air, partly to there being no work done on the voyage (no violent perspirations), linen may be worn at sea nearly twice as long as on land; and three ship-washable blue shirts a week, are ample for any man who is fit for a colonist.

With this list before him, pencil in hand, and wife or sister at his elbow (under strict subjection), ten minutes should enable any emigrant reader to tick-off the quantity of new things to be bought; whilst as to the quality of what he buys, I would observe that whilst "cheap shops" are a curse to any community where they exist, they are fatal to emigrants: every single article of a colonist's outfit, from his wife's slippers up to a steam-thrashing mill, cannot be too plain and simple in mere fashion, but cannot be too good in quality of material and excellence of workmanship.

LIST.

Rough estimate.
£ s. d.

1 Dozen best white shirts, at 6s. 6d.

3 18 0

1   "    "  coloured ditto, at 4s. 6d.

2 14 0

2   "  worsted and merino socks, at 1s. 6d

1 16 0

1   "  pocket handkerchiefs, at 4s. 6d. .

2 14 0

1   "  coarse towels

0 12 0

1/2   "  pair gloves, mixed, cloth and kid

0 15 0

2 or 3 Felt hats, a warm south-wester, and blue cloth cap – one or two will blow overboard – chimney-pot hats are not worn in New Zealand

1 0 0

Carried forward

13 9 0

NEW ZEALAND WARDROBE.

Rough estimate.
£ s. d.

Brought forward

13 9 0

2 Pairs Wellington boots, one pair to be dress boots, and the other stout, waterproof, cork-soled, made loose and easy for thick stockings, and slightly nailed for keeping the wet and slippery decks

3 0 0

4 Pairs stout nailed highlows (the Highland grouse boot is a capital sort)

3 0 0

1 Good warm overcoat, a regular rough-and-ready dreadnought, with plenty of inner and outer flap pockets

3 0 0

1 Light mackintosh, or waterproof light overcoat

1 10 0

1 Dress suit for "state" occasions: occasionally dining with the Governor and waltzing with his daughters, &c.

6 0 0

1 Blue frock coat and fancy vest for common dress wear

4 0 0

1 Scotch tweed shooting coat and waistcoat

2 10 0

2 Best blue frock serge shirts; these sent to the tailor, the collar silk lined (if for a dandy), gilt buttons, edged with braid, a breast pocket and two front skirt pockets put in, make loose, light, cool, and warm garments, admirably adapted for bush wear

1 0 0

6 Pairs of trousers, 2 shepherd's plaid tweed, 2 navy duck, and 2 best corduroy or fustian, made loose and easy

4 10 0

1 Waist belt

0 5 0

42 4 0

Deduct half as the proportion which the emigrant's common wardrobe would generally supply

21 2 0

Balance to buy

£21 2 0

LADIES' OUTFIT.

Hair mattresses, if beds are not taken, according to number and requirements of the family; and if flannel is worn, some flannel or merino shirts must be added to the white and coloured.

LADIES' OUTFIT. – Mr. Earp 39 in his "New Zealand Hand-Book," with a boldness bordering on temerity, grapples even with the slippery subject of a lady's outfit; and with a circumstantiality almost affecting, goes deeply into the details of cambric trousers, horse-hair petticoats, night caps, and violet powder. As a benighted bachelor, I do not venture to follow so brilliant, I fear so useless, an example. I apprehend that the compilation and explanation of a lady's outfit might task the powers of even the learned author of "Things Little Known;" and the labour, for all practical purposes, would probably be quite a nullity when accomplished. The notions of the sex on this point are somewhat discursive and independent. One despotic woman, taking out her husband, insisted that 285 towels and a large Newfoundland dog were necessaries; whilst another fair friend sketched an outfit of muslins, bonnets, baby caps, &c, which was computed to measure two tons and a quarter extra freight. Here, under correction, I should fancy-that the best course which any emigrationary Pater Familias could adopt, would be to ask his wife and daughters to write down the least they must

MISCELLANEOUS OUTFIT.

have, and then to buy them scarcely half: hinting that beauty unadorned is adorned the most; and that natural, not artificial, roses are worn in the new Land he will lead them to.

In providing such outer clothing portion of this wardrobe as dress suit and boots, I should prefer going to my own regular tailor or bootmaker. But all other articles, such as new shirts and inner clothing, and the various small matters, &c, &c, are best obtained at some respectable outfitter's practically acquainted with the New Zealand trade, and familiar with our various little emigrationary fashions and equipments; and I know no better Houses to name for this purpose than Messrs. Goy and Evans, 24 and 25, Cornhill; Messrs. Monnery and Co., 165, Fenchurch Street; and Messrs. Lack and Co., 90, Strand; – three establishments which do a large New Zealand and Australian outfitting business; and where, speaking from personal experience, I have found the quality of the articles to be excellent and well adapted for Colonial wear and use.

MISCELLANEOUS OUTFIT. – If, having a few hundred pounds, I were now going to New Zealand with the intention of purchasing land, building a house and creating a little estate, I should take all the articles in list A; and some in list B; and if I possessed a larger capital, I should take almost every article in both A and B.

HARDWARE ARTICLES.

A.

Rough estimated cost. 1
£ s. d.

House and In-door. – 1 front and 4 inner doors, 4 to 6 long casement sashes ready glazed, and box of glass, £5 worth of 9 and 3-inch nails, spikes, door and gate hinges, bolts, locks, pegs, and Norfolk latches, &c.

15 0 0

Largest size cooking range, with extra crook piping to save a chimney, and cooking apparatus

6 0 0

2 or 3 large iron crocs

1 10 0

Meat-saw, chopper, butcher's knife and steel-steelyards, meat-safe, and 2 or 3 wire meat, covers

3 0 0

House brushes, pails, scales, filter, bull's-eye and stable lantern

3 0 0

New American "floating-ball" washing machine

3 0 0

Iron bedsteads according to size of family

5 0 0

American churn and dairy utensils

5 0 0

Out-door. – 2 or 3 best American axes, with extra handles, and a mortice axe

1 0 0

2 or 3 Welsh billhooks and grindstone

1 0 0

Set of steel splitting wedges, timber chain, and dogs, crowbar, and screw wrench

3 0 0

Measuring tape and chain, and set of pulleys, blocks, and rope

3 0 0

Set of common garden tools, a large tarpauling, and dozen sacks

7 0 0

£56 0 0

1   The rough cost of the items is given in order to supply the Emigrant Reader with data for calculating the entire cost of the "emigration movement." It is believed the prices will be found nearly correct – but they do not profess to be the exact shillings and pence.

MISCELLANEOUS OUTFIT.

B.

B.

£..s..d..

Second-hand light double gun – with oil-skin pocket-cover for wet bush travelling; bag of No. 4 shot; 2 lbs. best powder; 2 boxes best caps; extra nipples; belt, flask, and cleaning apparatus

10 0 0

Small field telescope: useful in discovering sheep and cattle, and in bush travelling

2 0 0

Good saddle [fitted with strong saddle-bags, and with rings before and behind for blanket straps) and a double bridle. (A side-saddle, if there be a lady.)

6 0 0

Best cork or air swimming-belt 2

1 0 0

Gutta percha fluid-holding articles, &c.

2 0 0

Lift pump, with suction pipe

6 0 0

Brewing and washing copper in iron frame with chimney

Hopwood's mangle, and clothes lines, &c.

8 0 0

Strong dog cart and harness. The dog cart is by far the best style of colonial carriage; carrying butter, poultry, and small produce to market, wheat to mill, and family to church

30 0 0

Corrugated metal verandah roofing and iron rod framing, say

20 0 0

A good peach-and-rose-covered verandah is both a great ornament and a great protection and improvement to a New Zealand cottage. The common roofing is shingle or thatch – as the former cannot be curved, it has an ugly "lean-to" look; and the latter, though pretty, harbours dirt and insects. Emigrants have frequently taken out the house and built the verandah – it would always be far better to take out the verandah and to build the house.

The Union Jack and St. George's Cross, with gear for a flag-staff . .say

3 0 0

2   An air swimming-belt might sometimes prove useful in bush travelling, see page 251. But inflated air-belts require careful handling; a pin scratch may destroy them; and for all qualities, save portability, the cork is the best.

MISCELLANEOUS OUTFIT.

A flag-staff with vane and rattling ladder, planted on some little eminence near the cottage, makes a good look-out; and the flags, run up on Sundays, high days, and holidays, and fluttering in the breeze amid the beautiful foliage, are a sight worth money.

Of course if any of the items in A or B were supplied by the old domestic outfit, they would not have to be bought. Such emigrant families as we allude to in paragraph 8, would require in their own establishments all the A articles, and might profitably use many of the B; but if, owing to any change of plans on arrival, they preferred selling any portion of this miscellaneous outfit, they would, I think, have no difficulty in realising a nett profit of at least £25 per cent, on all the articles – that is, provided they had been well bought and properly selected.

This Miscellaneous Outfit cannot, I think, be obtained better than at Messrs. Richards, Twallin and Co.'s, 117 and 118, Bishopsgate Street, London. This is one of those old experienced wholesale houses in the colonial trade where the peculiar sorts, makes and shapes of Australian and New Zealand articles are practically understood; and where packing (close packing to save freight and safe packing to avoid breakage) is found to be much better executed than it is at the common run of country shops, where little or no practical experience has been gained in this important process.

Messrs. Richards and Co. also receive and pack with their own things (free of expense), any other outfit articles which may be sent to their care: an

TAKING MONEY.

arrangement which frequently saves much trouble in doing away with that cumbersome multiplicity of little packages and parcels which family emigrants in particular find so troublesome to look after in London, and to land with in the colony. Printed priced catalogues are forwarded to any quarter by post. 40

– – – – – – – – –

TAKING MONEY. – Emigrants have three modes of taking out their money-capital. The Union Bank of Australia (38, Old Broad Street, London) has branches at Auckland, Wellington, Nelson and Canterbury, on which it now grants letters of credit at par: that is, on paying £100 sterling, or any larger sum, to the parent bank in London, the Payee gets a "duplicate letter

TAKING MONEY.

of credit" entitling him to receive £100 sterling on the branch bank in New Zealand. 41

2. The second mode is to ship sovereigns in a little box or bag as "special freight" in the ship, to take a bill of lading, and to insure the amount. The freight and insurance together is about £2 per cent.; and on production of the bill of lading, on arrival, the passenger at once receives back his sovereigns from the commander of the vessel.

3. The third mode is simply to put up the gold (little sealed packages, "Rouleaux," ten sovereigns in each, is a handy mode of doing-up gold), stow it away in the private cabin or sleeping berth, and to run one's own risk.

All these modes are virtually safe and secure; and little cash capitals of from £50 to £200 may be taken out by any one of them.

When, however, the amount is larger, I should deem it more prudent to avail myself of each mode; and assuming the sum were £1000, would take £400 in letter of credit, 400 sovereigns as insured "special freight," and 200 sovereigns in my private desk.

LETTERS OF INTRODUCTION.

No bank notes of any description should ever be taken. They are not current: an unexceptional £10 Bank of England note, which I once happened to possess there, laid by me several months before I found an opportunity of getting rid of it.

These remarks on the modes of taking out capital may, I think, be fitly ended by the following passage from Messrs. Willis and Gann's "New Zealand Circular."

"The prudence and even the necessity, on the part of the emigrant, of husbanding his capital till his arrival, must be apparent to every one who regards the colony as the field of future exertion. Money, in a colony, gives the Emigrant both power and consideration; and by landing with as much of it in his pocket, as a careful avoidance of previous unnecessary expenditure will enable him to do, he at once gains a standing and position which, otherwise, he would have to work up to by degrees."

The truth of this I would corroborate by saying that, the moment a family decide to improve their fortunes in New Zealand, they should commence to count every sovereign they can carry with them as worth forty shillings.

TAKING LETTERS OF INTRODUCTION. – Good (open) letters of introduction are useful; but no one need trouble himself to obtain them, and any one may go without them. The real use of "introductions," however, is generally misunderstood: no letter of introduction will help me to get on in New Zealand – my head, hands or purse will ensure all that; and I want no

TAKING SERVANTS.

man to push me even a single round up the ladder of New Zealand life. But if I am going to land a perfect stranger in a new country, and though I may soon make "troops of friends there," yet 'tis pleasant at once to be made known to two or three good colonists to whom letters have introduced me. These people won't pay for the land I may buy, they won't give me bed and board, or get me made superintendent of a province, beadle, policeman, or provincial attorney. But if I am a decent sort of fellow, they will ask me to take pot luck, now and then, or an evening pipe; and will tell me a dozen little things most useful to know in my first work of "settling down."

Wherever, therefore, "introductory letters" can be obtained without any, or much trouble, I would advise a man to take them. They occupy no room as freight; and if, on arrival, the party to whom the letter was addressed, should appear to be a person not worth knowing, the bearer would toss the note into the fire and no one would be the worse for the burning.

TAKING SERVANTS. – An emigrant family would now generally do well to take out a useful general servant or two, or something in the shape of "labour help." The common cry raised against the taking of such portion of an emigrationary outfit and equipment as this, is – 0! when arrived, your "help" is free and saucy, and leaves you in a month minus the £20 you paid for the passage-

CHOOSING SERVANTS.

money. This cry, like many others, borders on the bray. If, as the head of an emigrant family, I say to some man and maid-of-all-work, come with me to New Zealand, and I will give you, John, £20 a year, and you, Mary, £10 a year; and if on arrival, my "helps" find that every other John and Mary are getting double these wages, and, if I will give no more than I bargained to give, of course they leave me – and serve me right, too. But if among my country friends, or among some old retainers or servants of my family, I choose to devote a week to the task of finding up some pattern John or Mary, and say, Come with me, and on arrival I will give you the wages which we find common there, and half thereof shall be deducted till the passage-money is repaid, it is reasonably certain, that my "help" will pay me every penny of the cost of getting him or her out, and will stay with me not for ever, but quite long enough to be of considerable use to me during the busy first year or so of my "settling down." 42

EMIGRANT SERVANTS.

In making choice of any sort of "help," the reader should bear in mind that it is more important to choose an honest, useful, sort of person, than any very quick, clever or dexterous person. Labour is so much wanted with us, there is so much to do, so few to do it, that the almost finical finish bestowed in England on half the common operations of life, is not demanded in New Zealand; and the best man there is not the man who can do one thing thoroughly well, but the man who can do six things middling well. The best sort of female servant is the country maid of all work: one who would do a little in the dairy, a little in the kitchen, and a little on the washing day.

These remarks apply chiefly to emigrant families with capitals of from £500 to £1000, who, going out to buy land and gradually create little estates, would fain strengthen their own "labour forces" by the addition of some stout farm servant, some handy Jack of all trades, or useful Maid of all work. But in discussing the question of the capitalist emigrant carrying out labour with him, I think we might extend our view of the subject beyond this mere domestic, hired-service limit, and ask whether labour could not occasionally be taken out in

LABOUR-PARTNERSHIPS.

advantageous partnership-alliance with capital: whether for instance "B," a single or young married emigrant, with a £1000, could not advantageously take C, a picked first-class married labourer with a couple of stout sons and daughters, as an emigration partner? Let us suppose a case. Let us assume that "C's" steerage passage and outfit to New Zealand cost £200; that 400 acres of wild land were bought for £300; that the erection of two neat cottages on the land, the purchase of agricultural implements and stock, and the advance of £50 to £100 to C (for living on till the first tilled acres produced something), amount to £500 more; and that thus, B's gross outlay on what we may term the raw plant of the Partnership were £1000. Taking £25 per cent. 43 as a fair rate of interest on this sum, B's annual contribution to the cultivation and creation of the estate would be £250 in capital; C's and his family's daily labour on the land and in the dairy, &c. (recollecting that he and his are energetically working for themselves as partners) would be an annual contribution to the cultivation and creation of the estate of about £250 in labour. The annual profits of the farm estate would then be equally divided between B and C; and whenever a dissolution of partnership occurred, the property would be sold; and after B

LABOUR PARTNERSHIPS.

had received back the £1000 he had originally invested in the "raw plant," the balance of the proceeds would be equally divided between himself and C.

These figures, though pretty correct I think, are mere rough figures taken to illustrate my idea of "Emigration-partnerships" of Capital and Labour. The principle of the idea is of course applicable to an enterprise of any (moderate) magnitude: the capital might be £1500, the land 500 acres, and the labour, a labourer's family counting seven pairs of working hands – or the capital might be only £500; the land 200 acres; and the labour, merely a labourer and his wife.

"The key-stone" of the success of such partnerships would lie in the personal character and qualifications of the labourer and his family. Now I do not imagine that the labourer of Burns' "Cottar's Saturday Night," was a very common village ornament either in Burns' day or in any other day; but so far as my experience of rural life in England goes, I should nevertheless say that in almost every village, there is to be found some clever agricultural labourer standing out, as it were, from his fellows; a man who has borne a local reputation for industry and honesty for years; and a man whom, in all ways, I should infinitely prefer as a partner in the work of creating an estate from, the New Zealand bush, to thousands of my social equals or superiors.

One of the strongest desires of civilised human

FIRE AND LIFE INSURANCE.

nature is to possess land – -this desire is particularly strong in the English emigrant labourer; and if I only secured a good foundation, by making a good selection of my labour-partner, I should calculate that one of my duties in the gradual creation of the joint estate would be not the duty of stimulating my partner and his family to work, but rather the duty of checking them from working too hard – for they would know that every blow they struck was for themselves; that half the dairy, half the harvest, half the fleece was theirs; and that every second acre they tore from the wilderness, and conquered by the plough, was their own well-earned prize. Such a family would not be idlers, and such a family might well illustrate Old Fuller's quaint apophthegm, that "the good Yeoman is a gentleman in ore, whom the next generation may see refined."

FIRE AND LIFE INSURANCE. – The Liverpool and London Fire and Life Insurance (37, Castle Street, Liverpool; 20, Poultry, London) and the Imperial Fire Insurance Company (3, Old Broad Street, London) have established branches in the principal New Zealand settlements.

39 This gentleman, an old New Zealand colonist, apparently familiar both with Crinoline and Canvas, has lately ventured on editing Sir Charles Napier's "Baltic – – – -."

40 It is only justice to this House to add that some articles which they supplied me with on my late visit to New Zealand were excellent in quality; whilst the following testimony which I find in their Circular, would show that they stood as high in the emigrant world twenty years ago.

"The articles of the above patterns may be seen and bought at Messrs. Richards and Co.'s; and observe generally that it is necessary to be very particular as to the description, sizes, and quality of ironmongery; what you want, therefore, should be procured of a person who well knows the market; if the things are not the patterns in use, they will not even be looked at much less purchased." – Widdowson on Van Diemen's Land.

"I bought my ironmongery of Messrs. Richards and Co., 117, Bishopsgate Street, Within, and upon comparison of invoices with some of my friends in the colony, I found I had been well used, and the quality of things furnished me was excellent: they have been for years in the Australian trade, and understand the kind of articles required in these colonies." – Gougers South Australia.

41 Branches will probably be established ere long at New Plymouth and Otago. Meanwhile, any emigrant proceeding to New Plymouth, and desiring to take out some of his capital through the Union Bank, should procure the letter of credit on the Auckland Branch, as several of the New Plymouth people keep banking accounts there, and would cash the letter of credit either at par, or at a small premium. Otago emigrants should procure the letter on Canterbury, or on Wellington.

42 For the benefit of any lady readers, the mistresses of emigrant families, I may here add a little domestic note. My sister took out an excellent London servant with her, called "Irish Hannah," chiefly to assist in slapping the children and keeping things neat on board. Hannah's passage was, I think, given to her, and she remained about two years in service, when she married a substantial yeoman, a man who had come to New Zealand an agricultural labourer. I have heard my sister say, however, that this "help" was of such great help to her in the work of "settling down," moving on to the land and getting things in order, that it was cheap help after all; and that she should advise every lady, especially the mother of a young family, to bring out some good general servant, even if it were calculated that such servant would not remain in her place more than a year. Before dismissing Irish Hannah, it may be added, that she remains a most grateful little friend to the family; makes picnics for the children, ensnares Miss Nora in the village with lollipops and cream; and has sent home £50, and had out her father and a relative to share in her improved fortunes.

43 Counting B's occasional light labour help in the field, his general superintendence of the joint estate, book-keeping, &c, and recollecting that the common rate of interest on money is £10 and £15 per cent., this would not be too much.

CHAPTER XVI. SHIPS AND PASSAGE MATTERS.

GETTING TO NEW ZEALAND.

CHAPTER XVI.

SHIPS AND PASSAGE MATTERS.

THERE are now four indirect and direct modes of reaching New Zealand: –

1. The European and Australian Royal Mail Company's Steamers via Malta, Alexandria, Suez, Point de Galle, and Melbourne.

2. The regular Australian sailing vessels and screw steamers by the Cape of Good Hope to Sydney and Melbourne.

3. The transient merchant vessels from London and Liverpool by the Cape of Good Hope direct to New Zealand.

4. The regular emigration lines of packet vessels sailing from London [round the Cape of Good Hope 44) direct to the various ports of New Zealand.

THE EUROPEAN AND AUSTRALIAN ROYAL MAIL COMPANY.

AGENCIES. 45

Glasgow: 33, Renfield Street.
London: 12, St. Helen's Place.
Liverpool: Messrs. D. and C. MacIver.
Southampton: Messrs. D. and C. MacIver.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE.

THE FLEET.

Tonnage.

Horsepower.

Etna, between Southampton and Alexandria

2220

530

Jura, ditto

2240

530

Cambria, between Marseilles and Malta

1450

500

Australasian, between Suez and Sydney

2800

750

Tasmanian, ditto

2320

550

Asian, ditto

2320

550

Columbian, ditto

2300

530

European, ditto

2380

530

Oneida, ditto

2400

550

Simla, ditto

2440

630

This Company is under contract with the Government to carry the mails monthly between Southampton and Melbourne in 54 days. Their annual bonus for the service is £185,000; and the penalties for delay or over-time, are £50 for the first day, £100 for the second, £150 for the third, and so on.

The outward steamer leaves Southampton the 12th of each month, and the homeward one leaves Melbourne the 15th of each month.

The route is this: the vessels, starting from Liverpool, call first at Southampton, then proceed direct to Malta, and then from Malta to Alexandria. Here the passengers are disembarked, and carried on by rail to Cairo, and thence in carriages across the desert (80 miles) to Suez, where the Melbourne steamer is waiting. Here passengers re-embark, and the steamer proceeds down the Red Sea to Aden, then to Point de Galle in Ceylon, and then direct across the Indian and Austral Seas to Melbourne, and thence on to Sydney. The return route is precisely the same, save that the steamer, after leaving Melbourne, calls at King George's Sound, on her way to Point de Galle. 46

THE OVERLAND ROUTE.

The distance of the seven stages, and the time of transit (including stoppages to coal, &c.) through each stage, is estimated as follows: –

Distance.

Days.

Southampton to Malta

Miles 2160

8 1/2

Malta to Alexandria

819

3 1/2

Alexandria, by land, to Suez

200

1 3/4

Suez, down the Red Sea, to Aden

1308

5 1/2

Aden to Point de Galle

2134

8 1/2

Point de Galle to Melbourne

6380

22

Melbourne to Sydney

600

2 1/2

Totals

13,601

52 1/4

To reach New Zealand by this route, a passenger would leave the main line at Melbourne and proceed on in the branch steamer to Auckland or Wellington; 47 and by this route he would easily get from London to New Zealand in sixty days. Unfortunately, however, this route is virtually closed against common passengers and emigrants, owing to its costliness. The lowest charge for any sort of cabin passage to Melbourne is £80, exclusive of wines, ale, or spirits, with £60 a ton freight on any goods or baggage (over an allowance of three cwt.). The expenses of wines, &c, together with hotel expenses in Egypt and Melbourne, and the passage across to New Zealand, could not be estimated at less than £30; and if we give the cabin-passenger emigrant a ton

THE OVERLAND ROUTE.

of baggage (less by three tons than the average quantity he takes), we shall make the entire least cost of his transit from Southampton to New Zealand £170. This multiplied by three, to represent an emigrant's party (the New Zealand emigrant is generally a married man with two or three children), would amount to more than £500, a sum which would purchase the emigrant 1000 acres of land. 48

Though, however, the overland Australian Line is unavailable for emigrants, the establishment of such a noble Line of communication will be productive of immense benefit, to Australia, Tasmania, and Zealandia. The regular and certain delivery of the mails between these countries and London in half the old time 49 is, of itself, a magnificent boon to commerce and colonies, which fully entitles the European and Australian Royal Mail Company to national consideration and support. But it is not merely as giving an improved postal line that this great enterprise will benefit Australia and New Zealand. The great overriding want of both these countries is population – men, women, and children, to people the beautiful wilderness, and make the desert blossom like the rose. Now the first step towards peopling a new country, is to make the goodness of such country known to people. If the vague terrors of distance and antipodal remoteness with which the good

SIGHTS AND SCENES

people of these realms often regard our southern colonies could be removed; if Australia and Zealandia, like Middlesex and Devonia, were "familiar in their mouths as household words;" if, in short, our southern colonies were made known to every family in Great Britain, we should soon see them better peopled – and this fifty days' mail line to Australia will, I trust, do much to make Australia known, by attracting thither tourists, visitors, health and pleasure seekers, and the rich and idle travelling classes, both from England and the Continent. In 1857 everybody has been to Rome, everybody has been to Niagara, Baden-Baden is Bath, Paris is Primrose Hill, and, thanks to heroic Albert, the ascent of the Monument is a less common feat than the ascent of Mont Blanc. But Australia, Tasmania, and Zealandia, are fresh young lands, offering a thousand scenes and sensations new to all blase travellers who have exhausted old-world "sight-seeing." Any man having a six months' holiday, and £300, wanting change of air and change of scene, may now glide down the Mediterranean in a palatial steamer – ascend a camel and pass through Cleopatra's land – dash down the sea which swallowed Pharaoh's host – sail away through the bright waters of the Indian and Austral oceans – marvel at Melbourne and Sydney, the Liverpool and London of the Pacific – take the box seat on the Royal Mail, and drive through cockatoos and kangaroos, to

OF NEW WORLD TRAVELLING.

Bendigo and Ballarat – see the digger, "bearded like the pard, seeking the bubble, nugget, even in the Ovens' mouth " – cross to New Zealand – feast with the ex-Anthropophagi – ascend Hyperion Mount Egmont, and learn the ugliness of Mont Blanc – gaze on a New Zealand sunset, and taste the honey of Hybla – look on a sperm whale, and on that strange political monster, a Superintendent – and then journey back – and land in Old England with a stock of health and strength, and new ideas sufficient for a man and a half; and perchance with a note-book (some Australian Eothen), for which Murray, Stanford, or Routledge, would give a check big enough to defray half the expenses of the expedition.

Thanks to the European and Australian Steam Company, Manchester and Birmingham Bagmen may now visit the markets of Australia and Zealandia thrice a year for cash and orders – artists may take an antipodal trip and return with portfolios crammed with the picturesque – invalids may elude the northern winter, have a tonic ocean cruise, and be back for strawberries in June – Zealandian wedding tours may become a Belgravian adventure – and hosts of vieux-moustache, younger-sons, and other continental refugees (all good emigration stuff), may be incited to dispatch ambassadors to spy into the fatness of our new lands of the East; and to report upon the question of whether Nelson, or Canterbury, or Otago, might not offer a better abiding place for "genteel

NEW ZEALAND VIA MELBOURNE.

poverty with six children," than Brussels, Bruges, or Boulogne.

The second, indirect, mode of reaching New Zealand – namely, by the common steamers and sailing vessels proceeding from this country to Australia, is named here chiefly to caution emigrants against such indirect mode. Liverpool vessels laid on for Melbourne occasionally advertise for New Zealand passengers, offering to convey them on to New Zealand; and, sometimes, distinctly offering to send them on free, by steam, from Melbourne to any port in New Zealand.

Now no direct general steam communication exists between Melbourne and New Zealand. 50 The only mode and process of getting from Melbourne to New Zealand by steam (that is, to any part of New Zealand save the single settlement of Auckland) is the following: – First, to proceed from Melbourne by steam 600 miles to Sydney; second, to wait in Sydney till the "William Denny," the Auckland steamer, returns on the back-voyage, and proceed on in her the 1200 miles to Auckland; third, to wait in Auckland till the three-weekly coast steamer "Zingari" leaves Manakau for the South, and calls successively at New

CASUAL SHIPS.

Plymouth, Nelson, Wellington, and Canterbury. The expense of sending on an emigrant and his goods by this round-about route, would actually amount to more than his entire passage and freight from Liverpool to Melbourne; there would be six extra shipments and removals of goods, and the time occupied in the entire transit would vary from three weeks to six, and might extend to two months.

Even if emigrants were sent on from Melbourne or Sydney direct by one of the trading brigs, they might well be detained in Melbourne or Sydney a month before any vessel offered for the particular New Zealand settlement to which they were bound, and the expense of getting even this way would not altogether amount to less than £10 to £20 pound per head, with £3 to £4 per ton extra freight.

The third mode of reaching New Zealand, namely, by what are called "transient ships," sailing from English ports direct to New Zealand, though not open to the serious emigrationary objections which attend the two indirect modes which we have glanced at, is nevertheless a mode which cannot be fairly recommended, for the simple reason that passengers proceeding to New Zealand in a transient irregular merchant vessel, which may be chartered by some shipper or speculator to go to New Zealand once, and which may never go near New Zealand again, have not that security and guarantee for good treatment which they have on board vessels

THE NEW ZEALAND LINES.

belonging to a regularly-established line of passenger ships, where the special business of the proprietors of the line is the business of carrying out passengers and emigrants to New Zealand, and whose pecuniary interests as proprietors would be seriously injured if they allowed such customers to have any substantial cause for dissatisfaction or complaint.

The two regularly-established Lines of New Zealand passenger ships are –

Messrs. Arthur Willis, Gann, and Co.'s Line, 3, Crosby Square, London, E. C.

Vessels sailing from London, throughout the year, every month, loading in St. Katherine's Docks near the Tower; and, for the future, I believe, calling at Plymouth to facilitate the embarkation of west country and other passengers.

And –

Messrs. Young and Co.'s Line, 61, Cornhill, London, E. C.

Vessels sailing from London, throughout the year, every month, and loading in the East India Docks.

Messrs. Baines, the enterprising proprietors of the famous Black Ball clippers, lately commenced a Liverpool New Zealand Line, the establishment of which was justly hailed as the opening of another bridge from the Britain of the North to the Britain of the South. I regret to say, however, that I believe Messrs. Baines have not received sufficient encouragement to induce

CHOICE OF SHIP.

them to prosecute the enterprise. Indeed, the following extract from their advertisement in last week's Australian Gazette would seem to indicate that they now propose carrying any New Zealand passengers round by Melbourne, and then forwarding them on to New Zealand by steam; but how, or at whose expense, this forwarding on by steam is to be accomplished, are questions which I think any one who dreamt of getting to New Zealand by way of Liverpool and Australia would deem it necessary to ask on reverting to the remarks at pages 474 and 475: –

"'Black Ball' line of British and Australian Ex-Royal Mail Packets. Appointed to sail from Liverpool on the 5th and 12th of each month.

"For Melbourne, forwarding passengers by steam to all ports in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand."

CHOICE OF SHIP. – I had the misfortune to differ from our friend the "Englishman" on the subject of his banana orchards (page 363), but I am happy to endorse every word of his excellent remarks on the "choice of ship."

"Avoid cheap ships – ships chartered by cheap brokers and agents – those who, by tempting baits, solicit cabin passengers at half fares. The hook will be found, to the sorrow of those who take it, the only reality attached to the offer. Of our own knowledge we can aver that a second-class passenger in a ship owned by a first-class firm is better accommodated, better fed, and better attended to, than a first-class passenger in a second-class ship. The charges for accommodation, &c, in these vessels, like those in first and second-class hotels, will, of course, be found somewhat higher in the one than in the other; but

CHOICE OF SHIP.

the difference in this respect is by no means in proportion to the comfort and convenience obtainable in the one over the filth and misery to be found in the other. In the cabin and at the head of the table in the one we have an agreeable and intelligent commander; each meal is served by competent stewards, and in a manner that would not disgrace a first-class hotel. In the cabin and at the head of the table, in the other, we have a coarse ill-bred skipper, with everything else in keeping with the same. The chief repast is served by dirty cuddy boys, and the meal itself is composed of dishes and messes which, both with regard to the cooking and the matter, would disgrace a shilling ordinary. Again, in the one there will he order and attention during the week, and a proper mark of respect to distinguish the seventh from other days; in the other, all will be confusion and riot, while little or no regard will be paid either to persons, days, or things. Indeed, were the reader suddenly to shift his quarters from a west-end club-house to an east-end pot-house, the contrast produced by the change would not be greater or more striking than that presented by these ships. And such is the contrast suggested by first and second-class ships – ships belonging to first and second-class merchants – that sail from the port of London. We cannot, from personal experience, speak of the numerous ships that sail from Liverpool and other ports; but we presume the case described to be applicable anywhere. The lowest in price is not always the cheapest article, although necessity may compel its selection; but where a purchaser has the power or the privilege of choice, he will do well – either with regard to ships or anything else – to consider the value as well as the price of an article.

"Those who have never made a long sea voyage have little idea of the good things, besides fresh air, that are to be found on board a liberally-provisioned, ably-commanded, and well-conducted ship. The mere recital of our usual dinner fare on board the 'Windsor' (owned by Messrs. Green), by which we made a delightful passage from Sydney to London, may enlighten our readers on the sub-

THE BILL OF FARE.

ject. First course – -mock turtle, ox tail, or other excellent soup, alternated by preserved salmon. Second course-fowls or ducks, or both, turkeys, geese, or a sucking pig occasionally, with sundry joints of roast and boiled (fresh) meat. Third course – a variety of puddings, tartlets, &c, which for quality could not be surpassed anywhere. Lastly, cheese, followed by an excellent dessert."

To show that New Zealand passengers may live quite as luxuriously as Australian, I will now present the reader with a fair average of our daily "carte" on board Messrs. Willis's "Joseph Fletcher," a vessel in which I made my second trip to Zealandia. Macaulay, in his brilliant essay on Warren Hastings, says – "Most passengers find some resource in eating twice as many meals as on land." Our Quaker friends hint that the great historian is often at sea in history – be this as it may, he has evidently been at sea in a ship, as the reader will, I think, admit, when he sees this programme of our guzzling feats on board the "Joseph Fletcher:" –

Nine o'clock – Breakfast.
Tea and coffee. Hot rolls, toast, butter, and marmalade. Two dishes of mutton or pork chops. One or two joints of cold meat.

Twelve o'clock – Lunch.
Ham, tongue, sliced beef and pickles. Bread, butter, and cheese.

Four o'clock – Dinner.
First course. – Mock turtle, or gravy, or pea-soup; with the addition of preserved salmon three days a week.

SEA APPETITES.

Second course. – Fowls or ducks, with two joints of fresh meat and vegetables.
Third course. – Puddings, pies, and tarts.
Fourth course. – Cheese; and then dessert, generally consisting of biscuits, figs, nuts, almonds, and raisins.

Seven o'clock – Tea.
Tea and coffee.
Hot cakes and toast.
Sliced ham, tongue, or German sausage.

Ten o'clock – Supper.

The author was unable to attack this meal. But a sort of help-yourself supper was occasionally set out about 10, consisting, he believes, of cold meats and pickles, with bottled "stout" for the more delicate ladies.

Looking at this course of daily "cramming," it is, perhaps, not surprising that people gain flesh in going to New Zealand; and considering that little or no good exercise can be taken on board ship, I fancy that it is only the fine sea air, and the fact of one's being so much in the air, lounging about the decks, &c, which can account for the infrequency of apoplexy in passenger vessels. 51

Reverting to the subject of the choice of ships, I can only corroborate the "Englishman's" testimony, by observing that it is far better and cheaper for an emigrant family that they should be carried quickly and comfortably over their voyage in a first-class well-found ship, than that, for the clear saving of a few pounds freight or passage-money, they

CHOICE OF SHIP.

should run any risk of finding themselves, when too late in any inferior or ill-found vessel, where health might suffer, or where they might drag out the voyage in dirt, discomfort and discontent. In short, the four main considerations to be kept in view in fixing on one's ship are these: – A. I., first-class, standing of the vessel – passenger-experience and personal kindness of the captain – quality, rather than quantity of provisions, for the mere quantity is always sufficient – and high colonial standing and commercial respectability of the ship's agents at the port of debarkation. And in these chief requirements, speaking as I have found from personal experience, but without the slightest prejudice to the sister lines'; I must confess, I think that the long popularity of Messrs. Willis and Co.'s London line is well and justly deserved. 52

EVILS OF RE-SHIPMENT.

PROCEEDING DIRECT TO THE SETTLEMENT. – In choosing our ship for New Zealand it is very important – especially where there be a family, children, and a quantity of baggage – to choose a ship that goes herself to the particular settlement we want to reach. It was a practice in the New Zealand Company's time, and I remark with regret that it is a practice which Messrs. Baines have resumed, to dispatch the ship to one or two central ports, and then to forward the passengers to their respective settlements by coasting craft. It may suit the convenience of shipping houses to tell a New Zealand emigrant that such a practice is a good one. I, however, tell the emigrant that such practice is a bad one. I have myself undergone the process of "re-shipment." A New Zealand Company's vessel re-shipped our party from Wellington to New Plymouth, and though coasting vessels are improved, and steamers are beginning to appear, and though the nuisances and evils of re-shipment may not be so great as they once were, I would nevertheless even now rather pay £50 in a vessel which would carry me and my goods on to the settlement I wanted to reach, than £40 to a vessel which would land me at another settlement, and then send me on, free of charge, to my destination by some coasting convey-

COLONISTS' ROOMS.

ance. This, in reality, is a far more important point than it may seem to be; and every New Zealand family emigrant would do well to have a clear understanding with the Shipping House that the English vessel shall land him with all possible dispatch at the particular settlement which he wants to reach.

COLONISTS' ROOMS. – I cannot but think that the proprietors of our New Zealand lines of passenger and emigrant vessels, would materially promote their own interests, and advance the New Zealand emigration cause, if they were to improve their shipping-office establishments by attaching to them what is familiarly called a "Colonists' Room" – not a little den with a clerk and a desk, and a penknife and a ruler, and a cracked map framed in cobwebs, and half-a-dozen dog's-eared pamphlets littered about the floor; but a room properly fitted up for the purpose – a room exhibiting clean files of New Zealand papers, correct maps and views of the various provinces and townships, specimens of the great staples of the country, samples of grain, flax, ores, woods, wools, &c.; presided over by some one practically familiar with New Zealand, and with all emigrationary details; a public room where any one looking to emigration might freely come and receive full and accurate "viva voce" information on every possible topic relating to his proposed movement.

The New Zealand Company and the Canterbury

WANT OF INFORMATION.

Association, comprising among their members some of the keenest men of business in London, were fully alive to the profitable operation of Colonists' rooms. I have heard old colonists in New Zealand assert, that their emigration was mainly attributable to what they had seen and heard at the Colonists' rooms in London: going thither for information, they had met other visitors coming for the same purpose – acquaintances had been formed – one had encouraged the other – and the accidental meeting had perchance led to the actual enlistment of a dozen good emigrants.

Indeed, some sort of public office, some place where New Zealand emigration-disposed people, could learn what they want to know, and could see something or somebody from the colony, is now much needed in this country. The Government Emigration Office in Park Street, which in some way represents (and misrepresents) all the other Australian colonies, professes scarcely to know where New Zealand is. The old Company is broken up, and the Canterbury Association, having successfully closed their labours, have long since shut their doors in the Adelphi. It is true, that there is, or was, an emigration office opened for Canterbury, and true that there exists a little emigration office for Nelson; but these are mere special offices for special purposes, and going thither to ask for general information about the whole colony, is like going to Shoreditch to ask a ticket clerk for general information about the railways of Great Britain.

HINT FOR THE LEDGER.

The Mercantile Houses who represent our New Zealand Lines, duly advertise their ships, and when a passenger presents himself, a clerk takes his money, gives a receipt, and the transaction is complete. This, no doubt, is business; but in the year 1857, we may perhaps ask whether the commercial mind might not take rather a wider view of business. Some 300,000 people emigrate every year from the United Kingdom – of this vast annual exodus only some 5000, a mere handful, go to New Zealand. I apprehend we may reasonably assume that Messrs. Willis, Messrs. Young, and Messrs. Baines, have a legitimate commercial interest in increasing New Zealand emigration – if so, might they not attempt to increase it, and, no longer confining themselves to the mere work of providing passages for A. B. and C, who come for passages, might they not attempt to do something to popularise Zealandia among the emigrant masses, and thus seek to quadruple the number of those who go to our Britain of the South?

TERMS OF PASSAGE. – The following is an abstract of Messrs. Willis, Gann and Co.'s Circular. Messrs. Young's and the others are nearly similar, but I cannot afford space to give them in extenso, and they can always be obtained on application, personally or by letter.

MESSRS. ARTHUR WILLIS, GANN, AND CO.'S LINE OF NEW ZEALAND PACKETS, ESTABLISHED 1843. PASSAGE-MONEY, WITH PROVISIONS INCLUDED.

Stern and poop cabins by special agreement.

1. Chief-cabin, lower deck, one person the whole cabin....£50 to £60 each.
Ditto, two persons the whole cabin....42 "

2. Second-cabin, inclosed cabins.....26 "

MESSRS. WILLIS' TERMS.

3. Steerage, inclosed, married couples........£22 each.
Ditto, open berths...........20 "
Children, under twelve years, one half; under one year, free.

WEEKLY DIETARY SCALE FOR EACH ADULT PASSENGER.

Articles.

Chief Cabin.

Second Cabin.

Steerage.

Preserved Meats

1 1/2 lb.

1 1/2 lb.

1 lb.

Preserved Salmon

1/2 lb.

–

–

Assorted Soups

1   " 

–

–

Soup and Bouilli

–

1/2 lb.

–

York Ham

1   " 

1/2   " 

–

Tripe.

1/2   " 

–

–

Pish

1/2  " 

1/4 lb.

–

Prime India Beef

1/2   " 

1   " 

1 1/4 lb.

Irish Mess Pork

1   " 

1 1/2   " 

1   " 

Biscuit

3   " 

4 1/4   " 

3 1/2   " 

Flour

4 1/4   " 

4 1/4   " 

3   " 

Rice

1   " 

1   " 

1/2   " 

Barley

1/4   " 

1/2   " 

–

Peas

1/2 pint

1/2 pint

1/2 pint

Oatmeal

1/2   " 

1/2   " 

1   " 

Preserved Milk

1/2   " 

–

–

Sugar, refined

1/2 lb.

–

– -

Sugar, raw

3/4   " 

1 lb.

1 lb.

Lime Juice

–

6 oz.

6 oz.

Tea

3 oz.

1 1/2 oz.

1 1/2 oz.

Coffee

5   " 

3   " 

2   " 

Butter

1/2 lb.

1/2 lb.

6   " 

Cheese

1/2   " 

1/4   " 

–

Currants

1/4   " 

1/4   " 

–

Raisins, Valentia

1/2   " 

1/2   " 

1/2 lb.

Raisins, Muscatel

1/4   " 

–

–

Suet

1/2   " 

6 oz.

6 oz.

Preserved Carrots

1/2   " 

–

–

Pickles

1/4 pint

1/4 pint

1/4 pint

Vinegar

1/4   " 

–

–

Mustard

1/2 oz.

1/2 oz.

1/2 oz.

Pepper

1/2   " 

1/4   " 

1/4   " 

Salt

2   " 

2   " 

2   " 

Potatoes, fresh or

3 1/2 lb.

3 1/2 lb.

2 lb.

Preserved ditto

1/2   " 

1/2   " 

1/2   " 

Water

28 quarts

21 quarts

21 quarts

DIETARY. – LUGGAGE.

In addition to which, a supply of live stock, &c, will be put on board, in the following proportion, for every six adult chief-cabin passengers – 2 sheep, 6 pigs, 6 dozen fowls, 9 bottles sauces, 1/2 lb. celery seed, 3 dozen bottles preserved fruits, 2 pints of Currie powder, 12 lbs. Barcelona nuts, 12 lbs. shell almonds, 6 lbs. arrowroot, and 6 lbs. sago.

For all children and infants an equivalent quantity of sago, flour, rice, raisins, suet, and sugar, will be substituted for meat, if required.

Provisions of the best quality are put on board according to the above scale for twenty-two weeks, together with an abundant supply of extra stores as medical comforts for passengers generally.

The quantity and quality of all the provisions, together with the due ventilation and accommodation of all cabins and berths, undergo a strict examination by the Government emigration officers.

The arrangements of this line are based on the practical experience of thirteen years; and any improvements which from time to time may be suggested as conducive to the further comfort of passengers, will continue to be promptly adopted.

SHIP'S REGULATIONS.

1. Passage-Money. – Each passenger pays a deposit of one-half the passage-money on taking his berth, and the remainder prior to his embarkation.

2. Cabins are appropriated in rotation as deposits are made.

3. Luggage. – First and second cabin passengers are allowed half a ton, and steerage quarter of a ton, free of charge. The remainder (if any) to be paid for at the current freight. Any goods or luggage exceeding the allowance, should be delivered in St. Katherine's Docks seven days before the date of sailing. All luggage should be distinctly addressed, and marked whether to go in the cabin or hold – access to the latter can be had at intervals during the voyage.

SHIP'S RULES.

4. Embarkation. – Passengers embark at Gravesend the day after the ship leaves dock.

5. Beer, wines, and spirits, are supplied as follows: – ale or porter, 10d. per bottle; sherry, port, and spirits, 2s. 6d. per bottle. But for the due preservation of order in the ship, the quantity so supplied will be limited by the judgment of the commander; and no private stores of liquors can be taken in any of the cabins.

6. Chief-cabin passengers furnish their own cabins; but the ship provides everything required for the table, plate, linen, glass, attendance, &c.

7. Second-cabin and steerage passengers have sleeping berths erected for them; but find their own bedding, and other cabin fittings which they may require; together with knives, forks, spoons, plates, and mugs.

All the ships of Willis' line load in the St. Katherine's Docks, London.

For passage, freight, insurance, or for general information relating to the colony, apply to Arthur Willis, Gann, and Co., 3, Crosby Square, Bishopsgate Street, London. E. C.

ENGAGING PASSAGE. – The regular New Zealand lines are always advertised in the "Times" and in the "Australian and New Zealand Gazette" – an excellent weekly paper, published by Algar and Street, 11, Clement's Lane, Lombard Street, and procurable there, or at Stanford's, 6, Charing Cross, or Messrs. Smith and Sons, Strand.

It is a common practice, and a good one, for the intending emigrant to run up to town to look at the ship in dock. He should always remember, however, especially if accompanied by wife or daughter, that seeing the finest vessel in dock taking in cargo, is seeing her in the repulsive light

SHIPS IN DOCK.

of a dirty-looking wreck – sails unbent, rigging slack and baggy, deck lumbered with boats coops casks pitch tar and ship stores, excited Irish dock labourers getting themselves and everything around them into inextricable confusion, carpenters shouting, sawing, hammering and bawling with a din and racket that might wake the dead – all combine to make up a scene which, if beheld for the first time on a wet day after a dirty walk to the dirty dock, might well send a nervous man back to the country, thankful that be had escaped with his life, and very effectually weaned from all desire for any sea-going sort of emigration.

CABINS AND BERTHS. – Poop cabins may be styled the ships' drawing rooms. All other cabins are temporary erections of certain regulation sizes; but these are fixed, standing, parts of the vessel; and as they vary in size, no general price is published, but each is let by special agreement. They generally consist of two stern, and of about eight tide cabins: each with its door opening into the general saloon or eating-room, a snug comfortable apartment about 30 feet x 12. The two stern cabins are light and airy little parlours, 10 to 12 feet square, with large stern windows. These are generally secured early by family emigrants of liberal means. Each would accommodate a bachelor party of three, or a married couple and three or four children. For one of these cabins, my brother, with his wife and

CABINS AND BERTHS.

two young children, had to pay in a New Zealand Company's ship, 225 guineas – but they are now much cheaper, and Messrs. Willis' present terms for a stern poop cabin for two adults, would, I think, be about £130.

The side poops vary in size from 7 to 8 feet square, each has a side window. The captain and medical man generally occupy two of these cabins. Each would accommodate a married couple, and one, or even two children. The present price of one for a single person would be about £70; for a couple about £100.

The lower-deck chief cabins are just under the poop cabins; they form a lower story, in fact, reached by low stairs set in the hatchway, an opening in the saloon floor. These cabins have each a small window, and are about 6 feet x 8 and 7 feet high.

Adjoining these, on the same deck, but separated by a partition, and having separate hatchway-stairs for ascent to the "main-deck" (the out of doors), we find the Intermediate or second cabins. These are built up just like the adjoining chief cabins, but with the addition of sleeping berths; and are generally divided into cabins for four (or a family), and into cabins for two. Each has generally its small window, and each its door opening into the common eating-room, where a long dining table is placed with fixed forms and seats.

Adjoining the Intermediate (but still separated by a partition and having separate stairs to the main

THE DIFFERENCE IN CABINS.

deck) is the Steerage, fitted up like the Intermediate, but with the addition of a third sort of berth, viz. the half-inclosed berth in the fore end of the steerage' for single men, at £20. Each of these three lower deck compartments is furnished with a separate patent water-closet for females and children.

As to the hours spent by the various classes of passengers in the various parts of the ship, we may perhaps say that on the average of the voyage, about eight hours would be passed in the sleeping berth, five in the common saloon or eating room, and eleven out of doors on deck; and it may be observed, that in most ships, intermediate passengers, who, as a body, are a most respectable class of emigrants, generally associate with chief-cabin passengers in out-door ship life, and have the use of the poop deck, the most agreeable promenade either in hot or rough weather.

THE DIFFERENCE IN CABINS AND WHICH TO SELECT. – The difference between poop and lower-deck chief cabins, is merely a difference in sleeping rooms. The occupants of each take all their meals in common at the general saloon table; and the economical emigrant contenting himself with half a lower chief cabin at £45, enjoys precisely the same ship status and consideration as the Nabob who may swing his cot in a stern poop at 100 guineas. The difference, however, between chief-cabin and second cabin, and again between this and steerage, is a substantial difference in dietary scale

WHICH CABIN TO CHOOSE.

and general accommodation. In the chief cabin, a bell rings at about nine o'clock, twelve, four, and seven, when you make your way to the saloon, and find a liberal table ready spread, and steward and steward's mate to attend on you – the bill is paid and you have only to sit down at the marine table-d'hote and eat your fill. But in the second cabin, and of course in the steerage, you form yourselves into family messes, and draw stores and rations; and though everything is properly cooked for you, you have to perform many little table offices for yourself – offices, however, which you have plenty of time to perform, and which will not at all impair your efficiency in the work of "first settling down" in the new land.

I have now been steerage, intermediate, chief cabin and poop cabin passenger in various ships, and recollecting that the part of the ship we go in to New Zealand, will not in the slightest degree affect our position in New Zealand, and that he who goes steerage, will get to his journey's end just as quickly, and in all probability, in quite as fine health as he who goes poop, I should be guided in my selection of the particular cabin or accommodation I engaged by some such considerations as these: if I were a mechanic, or a young single fellow of any or no business going to land in New Zealand with only a stout heart and willing hands; or if I were a family man with £50 to £150 in my pocket, I would go steerage – if I were a family man with £200 to £600 I would go interme-

FITTING-UP CABINS.

diate – if a bachelor capitalist or family man with £700 to £2000, I would go chief-cabin – and if a few pounds more were of no great consequence to me, or if I were a very bad sailor, or were likely to have any writing or study on board requiring more light and cabin privacy, I would take a side poop cabin to myself, and swing my cot in my own parlour.

FITTING-UP CABINS. – Assuming a married couple or two friends were going in a side poop or lower deck chief-cabin, I should fit-up exactly in this style. 53 1st. Cover the floor with a piece of oil cloth and small hearth rug, and against the side of the ship, fore and aft, opposite the door, fix a two feet iron bedstead (with a shifting 12-inch side board to keep you snug) blocked up in wooden sockets so as to stand 2 feet 4. inches clear of the floor. 2nd. Under this bedstead, put two separate nests of inch deal drawers with flush brass handles, each nest containing two drawers about 1 foot deep, 1 foot 11 inches wide, and 3 feet long, just so as to fit in and fill up the space. 3rd. At 2 feet or 2 1/2 feet above this lower bed, fix a common ship's sleeping berth for the upper bed. 4th. Place a small set of drawers (the old house set, page 448) with a small book-case or cupboard on the top, at one end of the cabin; and a mahogany ship table-

NECESSARIES AND EXTRAS.

washstand at the other. 5th. Put up planed nine-inch deal shelves (with a four inch right-angle edging) all round the cabin; and a dozen or two screw pegs, with a patent swing Palmer-candle-lamp, wherever they would be most useful. 6th. Hang up a large looking-glass for your wife; and provide a small canvas tool bag (containing claw hammer, small saw, inch and half chisel, screw driver, pincers, two bradawls and gimlets, few nails, screw-hooks, cleats, and ball of cord); also provide hand-brush, dust pan, camp stool, half a dozen boxes of the very best wax matches, thirty pounds of the best patent candles for lamp, one or two American easy chairs with cushions for deck use (most conducive to out-door comfort), and a large loop-drawing sailor's canvas bag, to hold dirty linen and odds and ends, until such are periodically transferred to the hold.

These fittings will carry all the clothes, books, and nick-nacks, which are necessary for two people; but the following things may be added by the luxurious: – a small filter, a thermometer, one or two porous red water bottles (wrapped in wet flannel and hung up in a cabin draft, they ice water in the tropics), a small spirit lamp and kettle for hot water in the night, and a bottle of disinfecting fluid. In the Intermediate, where there are children and a tender mama, some pots of jam, a little macaroni, chocolate cake, preserved milk, and raspberry vinegar, a tin of fine biscuits, a plum cake, a box of prunes, figs, and muscatels, may be

PRIVATE STORES.

taken. But as a general rule, applicable to every part of the ship, no extra stores whatever are necessary. If the lady has not interdicted smoking and small comforts, the gentleman should provide a box of Havannahs – for though ship's Cavendish is generally prime, ship's cigars are generally vile.

Brown's, the large sea bed and furniture warehouse at the bottom of Leadenhall Street, near Aldgate's commercial pump, is the best place I ever discovered for all cabin furniture and fittings; and the shop keeps a good staff of ship-joiners who put up everything for you safe and ship-shape.

When the exact size of the iron bedstead, between the legs is known (2 feet x 6 is the best single bed cabin size), the two nests of deal drawers may be made by the carpenter at home; and these, with the small set of household drawers, page 448, and an old box or two, will serve to carry up from the country to the ship all the clothing, blankets (sheets are not so necessary for sea beds) books, towels, soap, &c, &c, which will be needed in the cabin.

As all articles taken in the cabin go freight free, passengers often crowd in things till they can scarcely get into bed or get out. But this is a penny wise and pound foolish practice – the articles I have named will pretty well fill up the space, and not allow a stout couple much more than comfortable turning room. When strangers are to share a cabin, they should just get the Shipping House to introduce them – so that they may fraternise for

INSURANCE.

the time being, decide on what fittings they will have, and share the expense.

Regular sleeping berths are provided for the intermediate and steerage passengers; and, here, the "fitting-up" arrangements are generally simplified to strong boxes, canvas bags, shelves and pegs, a camp stool, or two, and a triangular iron wash-stand; and here, as in the chief-cabin, each passenger provides his own bed and bedding. An intermediate party, however (applying early) can always purchase as much space in the intermediate compartment as they please, have it inclosed-off, and then "fit-up" as they choose: in this way, I have seen intermediate cabins made quite as comfortable as lower-deck, chief cabins.

INSURANCE. – Insurance costs so little, and often seems to relieve the emigrant from so much care and anxiety that, as a general rule, I should recommend a person to insure any little articles he may be taking out. The mere system or form of the thing is very simple. In my last trip I insured my things with Messrs. Willis – who are also large insurance brokers – and all I had to do was to state the number of the cases or packages, the general contents, and the estimated value; and then pay the premium, I think either £1 1/2 or £2 per cent., and pocket the policy. If any loss or damage arise, the claim can be made and liquidated through the agents of the House in the colony.

WHEN TO START.

SAFETY OF THE VOYAGE. – So many thousands of men, women and children now annually proceed in ease comfort and safety to our Australian colonies, that any detailed description of the voyage across would be almost as superfluous as a description of the railway trip from Aberdeen to London. As to danger, accidents may happen in going to bed; but in the question of risk of life and limb in now crossing from England to Australia or Zealandia, if we look at the "Government Emigration Report" for 1856, we shall find that out of nearly 700 emigrant vessels despatched by Government to these colonies in the last fourteen years, only one was lost. Indeed, as to my own personal feelings on the point – as an old voyager, I should consider that I incurred far less risk of personal injury in travelling for 80 days at sea between London and New Zealand, than in travelling twenty days by rail between Bodmin and Berwick.

TIME OF THE YEAR FOR SAILING. – This is a matter of little or no importance; the Australian voyage is not like the American, where winter, early spring or late autumnal sailing is always disagreeable and sometimes fatally disastrous. The New Zealand passenger, sailing any time between June and October, certainly gets away in our finest weather, and arrives in New Zealand in spring or late summer. (See Climatic Calendar, page 115.) But the quickest runs are generally made by sailing in winter or spring; and (com-

SEA-SICKNESS.

paratively) our four seasons are so fine and so much alike, that the emigrant may land among us, and commence operations in any month. Indeed, except it be an invalid party, we may certainly say that when a family has once decided on going to New Zealand, the waiting for any particular sailing-time is so much loss of time.

SEA SICKNESS AND GENERAL HEALTH. – There are various specifics and phylacteries for sea sickness as there are for the toothache – and all are equally efficacious. The terrors of the transient malady, however, have been greatly exaggerated. Some bilious cockney reliant on bottled stout, and fortified by British brandy, crosses the salt ditch from Dover to Calais in some bobbing little steamer, and solemnly asserts for ever after, that if the voyage had endured ten minutes longer, he, Brown of Bloomsbury, would have been lauded a corpse! Sea sickness is never so bad in sailing vessels at sea, as in steamers on the coast; and I speak in perfect gravity in saying, that if doctors would only prescribe a run down channel and a good dose of sea sickness for half their aldermanic patients, half their aldermanic patients would return convalescents. Some (especially children) are scarcely affected at all by the ship's motion; and with those who are, the feeling of qualmishness generally passes off in two or three days or a week at most – when the sufferer will probably feel better,

SEA SALUBRITY.

and lighter, and hungrier, than he ever felt before.

As to one's general health in making a voyage to New Zealand, in first-class well-found vessels such as have been described, a person would at least be as little liable to suffer from illness on board as he would be in the same time ashore; whilst I think we may say that three persons in four – men, women, and children, robust or delicate – generally leave the ship permanently improved, and often very much improved in health and vigour. Doctors are not carried in Australian and New Zealand passenger ships, because of any liability to disease; but because births and accidents may happen; and because the mere presence of a good medical man on board imparts a natural feeling of satisfaction and security. From the higher character of New Zealand emigration, the smaller size and less crowded state of the ships, and the better quality of the dietary, the sea mortality from the Company's time down to the present day, has been singularly slight; whilst even in the more, crowded Australian vessels, the following extract from the "Government Emigration Report of 1856," shows that the general mortality there has been only one in 100.

"The mortality during the year, in seventy-two ships, has been slight, amounting to .37 per cent, on the adults, 3.31 on the children, and 1.01 on the whole number embarked. Our surgeons have performed their duties efficiently, though the demands of the war carried off some of our

THE "BLACK WEEK."

experienced officers, and obliged us to supply their places with untried persons. Out of eighty-eight ships, only three cases of serious complaint have occurred."

In a Company's vessel in which I made my first voyage with about 100 fellow passengers, our excellent doctor had a complete sinecure, and tortured only the flute; whilst in the "Joseph Fletcher," in which I made my last voyage, with about the same number on board, I do not remember that the surgeon had to give any passenger even a pill.

FIRST WEEK'S "SETTLING-DOWN." – Though, however, the emigrant's first week's sea sickness is mainly a bugbear, the emigrant's first week at sea is, truly, his "black time;" and here, most truly may we say "Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute." More little miseries and discomforts are frequently crowded into the emigrant's first week at sea, than are spread over the whole remainder of his time. Hence it is said, and not without reason, that as this "first week" must come whether the voyage be one of 20 days, 50 days or 100 days, a voyage to Australia or Zealandia virtually entails little more annoyance or discomfort than a voyage to America.

In this "first week" we have, perchance, just parted with the friends of our childhood – old familiar faces are no longer around us – the shores of the old land are still in sight – the ship and all on board are strange – strange faces, strange

VOYAGE OCCUPATIONS.

sounds, strange sights are everywhere – we know no one, no one knows us – we neither care to eat nor drink – dull desolate miserable sick, we try to walk and tumble down, or slink to bed to bemoan our lot with many a grievous groan and growl. But, "durate et vosmet rebus servate secundis" – a few days, presto, and the scene shifts – we eat like lions, sleep like sloths – we have found our sea legs and can march erect – we have introduced ourselves to the dog, fed the poultry, visited the cook, explored the forecastle, hailed a sailor, cut jokes with the skipper, exchanged good offices with our emigrant comrades – and have become a merry little community bound together for the time by identity of interests and new pursuits, and quite disposed to make the best of the long sea holiday before us.

OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. – One of the best inventions of these days would be an invention providing some useful employment for emigrants at sea. Babies, crochet, knitting, embroidery, tart and love-making, &c, pretty well employ the ladies of the ship; but in all sea industrial pursuits, we lords of the creation cut a very wretched figure. It seems as if some malignant cannibal deity, cooping us up for the spit, had forbidden us to do aught but eat, drink, sleep and grow fat. The only really useful occupation I ever saw any emigrant engaged in, was the one of making a fishing net – a pursuit well worthy of imitation. The stitch may be learned of any fisherman's daughter

WHAT TO DO ON BOARD.

in ten minutes – needles, twine, lead, cork and cord, all stow in a small bag; and two or three hours a day devoted to the occupation would provide the emigrant with a seine, or drag-net, which he might either sell on arrival, or usefully keep for his own private table fishing.

Amateur carpentry and all similar handicraft occupations cannot be carried on at sea; and excepting shoemakers, tailors and a few others whose tools and materials will pack in small space, there are few or no mechanics who can continue their ordinary employments on board. Netting, seine-making, is one of the few useful occupations which can be pursued on board: the work and materials may be tossed into a box or corner and taken up again in a moment; and the manipulation may be carried on below, or on deck, either standing, sitting, or lying, in any weather and in almost any light. Emigrant swells of the "poop west-end," may take more kindly to the fisherman's needle, when they learn that the industrious emigrant I allude to was a stern-cabin Nabob, the Hon. Henry Petre – who taught the art to my brother and myself.

Though, however, the emigrant's hands may be confined at sea to one or two useful pursuits, there is plenty of work for the head: he may profitably devote a few hours a day to a course of useful reading, master some popular work on agriculture and dairy farming, on the sheep, ox and horse, on the growth and preparation of flax, and various raw materials which might constitute

SEA AMUSEMENTS.

additional exports; procure Archdeacon Williams' Maori grammar (Stanford's, 6, Charing Cross), so as to land with a useful smattering of the native language; and practise sketching in water-colours, so as to send mamma or Lucy a picture of the new home he has reared in Zealandia.

Mere amusements at sea, are easily found; and in a well-conducted ship with a good captain and agreeable passengers, things "go merry as the marriage bell." In the first place, one has plenty of eating and drinking and smoking and chatting and lounging – then, there is the novel, chess, whist, pistol and rifle practice, and many a merry game on deck – then the song and dance in the lustrous tropical moonlights, kit and sailor's hornpipe on the forecastle, cornopean and polka on the poop – then the sights and incidents of the ocean road; the crimson painted sunsets, overhauling strange sail, the bustle of letter writing, speaking and boarding homeward-bounders, catching shark, albatross and dolphin, harpooning the porpoise and the albacore, trapping the brilliant nautilus, rousing the great whale. And though hours may come to every man when he may wish that the long play clay were over, and that he could brace up and get to work; yet few, I think, will step ashore in the new land without "casting one longing, lingering look behind" at the stout ship which has borne them so gallantly across the waters, and been for weeks their ocean-home.

44 None of the regular Australian and New Zealand vessels call at the Cape of Good Hope; or indeed, anywhere on the voyage. The regular ocean track to these colonies merely leads vessels near the Cape; and they round it, or rather pass it, at distances varying from 200 to 500 miles.

45 A "Book" of the route, prices, regulations, &c, may be had on application at any of these agencies.

46 A branch steamer (the Cambria) runs from Marseilles on the 18th of the month, to meet the main steamer at Malta; thus English passengers, preferring to go through France by rail, may leave London as late as the 16th (four days after the steamer's departure from Southampton), and catch her at Malta.

47 The New Zealand Government propose to place a mail branch steamer at Melbourne, to start for Auckland twelve hours after the Suez boat's arrival. After landing the bags at Auckland the vessel will proceed along the east coast to Wellington, and then return via Cook's Straits. The best arrangement, however, would be for the Melbourne steamer to run to Manakau, the western harbour of Auckland, and then to proceed to Wellington by New Plymouth and Nelson, along the west coast, which would shorten the passage full 300 miles.

48 The true emigrant highway to our Australian colonies would be the ocean canal route through Panama.

49 The average year's delivery of the mails between England and Australia, cannot, I think, be estimated to have been a delivery of less than 100 days.

50 The mail steamer which it is in contemplation to run monthly between Melbourne and New Zealand would, of course, only be available once a month. Passengers who did not happen to arrive there just in the nick of time would, of course, have to wait till the next month.

51 It should be observed, however, that owing to the confusion of getting away, and to the dilemmas of the "first week" (see page 500), a ship's table seldom settles down to regular goodness till one gets off Madeira.

52 One very important consideration in the choice of a ship for a comfortable passage to Australia or New Zealand is frequently overlooked. In these days of cheap shops, cheap schools, cheap ships, etc., every emigrant, especially if he be a family man, will, of course, satisfy himself both as to the A. I., first-class character of the ship, and the commercial respectability of the shipping house; but he should go a step further than this, and seek to ascertain whether the ship be a vessel owned, or at least, regularly employed in trade. Vessels are generally chartered by ship agents from the owner, only for the outward voyage to Australia or New Zealand; on arrival there all connection ceases; and so long as the owner and his captain fulfil the letter of the temporary agreement with the ship agents, they naturally trouble themselves little about anything beyond. Where, however, the ships are regularly employed or partly owned by the shipping house, as I believe is the fact in Messrs. Willis' line, the case is different: for captains, officers, apprentices, tradesmen, and all concerned, having steady, permanent employment in a regular line of New Zealand packets, both self-interest and the spirit of emulation naturally incite to the endeavour to please passengers, and to earn a good permanent name and reputation for their respective ships. It is said that much of Messrs. Willis' long success is owing to the beneficial operation of this principle of ownership; and it is by no means uncommon for New Zealand colonists in writing back to their coming out emigrant friends, to counsel them even to wait a little time rather than not come by such vessels as the "Maori," the "Joseph Fletcher," and other favourites of the Crosby Square Line.

53 Any dark lower deck-cabin may be made much lighter and more cosy-looking by just papering it with some light-coloured paper.

CHAPTER XVII. THE SIX PROVINCIAL LAND EMIGRATION REGULATIONS.

THE LAND REGULATIONS.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE SIX PROVINCIAL LAND EMIGRATION REGULATIONS.

With sketch of a suggested "One Uniform System" of land-selling for the whole Colony.

BY the Treaty of Waitangi, described in the first chapter, the British Crown declared that the whole of the eighty millions of acres of land in New Zealand, belonged to the remnant of the native population; and pledged itself to purchase of the Natives all land needed for the purposes of colonisation.

Under this agreement, about one-sixth of the North Island, together with the whole of the South Island and Stewart's Island – a territory of 50,000,000 acres – has been purchased from the native owners by the New Zealand Government, at an average cost of less than a penny an acre; and year by year the Government is acquiring, though at a higher price – sixpence to a shilling per acre – further portions of the waste districts of the Provinces of Auckland, Wellington, and New Plymouth which constitute the North Island.

LAND-SHARKING.

By the Treaty of Waitangi, the natives agreed to sell their lands only to the Crown; and the Crown, by various colonial enactments, forbids the private individual to obtain lands by purchase (or in any way) from the natives; and makes such purchase an illegal, punishable act.

The chief object of this agreement – the Crown's "Pre-emptive Right," as it is called – is to prevent what colonists term the monopoly of "land-sharking." During that irregular colonisation of the country, described in the Historical Sketch, many of the Sydney speculators, whalers, and traders, professed to have acquired from the natives immense tracts of New Zealand lands. Some enterprising soi-disant New Zealand chief, say Te Kaka, visiting Sydney, and wanting a barrel of powder, a keg of tobacco, or a bale or two of blankets, would coolly proceed to sell half New Zealand to any speculative land-shark who would give the mite for the shadow of the chance of ever getting the million. During Te Kaka's absence, Te Kiwi might sell the same cheap lot to some whaling or trading visitor; and before they had finished, Te Kaka and Te Kiwi and Te Kotuku and Te Pukeko might sell it over again half-a-dozen times, to any half-dozen other enterprising buyers, willing to give the sprat's tail for the chance of some day snaring such an immense land whale.

Under this peculiar form of purchase, one Sydney speculator, a gentleman of the law, modestly claimed 20,100,000 acres of New Zealand land; whilst

CROWN'S PRE-EMPTIVE RIGHT.

six others, of smaller but still capacious swallow, claimed 16,000,000 of acres more!

But the Crown's "Pre-emptive Right" not only protects the emigrant against the monopoly of the land-shark – it protects him against the trickery of the native. If the emigrant were free privately to buy his 100 acre lot of wild land of the native who represented himself as the owner, it is by no means improbable, that when the emigrant had put up his house, our native friend, (though he would not cook the traveller a potato on the sabbath,) might present himself with a complaint that he had sold the land too cheap, and must have a "present" – a gun, horse, or cow – to make amends. Or if the original seller did not personally repudiate his bargain, it is by no means improbable, that some of his tribe would do so for him – on the ground that the land was theirs, that the wrong man had got the money, &c. when the new-found owners might extort a further payment.

In short, under the system of private purchase, the buyer would seldom have a saleable title, or a certainty of secure, peaceable possession. Now, when a tribe of natives, after due discussion and long deliberation, publicly sell a district to the Crown, they know that, virtually, one of the parties to the bargain is a witness in a red coat, attesting with a bayonet; and a public bargain of this description they will honourably keep. The emigrant, therefore, buying of the Crown, buys of a recognised public owner – an owner whom he knows

THE LAND REGULATIONS.

and can trust – and, receiving his "Crown Title," receives a title to his estate which the Crown must and does make good to him, at all possible costs to itself. It follows, therefore, that wild land bought of the Crown's Representative, the New Zealand Government, at ten shillings an acre, might prove far cheaper than wild land bought direct from the native owners at ten pence per acre.

By the "New Constitution Act," of 1853, the British Crown delegated all its powers of sale, disposal, and general management of the wild lands of New Zealand, to the General Assembly; and this body, by their "Waste Lands Act, of 1854," unwisely delegated this great trust to the Six Provincial Legislatures: namely, the Provincial Councils of Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago. Each Provincial Council has set up a different land-sales system for itself – thus, the waste lands of New Zealand are disposed of under no fewer than six independent "Sets of Regulations;" and these Regulations set up so many sorts of land, and sell and lease these different sorts at so many different rates, in so many different ways, that some 500 sections and clauses have actually been used in the work of framing and explaining them.

To present the reader with these 500 articles, in extenso, would be to occupy some fifty of my pages with a mass of matter which would probably bewilder, and which might disgust him. In lieu of this, I beg to offer him a short abstract of the

THE LAND REGULATIONS.

main provisions of the six systems, which, I think, will impart all needful preliminary information – for none of the present Regulations make land purchasable in England; and, on arrival in the colony, a call at the land-office of the district would serve to acquaint the emigrant with the small forms and "official minutiae" of the Land Regulations of the particular Province which he had chosen for his home.

The compilation of this abstract, short and simple as it may seem, has been a work of greater trouble than the writing of any two chapters of the book. Great confusion has naturally attended this experiment of setting up six systems of land-selling; and such confusion has been worse confounded by the peculiar legislative process through which each system has had to pass before it could become operative law. Each of the six Provincial Councils has first debated two Sets of Regulations: one the ministerial, the other, the opposition scheme. When at last one of these sets has been adopted by a majority, it has been forwarded to the Governor for his assent or disallowance – four of the six sets were disallowed by His Excellency, when four others had to be debated afresh. But even when a set of provincial Land Regulations has duly passed the Governor's scrutiny, and come into force, there is no security that it will long remain in force. For instance, a new Superintendent is elected; the minority of the Provincial Council, defeated before in their "opposition" Set

CONFUSION OF THE SYSTEM.

of Regulations, may now be the majority, and may carry their old Set of Regulations, when, of course, the existing ones become a dead letter. In this manner, some of the most important clauses of the Auckland Regulations are now being discussed, with a view to alteration. Rumours, too, are afloat that Canterbury is about to cease asking two pounds for an article that can be bought elsewhere for ten shillings; and what is occurring at Auckland and Canterbury may occur any day in all or any of the four other Provinces.

When to this it is added, that provincial legislators have been far more intent on defeating each other's measures than in letting the emigrant world know what measures they have really adopted; that "Provincial Gazettes," giving the official announcement of their various final acts, are almost as unattainable in London as Egyptian manuscripts; that four of the six Provinces are virtually unrepresented in this country, the reader will, I think, see that the task of picking out the six kernels from among the 500 sections and clauses of our various provincial Land Regulations is much akin to that of winnowing out the one true grain from the bushel of worthless chaff.

One of the most important clauses in the original Auckland Land Regulations, is that under which the land-buying emigrant was to receive the whole amount of his "passage-cost" in land; but in a recent little pamphlet, now lying before me, called a "Hand-book for Emigrants to New Zea-

THE LAND REGULATIONS.

land," by a Mr. Forsaith – himself, I think, a member of the very Council which passed these Regulations – this clause is not even mentioned, and the writer leaves his subject with these rather inconclusive remarks: –

"The above is a brief summary of the most important provisions of the Auckland Land Regulations of March, 1855, and it may be taken for granted that the amended code is, in general principles, very much the same, though the details may have undergone some modification.

"The opinion thus ventured is supported by the following extracts from one of the Auckland papers lately received.

"'Mr. Dilworth moved, That in the formation of regulations for the sale, letting, occupation, and disposal of the waste lands of the Crown, within the Province of Auckland, it is essentially necessary to sustain the good faith of the province; and to attain that object, the regulations now under consideration of the Council should be amended, so that the regulations which shall be passed may be based, as nearly as possible, upon the same principles that are contained in the existing Land Regulations, only altering matters of detail, and amending those portions which have been found practically defective.'"

Again, in another little publication, styled the "Six Settlements of New Zealand," published, I believe, by the Messrs. Young, the various Land Regulations of New Zealand are explained in the following paragraph: –

"Land can only now be purchased in the colony. The price of land throughout New Zealand is reduced to a general rate of 10s. per acre, and great facilities are given for obtaining it. Where land is declared by the commissioners not to be worth 10s., from its distance from the

INTERPRETING THE ORACLE.

town, or other causes, it is to be sold by auction at an upset price of 5s. per acre."

Now, so far from this being a correct statement for the whole of New Zealand, it is only a correct statement for one-sixth of New Zealand, the Province of Wellington; only a partially-correct statement for the Provinces of Auckland and Otago; and an utterly incorrect statement for the other three – the upset auction price at New Plymouth and Nelson being from 10s. to 20s. per acre, and the real price there, consequently, anything from 10s. up to 30s. or 60s. per acre; whilst the fixed price of Canterbury is £ 2per acre.

These are instances of the difficulty of interpreting our provincial or vestry parliament legislation which should pique our vestry parliaments to attempt two things when they aspire to do the work of the General Assembly; the one to understand their own words, the other, to let the public know what these words are.

Though, however, the precise price of wild lands in New Zealand may not be so fixed and certain a thing as the British Income-Tax, the emigrant reader may console himself with the reflection that popular opinion in New Zealand runs in favour, not of Mr. Wakefield's high-price theory, but in favour of a moderately low fixed-price; and that any changes which may take place in the existing Regulations will be changes tending to the introduction of a common fixed cash price of from 10s. to 20s. per acre for the best agricultural land –

DIGEST OF THE REGULATIONS.

prices at which, everything considered, it will unquestionably be the cheapest land obtainable in any quarter of the globe.

– – – – – – – – – -

ABSTRACT OF THE PRINCIPAL CLAUSES of the "SIX SETS OF LAND REGULATIONS" NOW IN FORCE IN NEW ZEALAND. – It is near enough to say that each Province makes three chief descriptions of wild lands – namely, town, rural, and pastoral; and sells the two first and leases the latter. 54 Town lands are the lands which constitute the sites of new villages and towns – these are divided into small lots from a rood to an acre, the authorities affix a published "reserved price" to each, and they are sold at periodical public sales for cash to the highest bidder. Rural lands are the common agricultural lands of the province, sold in the various ways described hereafter. Pastoral lands are the wild grazing lands of the province, leased (as described hereafter) for a term of years under a deed termed a "run licence," to the emigrant who, embarking in pastoral pursuits, becomes what is indifferently termed a run-holder, sheep-farmer, flock-master, or Squatter. When the terms of

AUCKLAND SET.

purchase of any town or rural lands are fulfilled, the buyer receives his Provincial Crown title, for which he pays twenty shillings.

1. AUCKLAND (see Appendix for New Regulations). – Offers one-third of her rural land (called "special occupation land ") to bona fide occupants, in lots of 40 to 500 acres at 10s. an acre, with five years' credit. Occupant buyer receives a five years' lease at a yearly rental of 6d. an acre; and at the expiration of the term (rent having been paid, and conditions of occupancy having been fulfilled) receives his Provincial Crown grant in fee simple.

Offers her other rural land (called "general country land ") in lots of 40 to 1000 acres, and more, at 10s. an acre, cash. Buyer to send in to Land Board rough description of the land he wants. When two or more buyers apply at the same time for the same lot, lot to be put up to auction at 10s. an acre; the biddings to be confined to the applicants. Buyer may have land surveyed at his own expense by a Land Board surveyor, and receive land in repayment at the rate of five acres per 100.

Affects 55 to allow the emigrant the whole cost of his

VESTRY LEGISLATION.

family's passage inland; 56 makes officers of the United

AUCKLAND REGULATIONS.

Service serving in New Zealand, and who shall retire

PASTORAL TERMS.

there, free grants of 400 acres; non-commissioned officers, sixty to eighty acres, and privates, forty acres. 57

Offers her "run-licence" for fourteen years, at a yearly rent of £5, with £1 a year additional for every 1000 sheep

NEW PLYMOUTH REGULATIONS.

over 5000 which the run will carry. No run to be granted larger than will depasture 25,000 sheep. If during the lease any portion of the run be required for sale, licence to expire over such portion; but run-holder to have preemptive right of buying at any time 80 acres of any portion of his run at 10s. an acre for his homestead.

– – – – – – – – – – –

NEW PLYMOUTH. – Puts a "reserved price" of 10s. an acre on her rural land; and sells it (in 40 and 240 acre lots, at periodical public auctions to the highest bidder for cash.

Makes no passage allowance to civilian emigrants; but grants military and naval emigrants, becoming bona fide colonists, drawbacks in the purchase of land on the following scale: – 58

| £
Field-officers of 25 years' service and upwards, in all | 600
  " 20  "   "   "  | 500
  " 15   "  or less  "  | 400
Captains of 20 years' service and upwards   "  | 400
  "  15   "  or less   "  | 300
Subalterns of 20   "  and upwards   "  | 300
  "  7   "   "   "  | 200

Non-commissioned officers and privates (serving in the Province, and discharged there with good-conduct certi-

WELLINGTON AND NELSON.

ficates) buying land and becoming settlers, receive drawbacks of £80 and £40.

No pastoral lands having yet been acquired in the Province of New Plymouth, no pastoral lease regulations have been framed.

WELLINGTON. – Offers her rural land, in large and small lots, at the fixed price of 10s. an acre; and puts a portion (seconds quality) up to auction at a reserved price of 5s. an acre, in lots not exceeding 640 acres, all for cash. When two or more persons apply the same day for the same lot of the 10s. an acre land, such lot to be put up to auction at 10s. an acre as the reserved price, and sold to the highest bidder. Bidders to be confined to the applicants.

Makes no passage allowance either to civilian or military emigrants.

Offers the "run-licence" for the term of fourteen years; charges a £5 licence fee, and a yearly rent of 1/4 d. per acre for the first four years, 1/2d. for the next five, and 1d. for the last five. Conditions of expiry of lease and pre-emptive right, nearly the same as at Auckland.

NELSON. – Puts a reserved price of 10s. to 20s. an acre on the best, and of 5s. to 10s. an acre on the seconds quality, of her rural land, offers the first in lots of from 10 to 150 acres, and the second, in lots of from 80 to 400 acres, for cash to the highest bidder, at periodical public sales. Makes no passage allowance to civilian emigrants; but grants all military and naval emigrants of the United and Indian services, retiring for the purpose of "settling" in New Zealand, 59 a drawback of £300; non-commissioned officers and privates, £60 and £30.

Offers the "run-licence" for the term of fourteen years, charges a £5 licence fee, and a yearly rent of 1/2d. an acre

CANTERBURY AND OTAGO.

for the first seven, and 1d. an acre for the last seven years. Conditions of expiry of lease and pre-emptive right nearly the same as at Wellington.

CANTERBURY. – Offers her rural land, in 20 acre and larger lots, at £2 per acre, cash. Makes no allowance either to civilians or officers; but grants 30 acres to discharged invalid soldiers (or their widows) who have served in the Russian war.

Offers the "run-licence" in the form of a yearly tenancy, renewable at pleasure every 1st of May till the year 1870 on these terms: – for a run of less than 1000 acres, £1 for every 100 acres; for a run of 1000 and less than 5009 acres, 2d. an acre for the first 1000 acres, and a 1d. for every additional acre; for a run of 5000 acres and more, 1/4d. per acre for the first and second years, 1/2d. for the third and fourth, 3/4d. for the fifth and every subsequent year. Tenancy over any portion of the run to expire when such portion be wanted for sale; but tenants of runs under 5000 acres to have pre-emptive right of purchasing a twentieth part of the run for a homestead at £2 per acre, and tenants of larger runs to have the same right of purchasing 250 acres at the same price.

OTAGO. – Offers her rural land, in 10 acre and larger lots, at 10s. an acre, cash, coupled with the condition that the purchaser shall within a period of four years expend upon it, in cultivation and improvement, £2 per acre = 10s. a year – the personal labour of the purchaser and his family to be calculated as a portion of the £2 per acre.

Makes no passage allowance or drawback either to civilian or military emigrants.

Offers the "run-licence" for the term of fourteen years; charges a £5 annual licence fee (£1 in addition for every 1000 sheep over 5000), and makes an agistment charge of 6d. per head per annum for horses and cattle, and 1d. per head for sheep.

THE PROVINCIAL STOCKS OF LAND.

ASSISTED PASSAGES TO LABOURING EMIGRANTS.

Canterbury and Nelson are the only two Provinces which have yet established any official representative agencies in this country. The Canterbury agency is at 32, Charing Cross, London; the Nelson, 55, King William Street, London Bridge. It is probable that the other settlements will eventually follow this example; but, in the mean time, I believe Messrs. Arthur Willis, Gann, and Co., Crosby Square, London, in some measure represent the Assisted Emigration Department of Auckland, New Plymouth, and Otago; whilst Messrs. Young of Cornhill, and Messrs. James Baines and Co. of Liverpool, in some measure represent Wellington.

PROVINCIAL STOCKS OF LAND FOR SALE.

The order in which the Six Provinces would stand, if ranged with respect to the quantity of wild land which at present they have in hand for sale or lease, would be about as follows: –

1. Otago.
2. Canterbury.
3. Wellington.
4. Auckland.
5. Nelson (see page 224).
6. New Plymouth (see pages 65 and 209).

REMARKS ON THE SIX SYSTEMS.

Recollecting that the great emigration fields of the world, the United States, the Canadas, and our North American possessions, our South African colonies, our five Australian colonies (most of them much older and more experienced in colonial and emigration policy than New Zealand, and having millions of acres of wild land to dis-

THE SIX SYSTEMS.

pose of where New Zealand has thousands) have each been satisfied to set up one plain system of land-selling, it appears ludicrous that an infant emigration field like New Zealand should profess to require, and should actually set up, six.

The most glaring defects in this group of systems are two – selling on credit, and selling by auction, the one evil confined to Auckland and Otago, the other chiefly to New Plymouth and Nelson.

Auckland offers five years' credit on a third of all her rural land. Now in the colonisation of all new countries the paramount difficulty, the great puzzle is – how to supply emigrant capital with emigrant labour. In all new countries, the acquisition of land, is, perhaps must be, injuriously easy. There, the emigrant capitalist can instantly buy his 500 acres for a trifle; and there the emigrant labourer can instantly buy his fifty acres for a trifle. The capitalist with no labour makes sorry shift, and grubs on with one hand – the labourer with no capital makes sorry shift and has to do the same – united capital and labour, the parents of quick production, prosperity, and wealth, are severed, and the result is comparative barrenness. If by any artificial restriction the emigrant labourer could be kept a labourer for a year or two, and prevented from rushing at land until he had earned a little money wherewith to make the best of his land, the restriction would operate quite as beneficially for him as for his employer; and a young colony, whose Land Regulations effectually

EVILS OF CREDIT.

imposed some such restriction, would export more produce in one year than a colony whose Land Regulations did not impose it would export in six. The Wakefield system of colonisation, fertile as it was in blunders, was right on this point – it sought to keep the labourer a labourer, until the quick savings of his high wages had made him a little capitalist, and thus armed him, with the one other weapon necessary to enable him to convert his barren acres into golden crops. To assert that there is any shadow of oppression in this, any covert attempt to preserve paupers for squires, is simply humbug, simply a bray of the anti-Wakefield school. Whether wild land be 5d. or £5 an acre in a colony, the working man gets on in a colony faster than the employer – there is no exception to this; it is a fundamental law of emigration, which always has prevailed and which always will.

Now offering land on credit is offering a direct bribe to labouring emigrants to do that which they are always only too eager to do, that which, for their own good and that of the whole community, they never should do – namely, instantly to throw aside the well-paid axe and plough, and to rush to the land office for two or three hundred acres of wild land, without having a penny in hand wherewith to aid cultivation. 60 No

SELLING BY AUCTION.

doubt the industrious sober labourer does eventually work his way through his difficulties – though for some time even he will be little better than a non-producing estated pauper, neither adding to his own wealth nor to that of the community; but if he be an intemperate man, the difficulties and temptations of the new estate will drive him more than ever to the rum cup, and, like the beggar on horseback, he will ride quick to ruin.

Selling by auction, with a reserved price, I conceive to be another most pernicious blunder. Those who differ from me here argue thus – 1st, that every article should fetch its "best price;" 2nd, that auction is the only mode of sale whereby wild land can be made to fetch the "best price;" 3rd, that as wild land varies in quality it should vary in price.

Now what is this "best price" for wild land? – the price the emigrant can be piqued into giving for it in the sale-room? Certainly not; the "best price" is the price which will allow of his cultivating it with profit to himself and with advantage to the community.

Auction is a device of trade less employed to obtain a fair price for a good article, than to obtain an unfair price for a bad article. If there be old clothes, screwed hunters, curious wines, spurious

THE FIXED PRICE.

pictures, brass jewellery, plated watches, pawnbrokers' remnants, sacrificed drapery, give dexterous Moss Moses the hammer, and let him and his duffers tempt or exasperate one fool to outbid another! But New Zealand, in selling her wild lands to the emigrant world, does not want to trick her buyers into giving the most for a bad article – she wants the above-defined "best price" for a good article.

The argument about difference of quality always reminds one of Paddy's postage grievance: – "the rapacious Saxon charged him a penny for his letter, and charged his brother at Ballyshannon, full ten miles further, no more!" In New Zealand, the common climate does much to equalize the natural fertility of the soil; and if a proper system of survey were rigidly enforced, there could not be (save in a few exceptional cases) any great difference in the natural or artificial advantages of surveyed lots of rural land. If all rural land were divided into "firsts" and "seconds," the one at 20s., the other at 10s. an acre, all intrinsically would be amply worth these prices; and if A. got a hundred-acre lot amply worth £100, surely A. is not to turn dog in the manger, and growl and howl because his neighbour B. has for the same money got rather a better lot! A.'s business is to stick in the plough, to employ the two talents which the Lord has given him, and be thankful that he has got any land at all.

But no mere mode of land-selling is worth a word which will not effectually sell land. New

EVILS OF THE AUCTION SYSTEM.

Zealand land, as I shall argue by-and-by, would be the most effectively sold if made saleable in London as well as in the colony, and this auction system would prevent it being made saleable in this country. Rural land in 50 to 500 acres lots, chooseable in any Province on arrival, at two fixed prices of £1 and 10s. an acre, would, I believe, soon attract thousands of emigrants to New Zealand; but make the pound an upset price, and ask for it as a deposit – once introduce the elements of uncertainty, once let the emigrant conjure up the auction-room, with its possible trickeries of short supply, combinations, mock-competitions, personal rivalries, enmities, and hostilities (which things are not mere phantoms), and we should very effectually frighten him away from New Zealand, and drive him to some other colony, where the art of colonisation was better understood.

Other serious defects might easily be exposed in these Provincial Land Regulations if space permitted and the task were pleasant. But, after all, I fear that New Zealand's real weakness in this matter is not so much, that she has six systems of land-selling which are defective, as that she has six systems at all. Each settlement's first great want is men and money, in other words emigrant land-buyers; and, to attract these lucrative customers, each settlement has opened its retail land-shop. Business has scarcely commenced yet, the emigrant public do not know the respective terms; but when they do know, when the doors are fairly open and the shut-

OPPOSITION LAND TRADE.

ters are fairly down, the usual consequences of a fierce opposition trade will, I fear, ensue: alterations in terms, extension of credit, reductions in quality and price. An internecine "land-tariff-strife" may arise, and we may get our monthly list of provincial wild-land prices, just as we get our monthly list of commercial import prices. If Wellington sells the best rural land at 10s. an acre, how long will Nelson go on asking 100 per cent, more for the same article? – if Canterbury sees emigrant ships passing her port to get Otago's rural land at 10s. an acre, how long will she keep hers unsaleable at £2 per acre? – if Auckland gives the civilian emigrant 500 acres of land for nothing, 61 how many civilian emigrants will travel on to New Plymouth, Nelson, Wellington, Otago, and Canterbury, to pay from £250 to £2000 for the same quantity and quality? – and if Nelson and New Plymouth give every naval and military emigrant a freehold, how many naval and military emigrants will go to Canterbury, Auckland, and Otago to buy a freehold?

I cannot but think that the General Assembly committed a signal error of policy when they delegated this long-desired power of dealing with the wild lands of the country to the Provincial Councils, and thus gave us six clashing, obscure, ill-defined, systems of land-selling, instead of one plain uniform system for the whole colony.

INTERNECINE LAND FEUDS.

It is idle to assert that the system which would have been best for one Province would not have been best for all. There may have been some little real or fancied differences in the wants and requirements of the various Provinces; but the great overriding want of each and all, the want compared to which all other wants were but as shadows and cobwebs, was POPULATION, more men and women; and that one system which would have attracted the greatest population to New Zealand would unquestionably have been infinitely the best system for the whole colony, and infinitely the best system for every Province of the colony. The power of managing the wild lands – the rich exchequer, the population lever of a young country – was by far the most valuable power which the Constitution conferred on the General Assembly; it was the practical "Magna Charta" of the colony; and if sound, good legislation had been displayed only in using this one great power, no amount of bad legislation on all other colonial affairs could possibly have prevented New Zealand's rapid rise and continuous prosperity. But it is not only that the plan of six clashing and rival systems of land-selling will seriously check emigration – there is a further evil. The inevitable tendency of its operation will be to split the colony into six hostile little communities, to make it a house divided against itself, and to perpetuate those old feuds and jealousies under the influence of which the citizens of Auckland would once have gladly

THE TRUE AIM OF LAND REGULATIONS.

done battle with the burghers of Wellington, under the influence of which Nelson made mock at New Plymouth, and New Plymouth sneered at Wanganui, and covenanting Otago would have trampled down prelatic Canterbury.

It is, I think, self-evident that the true object, the paramount end and aim of any "Land and Emigration Policy" of an infant colony where there is one human being to 1600 acres of fertile wilderness, should be that of attracting population, that of tempting to her solitary shores the primum mobile of civilisation – People.

Without a British emigrant population, New Zealand can rise to be no more than Tahiti, the Sandwich Islands, the Fejees, or any other semi-savage island group of the South Pacific.

With her parish-handful of 50,000 inhabitants she may be likened to the puny infant stumbling over straws – give her a population of five hundred thousand, and then the value of every present colonist's acre would be increased fiftyfold, and her step would be Diana's – give her a population of five millions, and she might display an annual export of twenty millions sterling, sweep the Pacific, take toll of Australia's gold beetles, harry China, alarm Russia, defy the Times, and demand Prince Alfred Ernest Albert for King.

Strange to say, however, this great, perspicuous end and aim of a young colony's Land and Emigration Policy seems to have been utterly overlooked by the vestry legislators who were set to frame such

VESTRY LEGISLATION.

policy. In reading the hundred and one orations of the lion, members of the Six Provincial Vestries who have produced our "Six Sets of Land Regulations," one looks in vain for any indications of consciousness on the part of the speakers that New Zealand's first great want was Population, and that the Land and Emigration Policy they were debating was virtually the one machine, which could supply population. The ruling inspiration of the debate seems to have been the carrying out of some Wakefield crotchet of high-price, or some anti-Wakefield crotchet of low-price – the insertion of some clause to please the fancies of some cherished constituent – the hunting of local popularity among the £5 voters by selling land on credit – the mode of escaping a share of certain public burdens charged on provincial land funds – the catching of pensioner votes by the introduction of military clauses – the pandering to the shepherd princes by giving up large portions of the country to a handful of monopolising squatters, &c, &c. – and when any honourable vestryman has looked beyond the precincts of his parish, he has seldom advanced beyond Australia and the question of what would draw over to us the re-emigrant diggers!

In short, in entrusting the framing of our "New Land and Emigration Policy" to our six Provincial Councils, we have done much as England would have done had she entrusted the conduct of the Russian war to the corporation of Chichester and the select vestries of Stoke-cum-Pogis and Marylebone.

PROVINCIAL COUNCILS.

These Provincial Councils – kept down to their legitimate sphere, and treated as vestries or municipalities – are excellent institutions for the conduct of all local affairs, and the quantity and the excellence of the local work they have done, make us only regret the more that they should have been called on to do general legislative work which, from the very nature of their constitution, they were incompetent to do.

The Land and Emigration Policy of New Zealand is an imperial-colonial question – not a provincial parish question. The colonial minister, Sir John Pakington, to whom we are indebted for the Constitution, Mr. Gladstone, Sir W. Molesworth, Earl Grey, and every member of both Houses who passed the bill, were so strongly of this opinion, that one clause of the "Constitution Act" expressly declares that the General Assembly shall and that the Provincial Councils shall not have the management of the Wild Lands of the colony. And when, smitten by momentary blindness, the General Assembly prayed the Crown to reverse this wise provision, it almost committed an act of political felo-de-se, from the effects of which it will never, I fear, thoroughly recover until, appealing to the good sense and patriotism of the Provincial Councils, it gets back that keystone of its power which it threw away, and gives us one plain, uniform system of Land-Selling instead of six crude and clashing local systems.

Surely it will not be contended that the British

COLONISATION QUACKERY.

emigrant public, the body of all bodies whom every colony should desire to please and attract, likes a variety of systems of Land-Selling. To meet the fancies of colonising quacks and doctors there has always been a variety in New Zealand. Land has always been sold there in half a dozen ways at half a dozen prices, varying from one penny to three pounds per acre – and has this attracted British emigrants? It is now some fifteen years since New Zealand became a colony – in this period more than two millions of people have emigrated from Great Britain to the United States – more than half a million to Canada – more than half a million to Australia – and fewer than fifty thousand to New Zealand! Surely, then, bitter experience, if not common sense, might show us that it is time to have done with this quackery of land-selling, this sticking up of one grotesque little system in one corner, another in another; time to abandon theories and speculations of colonization doctrinaires; time to cast away cherished bits of high-price system, low-price system, and no-price system; time to take a practical business-like view of the question, and to offer the great article which we have to sell at such a price and in such a manner as shall please and attract those who would buy. Variety of land-selling systems has signally failed to attract emigrant population – let us try uniformity – let us attempt to frame some one plain uniform system, which shall please the emigrant millions, and make our colony as attractive in her artificial advantages

THE END AND AIM OF A LAND POLICY.

of land-purchase as she is in her natural advantages of soil and climate.

It would far exceed the scope and compass of the present work to lay down in detail, and to support by argument and illustration, every provision and regulation of that uniform Land and Emigration Policy which we should find most suitable to our New Zealand wants. But believing that the true end and aim of any New Zealand land and emigration regulations should be this: – to tempt to our colony a portion of the 300,000 people who every year emigrate to Canada, America, Africa, and Australia; and to tempt to our colony hundreds of excellent British families who as yet emigrate nowhere – believing that any system which aimed at accomplishing this end would put more pounds in the pockets of the 50,000 colonists in New Zealand than any half-dozen systems which did not aim to accomplish it would put pence – believing this, I amused myself during my last voyage to the colony in writing a short essay on the subject; and the following is an outline of the leading provisions of that General Land and Emigration Policy which I think would best meet the requirements of our peculiar New Zealand case. The reader who, as a present or as a future New Zealand M.P., may one day have to take a part in framing some new general land sales and emigration policy, may differ from me on many points, and be right; but if any of my suggestions should meet his approval and serve as "legislative hints,"

THE ONE UNIFORM SYSTEM.

my object in devoting half a dozen pages to this sketch of my own scheme will be fully attained, and I shall have the satisfaction of feeling that I have helped a better man than myself to benefit the land of our common adoption.

I. – UNIFORM SYSTEM.
One uniform system of survey, classification, mode of sale, and price of land, and expenditure of land revenue, to be laid down and organized by the General Assembly for the whole colony. But the administration of such uniform system, the appointment of all necessary officers for carrying it out, &c, &c, to be confided to the Provincial Legislatures.

II. – CLASSIFICATION OF LAND.
Suggested uniform system to be as follows: – All New Zealand wild land to consist of four sorts. Town land, being sites for small towns, and narrow belts round towns, in 1/4 acre and 5 acre lots – rural A, being best agricultural land, in 50, 100, and 200 acre lots – rural B, being inferior agricultural land, in 500, 1000 and 2000 acre lots – and pastoral, being wild grazing land, in estimated 10,000 acre lots.

III. – LAND, SURVEY, AND IMMIGRATION OFFICES.
A public survey, land-sale, and immigration office (under one roof), to be opened in each chief provincial town, where all maps, plans, books, documents, and useful information, relating to each department shall at all times gratuitously be at the service of the public. Superintendent from time to time to direct survey department to lay out wild lands of the Province as by section II. – taking care to secure as many natural boundaries as possible, and to apportion the natural advantages of each district as equally as possible among the various lots.

IV. – RESERVED LAND FOR CHOICE OF NEW COMERS.
One equal-value half of all town and rural lots of every

ONE UNIFORM SYSTEM.

new district to be reserved for the selection of emigrants arriving with land-orders purchased in England, until half such reserved district be so selected. Superintendent from time to time to publish what lands are open for purchase in his Province. Land offices to display maps of the same, and to exchange such maps with the land offices of the other Provinces.

V. – PRICE.
All land to be sold for cash. Town lots to have a Superintendent's declared reserved price affixed, and to be sold to the highest bidder at periodical public sales. Rural A lots to be sold at a fixed price of £1 per acre. Rural B lots at a fixed price of 5s. per acre. Pastoral lots to be leased as by section VII. When two or more parties applied at the land office simultaneously for the same piece of land, priority to be settled by lot.

VI. – PASSAGE LAND-ALLOWANCE.
Any person (save mechanics and labourers assisted to the colony to work for a time for wages) landing in New Zealand from any country, satisfying the immigration office that he had come to be a bond fide resident colonist, to get a "remission order," entitling him to receive as a free gift from the colony, as much rural land as half the sum he can prove he paid for his own, or for his own and his family's and servant's, passage to the colony would purchase. Thus, if a family's passage, say from England, cost them £200, they would be entitled to 100 acres of rural A land, or to 400 acres of rural B land. Where the passage allowance did not amount to the fixed price of any lot, the party to pay the balance in cash.

VII. – PASTORAL TERMS.
Pastoral lots to be leased to applicants for ten years, at the annual rent of 2d. per acre. At the expiration of three years, the Run to have stock depasturing on it equal to at least one sheep for nine acres; and ever after, one

THE NEW ZEALAND OFFICE.

sheep to six acres, or lease to be forfeited. Any portion of the Run to be given up at any time if required for town or rural lots; but Lessee to have pre-emptive right at any time during his lease of purchasing 2000 acres, or any less quantity, of any portion of the Run (save any portion which Superintendent might reserve for public site of a new town, and which reserve must be pointed out at the commencement of the lease) at 10s. an acre.

VIII. – NEW ZEALAND OFFICE.

A general New Zealand land and emigration office to be opened in London as the official representative of New Zealand and the General Assembly.

A. Such Office to sell rural land-orders to all applicants, entitling purchaser (or his agent) to select the land in any surveyed, open-for-selection district, of any one of the six Provinces of New Zealand any time within three months after arrival in the colony.

B. Such Office to advertise itself and New Zealand in all legitimate ways – to be furnished with a public colonists' room, displaying maps, views, books, and all colonial official documents – and to constitute itself a public establishment where the public could at all times procure accurate information on all New Zealand subjects.

C. Such Office to appoint honorary agents in every town and large village in the United Kingdom (and a few in Germany), and to prepare and to furnish such agents, for gratuitous distribution in their respective districts, with a half-yearly "Circular," of half-a-dozen pages, briefly showing the natural advantages of the colony as an emigration field, and explaining the colony's Land and Emigration Regulations.

D. To keep on a public table, open to the inspection of all callers, a land sales' book, showing the particulars of each sale of a land-order.

E. When the monies received for land amounted to £500, the same to be paid in to the Union Bank of Australia to the account of the General Assembly.

ONE UNIFORM SYSTEM.

F. Land sales' and banker's book to be open to the weekly inspection of some officer of the British Treasury.

G. Office to send a "Monthly report" of all monthly proceedings to the General Assembly, and to receive and follow the colonial instructions received from time to time from that body.

H. Head of office to have power to draw from the Union Bank a sum equal to all estimated annual expenses of the office – salaries, rent, printing, &c. (say £2000), and to pay all such current expenses.

IX. – APPROPRIATION OF LAND REVENUE.
The whole proceeds of land sales, after deducting surveys and expenses of management, to be applied to introducing mechanic and labourer emigrants. Eligible families of such to be selected and shipped by the London land office, and to repay half the cost of their emigration within two years after arrival in the colony, 62 The passage money of such assisted emigrants to be paid to the ship's agent by the Provincial Immigration Office on the ship's arrival in the colony.

X. – PROVINCIAL SHARES OF LAND FUND.
Such assisted emigrants to be dispatched to the various Provinces in such proportion as the General Assembly might from time to time instruct the London office to observe. Such provincial appointment of labourers to be regulated by the quantity of land which a quarterly inspection of the public land books of each Province might show had been selected in each Province during such quarter.

XI. – LABOUR LOAN.
General Assembly to borrow £100,000 on the colonial

REMARKS ON THE ONE SYSTEM.

revenues, and to apply the same as by section X. – apportioning such "loan-sent" emigrant labourers among the six Provinces, say on a population scale.

XII. – WILD LAND TAX.
All unoccupied, absentee-owned, rural land, purchased under these regulations, to pay an annual wild land tax of 1s. an acre; and town lots, £1 each.

Want of space prevents my doing more than making the following brief comments on the more novel features of this suggested system.

IV. "RESERVED LANDS FOR NEW COMERS." – Such reservation would not be unfair to the hundreds of colonists in the country, and would only be fair to the thousands of colonists whom we aim to attract to the country.

VI. PASSAGE ALLOWANCE. – It might be better to sell all our land than to give away any portion – but it is better to give away some portion, in order to sell a great deal, than to give away none and to sell only a little. Anything of value, given away, is peculiarly attractive to human nature. I hold that this gift might attract thousands to New Zealand who, but for it, would not come near New Zealand; and that three-fourths of such "gift-attracted thousands" would purchase 100 acres for every 100 they received free. It is notorious, too, that the great cost of the sea passage to New Zealand aids to deter thousands from going thither. This allowance would remove such fatal objection, by making the passage almost as cheap as the American, and cheaper than the African and Australian.

VII. "PASTORAL TERMS." – Considering the limited extent of our wild pasture lands, their fine quality, and singularly, cheap-improveable, character, all our Land Regulations make the Runs far too large, the rent far too low, and the "stocking" far too slender and non-productive.

THE NEW PASTORAL TERMS.

New Zealand will become a great wool-producing country – but she is a cultivated, "field-growing," wool country rather than a wild, "run-growing" wool country; and the aim of the Legislature should not be to grow wool on the system of ten millions of wild acres roamed over by five millions of sheep, but on the system of ten millions of semi-cultivated, grass-sown, acres supporting thirty millions of sheep (see page 404). I would therefore reduce the size of the Runs, increase the rent to 2d. an acre (each acre might produce a clear annual profit of 2s., and one-twelfth of the profit is not too much for that which makes the profit) and after the third year require a full stocking of the Run. If in three years the Run-holder had not acquired means of making use of the public land which, in that case, he would be uselessly monopolizing, he would only have to announce his willingness to take stock "on thirds" from town dwellers and others who would like to invest a few hundreds in sheep, to have his Run fully stocked to the mutual benefit of himself and his fellow-settlers.

With a view, however, of moulding the Run-holder to the natural characteristics and requirements of the country, and tempting him to become a stationary, field wool-grower, I would make a great alteration in his favour in the matter of pre-emptive right, by allowing him to purchase two thousand acres of his Run instead of eighty. Why, on what possible policy, he has always been restricted in New Zealand to eighty acres, I cannot conceive. It might be sufficient for a paddock and a cabbage plot in Australia, where no man thought of making a permanent estate out of any portion of his Run, but it is utterly inadequate in New Zealand, where every Run-holder could, and where every Run-holder should be encouraged to make a permanent estate out of a portion of his Run. Surely, if the Run-holder buys the land, his money is as good as that of any other person who might buy it; and by allowing him to make certain of getting the fee-simple of 500 to 2000 acres, we offer him a most potent bribe to do the very thing we want him to do, namely, by degrees, to lay down

SELLING LAND IN ENGLAND.

a portion of the Run into rich pasture, and thus feed four sheep on one acre instead of one sheep on three acres. In short, our Run-holder has been treated with too much favour and with too little: he has been allowed to monopolize at a nominal rent whole tracts of country with a sixth of the stock which, in their wild state, even, such tracts would carry; but he has been forbidden to purchase land and make himself anything better than a monopolizing Squatter; and if I were one of the bearded fraternity, I would much rather take a Run on the terms I have sketched than on those of any one of the six Regulations now in force.

VIII. A. "SELLING LAND IN ENGLAND." – If little New Zealand freeholds, 50 to 500 acre lots of rural land, were made a purchaseable marketable article in this country, more, I think, would be sold (I mean permanently and regularly) in one month, than would be sold in six months if the purchase were restricted to a remote market at the antipodes 16,000 miles away.

The experience of the New Zealand Company, of the Otago and Canterbury Associations, almost proves this opinion to be correct – probably seventy-five per cent, of all land sold by these bodies was sold at home – and a common-sense view of the question, a principle of human nature, is in perfect accord with this experience.

Capital – especially scraps of capital of from £500 to £5000 in the hands of tens of thousands of our middle classes – is ever seeking investment in this country: nibbling at Russian railways, buying Peruvian securities, discounting cobweb bills, demanding shares in patent mangle, or rattlesnake-hatching companies, or British Banks; whilst, in default of any tempting pit for losing itself in, it sinks to barren rest in the funds at £4 per cent.

New Zealand is now a safe field for investment; she has emerged triumphant out of all her early troubles, has a free representative Government, offers perfect security for life and property, gives unimpeachable Crown land

SELLING LAND IN LONDON.

titles, enjoys a state of substantial well-based prosperity, is every day becoming a more favourite English emigration field, and is now within sixty days' easy reach of the Royal Exchange.

If, enjoying such state and status, she were now to open in London a public Government land office, to which any man might step and buy his 50 to 500 acre lot of land for his £50 or £500, as easily as he would step to a hat shop and buy his hat, most unquestionably she would draw to her till a considerable number of those "scraps of capital" which are here constantly running through the country seeking those safe and profitable investments which they seldom find.

Again, when a man marries, and when a man emigrates, friends make him presents – we will not ungallantly say to console him, we will say to establish him. But the presents are not generally money presents. If our friend Brown, of page 612, is off to New Zealand, we don't care to offer him a £50 note – in the reckless expenditure of an emigrant's departure, he might spend it in a steam turnip-cutter or a patent wafer machine. But if for £50 we can present him with a "100 acre land-order," we gladly do it: it is a parting gift to Mrs. B., an acknowledgment of years of hospitality, a little present for Lucy when she wears the orange blossoms, a freehold for the first antipodal baby.

Again, when we enter the London Land Office to buy Brown's 100 acres, what more likely, if the gentleman who presides be the right man in the right place, than that some of us may count down another £50 and buy a 100 acre lot for ourselves, and ask Brown to select it and rent it? We may never go to New Zealand, but that is no reason why we should not have our 100 or 500 acres of land there just as well as in Northamptonshire or Norfolk: it would be a freehold growing in value year by year, saleable probably in five years for treble what it cost; and if reverses came, if we ever did emigrate, we should have provided a snug haven wherein we might drop anchor and defy the storm.

LAND-ORDER PAYABLE BY ANY PROVINCE.

The reader may object that this mode of land-selling in England would lead to certain evils of absenteeism. But no; by clause XII. we impose such a stinging tax on unoccupied wild acres, as would compel the English absentee to put some producing tenant on his purchase; and, if this were done, the mere personal absenteeism of the proprietor himself would, to a certain extent, be a benefit to a young emigration field like New Zealand. Our chief wants, in the mother country, are friends, advocates, advertisers, proclaimers: exactly what our absentee land proprietors would become – for, through love of his own acres, every Absentee, more or less, in his own circle and neighbourhood would be an active honorary agent for us, a colonisation recruiting serjeant. Moreover, on this question of absenteeism we have to recollect that every absentee who pays us £50 for a lot of land, has furnished us with means of introducing a good labouring family into the colony.

"LAND ORDER AVAILABLE FOR ANY DISTRICT OF ANY PROVINCE." – The privilege of choosing the lot, of cashing the land-order, if we may so express it, in any surveyed, open-for-selection district in any part of New Zealand which, on arrival in the colony the emigrant might prefer, would, I conceive, be a privilege which would double the English land sales. I, although I should probably know pretty well where to go for valuable land, would now rather give £1 per acre for a London issued land-order, empowering me to select my purchase in any Province I might prefer on arrival in the colony, than 10s. an acre for a land-order restricting my selection to any one Province. And if a person who knows something of the country would so value a right of wide selection, how much more would those value it who are either quite ignorant of the country, or who have heard the various Provinces and Settlements in turn so depreciated and abused by our various addle-headed provincial partizans as to be in a state of utter bewilderment as to which settlement or Province would really suit them best. The right of select-

LAND-ORDER PAYABLE BY ANY PROVINCE.

ing in any Province on arrival, too, would not be a mere word-right which the Emigrant would not, or could not, exercise. In a few months, the six Provinces and their various settlements will be linked together by a line of coast steamers, when the emigrant, leaving the ship at the settlement which he thought he should prefer but not afterwards being quite satisfied with such Settlement, could leave his family snugly housed there, and run over to two or three other Provinces, and amend his first selection; or return to it, satisfied that his first choice was the best.

But making the land-orders payable by any Province would not only double the sale of land-orders, and be a most valuable boon to the emigrant buyers – it would be a most profitable arrangement for the colony, and for all parties having business with the department of Surveys. If 100 rural land-orders, payable – say only in New Plymouth, were presented at her land office in the same month, her surveyed lands might not always enable her to honor such orders before the next month; when there would be delay, disappointment, and loss of character. But if such land-orders ran, "payable in any surveyed open-for-selection, district in New Zealand, at the option of the buyer," there would be no delay; for the buyer could at once insist on having his land in the adjoining Provinces of Auckland or Wellington or elsewhere, where the surveys were duly forward. And this loss of a customer, a new settler, through backward surveys, would so exasperate New Plymouth (or any other settlement in the same position) that his Honour the Superintendent would probably have to say to the hapless chief surveyor, "Go, and never more be officer of mine;" and would place some gentleman in the berth who could move the theodolite a little faster. In this way, a wholesome rivalry would be engendered among the various offices; and each Province would be careful to keep on hand a good stock of surveyed selectable land, ready for the choice of all its "land-order-bearing" visitors.

ADVERTISING NEW ZEALAND.

VIII. C. "PUBLIC REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE IN LONDON." – Of course the system of selling land in the mother country could not be carried out without an agency office in the mother country; but, independently of this, it appears to me that some effective official representation and advocacy of our colony in the mother country is absolutely necessary if we would give our colony a fair chance among her many rivals in the emigration field. We cannot expect the million to emigrate to New Zealand if they see and hear nothing of New Zealand. Journey from John O'Groat's to the Land's End, visit fifty seaports, stop a day in a hundred market towns, go through the Channel Islands, ascend Snowdon, thread the wilds of Connemara, penetrate to the remotest Highland clachan, take up a hundred country papers, or a hundred cheap periodicals, and you will see America, Canada, Australia, puffed, advertised, and represented in a thousand ways – but you will scarce see or hear a word about New Zealand. Under our new "Constitution," the Colonial Office, and the Land and Emigration Office have done with her; all the companies and associations which once represented her are gone; and it is no exaggeration to say that whilst America, Canada, and Australia, are "familiar household words" to the emigrant million, New Zealand is comparatively little more than a terra incognita even in name.

IX. and X. "DISTRIBUTION OF LAND REVENUE." – It appears to me that under some simple arrangement of this nature, every Province might secure its due share of the general land revenue; and receive, in the shape of labour, all which it had contributed to the "labour fund."

"LABOUR LOAN." – The Cape Colony proposes to borrow £200,000 for this purpose. We require labour more than the Cape Colony, and can better afford to pay for it. If there be any human transaction where it is profitable to borrow money, it is that where the colonists of a young and teeming country borrow money to spend on introducing labour. Borrowing £50 to plant a good

THE WAKEFIELD COLONISATION.

labourer's family in New Zealand is much akin to borrowing a spade to dig out a nugget.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – -

MR. BRIDGES' SYSTEM.

I have much pleasure in giving insertion in this chapter to the following memorandum by an able writer and practical economist, embodying the leading features of a new principle of "Colonisation." I cannot but think however that if Mr. Bridges, following the Baconian philosophy, desires to see his new principle produce fruit, he would do well to ignore all governmental departments, and to trust entirely to the commercial soundness of his theory to call up and create those private companies who (with the co-operation of the colonies) would carry the theory into practice, though on a prudentially smaller and more tentative scale than Mr. Bridges suggests.

Whatever might be the social and pecuniary results of an emigration settlement planted on this system, the system does unquestionably originate one proviso of colonization-economy which would altogether remove a fatal rock on which the great Wakefield system of colonisation mainly split.

It would be scarcely possible to name any scheme for the amelioration of man's lot, in which so much of the true has been blended with so much of the false, as in the Wakefield scheme of "systematic colonisation." That political half of Mr. Wakefield's theory which treats colonies as sea-joined counties, as well entitled to representative government and the rights of Magna Charta, as Middlesex or Kent, is exactly and admirably true; and Mr. Wakefield's successful exertions in helping our colonial empire to reduce such theory to practice entitle him to a foremost place among those "colonial worthies" whom future colonists may delight to honour in marble and bronze. Nay, the theorem even of the economical half of Mr. Wakefield's system, the theorem that wild land at five

THE WAKEFIELD SYSTEM.

pounds per acre with labour and improvements, might be cheaper to the emigrant than wild land at five pence per acre without labour and improvements, is a good and a sound theorem to which every practical colonist, who knows what emigration and wild land really is, would readily subscribe.

The "failure," as it is most unjustly called, of the Wakefield system of colonisation, was merely the failure of the author's own attempt to reduce a part of a sound theory to practice; and his attempt proved a failure mainly in consequence of three radical errors: –

1. Virtually exhausting the labour fund by giving the labourer a free passage, and not making him repay, at least half, the cost of the passage.

2. Most unfairly making one class of the new community, the land-buyer, pay for every "improvement of civilisation" which the whole of the community enjoyed.

3. Exhausting the emigrant land-buyer's little capital by calling on him at once to pay down the heavy price of certain "improvements of civilisation" before such improvements were made.

1. When the surplus, possible-pauper labourer is transplanted from the mother country to the colony, the good effected is a tripartite good: the labourer is benefited, the mother country is benefited, the colony is benefited, and each, virtually, is benefited in an equal degree. Hence, in any national system of colonisation, the fair and equitable division of the cost of transplanting the possible-pauper labourer would be a tripartite division – the labourer would pay a third, the mother country a third, and the colony a third.

But in the absence of any such system, it is unquestionably more fair and equitable that the emigrant labourer should be called on even to repay the whole cost of his conveyance to a richly-paid labour field where he soon acquires gold, than that (as under the Wakefield system) the whole cost of his conveyance to wealth should be borne by him whom, to use a term bordering on mockery, we call the capitalist emigrant.

2. Virtually, under the Wakefield system, the agriculturist, that is the land-buyer, paid the public taxes for the whole

THE WAKEFIELD ERRORS.

community. One to five hundred per cent, of the price he paid for his wild land was paid for the introduction of labour, and for the creation of roads, bridges, wharfs, jettys, schools, churches, and colleges – things which were no more for the use and benefit of the unfortunate land-buyer than for every one of the dozen other classes of the new community. A yeoman-farmer, with a house full of children, going to Mr. Wakefield's Canterbury, and paying down £600 for 200 acres of wild land, contributed some £400 to a public fund for labour, public works, and religious and educational institutions. A merchant, a shopkeeper, a lawyer, a master-builder, a publican, or any other of the town-dwelling orders of the community, going to Mr. Wakefield's Canterbury and needing and buying only a town acre or half acre for the warehouse, shop, office, domicile, or tavern, would contribute some £10 (one-fortieth part) to this public fund. A public fund from which they derived quite as much benefit as the poor yeoman land-buyer, a man who, as a cultivator of the soil, a producer of exports, was, as an emigrant, worth any six of the mere non-producing town-dwellers put together. 63

3. This was Mr. Wakefield's great economical blunder. I speak from ample information in saying that the average clear cash capitals of those who are termed "capitalist-emigrants" do not exceed £500. Now by the time an emigrant of this calibre had paid his way to one of Mr. Wakefield's New Zealand settlements and had paid £200 to £300 for his hundred acres of wild laud (half or three-fourths of which was not for the wild land, but for something which those who took his money were to do to improve the value of the land), his purse was exhausted, and virtually he was a bankrupt. The very labour which a large portion of his little capital had gone to bring to his door, he

THE WAKEFIELD ERRORS.

could not employ, because he had no cash left wherewith to pay for it; and it is notorious among New Zealand colonists that very often Mr. Wakefield's well-bled capitalist-emigrant actually had to pay his labourer in land – thus, at once bringing about that very evil which the Wakefield system had been specially devised to avoid: the evil of the labourer leaving the labour ranks and rushing at land, before the savings of his high wages had endowed him with a little capital wherewith to make the best of his land.

Now this third and chief blunder Mr. Bridges avoids. He suggests that the fee-simple of the improved wild land shall be purchased by annual instalments spread over a period of twenty years. Here, then, the emigrant land-buyer would husband his little capital for the creation and fructification of his little estate. He would pay for the improvements of the wilderness by degrees, and as he got the benefit of such improvements.

It may be remarked, too, that by paying for these "civilisation-improvements" as they were made, he would make sure of getting value received for his money, a thing he unquestionably could not make sure of if (as under the Wakefield system) he paid for them he/ore they were made. The history of the five Wakefield settlements, Wellington, New Plymouth, Nelson, Otago, and Canterbury, shows that the land-buyers did not get all which they had paid for. Large sums of money were paid by them into the hands of irresponsible parties, and the usual result ensued: there was a host of officers, high salaries, waste, extravagance, carelessness; the funds were muddled away, and the money went. In the smallest settlement, New Plymouth, some £40,000, I think, was spent on surveys, roads, and bridges. The work actually done would have been dear to the land-buyers at £10,000. The administrators of the Wakefield system, who spent this money, were easy and excellent masters – to the present day in New Plymouth if a man be seen working with his coat on and a pipe in his mouth, they say he is doing the "Company's stroke," that is, he is working more lazily than usual.

MR. BRIDGES' SYSTEM.

With respect to the "life assurance" branch of Mr. Bridges' scheme, I certainly think that a family-emigrant, who insured his life, would be a wiser man, more the man equal to either fate, than the emigrant who did not insure bis life. But as a colonist far more familiar with ploughs than policies, Life Assurance is a subject on which I feel that I am not competent to offer an opinion. I may however remark that if Mr. Bridges looks on the land and emigration branch as the great feature of his system, which he would develope without reference to life assurance, he would do well to shorten the term of the "instalment-purchase." Twenty years in a young colony like New Zealand, is equal to half a century in the old European world; three emigrants out of four would rather pay for the land in five years than in twenty, and ten years would be a period amply long enough to fix on as the "purchase-term."

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – -

LIFE AND LAND: A MEMORANDUM.

"It is capable of demonstration that with a comparatively moderate national outlay (moderate as contrasted with Government expenditure for war, and other unproductive, though necessary purposes) a vast economical benefit might be realised both for the mother country and the colonies, on the principle and system I have elsewhere indicated, 64 and which I shall now illustrate practically in a few words. It has been observed by Mr. John Stuart Mill that 'colonisation is the very best affair of business in which the capital of an old and wealthy country can engage;' but if the matter be not considered important enough for recognition in the Budget, nor regarded as sufficiently attractive by capitalists, the contributors of poor-rates might possibly be convinced that were an application of the system instituted by means of a fund derived from capitalising a portion of the poor-rates, we should secure the three-fold object of lessening the number of the poor, by securing em-

MR. BRIDGES' SYSTEM.

ployment for those who would otherwise come upon the parish, of consequently reducing the poor-rates from the return on the outlay as well as the diminution of the causes of pauperism, and of lessening the number of crimes against property which so often result from distress and the vindictive feelings engendered by the cruel manner in which the crime of poverty is punished in England. The poor's rate of London alone is about £600,000, or 1s. in the pound, on a rental of £12,000,000, the assessment varying from 3d. to 6s. in the pound! A rate in aid of emigration, of one per cent., or 2 1/2d. in the pound, would realise £120,000, equivalent if capitalized at £4 per cent to three millions sterling.

"The principle advocated is that of making lands available for individual profit by a large organized outlay in the first place, in agricultural adaptation, roads, bridges, and institutional endowments, and thereafter spreading the price of the lands to be disposed of, over a period of years, or during life, if coupled with a Life Assurance policy: the consideration being intermediate between that of a sum down by way of purchase-money, and that of a continuous annual rent which can never secure the proprietorship of the freehold.

"The price I shall suppose to be payable over a period of twenty years, and the annual instalments accordingly will be moderate enough to allow of the optional payment of a premium of £l or £2 per cent, in addition to secure the absolute fee-simple, without further payment, in the event of the premature decease of the head of the family.

[The same principle is equally applicable to the operations of a Colonial Loan Company, and to the case of actual settlers requiring advances to improve their farms: the security for such advances being the land under cultivation, with or without the collateral mortgage of a Life Assurance, according to the mode of repayment agreed on.]

"Let me assume that a tract of land of 1,000,000 acres is obtained in the colony of New Zealand.

| £
The price of the land, and the preliminary expense fund, I put down at 10s. an acre, or | 500,000
I propose that there be further expended in draining, fencing, and various agricultural preliminaries | 200,000
Carried forward | £700,000

EMIGRATION LIFE-ASSURANCE.

| £
Brought forward | 700,000
In laying out streets, roads, and tramways | 200,000
On reserves for public parks, gardens, &c. | 200,000
Public institutions and educational endowments | 200,000
Emigration, including free-passage, outfit, utensils, and occasional advances. | 500,000
Reserve fund for such additional purposes as may be found necessary or expedient. | 200,000
| £2,000,000

"The lands, therefore, and their adaptation to social purposes will cost two millions sterling, or £2 an acre. In offering these lands for sale, such enhancement of price and such division into allotments, may be decided on as shall seem best. In case the affair be undertaken commercially, a sufficient basis might be established by a body of existing landholders putting their lands into a common fund, and as the outlay on adaptation cannot be made at once, the necessary share capital might be raised by annual instalments, say within six years, and an annual valuation made to determine the price of allotments as improvements proceeded: or the capital might be contributed and advances made to emigrating members on a system analogous to that of the Freehold Land Societies in England.

It will, of course, be open to purchasers to pay for their lands at once by ready money; but the majority of settlers will require, and will be entitled to pay for the same, by annual instalments, spread over say twenty years as above suggested. An annual payment of £8 for every £100 worth of land will replace the price of the lands (with 5 per cent, interest) in the above period. 65

"The various incidental benefits that would be conferred on society and on the individual by carrying out the system on a

MR. BRIDGES' SYSTEM.

national scale, more especially in making the land a vast national fund for imperial and colonial purposes and a substitute for taxation, I shall not expatiate upon; but one very obvious result arising from the occasional introduction of the life assurance element into the operations, may be here adverted to.

"It is evident that colonists upon the proposed system will find it, under ordinary circumstances, expedient or advisable to assure their lives for the amount or value of their holdings, so as to leave the absolute freehold to their families. As every prudent man will avail himself of this means of providing against contingencies, there might be combined with the land operations, the organization necessary for the general business of life assurance, whether in the hands of the colonising body, or of an institution identified with it. The attention of the colonist being directed by his obvious interest in the first place to the value of the life-assurance principle, it would be well to put within his reach all the ordinary modes and forms of the life-assurance system.

"In this memorandum, it is not expedient to enter into details; but I may be permitted to suggest that the principle of charging a rate of premiums fully adequate to insure safety be adopted, and in the division of the surplus fund or the accumulation of contributions arising from the premiums payable being rather more than absolutely sufficient, the fund be so divided and apportioned as to place the policy-holders in the position they would have occupied had no such excess of premiums been required.

"The return would, therefore, be made in money by deduction from the annual premiums, commencing with that due at the end of say the sixth year, so that the assured may dispose of the same in whatever way shall seem to him most expedient. It may be mentioned, that one of the modern life-associations, which has proceeded on this equitable and practical principle, was enabled, after its sixth year, to deduct 30 per cent, of the premiums, and after ten years, not less than 35 per cent.; that is to say, the premiums although originally moderate, have thus been reduced to less than two-thirds of their amount.

"And let me add here, that if there must be always and everywhere, and in the best-regulated communities, a pauper

MR. BRIDGES' SYSTEM.

estate resulting from the complicated working of civilisation and competition, let the necessary fund to provide for the unfortunate be in some way created by the agency of a national assurance system, so as to constitute a social right, instead of a heartless charity.

"W. BRIDGES.
"23, Pall Mall,
"February 10, 1857."

54 Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, and Otago, make a class of "suburban lands," being narrow belts round each new town site. These lands for the most part are sold in the same manner as the town lots, but are generally divided into five and ten acre lots.

All the Provinces, too, recognise mineral lands, which are leased under certain conditions to any approved applicant.

55 I use the term "affects" advisedly. The under sections 28, 29, 30, and 31, made law two years ago, and infinitely the most important sections to British emigrants, have actually been rendered nugatory by the Commission to appoint any agent of the land board in England! The sections are not only nugatory, they are deceptive. Sections 33 to 36, relating to Indian emigration expressly state that pending the appointment of an Indian agent, any Indian emigrant arriving in Auckland, may go before the land board and get his land allowance on satisfying the board that he had come from India to be a bona fide settler, &c. Naturally any English emigrant seeing these Auckland Regulations, finding that two years after the passing of them no English agent was appointed, would assume that the Provincial Council thought no English agent was necessary, arid that he (the English emigrant) would only have to present himself in Auckland, and do as the Indian emigrant did, to get the same allowance as the Indian emigrant got. He would assume quite wrong, however. An English family did emigrate to Auckland under this idea; went to the land board, and were coolly told with that official indifference which is so charming in boards, that they had no claim to land, because they had not applied to the English agent! applied to an official who had no existence! Admirable Vestry Parliament! Whether the Auckland Council intend to appoint an agent now they have discovered that they never did appoint one; whether they intend to let this section remain a dead letter in their Regulations as a sort of emigrant trap, or whether they intend more honestly to expunge it altogether, is a question which I regret to say I can in no way answer.

56 EMIGRATION FROM UNITED KINGDOM.

28. As it is expedient that persons emigrating from the United Kingdom or elsewhere to settle in the Province of Auckland should be entitled to acquire property in land free of cost in proportion to their actual outlay on emigration, every such person who shall, out of the colony of New Zealand, purchase a land-order for the selection of special occupation land and pay a deposit thereon as hereinbefore provided, shall be entitled to nominate any number of persons, himself included (the amount of whose passage-money shall not exceed the purchase-money of the land selected), as intending to emigrate to the Province of Auckland and bona fide settle there, and the agent of the waste land board shall thereupon grant a nomination certificate stating the names and ages of the persons so nominated, a description of the land-order in respect of which such nomination certificate is claimed, and that the person to whom such certificate is granted claims to acquire land free of cost in respect of the same.

29. Every nomination certificate shall be presented to the waste land board in Auckland, or to their agent elsewhere in the Province, before whom shall appear personally such of the persons named therein as shall have arrived, and the waste land board, or their agent, on being satisfied as to the bona fide intention of such persons to settle in the Province of Auckland, shall in exchange for such nomination certificate, grant a money certificate in respect only of such persons who shall have actually arrived, or who shall have embarked but died on the passage, stating the amount for which such money certificate will be received in payment of the purchase-money of the land which shall be selected under the land-order in respect of which such nomination certificate shall have been granted.

30. In making up the total sum for which any money certificate shall be granted, the amount to be allowed shall be: –

For every cabin passenger as follows: –

If from Europe.
If from any of
the Australian
Colonies.

£ s. d.
£ s. d.

For every person fourteen years of age and upwards
40 0 0
12 0 0

For every child between seven and fourteen years of age
24 0 0
6 0 0

For every child above one year and not exceeding seven years of age
16 0 0
4 0 0

For intermediate and steerage passengers as follows: –

For intermediate and steerage passengers as follows: –
20 0 0
8 0 0

For every child between seven and fourteen years of age
12 0 0
5 0 0

For every child above one year and not exceeding seven years of age
8 0 0
3 0 0

31. Every such money certificate shall at any time be received instead of money for the amount therein expressed, in payment or part payment, as the case may be, of the purchase-money of land purchased under the land-order in respect of which the said money certificate shall have been granted.

EMIGRATION PROM INDIA.
33. As the appointment of Agents in India cannot at present be conveniently made, and as it is desirable to encourage emigration therefrom, every person arriving from India for the purpose of settling in the Province of Auckland, and desirous of selecting land, shall be entitled to acquire property free of cost, in proportion to his actual outlay on emigration upon the following terms.

34. Every such person shall, within three days after his arrival, personally attend at the office of the waste land board in Auckland, and state his claim to acquire land under these Regulations.

35. The waste land board shall appoint a day for investigating such claim, when, if it shall apear to them that such person left India with a bond fide intention of becoming a settler in the Province of Auckland, they shall grant him a money certificate, amounting in value to two-thirds of the sum which he shall prove to the satisfaction of the waste land board that he has actually expended in the payment of passage money for himself, his family, and servants to New Zealand, not exceeding in the whole the price of five hundred acres of special occupation land.

36. Such money certificate shall be received for the amount therein expressed, in payment of any special occupation land which he may select from such as may have been declared as hereinbefore provided to be open for sale in New Zealand.

57 NAVAL AND MILITARY SETTLERS.

37. Every naval and military officer, whether on full or half pay, and every non-commissioned officer and private marine and seaman, whether belonging to Her Majesty's service or the service of the East India Company, who being on service in New Zealand, shall retire or obtain his discharge there, shall be entitled to receive from the waste land board (in lieu of an allowance of money expended in passages, as hereinbefore provided in respect of settlers emigrating from the United Kingdom) a money certificate enabling him to acquire land free of cost, after the following rate: –

Commissioned officers | 400 acres.
Non-commissioned officers above the rank of corporal or equivalent to that rank in the sea ser- | 80 acres.
Non-commissioned officers being corporals or under that rank or equivalent to or under that rank in the sea service | 60 acres.
Private soldiers, marines, and seamen | 40 acres.

58 Here we have another instance of that want of clearness, precision, and completeness which characterises the drawing and phraseology of these Provincial Regulations. Clause 6, section 37, of the New Plymouth Regulations, runs thus: – "Military and naval officers will be allowed the privileges accorded to them in the purchase of Crown lands by any regulations in force within the province previously to the issue of these regulations." Now the regulations here alluded to are Sir George Grey's regulations of March 4, 1853, the military clauses of which are given (in substance) as above. Then why could not the New Plymouth vestry plainly quote this clause, and avoid the looseness and vagueness of the expression, "any regulations in force?"

59 The "settling in New Zealand" is here declared to be a residence in the Province of Nelson for two years.

60 An Auckland paper has these remarks on the first credit sale under the new system. "The land disposed of, at a price of 10s. per acre and at a credit of five years, was divided into two portions – northern and southern – and for the several lots contained in both there were eager claimants, by tens, twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties – the competitors for section G of lot 48 south numbering as high as 54 individuals. The total quantity of land submitted was 6118 acres. The number of applicants amounted to 160, and the area of land applied for to 43,651 acres."

61 By the New Regulations, given in the Appendix, this proposed "passage-allowance" has for the present been done away with, but the new Superintendent's proposed new Regulation may probably restore it.

62 The best, the most equitable division of the cost of transplanting the "possible-pauper labourer" from the mother country to the colony is the tripartite division mentioned in the article on "State Emigration," Chapter XIX.; but here we have to look not so much at the best as at the practicable.

63 I forget the exact fractional apportionment of the £3 per acre in the Canterbury scheme; but in the Canterbury, and in the Nelson, and in the Wellington, and in the Otago and in the New Plymouth scheme, the apportionment of the price of the wild land, and the expenditure of the land sales revenue, was, more or less, an apportionment and an expenditure fleecing the land-buyer much in the unmerciful manner I have here assumed. The reader will bear in mind, however, that under the new Land Regulations which have been described, all this unfairness has now ceased.

64 Vide "The Prudent Man: or, How to acquire Land and bequeath Money by means of co-operation." Second Edition. Bailliere, London and New York.

65 "The annual instalment to repay £100 at 5 per cent, in 10 years would be £13 – in 5 years, £23. At 6 per cent, the respective instalments for 20, 10, and 5 years, would be £8 15s., £13 13s., and £23 15s. – W. B."

CHAPTER XVIII. STATISTICS. – PRICES. – WAGES, ETC, ETC.

STATISTICS.

CHAPTER XVIII.

STATISTICS. – PRICES. – WAGES, ETC, ETC.

THE value of national statistics as an element of good government is everywhere becoming manifest. A rising young statesmen, Lord Stanley, is now warmly advocating the establishment of a "Statistical Department" as a distinct governmental department. But statistics, however valuable to an old country, are more valuable to a young country. Annual national statistics are published mainly to show the annual progress which the nation has made in wealth and strength. Now the annual progress in wealth and strength of a young fast-growing country is, of course, much greater than that of an old slow-growing country; and if the statistical publication of some progress be beneficial to the latter, the statistical publication of much greater progress must be more beneficial to the former. But the young country, the rising colony, derives a singular special advantage from the publication of statistical progress. If a British national statistical sheet of 1857 proved that Great Britain had ten per cent.

STATISTICAL DEFICIENCIES.

more of people, stock, cultivated - acres, roads, revenue, &c, than she had in 1856, the national statistical sheet would be satisfactory and unquestionably beneficial – but it would not tend to attract more people, more capital and labour, to Great Britain to make its next annual increase in national wealth and strength twenty per cent. Now in a young colony a national statistical sheet would tend to do this. If, as a person beginning to contemplate emigration, I were to meet with some authentic official statistics, showing me that in one short year Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago had advanced (as would be true) 15 to 50 per cent, in population, cultivation, stock, revenue, &c, it is extremely likely that such brilliant "figure-facts" would induce me, and hundreds like me, to end our doubts and carry our valuable persons and purses to New Zealand, in order to share in and to swell such statistically-accredited plain-proven prosperity.

Attractive colonial statistics tend to people a colony's fertile wastes – no colony has materials for more attractive statistics than New Zealand – no colony more requires or more deserves an emigrant population. It is, therefore, doubly mortifying to find that we have no statistics worthy of the name. The 1st of April, a New Plymouth superintendent may print a statistical "stock" scrap for New Plymouth; the 1st of August an Otago superintendent may print a statistical "population" scrap for Otago; the 1st of

POPULATION TABLE.

January a Nelson superintendent may print a statistical "revenue" scrap for Nelson, and so on. The "Australian and New Zealand Gazette," an excellent London journal, which devotes a portion of its columns to colonial news, may or may not catch these scattered scraps and publish them. But if caught, they are but partial scraps – practically about as useful to the emigrant world in estimating the wealth and strength of New Zealand, as the statistics of Cornish copper mines would be useful to a foreigner in estimating the wealth and strength of Great Britain.

ESTIMATED ENTIRE POPULATION IN NEW ZEALAND ON JANUARY 1, 1857.

[The nett balance of increase of the "Colonist Population" by births and immigration for the last year or two seems to have been nearly 15 per cent.

Province.
Colonists.
Natives.
Soldiers.

Auckland
15,000
35,000
1,000

New Plymouth
3,000
8,000
250

Wellington
12,000
15,000
750

Nelson
9,000
1,000
–

Canterbury
7,000
500
–

Otago
4,000
500
–

Totals.
50,000
60,000 1
2,000

1   The natives at page 159 were roughly estimated at 70,000, but further consideration induces me to place the number at 60,000.

BIRTHS. – DEATHS. – RELIGIONS.

POPULATION STATISTICS FOR THE PROVINCE OF OTAGO, FOR THE YEAR 1855.

Total colonist population: – Males, 1600; Females, 1400 = 3000.

Infants and children under 14 | 1300
Between 14 and 21. | 300
Above 21 | 1400
Total | 3000
Deaths in the year | 13
Births     "  | 130

Assuming (as we fairly may) these Otago statistics to represent the ratio of births and deaths for the other five Provinces, and taking the present population of New Zealand to be 50,000, we should find the annual number of deaths to be little more than 200, and the annual number of births to be over 2000! – a state of things which might well have hurried Malthus to an early grave.

The number of deaths in this population in England would have been rather more than 1000.

Assumed proportions of the races, and religious creeds, of the 50,000 pioneer colonists in New Zealand.

PROPORTIONS OF RACES.

Foreigners.
Irish.
Scotch.
English.

1 2
10
20
100.

2   Nine-tenths of the few foreigners are composed of Americans, Germans, and French – Russia is represented by one individual: a waif and stray tossed by the chances of life on the shores of Akaroa.

PROPORTIONS OF RELIGIOUS CREEDS.

Catholics.
Wesleyans.
Free Kirk and
all other Dissenters.
Church of England.

1
3
4
7.

AUSTRALIAN POPULATIONS AND EXPORTS.

ESTIMATED PRESENT COLONIST-POPULATION, AND VALUE OF ANNUAL EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF THE SIX AUSTRALIAN COLONIES.

Colony. | Population. | Value of Imports. | Value of Exports.
New South Wales | 350,000 | £6,000,000 | £4,000,000
Tasmania | 70,000 | 1,600,000 | 1,500,000
Victoria | 450,000 | 12,000,000 | 14,000,000
South Australia | 100,000 | 2,000,000 | 1,000,000
West Australia. | 10,000 | 100,000 | 50,000
New Zealand | 50,000 | 600,000 | 400,000
Totals. | 1,010,000 | 22,300,000 | 20,950,000

COMPARATIVE VALUE OF THE ANNUAL EXPORTS AND IMPORTS per Head OF THE POPULATIONS OF OUR AUSTRALIAN GROUP OF COLONIES, GREAT BRITAIN, UNITED STATES, AND FRANCE.

People. | Exports, per head. | Imports, per head.
| £ | £
Colonists | 23 | 25
John Bull | 7 | __
Brother Jonathan | 5 | –
Dutchmen | 8 | 9
Frenchmen | 2 | –

COMPARATIVE (ESTIMATED) "ACREAGE-AREA" AND POPULATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND NEW ZEALAND.

| Great Britain and Ireland | New Zealand,
Number of acres | 77,000,000 | 78,000,000
Number of White population | 26,000,000 | 50,000
Number of acres to each inhabitant | 2 3/4 | 1,600

CULTIVATIONS AND STOCK.

ESTIMATED EXTENT OF CLEARINGS AND CULTIVATIONS AND AMOUNT OF STOCK IN NEW ZEALAND, CALCULATED UP TO MAY 1ST, 1857, SO AS TO INCLUDE THE AUTUMNAL LAMBING OF SHEEP, 66 AND AMOUNT OF STOCK IN OTHER COUNTRIES.

Province.
Cultivations.
Sheep.
Cattle.
Horses.
Pigs.

Auckland
50,000
50,000
20,000
2,800
7,000

New Plymouth
15,000
30,000
6,000
500
3,000

Wellington
50,000
350,000
23,000
2,200
7,000

Nelson
50,000
330,000
17,000
2,000
7,000

Canterbury
20,000
320,000
16,000
1,600
6,000

Otago
15,000
120,000
12,000
1,200
3,000

Total, Colonists'
200,000
1,200,000
94,000
10,300
33,000

Assumed Native
25,000
–
6,000
1,700
say-
67,000

Rough Total
225,000
1,200,000
100,000
12,000
100,000

Victoria
150,000
5,200,000
600,000
35,000
40,000

United Kingdom
–
35,000,000
8,000,000
1,500,000
–

France
–
35,000,000
10,000,000
–
130,000

Holland
–
860,000
1,150,000
860,000
–

NEW ZEALAND'S INFANT MARINE.

Vessels registered at or belonging to the one port of Auckland: –

. . . . . . . . . . Tons.
William Denny (steamer) . 423
Wonga-wonga .. do. . 75
Signet . . 537
Invincible . 290
Zingari do.[steamer] 148
William . . 396
Galatea . . 346

THE INFANT MARINE.

. . . . . . . . . . Tons.
Jasper . . 236
Moa . . 236
Yarrow . . 228
Victoria . . 184
Wanderer . 180
Algerine . .160
Ocean . . 150
Kirkwood . 136
Drover . .174
Firefly . .180
Gertrude . . 118
Heather Bell . 191
Imperial . . 200
Sporting Lass . 183
Galway Ark . 228
Gazelle . .175
Vixen . . 169
Marmora. .135
Elizabeth . 127
Lightning . 109
Pauline . . 106
George . . 103
Queen of Perth 92
Pioneer . . 88
Grafton . . 77
St. Kilda . . 63
Southern Cross 69
Zillah . .66
St. Martin . 58
Flying Cloud . 53
Sir John Franklin . . 52

Small craft over 10 tons and not exceeding 50, chiefly fore and aft schooners.

. . . . . . . . . . . . Tons.
Vixen . .46
Medway . . 34
Ann Lloyd . 30
Pesart . . 30
Union . .27
Black Hawk . 19
Nimrod . . 19
Emma . 15
Glengary. . 15
Russell . .16
Victory . .16
Highlander . 13
Alexander . 36
Frances . . 19
Elizabeth . 21
Clyde . . 40
Naiad . . 21
William . . 15
Grampus . .17
Fish Hawk . 13
Dart . . 13
Eagle . . 23
General Pitt . 20
Boyd . . 15
Vivid . . 25
Hawkhead . 17
Argyle . . 13
Victoria . .17
Julia Ann . 16
John . . 24
Christina. . 21
Napi . . 17
Wave . .16
Exert . . 40
Swan . . 42
Rose Ann . 26
Traveller's Bride 30
Nancy . . 15
Fancy . . 33
Grace Darling . 15
Maria . . 15
Eagle . . 14
Susan . .16
Rose Ann . 23
George and Mary 16
Antelope . . 35
Mary Ann . 20
Mary . . 22
Mendlesham . 20
Ann . . 15
Naumai . . 14
Te Tere . . 17
Brothers . . 22
Dolphin . . 40
Theodore. . 20
Sisters . . 27
Children . . 30
Dauntless . 20
Sally Brass . 15
Bon Accord . 17
James . . 18
Julia . .. 14
Wai-Otahi . 16
Diana . . 20
Mary Ira. .18
Alexander . 16
Tay . . 15
Triton . . 19
Nymph . .18
Midge . .17
Oceana . . 41
Emerald . .32
Mary Jane . 16
Lily . . 17
Ellen . . 39
Elizabeth . 32
James and Julia 17

Coasting vessels, the property of native owners.

. . . . . . . . . . . . Tons.
Providence . 16
Eliza . . 20
Emma . . 14
Rose . . 32
Rebecca . . 19
Thomas . . 15
Sarah Jane . 16
George and Catherine . 14
Undine . . 21
New Zealander 15
Hazard . . 15
Marae Nui . 22
Ira . . . 20
New Zealander 13

THE INFANT MARINE.

. . . . . . . . . . . . Tons.
Ben Lomond . 32
Tui . . . 13
Mary Paul . 19
Louisa . . 23
Mana of the Queen . . 15
Isabella . .17
George . .16
Star . . 15
Hori Tepaea . 15
Robert . . 14
Waiapu . . 21
Hope . . 17
Ngahuia . . 16
Queen . . 32
Tamati Uaua . 24
Maggie . . 16
Uira . . 26
Erin . . 57
Elizabeth . 43
E. Hohi . . 17
Harriet . .18
Good Intent . 19
Pilot . . 15
Kororareka . 17
Favorite . . 18
Ika Motu . 19
Ophelia . . 24
Hira . . 17
Charlotte. . 16
Herald . . 24
North Shore . 18
Maria Jane . 18
Duke of Wellington . 18
Lady of the Lake 17
Ono . . 17

In addition to the above, there are 160 coasting vessels, of an average burden of 10 tons each, trading under licence from the customs; 34 of which are the property of native owners. All these (small) vessels are constantly employed in conveying produce, viz. wheat, maize, potatoes, pigs, flax, &c, from the circumjacent districts to Auckland, taking as back-freight blankets, tobacco, clothing, ironmongery, groceries, &c, &c.

This makes the total number of sea-going craft registered in or belonging to Auckland amount to nearly 350, approaching 10,000 tons burden. There are no marine statistics of the other five Provinces, but assuming that (together) they represent about the tonnage of Auckland, the whole of the sea-going craft registered in, or belonging to, New Zealand would amount to some 700 craft, of the gross tonnage of 80,000 tons. Of this infant fleet, probably three in four of all the vessels under 200 tons have been built in New Zealand.

THE NEW TARIFF.

Rough estimate of the yearly amount of English, colonial and foreign shipping now entering the ports and harbours of New Zealand (this is exclusive of the home coasting trade"). 67

| No. of Ships. | Tonnage.
English emigrant and other ships discharging cargo, and then chiefly proceeding on to Australia, China, and South America | 50 | 30,000
Whalers, chiefly American, coming in to recruit and trade | 100 | 60,000
Australian and English vessels engaged in the regular Australian and New Zealand trade, and casual spar-loading ships, and visitors | 250 | 60,000
| 400 | 150,000

THE NEW ZEALAND TARIFF, 1856.

Whereas it is expedient to alter the duties of customs payable on the importations of goods, wares, and merchandise into the colony of New Zealand.

Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of New Zealand as follows: –

I. Any duties of customs chargeable upon the goods, wares, and merchandise next hereafter mentioned imported into the colony of New Zealand, shall cease and determine from and after the 5th day of August, 1856, viz: –

1. All articles for the supply of Her Majesty's land and sea forces.
2. Animals living.
3. Bricks, slates, and stones for building purposes, and mill stones.

THE NEW TARIFF.

4. Boats.
5. Books printed, not being account books.
6. Bottles full of an article subject to duty.
7. Bullion and coin.
8. Casks, empty.
9. Coal.
10. Corn, grain, meal, flour, bread, and biscuit.
11. Gunpowder, fit only for blasting purposes.
12. Iron, pig.
13. Machinery, viz. brick and tile making, draining, flax, hay, and wool pressing, straw and turnip cutting, reaping, threshing and winnowing machines, steam engines and apparatus for ditto, and machinery for mills, including hand flour mills.
14. Manure.
15. Oil blubber and bone, the produce of fish or marine animals.
16. Plants, bulbs, trees, and seeds.
17. Passenger's personal baggage.
18. Ploughs and harrows.
19. Specimens illustrative of natural history.
20. Tobacco for sheep wash, subject to its being rendered unfit for human consumption, and to such regulations as the governor shall from time to time prescribe in that behalf.

II. The duties of customs now chargeable ou the importation of goods, wares, and merchandise next hereafter specified, shall cease and determine, and in lieu thereof the following duties shall be charged on all such goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the colony of New Zealand, or cleared from any warehouse for home consumption from and after the 5th day of August, 1856, viz.: –

| £..s..d..
1. Ale, beer, cider, and perry, in wood, the gallon | 0 0 6
Ale, beer, cider, and perry, in bottle, the gallon | 0 1 0

THE NEW TARIFF.

£..s..d......

2.
Cigars and snuff, the lb.
0 3 0

3.
Coffee, chicory, and chocolate, the lb.
0 0 2

4.
Iron – rod, bar, bolt, hoop, and sheet not otherwise manufactured, per cwt.
0 1 0

5.
Salt, the cwt.
0 1 0

6.
Spirits and strong waters of every kind, sweetened or otherwise, of any strength not exceeding the strength of proof by Sykes' hydrometer, and so on in proportion for any greater or less strength than the strength of proof, the gallon
0 8 0

7.
Sugar, raw and refined, of all kinds, and treacle and molasses, the lb.
0 0 0 1/2

8.
Tea, the lb.
0 0 3

9.
Tobacco, the lb.
0 1 3

10.
Wine, in wood and bottles, containing less than 25 per cent, of alcohol of a specific gravity of 825 at temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit's thermometer, the gallon
0 3 0

11.
Wood, of all kinds, not manufactured into furniture, the cubic foot
0 0 2

12.
Boots and shoes, hats, apparel of all kinds, and all material for making apparel, jewellery, cutlery, clocks, watches, and plated ware, and all silk, woollen, cotton, and linen manufactures (except corn and gunny bags and woolpacks), sperm, stearine, and wax candles (measuring outside the packages), the cubic foot
0 3 0

13.
All other goods, wares, and merchandise (measuring outside the packages), the cubic foot:
0 1 0

Or at the option of the principal officer of customs at the port entry at which the same shall be imported, the cwt.
0 2 0

THE NEW TARIFF.

III. A drawback of the whole of such duties shall be allowed for wines intended for the consumption of the officers of Her Majesty's troops serving in the colony of New Zealand, and of the officers of Her Majesty's navy serving on board any of Her Majesty's ships in the seas adjoining thereto, or such wines may be landed on first importation, or delivered out of bond free of duty, subject in all cases to such regulations as the Governor shall from time to time prescribe; provided always, if any such wines shall be subsequently sold in the said colony, except for the use or consumption of any of Her Majesty's military or naval officers, serving as aforesaid, the same shall be forfeited and liable to seizure accordingly. 68

SHOP PRICES OF ARTICLES OF DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION. – It should be remarked that this list

SHOP PRICES.

applies chiefly to town dwellers: country settlers on land generally produce all they require, except their groceries, and buy these more by wholesale, i. e. two or three families join and buy half a dozen bags of sugar or a chest of tea at some auction sale (groceries and imported merchandise of all sorts are frequently sold by auction in the colonies, and the auctioneer is far more closely allied with the merchant and trader in Australia and New Zealand than he is in England). Some of these articles at present may be a little higher in some parts; but our housekeepers' accounts for the next five years will, I think, show that my figures are substantially correct for an average. The common shop prices of clothing, grocery,

SHOP PRICES.

ironmongery, and of all imported British manufactured articles, may be called on the average about 50 per cent, higher than English prices.

House rent and hire of apartments is about double. Hotel and boarding-house charges are about 25 per cent, higher than in England, and spirits, wines, and colonial beer about the same.

s. d.

s. d.

Beef, mutton, pork
(prime cuts) per lb.
0 6
Bread, per lb.
0 2 1/2

Flour,   " 
0 2

Best potatoes, cwt.
3 0

Fowls, per pair
4 0
Cabbages (fine) each
0 2

Eggs, per dozen
2 0
Rice, per lb.
0 3

Milk, per quart
0 4
Sugar,   "  .
0 4

Fresh butter, per lb.
1 3
Tea,   " 
2 0

Col. cheese,   " 
1 4
Coffee,   " 
1 0

Bacon,   " 
1 0
Candles   " 
1 0

Firewood, month's supply for a family, 10s. to 20s.

COMMERCIAL IMPORTS. – In the regular direct import trade with the mother country there is very little of over-trading or speculation, and New Zealand markets, though limited, were long safe, and steady, and profitable to the English shipper.

Since the diggings' revolution, however, there has frequently been a glut of English imports at Sydney and Melbourne; and the communications between these places and Auckland and Wellington are now so quick and easy, that portions of any glut in Australia soon find the way across to us, and tend somewhat to disturb the certain character of our markets.

THE IMPORT TRADE.

As, however, our Australian friends are somewhat notorious for culling their imports, and for displaying a fair amount of commercial impudence in sending only their worst things on to New Zealand, "via-Australia goods" are rather sneered at by us, and direct-imported (good quality) British goods generally command a preferential sale over the real or suspected "second-hands" from Sydney and Melbourne.

The following late "price currents," from three of the principal settlements in the colony may give the commercial reader a fair guiding idea of our present wholesale markets.

AUCKLAND.

After a long time of depression it gives us pleasure to report that our market shows signs of improvement and returning activity; and we proceed to give such information as may be useful respecting our staple imports.

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. – With ploughs and harrows our market is well supplied.

BEER IN WOOD. – Bass's Burton ale is preferred. Stocks at present are considerable, and £9 10s. has been taken for one or two parcels.

Beer in bottle is scarce, there being none of Marzetti's or Allsopp's in first hands.

PORTER IN WOOD. – Barclay's may be quoted at £7, a price which does not pay the importer, owing to the advance maintained at home.

Porter in bottle is in fair demand, with stocks light.

WINES. – For port and sherry there is not much demand, but stocks of the former are very light, and high prices will very likely rule for good qualities.

SPIRITS. – Marten's brandy is in demand at 14s. and 15s. per gallon. W. I. rum we may quote at 5s. 6d. to 6s;

PRICE CURRENTS.

Scotch whisky – The consumption of this is increasing; it should be shipped in quarter-casks or octaves. Case Geneva is saleable at 23s. to 25s.

PROVISIONS. – We may note the following as in demand at paying rates: – Scotch oatmeal, pearl barley, split peas, cheese, hams, white and red herrings.

OILMEN'S STORES, GROCERIES, ETC. – Generally we are fully supplied with these; but salt (Liverpool and dairy), raw and refined sugars, and dried and bottled fruits are sought for at good prices.

CANDLES. – Price's No. 1 and the Neva Adamantines preferred. Our best sale for these is during our winter months, say from March to July,

TOBACCO. – The "Lion" brand (negrohead) is getting much liked; Shellard's also, and Kerr's, are well suited for our native trade. Cigars, really good, are not to be had; a small lot would pay well.

SHIP CHANDLERY. – No demand.

METALS. – Bar and rod iron saleable. Ewbank's nails worth 40 to 50 per cent, on nett invoice.

WOOLLENS AND SLOPS. – White blankets, 10-4 and 11-4, much wanted. They should be cut in single blankets. Messrs. E. Firth and Son's manufacture is preferred. Flannel: market well stocked. Blue serge shirts: for these there is a large consumption. They should be light blue, and soft to the touch, and well finished at the neck and wrists. Regatta and white shirts (not dressed), of a cheap kind for native wear, always saleable, and consumption increasing. This remark applies also to slop clothing of all kinds, such as drab and white mole trousers, pea jackets, black cloth vests and trousers, duck and drill trousers, &c, &c.

Woollen shawls, cheap and with showy colours, 8-4 and 10-4 size, getting much into native use.

BOOTS AND SHOES. – A steady demand for all kinds, if seasonable. Winter goods should arrive from April to June. For summer they should be here from October to January.

IMPORT PRICES.

MANCHESTER GOODS – The following are all much wanted at present, and there is generally a sale for small and well-selected shipments – say two bales of each sort: – Hoyle's cambric plates, navy blue and orange prints, fancy ditto, showy colours, fancy Madder ditto, white and grey calico, narrow widths, ditto ditto, 36 and 72 in.

DRAPERY, HABERDASHERY, ETC. – Well assorted parcels worth 40 to 50 per cent, advance, and in fair demand.

WELLINGTON.

IMPORTS.

LIQUIDS. – Beer – Ale, Bass and Allsopp's, £10 per hhd.; ditto, bottled, best brands, 10s. 6d. to 11s. per dozen; porter, Taylor's, £7 5s. to £7 10s.; ditto, Truman's XX, £6 10s. to £6 15s. per hhd. Spirits (in bond) – Brandy, Martell's dark, 14s. to 14s. 6d.; ditto, Henessy's dark, 18s. 6d. to 14s. per gallon; Geneva, J D K Z, 20s. to 21s.; old Tom, Swaine, Boord, and Co.'s, 19s. to 20s. per case; rum, Jamaica, 20 to 30 o. p., 5s. to 6s.; ditto, good W. I. 10 to 12 o. p., 4s. 6d. to 5s. per gallon; whisky, Campelton or Islay, 7s. to 8s. per gallon. Wines (quoted duty paid) – Champagne, 40s. to 50s. per dozen; port, double diamond, £14 to £19; sherry, fine pale, £14 to £16; ditto, common pale, £10 to £12 per quarter-cask.

GROCERIES AND OILMEN'S STORES. – Sugar, English loaves, 5 1/2d. to 6d. per lb.; ditto, Java dark brown, £33 to £35; ditto Mauritius bright yellow, £45 to £46; Pampanga, £32 to £33 per ton; tea, congou, £5 10s. to £6 per chest; tobacco, negrohead, 18 to 20 figs, 1s. to 1s. 3d.; ditto, cavendish, 10d. to 1s. per lb.; cigars, Manilla No. 2 (duty paid), 75s. per 1000. Sundries – Barley, pearl, 3 1/2d. to 4d. per lb.; biscuits, Huntley and Palmer's, invc. 40 per cent.; blacking, 6d. bottles, 3s. 6d. per dozen; blue, Colman's, 1s. 2d. to 1s. 3d.; candles, patent Belmont sperm, 1s. 10d.; ditto, composite, 1s. 8d. to 1s. 9d.; ditto, Sydney mould, 9d. to 9|d.; cheese, English, 1s. 3d. to 1s. 4d. per lb.; cocoa and chocolate, Fry and Sons, invc.

IMPORT PRICES.

35 to 40 per cent.; coffee, Java, 80s. to 90s. per cwt.; ditto, bottled, 17s. to 19s. per dozen; mustard, Colman's bottled, 1s. 1d. to 1s. 2d. per lb.; oil, salad, pints, 14s. to 15s. per dozen; soda, crystals, 13s. to 13s. per cwt.; starch, Colman's, 6 1/2d. to 7d. per lb.; soap, London and Liverpool, best, £30 to £33 per ton; vinegar, Hill, Evans, and Co., 2s. 6d. per gallon.

DRAPERY. – Flannel, invc. 33 to 40 per cent.; navy blue prints, 7-8 and 5-4 invc. 40 to 50 per cent.; shirts, Silver and Co.'s regatta, 40 per cent.; ditto, blue serge, 40s. to 55s.; trousers, white and drab moleskin, 45s. to 60s. per dozen.

METALS AND IRONMONGERY. – Iron, bar and rod, best Monkland, £20 to £21; lead, £36 to £38; tin plates, IC and IX assorted, 35s.; zinc, Belgian, rolled, No. 8 and 9, £46 to £50 per ton; axes, American, falling, 100s. to 102s. per dozen; camp ovens, light make, £12 to £14; cutlery, good table, 30 to 35 per cent.; nails, Ewbank's assorted, 40 to 45 per cent.; iron pots, light make, £15; saws, Sorby's pit and cross-cut, 25 to 30 per cent.; spades, Lyndon's, 35 to 40 per cent, per ton.

NAVAL STORES AND DUNDEE GOODS. – Anchors, small sizes, 35s. to 47s. 6d. per cwt.; blocks, invc. 40 per cent, adv.; canvas, Dundee unbleached, 1s. to 1s. 1d, per yard; chain cables, 26s. to 28s.; cordage, English, tarred, 70s. to 75s.; oakum, 54s. to 56s. per cwt.; oars, American ash, 1s. to 1s. 1d. per foot; pitch, 38s. to 40s.; rosin, 28s. to 30s.; tar, Stockholm, 45s. to 46s. per barrel.

SUNDRIES. – Bags, three-bushel, hemp, 19s. to 19s. 6d. per dozen; beef, N. S. W., best, £5 10s. to £6 per tierce; boots and shoes, men's, 35 per cent.; ditto, ladies', 35 to 40 per cent. inv.; brooms, American, 20s. to 30s.; chairs, 50s. to 60s. per dozen; clover seed, English, 10d. to 1s. per lb.; coals, English, alongside, 45s. to 50s. per ton; earthenware, inv. 70 to 80 per cent.; lead, white, best, 38s. to 50s. per cwt.; lucifers, round German boxes, 5s. to 5s. 6d. per gross; oil, linseed, 5s. 6d. to 6s. per gallon; wrapping, brown, 60s. to 66s.; pipes, assorted, 3s. to 5s. 6d.

IMPORT PRICES.

per gross; slates, Duchess, £17 to £18 per 1000; window glass, British, 23s. to 25s.; ditto, foreign, 18s. to 19s. per 100 feet.

CANTERBURY.

SPIRITS (in bond). – Brandy, Hennessey's and Martell's, 18s. to 20s. per gallon; brandy, Hennessey's and Martell's, in case, 42s. to 45s. per dozen; brandy, other brands, 16s. to 17s. per gallon; brandy, other brands, in case, 40s. to 45s. per dozen; rum, W.I. 7s. to 9s. per gallon; Geneva, 80s. per four-gallon case; Geneva, in wood, 3s. 6d. to 5s. 6d.; old tom, 9s. to 11s. per gallon; old tom, in case, 25s. to 28s. per dozen; whisky, Scotch, 10s. to 11s. 6d. per gallon.

WINES (duty is. 6d. per gallon, 5s. per dozen). – Port, in wood, 13s. to 15s. per gallon; ditto, in case, 88s. to 40s. per dozen; sherry, in wood, 10s. to 12s. per gallon; ditto, in case, 35s. to 38s. per dozen.

BEER (duty 4d. per gallon, 1s. per dozen). – Ale, Burton, £10 to £10 10s. per hhd.; ale, £7 10s. to £7 15s. per barrel; ale, colonial, £7 to £8 per hhd.; ale, in case, 12s. to 14s. per dozen; porter, XX, £8 to £9 per hhd.; ale, in case, 18s. to 14s. per dozen.

TOBACCO (in bond). – Cavendish, 1s. 2d. to 1s. 4d ; negrohead, in kegs, 1s. 3d. to 1s. 6d.; honeydew, 2s. to 2s. 3d., sheepwash, 9d. to 1s. per lb.; cigars, Manilla, No. 3, duty paid, 80s. per mil.

GROCERIES, etc. – Candles, Belmont, No. 1, 1s. 10d. to 2s.; ditto, composite, 1s. 8d. to 1s. 10d.; ditto, Australian mould, 1s.; ditto, Wellington, 10 1/2d.; coffee, Manilla and Java, 11d. to 1s.; currants (in demand), 2s.; hops, Kent, 1s. 9d. to 2s. per lb.; molasses, no demand; raisins, Valencia, saleable; ditto, Muscatel, saleable; rice, 28s. to 35s. per cwt.; salt, coarse, 120s. to 160s.; ditto, fine, 160s. to 180s. per ton; soap, Liverpool, 45s. to 48s.; ditto, Sydney, 50s. to 56s.; sugar, English loaf, 62s. to 64s.; ditto, Cossipore, 56s. to 60s.; ditto, No. 1, Co.'s pieces, 52s. to 56s.; ditto, Pampanga, 38s. to 42s. per cwt.; tea,

EXPORT PRICES.

congou, in chests and half-chests, 140s. to 160s.; tea, souchong, in boxes, 32s. to 35s.

MISCELLANEOUS. – Boots and shoes, advance on invoice 30 to 40 per cent.; drapery goods, advance on invoice, no sale; earthenware, advance on invoice, 50 to 75 per cent.; hardware, advance on invoice, 30 to 40 per cent.; stationary, advance on invoice, 35 to 50 per cent.; oilman's stores, advance on invoice, 30 to 40 per cent.; iron bolt and bar, 25s. to 30s. per cwt.; woolpacks, 10 lbs., 7s. to 8s. each; three-bushel bags, 22s. to 28s.; gunny bags, 9s. to 11s. per dozen; spirits of tar, 9s. to 12s. per gallon; pitch, Stockholm, 18s. 8d to 20s. per cwt.; tar, Stockholm, 48s. to 50s.; coal tar, 20s. to 21s. per barrel; timber, V.D.L., 20s. to 24s. per 100 feet; palings, no sale; shingles, no sale; cordage, Europe, £112; ditto, Manilla, £84 to £100; coals, English, £5 to £5 10s.; ditto, N.S.W., £3 10s. to £4 10s. per ton.

Trade is at present exceedingly dull, there being little or no demand for goods of any class, and the market is overstocked with all but a few articles.

PRESENT QUOTATIONS FOR NEW ZEALAND EXPORTS.

| £ s. d.
Flour, per ton of 2000 lbs. | 18 0 0
Wheat, 60 lbs. bushel | 0 7 0
Barley, 50 lbs.   "  | 6 6 0
Oats, 40 lbs.   "  | 0 5 0
Butter, per lb. | 0 1 3
Prime mess pork, per lb. | 0 0 5 1/2
Wool, per lb. | 1s. to 0 1 3
Native flax, per ton | 25 0 0
New Zealand cordage, tarred, per ton | 65 0 0
  "  wool lashing | 60 0 0
Kauri gum | 14 0 0
Kauri sawn stuff, per 100 | 0 12 0
Black oil, per ton | 60 0 0
Sperm oil,   "  ... | 100 0 0

AGRICULTURAL PRICES, ETC – LABOUR.

PRICES OF PASTORAL ANO AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE.
(Estimated mean for the next five years.)

| £ s. d.
Wool, per lb. | 0 1 0
Breeding ewes, per head | 1 0 0
Fat weathers,   "  | 0 15 0
Fat beef, per stone | 0 2 6
Working steers, per pair | 20 0 0
Farm mares, each | £30 to 40 0 0
Dairy heifers, each | £5 to 8 0 0
Butter (best), per lb. | 0 1 0
Bacon and hams (best quality), per lb. | 0 0 10
Wheat, per bushel | 0 6 0
Barley,   "  | 0 5 0
Oats,   "  | 0 4 0
Potatoes, per ton, best picked | £2 to 3 0 0
Pasture grass seeds high, and in good demand. |
Pressed hay for Australia high, and in occasional demand. |

PRICES OF BUILDING MATERIALS.
(Estimated mean for the next five years.)

| £ s. d.
Sawn board and scantling, per 100 feet | 0 15 0
Shingles (the wooden slate), per 1000 | 0 15 0
Bricks, per 1000 | 4 0 0
Lime, per bushel | 0 2 6
Split garden palings, per 100 | 0 10 0
Fences and small fold posts, each | say 0 0 9

RATES OF LABOUR AND DOMESTIC SERVICE.
(Estimated mean for the next five years.)

| £ s. d.
Agricultural and general unskilled labourers, per day of nine hours | 0 4 0
Skilled labourers, carpenters, and common mechanics, per day | 0 8 0

IMPROVED PROPERTY.

| £ s. d.
Good general man servant, living in the house, per year | 40 0 0
Good do. female do. do. | 20 0 0

VALUE OF IMPROVED PROPERTY. – Small suburban farms, lying within one to four miles of any of the six provincial capitals would now generally realise from £20 to £30 per acre. Good shop and warehouse sites in Auckland and Wellington have fetched from £l0 to £20 per frontage foot.

NEW POSTAL REGULATIONS. – All letters and newspapers for Australia and New Zealand (unless addressed to go by some private ship by the old sea-route) are now dispatched from Southampton on the 12th of every month, by the European and Australian Royal Mail Company's steamers, via, Malta, Alexandria, Suez, Point de Galle, and Melbourne. This company's contract is to deliver the monthly English mails in Melbourne in fifty-four days, and in Sydney in fifty-seven days. The New Zealand bags will be sent on from Melbourne by branch steamer to Auckland and Wellington in about ten days, and the year's average delivery of English letters to all parts of New Zealand by this new route will probably be rather less than a delivery of seventy days. 69

POSTAL REGULATIONS.

RATES OF POSTAGE.

All letters must be pre-paid by stamps, as follows: –

| s. d.
Not exceeding 1/2 oz.: | 0 6
Above 1/2 oz. and not exceeding 1 oz. | 1 0
Above 1 oz.   "  2 oz. | 2 0
For every additional oz. | 1 0

All newspapers must bear a penny stamp – the impressed Government stamp makes no difference.

BOOK AND PAMPHLET PARCELS.

Book packets between the United Kingdom and the colonies of New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, will be sent by the regular mail packets only, and will be liable, in lieu of the rates of postage heretofore chargeable, to the following rates, viz.: –

| s. d.
Not exceeding 1/2 lb. in weight | 0 8
Above 1/2 lb., and not exceeding 1 lb. | 1 4
Above 1 lb.,   "  2 lbs. | 2 8
Above 2 lbs.,   "  3 lbs. | 4 0

No book packet exceeding the weight of 2 lbs. can be sent to New South Wales; but on books, &c, addressed to any of the other colonies above-mentioned, the postage for heavier packets will increase by two rates of postage for every pound or fraction of a pound, without limit.

The book post not having been yet extended to Victoria, book packets of that colony can only be forwarded, at present, at the ordinary letter rates of postage.

Every book must be sent either without a cover, or in a cover open at the ends or sides, and may contain any number of separate books or publications, prints or maps; but must not exceed two feet in length, width, or depth; nor contain any letter or written communication, excepting the name of the sender or receiver.

In sending letters or newspapers by this route

POSTAL REGULATIONS.

nothing more is necessary than to put on the common address of the party: –

Mr. John Smith,
Auckland,
New Zealand.

with the stamps as above, and to post the letter at the town or village office, one, two, or three days (as the distance of such office from Southampton, via London, may require) before the 12th of every month.

Letters and newspapers can still be sent by the old private-ship route, at the same rates of prepaid postage: but in this case the address must run –

Mr. John Smith,
Per ship (here put the name),
Auckland,
New Zealand.

These private ships are always advertised in the Times and in the Australian and New Zealand Gazette (Algar and Street, 11, Clement's Lane, Lombard Street). The new route, however, is the quickest, and should always be adopted, except in some special case like the following: – If, say a week after the Southampton mail had left, a person wanted to write to New Zealand, and saw by the "Times" that some private ship was to sail that week, the letter might arrive sooner if sent by such ship, than if kept back, three weeks, for the next Southampton mail. The average postal delivery by the mail steamers may be taken at

POSTAL REGULATIONS.

sixty-five days; of the private sailing vessels at ninety, or a little more; so that a calculation is easily made as to whether it would be better to wait for the steamer, or to write by the ship. The safest mode of doing up a newspaper, is to fold it rather small, tie it tightly round with red tape or string, just seal down the ends of the tie, and write the address neatly on the margin of the paper. The paper must bear no old address, nor any other written mark of any kind, save the New Zealand address; and when papers, letters, or book parcels are sent by this new route, and wax be used, the following remarks from the "British Postal Guide" should always be attended to: –

WARM CLIMATES.

The practice of sealing letters passing to and from the East and West Indies, and other warm climates, with wax (excepting such as is specially prepared) is attended with much inconvenience, and frequently with serious injury to the letters, in consequence of the melting of the wax and adhesion of the letters.

In the case of mails received from India, considerable delay is occasioned; and, notwithstanding the greatest care is taken in separating the letters, which, owing to the cause already mentioned, adhere closely together, many are much damaged and torn; the public are therefore, recommended in all cases to use wafers in preference to wax in securing their letters sent to India or other warm climates, and also to advise their correspondents in those countries to pursue the same course.

(India or "prepared" wax can always be obtained through any stationer.)

COAST DISTANCES.

COAST-SAILING DISTANCE TABLE.

(The sea distances given in the chapter on the Six Provinces are the distances generally adopted as correct by the captains of the coasting vessels, but they are estimated in geographical miles. The following table is compiled from Arrowsmith's Admiralty Map of 1853, and represents in round numbers the distance in standard miles which a coast-steamer would pass over in making a direct course from the one settlement to the other.)

| Miles.
Auckland (Onehunga) to New Plymouth | 160
New Plymouth to Nelson | 160
Nelson to Wellington | 130
Wellington to Canterbury | 200
Canterbury to Otago | 230
| 880

NAMES OF A CLERGYMAN, A LEADING SOLICITOR, AND TWO LEADING MERCANTILE HOUSES OR MEN OF BUSINESS IN EACH OF THE SIX CHIEF TOWNS.

In cases of death, payments of legacies, missing friends, 70 matters of mercantile business, &c, &c, parties in this country would occasionally like to possess the address of some respectable parties in New Zealand.

AUCKLAND.

Rev. Frederick Thatcher, B.A.
Hon. W. Swainson, Solicitor.
Messrs. Brown and Campbell, Merchants.
Messrs. Newman and Ewen, General Agents.

DIRECTORY.

NEW PLYMOUTH.

Rev. H. Govett, M.A.
William Halse, Esq., Resident Magistrate.
Fredk. Norris, Esq., Solicitor.
Messrs. Llewellyn, Nash, and Co., Merchants.

WELLINGTON.

The Ven. Archdeacon Octavius Hadfield.
The Rev. J. J. P. O'Reilly (Catholic).
R. R. Strang, Esq., Registrar.
Messrs. Bethune and Hunter, Merchants.
John Varnham, Esq., General Agent.

NELSON.

The Rev. H. T. Butt, M.A.
H. Adams, Esq., Solicitor.
Messrs. Curtis and Co., Merchants.
Messrs. C. and J. Elliott, Newspaper Proprietors and General Agents.

CANTERBURY.

The Rev. A. Mackie, M.A.
H. B. Gresson, Esq., Barrister.
Messrs. Le Cren, Latter, and Co., Merchants.
J. Spowers, Esq., Union Bank of Australia.

OTAGO.

The Rev. J. A. Fenton, M.A.
The Rev. T. Burns (Free Kirk).
Messrs. Macandrew and Co., Merchants.
J. Harris, Esq., Solicitor.
Chetham Strode, Esq., Resident Magistrate

NEW ZEALAND BOOKS.

List of standard, or current books and maps on New Zealand, procurable at Stanford's, Colonial Bookseller and Publisher, 6, Charing Cross, London. S. W.

| Price.
| £..s..d...
"Polynesian Mythology, and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race, as furnished by their Priests and Chiefs." By Sir George Grey, late Governor-in-Chief of New Zealand | 0 10 6
"Te Ika a Maui." By the Rev. R. Taylor, a standard work on the native race and on the geology and natural history of the country | 0 16 0
"The New Zealand Pilot," an admirable ship's guide to every harbour, and to every mile of the New Zealand coasts, published by order of the Admiralty | 0 3 6
"Archdeacon Williams' Maori Grammar," a popular work on the New Zealand language, studied with advantage on the voyage out | 0 8 0
"New Zealand; its present Condition, Prospect and Resources, being a description of the Country and general mode of life among New Zealand Colonists, for the information of intending Emigrants." By Edward Brown Fitton, a Landowner and lately a Resident in the Colony. With Map | 0 4 0
"New Zealand Settler's Guide, a Sketch of the present state of the Six Provinces, with a digest of the Constitutions and Land Regulations, and 2 Maps." By J. Rhodes Cooper, Captain 58th regt. A cheap, useful, and pleasantly-written little work | 0 2 6
By post | 0 2 10
"Hints to New Zealand Sheep Farmers" | 0 0 4
"Hodgkinson's Canterbury," a useful pamphlet | 0 0 4

NEW ZEALAND BOOKS.

Price.

£..s..d...

"The New Zealand Circular." By A. J. Gann, a useful compendium of New Zealand matter.
0 0 2

"Emigration and Emigration Fields contrasted." Lectures, 3 by Charles Hursthouse
0 0 6

"The Australian and New Zealand Gazette," an excellent summary of Australian and New Zealand news, and a promising representative of colonial and emigration interests in the mother country, published every Saturday, Algar and Street, 11, Clement's Lane, Lombard Street price (per copy 6d.) per quarter
0 6 0

"The Missing Friend's Gazette," a useful publication devoted to the colonial advertising and tracing out of missing friends and emigrants in the various colonies and emigration fields, published by Stephen Curtis, 20, Finsbury Street, London, price per month
0 0 3

"New Zealand, from Official Documents corrected to 1855." By John Arrowsmith. 1 Sheet
0 6 0

Mounted in Case
0 9 0

3   These and other lectures were originally given (some at one place, some at another), at Aberdeen, Boston, Wisbeach, Sutton, Leicester, Stamford, Yarmouth, Norwich, Winchester, Jersey, Guernsey, Penzance, Falmouth, Truro, Plymouth, Tavistock, Bridgewater, Swansea, Banbury, Bath, and Bristol, and I believe I am the only New Zealand colonist who was ever engaged by the late New Zealand Company to give a course of lectures on New Zealand and its advantages as an emigration field. Nevertheless, in reviewing this little pamphlet when it first appeared the "Athenaeum" was, I think, pleased to profess some doubt as to whether the lectures ever were delivered, and to treat me, the learned lecturer, as a sort of second Mrs. Harris.

NEW ZEALAND BOOKS.

Price.

£..s..d...

"Admiralty Chart of New Zealand and Principal Harbours." Sheets collated
Mounted in Case
0 5 0
0 8 0

"Map of the Province of Canterbury, New Zealand, shewing the Freehold Sections and Pasturage Runs." The Map is based upon the recent Maritime Surveys by the Admiralty in New Zealand, the Trigonometrical Survey made by order of the Provincial Government and the communications of Colonists to the Land Office. It has corrections furnished by Walter Mantell, Esq., and R. J. S. Harman, Esq. Sheets
0 7 6

Case.....
0 10 0

Canvas, rollers, and varnished
0 15 0

"Plan of the Town of Part of the Settlement of New Plymouth," By Carrington, late Chief Surveyor
0 5 0

Case
0 7 6

66 In the Nelson Province the ratio of the annual increase of reclaimed farmed land for the last year or two has been about 50 per cent.; whilst the ratio of the annual nett increase of domestic stock has averaged about 35 per cent.; being 33 for horses, 25 for cattle, 40 for sheep, and 40 for pigs. These "ratios" may probably be adopted as representing the present rates of increase in stock for the colony generally. The annual increase of cultivation for the colony generally, would not, I think, be more than about 35 per cent.

67 Auckland, the chief port in New Zealand, is a free port, the only charge on shipping being 3s. per foot pilotage, when a vessel chooses to take a pilot. All the other ports are similarly free of charges.

68 "Auckland, 11th August, 1856.

"We forwarded our last circular on the 4th July, and address you this month again to advise you of a change in the tariff for New Zealand.

"The bill containing the altered rates of duties was, contrary to the expectation of every one, introduced into the House of Representatives on the 5th instant, and carried through all its stages the same night. Next morning it was in force. Having been only a few days in operation, owing to the numerous alterations which it will make in the value of goods now in the market, instead of giving our regular prices current, we annex the new tariff. Without further experience of its working we can scarcely say what the ultimate effect of it ou imports may be.

"On the following goods the new tonnage duties will range higher: –

"Anchors, blocks, chain-cables, cordage, canvas, junk, oakum, pitch, tar, metal sheathing – all formerly duty free. Hats, hollow-ware, carpeting, chalk, whiting, toys, lucifer matches, furniture, earthenware, and glassware.

"On the following goods the new duties will average nearly the same as before.

"Boots and shoes, blacking, oilmen's stores, soda crystals, pearl barley, vinegar, blankets, calicoes, linens, regatta shirts, corn sacks, woolpacks, iron, lead.

"On the following goods the new duties will be a trifle less than formerly.

"Composite candles, cheese, dried fruits, tin plates, nails, zinc, paints, white lead, linseed, oil, soap, starch, bricks, slates.

"The ultimate effect of these alterations is as yet differently estimated by different classes of the community. A larger revenue will without doubt be raised. On many articles the new rates will be excessively high; on others there will be a slight reduction. On the principle of being a simplification of a previous cumbersome list, the new tariff is, on the whole, generally approved of. Its numerous anomalies will, without doubt, be remedied next Session of the General Assembly, in ten or twelve months hence.

"Our friends, will we trust, now see the necessity of complying to the fullest extent with our oft-repeated request to give us every detail as regards weights and measurements of packages Shippers also must look carefully to the packing of every bale and case, and see to the fitting in of every vacant inch of space – no vacant space should, in fact, exist."

69 Letters are also forwarded by this new route through France via Marseilles, from which place a branch steamer runs to Malta to meet the main steamer of the 12th from Southampton. Such letters are dispatched on the 16th of the month or four days later; but the postage is about double the rates given on p. 575.

70 A very useful publication called the "Missing Friends' and Australian Advertiser," extending its ramifications over America, California, Australia, New Zealand, and other emigration fields, published by Stephen Curtis, 20, Finsbury Street London, has been the means of finding many "missing friends" in various parts of the world.

CHAPTER XIX. THE PHILOSOPHY OF EMIGRATION.

EMIGRATION.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF EMIGRATION.

EMIGRATION. – To treat fully of emigration as a branch of social and political economy, would be to exceed the scope and purpose of a work like the present. But emigrants are so undervalued a class, so much lurking prejudice exists against emigration, its social and national merits are so often ignored, or so partially, so grudgingly admitted, that I trust the reader will allow me to prelude the more practical portion of this chapter with a few remarks expressive of an opinion that emigrants are the most valuable portion of the community which any old over-crowded country can possess; and that emigration, as an old writer quaintly asserts, "is the very best affair of business in which any old country can embark."

Emigrants and emigration have many friends, but they have many enemies – both secret and avowed.

'Tis said that not a few of the great and prosperous like to be surrounded, at a respectful distance, by the lowly and the meek: their mansions are grander, velvets softer, because of the hovels and rags. If every man had opera box, yacht, and flunkey, how many men would there be to whom these things would bring no pleasure! Poor people, poor neighbours, poor dependents, give zest to many a rich man's life, he "could better spare better men;" but these zests escape by emigration, and hence emigration has often the rich man's contumely and spite. Superfine "upper-crust" people, too, either born with the silver spoon," or having made the "silver spoon," affect to look

EMIGRATION'S ENEMIES.

on emigration as a punishment for poverty, and will sneer at the emigrant as a sort of superior vagabond. Manufacturing millionaires and the rich employing classes, whose wealth has been wrung out of the suicidal strife of too-abundant labour, and who fancy that the continuance of their prosperity rests on their power to recruit their labour serfs from the serried ranks of near preserves of paupers, naturally but blindly decry emigration – -that great highway whereby cheap labour eludes their fatal grip. Thousands of worthy people, vegetating through life in easy peace in the quiet spots they were born in, hold that defiant emigration to any new country is an unnatural offence, and that it is every man's duty to die where he first drew breath; whilst shallow anti-emigrationists liken emigration to a draining of the nation's life blood, regard colonies as costly incumbrances, and utterly blind to the vast national benefits which emigration creates, are solicitous only to detect the minor evils which excess of emigration might entail.

Seeing, then, that emigration has all these enemies on the spot to attack, whilst her best friends (emigrants) are not on the spot to defend; continually hearing as we do of "low Irish emigration," of "assisted emigration," of "pauper emigration," of "convict emigration;" recollecting that the millions who emigrate are for the most part the poor, the unsuccessful, the unfortunate, it is not perhaps to be wondered at that emigrants have come to be looked on as a "Pariah," or lower-caste order of our people; that emigration is regarded not as a noble career which calculating prudence and high enterprise might choose, but as a last resource which failure and misery accept; and that colonies have been legislated for, not as integral parts of the empire, immense sea-joined Devonshires and Yorkshires, but as remote Alsatian dependencies – refuges for the bankrupt, the destitute, and the desperate, the beggar, the outlaw, and the thief.

But it is not, I think, in these lights that posterity will view Colonies, emigrants, and emigration.

NECESSITY OF EMIGRATION.

What is emigration? Emigration, I take it, is an inherent principle of animated nature, an instinctive desire common to man and to every living thing in creation to seek the gratification of certain "implanted wants" in those places, which reason in the one, instinct in the other, point out as best suited to supply such wants. Man's emigration, the periodical movements of animals, the migration of birds, the swarming of bees, all spring from this one common principle.

Emigration, indeed, was a necessity of human existence. If the first children of men, vegetable like, had remained stationary in the spot they were born in, had never wandered beyond their natal limits, never emigrated to "fresh fields and pastures new," the time must soon have come when their increased numbers would more than have consumed all the food which such limits could have been made to produce, when one of two things must have come to pass – either they must have adopted some stringent "Malthusian" practice, and have stopped their "foodless increase," or have adopted cannibalism and consumed it.

Happily, with man's desire to increase and multiply, an all-wise Providence coupled man's desire to seek space for his increase and multiplication, to emigrate; and the glorious result of emigration is, that instead of the human race being still confined to a handful of skin-clad shepherds tending their scanty flocks on Eastern hills, it is a thousands millions of sentient beings endowed with the divine light of reason, and enjoying the blessings of existence in every fair province of iho earth from pole to pole.

The pages of Holy Writ, of ancient and modern history, teem with encouragements and illustrations of emigration. When the Lord said unto Abraham, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and bless thee, and make thy name great," Abraham departed, and he was an emigrant, and planted a colony. Classic history's mightiest heroes

ANCIENTNESS OF EMIGRATION.

were many of them great emigrant [Greek word] who planted colonies. Carthage and the Grecian States sprang from emigration. The chief, who led his followers from Gaul to Albion, was an emigrant planting a colony, the colony of Ancient Britons; and if European emigration and the planting of colonies had stopped here, England might still have been inhabited by a handful of ragged savages worshipping the mistletoe and idol gods. But European emigration did not stop here, it continued to flow into Britain. The aboriginal British savages were destroyed by, or amalgamated with, successive warrior-emigrant bands of Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans; and thus mongrel emigration created what, step by step, has grown into the great Anglo-Saxon race of 1857.

But without some further and improved sort of emigration, leading to the creation and acquisition of new-world colonies, this mere creation of the English race would never, probably, have raised England to any much greater pitch of power and civilisation than she had been able to attain before she did commence an improved sort of emigration and the planting of new-world colonies – say the pitch she had attained in the Elizabethan era, when, as we gather from Macaulay's lustrous page, half the kingdom was wild moor and waste, and the wolf and wild cat still prowled the forest; when the journey from London to Scotland was fuller far of peril than the journey now from London to New Zealand; when Manchester scarce counted 6000 people, and only a few poor fishermen dried their nets at Brighton; when the most "finished" of young ladies spelt cat with two t's, and were ignorant of crochet, when the Queen herself trod upon reeds, fastened her clothes with wooden skewers, and fed the dainty "maids of honour" on beef, salt-fish, and beer.

For we have to recollect that this little island of ours, barren in soil, bleak in climate, yielding but coarse food and raiment for its people, possessed nothing indigenous which it could exchange with richer countries for articles of comfort and luxury. England had no cotton or silk;

ANGLO-SAXON EMIGRATION.

no gold, silver, or precious stones; no tea or coffee; no sugar, rice, or fragrant spices; no costly woods or useful gums; no healing drugs or Tyrian dyes; and no great store even of wool, flax, or timber.

But, like the bees, we went abroad for "honey;" we commenced an improved sort of emigration; we planted colonies in lands where nature had been more bountiful; sent back the raw riches of the earth, opened our coalfields, and invoked the giant "genius of steam," fashioned these raw materials into every conceivable object for man's use, comfort, and luxury, supplied ourselves, and sold the annual surplus to the world, – thus creating commerce, shipping, and manufactures, vastly improving their sister, agriculture, and raising this little Albion of ours from her poor estate of a rugged island of the German Ocean to be Queen of the Seas, and mistress of half the world.

The little band of "Pilgrim Fathers," who, on the 6th of September, 1620, set sail in the good ship "Mayflower," to seek a refuge and the right of worship in the then rugged wilderness of America, were the heroic heralds of a mighty movement, which, as by the wand of enchantment, has since changed that rugged wilderness into one of the greatest nations which the world has ever seen.

Since this period, England has been constantly throwing off her swarms, sending forth hive after hive of earnest, enlightened Christian communities. Continent and island, wilderness and jungle, forest and prairie, but a few years since the desolate haunts of the savage and of prowling and creeping things, are now alive with the busy hum of commerce, and echoing with the glad sound of the "church-going bell." On that luxuriant plain, which but a few years since revealed no trace of human kind, save the wreathing smoke from the wild man's solitary wigwam, you see flocks and herds and golden crops surrounding the busy city, teeming with "civilised life." The clear waters of that noble river, for ages undisturbed by aught save the native's frail canoe, or the wild beasts which came at nightfall to lap their drink, are now ploughed by gaudy

FRUITS OF EMIGRATION.

steamers, and thronged by fleets of tall merchantmen and rich argosies from the most distant regions of the earth. And we are winning these new worlds of ours, planting our banners over these new and fruitful southern lands, not as in days of old, by the blighting march of armies, by fire, sword, and desolation, but by the gentle force of peace, by the prowess of the good Knight, Industry, by agriculture and commerce, by the plough and the loom; and there "is more glory to the hero in laying such foundations of a mighty State – though no trumpets resound with his victory, though no laurels may shadow his tomb – than in forcing the onward progress of his race over burning cities and hecatombs of men."

If asked, What fruits emigration has produced us – we point to our magnificent colonial empire, peopled by eight millions of our race, and stretching over an area quadruple the size of Europe – an empire won from the wilderness by emigrants and emigration, an empire which, in these its infant days, creates nearly half our trade, and employs nearly half our shipping, which consumes millions sterling per annum of our manufactures, and which supplies us with millions sterling per annum of gold, wool, timber, and a thousand articles of raw produce in return – articles necessary to the continued existence of half our manufactures, and essential to the well-being and prosperity, nay, to the actual feeding and subsistence of hundreds of thousands of our manufacturing population.

Indeed, in the year 1857, it is time that anti-emigrationists and all who scoff at emigrants and emigration should rub the scales from their eyes, widen their conceptions, and profit by such patent truths as these: that but for emigration and its fruits they might have remained the breechless heathens their ancestors were; that if by stroke of retributive justice they were shorn of all which emigration, colonies, and emigrants, have conferred on them, they might be glad to exchange places with the tattooed natives of the Tonga Isles; that it is as clearly the design of Providence that the fertile wastes of the New World

EMIGRATION TRUTHS.

should be fructified by the emigrant populations of the Old World, as that the sun should give light and heat; that Lord Bacon says colonisation is an heroic work; that it is the emigrant who has carried the language of Shakspeare and Milton over half the earth; that if Britain be the empire on which the sun never sets, it is to her emigrant warriors that Britain mainly owes the boast; and that emigration is an older and a nobler thing, and one productive of far grander results, than arms, arts, commerce, law, physic, or divinity.

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMICAL BENEFITS OF EMIGRATION. – An old writer says, and John Stuart Mill repeats – that, "Colonisation is the very best affair of business in which an old overpeopled country can engage." The dictum might well blazon in gold as a guardian motto, at Westminster, and be the handwriting on the wall of every chamber of commerce in the kingdom. It is a national truism and this is another, – of all British exports, the most profitable export, is the emigrant.

In the last forty years 6,000,000 people, nearly one-fourth of our present population, have sailed from the United Kingdom to our three great emigration fields, America, Canada, and Australia. The national convulsions, the social earthquakes, which our little islands have escaped by the safe seaward flow of this, its population-larva, defy all computation. If these six millions of emigrants, and their increase four millions more, had been caged up in our narrow streets and fields, increasing a thousandfold the numbers of our destitute and our desperate, who will assert that England would now have been England, that the Guelphs would have been at St. James's, the Russells at Woburn, the Stanleys at Knowlsey, the Fundholder anywhere?

But though the great wholesale profits which emigration has thus paid us defy all computation, figures may reveal a glimpse of the retail profits which it puts in the nation's pocket. The annual emigration from the United King-

EMIGRATION PROFITS.

dom now amounts to 300,000 people, 71 that is, deducting Sundays, a thousand people a day now leave our crowded shores to plant new homes in roomier lands. Two-thirds of this daily exodus are poor people: people of the order of labour. If this annual host of surplus, or possible-pauper labourers was shut up and accumulated here, we may, I think, safely assume that it would soon annually cost the public £2,000,000 a year in extra poor's rates and crime rates. The individual power of consumption and production in a poor labourer is trebled when he gets to a colony: where he buys £5 worth of our industrial productions and produces £5 worth of our industrial exports whilst he remains a possible-pauper in England, he will buy £15 worth of our industrial productions and produce £15 worth of the raw produce for our industrial exports, when he gets to the richly paid, free-living, labour-fields of a young colony.

A portion of our national emigration account current, therefore, may be stated as follows: –

Great Britain and Ireland.

Dr. to Emigration for the year 1857.

£

To the saving (by emigration) of the expenditure of £10 per head increased crime and poor's rates on 200,000 of our surplus poor and possible-pauper labourers.

2,000,000 1

1   The poor's rates were considerably increased by the non-employment of the people, while crime advanced in a very rapid progression. He was aware that some looked at this question as a matter of cost only. Well, as a matter of cost, what was it that crime alone cost the country? Not less than eleven millions sterling per annum! The poor's rates were £5,400,000. Hospitals, dispensaries and alms, the necessity of which arose in a great measure from the neglect of the poor, amounted to £5,400,000 more. The direct cost of the police, gaols, &c, amounted to £1,500,000. And to this had to be added the loss which society sustained from the illness of men whose labour was of necessity abstracted from society. That he estimated at £2,000,000; and the whole amount of deduction to be made from the productive powers of labour on account of these evils, was not less than £27,500,000. – From a speech of Mr. Slaney's in the House of Commons, moving for a Committee to suggest measures for improving the social condition of the working classes.

EMIGRATION PROFITS.

£

Brought forward

2,000,000

To national profit derived from 200,000 of our surplus poor becoming (as colonists) cash customers for our manufactures to the extent of £15 each instead of £5 each, which they spent among us whilst they remained our half-employed possible-paupers and surplus poor

250,000 2

Carried forward

£2,250,000

2   This truth was well and familiarly illustrated by the lamented late Charles Buller, in one of his great speeches in the House of Commons in favour of some organized national scheme of emigration. He says, "Imagine in some village a couple of young married men, of whom one has been brought up as a farm-labourer, the other as a weaver, but both of whom are unable to get work. Both are in the workhouse, and the spade of the one and the loom of the other are equally idle. For the maintenance of these men and their families the parish is probably taxed to the amount of £40 a year. The farm labourer and his family get a passage to Australia or New Zealand, and the parish at once saves £20 a year in being relieved from their maintenance. Now, as an emigrant, the labourer at once gets constant, good employment. After providing his family with food in abundance, he finds that he has wherewithal to buy him a good coat, instead of the smock frock he used to wear, and to supply his children with decent clothing, instead of letting them run about in rags. He sends home an order for a good quantity of broad cloth, and this order actually sets the loom of his old fellow-pauper to work, and takes him, or helps to take him, from out of the workhouse. Thus the emigration of one man relieves the parish of the burden of two paupers, furnishes food and employment not only for one family but for two families, and carries to the colony some most welcome labour. Here, now, there is a clear tripartite good effected; so that we may well say, as 'charity blesses both him who giveth and him who receiveth,' so does emigration bless both those who go and those who stay."

PROFITS OF EMIGRATION.

£

Brought forward

2,250,000

To national profit derived from 200,000 of our surplus poor, aiding (as colonists supplying gold, raw staples, &c.) to produce British exports to the amount of £15 each instead of £5 each, which they aided to produce whilst they remained our half-employed possible-paupers and surplus poor.

250,000 3

National annual emigration profit

£2,500,000

3   The table in the statistical chapter, page 557, shows that Australian and New Zealand emigrants – that is, Englishmen in Australia and New Zealand – export more than treble the annual amount per head which Englishmen in England export.

I apprehend that any one conversant with the subject, would call this estimate of annual "Emigration Profit" a very low estimate. But looking even at these figures, recollecting that they are figures only for one year, that the emigration movement more or less has been in operation for forty years; and that after all, figures can give us only a faint idea of the real profits of emigration (inasmuch as emigration is our great national safety valve, without which our social and political institutions might not endure another decade, and the real value of such safety valve can in no wise be estimated in figures); recollecting these things, I think we may say with the old writer and with John Stuart Mill, that colonisation is a good national business; that Manchester and Birmingham will never produce the nation an export half so valuable as the emigrant; and that for the poor, the unfortunate, the struggling, the energetic, the hopeful, and the bold, among the six-and-twenty millions of us who are battling for bread in these little island coops, the highway which leads to temporal

EXCESS OF EMIGRATION.

salvation, is the highway which leads us to the broad domains of our sea-joined empires in Australia and America, where we may plough our own freeholds, find and feel ourselves men, and slavishly call no one master.

EXCESS OF EMIGRATION. – Anti-emigrationists are fond of harping on what they term our "excess of emigration." They say that the annual exodus of 300,000 of our people is a draining of the nation's life blood. Now, doubtless, excess of emigration is a thing possible, little England wanting people would be in a worse plight than little England wanting space. But whilst we count our unemployed and our half employed, our beggars and our criminals, our bankrupt and insolvent by tens of thousands – whilst we count our grey locust paupers, our true fruges consumere nati 72 by hundreds of thousands – whilst we see thousands of strapping young men exhibited in shops doing their sisters' work of serving tape and bobbin – whilst an advertisement in the "Times" for an accomplished governess where "as the family is serious, no salary will be given," is answered by twenty charming young ladies, each anxious to be the victim of the wretched cheat – whilst our large towns display the spectacle of thousands rising every morning without the means of getting the morning's meal – whilst the "Song of the Shirt" remains a true song, and prostitution ramps or cowers in every street – whilst social cancers like these are patent to us all, we have good assurance that England's emigration is not overpassing those wholesome limits within which it is the certain source of national prosperity and individual well-being, just as the sun is the certain source of light and heat; good assurance that our peril is not the draining of the nation's life blood, but the presence of too much of the life blood; and that if we ceased to deplete a little by emigration, we might some day die from apoplexy, sudden and shriftless.

WASTE LANDS FALLACY.

WASTE LANDS AT HOME. – Messrs. Frost, Jones, and other professional "five points" gentlemen do, I think, generally assert, that there are plenty of English acres to feed every English mouth. Now, so far as this proposition embodies a physical possibility, it is unquestionably a true one: it may be a physical possibility to remove the Goodwin Sands or to bridge over the Atlantic. If our national "difficulty" were only to grow every mouthful of food in England, which the people of England consume, the "difficulty," for a period at least, might be overcome. England might be converted into a huge kitchen-garden, and forced into increased production. Old associations and rustic prejudices slowly subverted and overthrown and the whole soul of the nation bent on producing food, money and labour would soon destroy every royal chase and forest, plough up every breezy common, fence in every purple heath, and substitute trim iron hurdles for our present wasteful green lanes and hedges of wild rose and May thorn. The sewerage of cities, with cat, rat, and dog, might be converted into a kind of agricultural forcing-broth; and, as proposed in one of Mr. Mechi's inspirations, be conveyed by drain-pipe along the rail, and poured over farms in fructifying showers, such as Danae never caught. Doubtless, the food of man and pig might be wonderfully increased. And if, after such agricultural revolution and food crusade, the people, in course of time, should have again so increased as again to cry for bread, soil might be scraped up and spread on terraces, and cabbages and quartern loaves produced on our house-tops. A portion of the people, too, might become aquatic, dwelling in canal-boats, like the Chinese, and subsisting on ducks, water-rats, and other stray river waifs; we might have turnips up to our gravel walks, giant beet root at our front doors, early potatoes in the window box, an extra pig in the back kitchen, and England might hope to become one vast food and cotton manufactory – a Paradise Lost perhaps to puling poets like Wordsworth and Milton, but a

HOME EMIGRATION.

Paradise Regained to practical men like Cobden and Mechi.

But though there are many waste acres in England, and though it may be a thing physically possible to reclaim and cultivate such acres, and to turn England into pig-styes and food-mills, yet I do not see how Messrs. Frost and Jones are to bring about such an agricultural revolution, and substitute for emigration. These waste acres have all owners, owners who say and who ought to know that such wastes wont pay for cultivation. There are tens of thousands of waste acres in the highlands of Aberdeenshire; but the only man who would accept them as a gift, if coupled with the condition of cultivating them, would be the madman. Assume even that all revolutionary difficulties of getting the waste lands of England were over, and that Mr. Ernest Jones and a band of a thousand London mechanics were organized and then turned loose to do their best on Bodmin Moor or Salisbury Plain. I know a little about the work of reclaiming even fertile wild lands: lands where nature has done everything she could, not against the cultivator, as on Scotch highlands or Cornish moors, but where she has done everything in favour of him, as in the plains and valleys of Tasmania and Zealandia. I have, I fancy, done more work with axe and mattock than Mr. Jones would bargain to do, and I would respectfully tell him in all friendliness of spirit, and in all sympathy for our working-classes (our true steel), that of the 1000 London mechanics, with whom he would colonise Bodmin Moor, all who would be found on Bodmin Moor, one year after arrival there, would be the few who were buried there.

Now, in our colonies, our sea-joined thousand and one counties in Canada, Australia, Tasmania, Zealandia, there are millions of fertile acres, crying aloud both for owners and cultivators; and if Mr. Jones and the Chartist party would truly benefit the working-classes of these kingdoms, they would ask the Government, not for Universal Suffrage, but for means of reaching these young lands, where the steady labourer invariably becomes the yeoman freeholder,

COLONIES IN PARLIAMENT.

where, too, if he be a Chartist, he will enjoy every one of the "five points," and where he will never be soured by sight of queens, princes, aristocrats, beefeaters, bailiffs or beadles.

LEGISLATIVE COHESION OF OUR HOME AND COLONIAL EMPIRE. – For the last ten years our countrymen have been emigrating from among us, to our Canadian and Australian colonies and America, at the rate of nearly one thousand persons a day. There are no signs of any probable diminution of this daily exodus; it seems likely to remain as much a part of our social system, as the daily starting of our railway trains. Probably, every fourth family in the United Kingdom can count some emigrant among its members. Six millions of our population may be personally interested in emigration by family ties; but our whole population is interested in emigration by pecuniary ties. Emigrants and colonists pay and employ nearly half our shipping, buy nearly half our entire exports, 73 and send us back gold, wool, timber, and a hundred staples to the value of many millions sterling per annum.

Emigrants and colonists are, probably, more valuable customers to our merchants and manufacturers than all foreign nations put together; whilst, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, they are also members of our very family. Enterprising members of our family who instead of remaining here a burden and a drag, blocking up our thoroughfares, jostling us down hill, struggling with us for the prizes in love, war, literature, art diplomacy, law, trade, physic, divinity, bringing us to grief and oft carrying us with them to the Insolvent Court or the pauper prison, have had the manhood to embrace the emigrant career; and leaving us their best wishes and a clearer field, have sailed away to cultivate and fructify for our mutual good our waste Kents, Devons, Perthshires and Tyrones, in Canada, Africa, Australia, Tasmania, and Zealandia.

IMPERIAL REPRESENTATION.

Why should not this portion of our community have a voice in the government of our community? Emigrants and colonists now form a constituency of eight millions of our people. Is any much larger constituency represented at Westminster? – is anymore valuable constituency represented at Westminster? Is there any portion of the British nation which deserves better of the British nation than these 8,000,000 emigrants and colonists? Are they not an interest in the State, as well entitled to parliamentary representation as the lauded interest, the manufacturing interest, the shipping interest, the mining interest, the railway interest?

Emigrants and colonists unquestionably enjoy certain representative government, they elect representatives, and set up little parliaments and municipalities, and manage their own town and parish matters much as the citizens of Bath and Bristol do. But the colonists of Canada, and New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, and the Cape Colony, and Natal, and New South Wales, and Victoria, and South Australia, and West Australia, and Tasmania, and Zealandia, are no more represented at Westminster, are no more recognised in the governmental affairs of the nation of which assuredly they are not the least important part, than Indians, Negroes, Hottentots or Kafirs!

The only reasonable argument which could ever have been raised against the policy of a mother country like England seeking to incorporate her robust colonies into her political system by summonsing colonial as well as country members to St. Stephens, would have been the argument of distance. When Canada stood three, and Australia six months off, the argument of distance might have been a substantial argument. But what is it in 1857? Our Canadian colonies are now virtually as near London as Ireland was before the Union; and hon. members even from Australia and New Zealand would now reach St. Stephen's more easily than the Knights of Cornwall or Cumberland reached the parliament of Elizabeth.

The more immediate duties of the dozen colonial

LEGISLATIVE COHESION OF

members whom I would fain see Queen Victoria number among her 'faithful Commons,' would of course be the promoting and the watching over of our vast emigration and colonial interests. But it would, I think, be unfair to say that such members of the House would not take a lively interest in the general policy of the State. Great British questions of war, commerce, or finance, even now interest colonists, cut off too as they are from all participation in such questions. 74 Indeed, it appears to me that the presence of a few colonial members in St. Stephen's might be attended with considerable advantage to the general legislation of the House of Commons. Their whole training, sympathies, and antecedents would make them sworn foes to red tape and routine; and their practical "go-and-do" education would enable them to bring to the discussion of any subject, an amount of robust good sense, and prompt directness which would, I fancy, have been beneficially felt in such a question as the conduct of the Russian war. 75

England's twelve great colonies and emigration fields are her twelve immense sea-joined Yorkshires, lying virtually at her doors; and if she treated them as such, and incorporated them into her social and political system, she might not, some years hence, be a little island in the north sea with 25,000,000 people; but an united empire larger than Europe with 50,000,000 of people. When American emigrants colonise a new territory, they ask admission in the parent Union; and the parent Union, wiser

OUR HOME AND COLONIAL EMPIRE.

than the mother country, receives the new State into her bosom, and thus star by star, adds to the lustre of that noble flag which even now rivals the red cross, and shadows the tri-colour.

To colonists it seems that British statesmen of the year 1857 would do well to awake to the fact that Europe is no longer the world, that news of pacifications of a little "pot soon hot" like Neufchatel, and of elephant treaties with the potentate of Siam, might, perhaps, make way in a Queen's Speech for a word or two about a place called Canada, and another place called Australia; and that young powers are shooting up in our empire which if not soon joined to the empire in something more than name may end by seeking separation from the empire to the emperilment or enfeeblement both of the parent and the progeny. We lost thirteen colonies once before – let us mind that we don't lose twelve more.

Mr. Gladstone wants a good cause just now. Let him take up the cause of national emigration and the legislative cohesion of our home and colonial empire; let him look to emigrants and colonists, and seek to add twelve colonial kingdoms to the Crown. 76

STATE EMIGRATION.

STATE EMIGRATION. – The vast political, social and pecuniary benefits conferred on this country by the golden stream of emigration, might well demand that we should attempt both to increase the volume of the stream and to improve its course. Putting aside those great political and social advantages which we have glanced at, and viewing emigration here, simply as a means of annually putting so many additional pounds into our pockets, we may, I think, most reasonably assert that a judicious system of "State Emigration," might in a very few years be made to relieve us of at least one-half of our entire poor-rates, and of one-half of our entire crime rates; 77 and further that it would thus convert tens of thousands of our incipient paupers and criminals, our unproductive and dangerous classes, into substantial Australian and Canadian colonists, who would materially increase our supplies of gold, wool, corn, timber, and manufacturing raw produce, and who would require and become cash customers for a great additional quantity of our export manufactures. To require us to demonstrate this assertion by nice and subtle argument, would be to require us to demonstrate the existence of the sun by telescopic observation. The assertion rests on the great patent facts, that three in four of our poor, and semi-destitute, those who are driven to become our criminals and our paupers would eagerly emigrate if they could – that the State cost of helping them to emigrate, of getting rid of them once and for ever, would not amount to the one year's cost of shutting them up here as costly unproductive felons and paupers – that a century's experience of emigration proves that nine working men in ten who get to a

OUR PAUPER POLICY.

colony do become prosperous colonists, do produce an immense quantity of raw staples necessary to the flourishing existence of our trade and manufactures; and do become cash customers for an immense quantity of our goods from Manchester, Glasgow, Paisley, Sheffield, Birmingham, Bradford, and Belfast.

The spectacle of our Christmas doles and alms-giving and soup-kitchens, and blacking brigades, and model prisons, and penitentiaries and pauper palaces, might well make angels weep to see so much human philanthropy marred by so much human folly.

Doubtless, the rude associations of savage tribes and the polity of civilised nations from the earliest dawn of history down to the present day, have exhibited blunders of judgment and whimsical caprices of legislation, at which we smile with pity or contempt; but since the world began there has been neither savage tribe nor civilised community which in the conduct of its public affairs has exhibited half the amount of suicidal doltishness which we exhibit year after year in spending our millions on paupers and prisoners, instead of our thousands on emigrants and emigrant ships. Spending ten millions, or any sum, every year and for ever in the maintenance and relief of a million of paupers, possible paupers, and petty criminals, is, as regards any pecuniary return which such outlay makes us, almost as barren an operation as if the ten millions were every year sunk in the Atlantic. But spending ten millions one year in removing these hands and mouths to our broad counties in Canada or Australia or Zealandia, would be like the fruitful operation of once sowing a fertile field with seed, and ever after reaping a goodly annual crop. 78

RISE OF WAGES.

I apprehend that the only reason we could advance in justification of our thief-and-pauper preservation, and anti-emigration policy would be this – that if we adopted any State system of emigration, some of our working men would go, and our manufacturing and employing classes would have to pay those who remained higher wages. Doubtless one result of a wholesale system of emigration would be the full employment and better pay of those sons of toil who did not emigrate; and manufacturers and employers would, unquestionably, have to pay higher wages. But manufacturers and employers are not the only orders of the community; and if they were, the plea of a rise in the price of labour would be a most worthless plea to urge against emigration; for where increased emigration took one pound out of the employer's pocket in higher wages, it would put two in, in saving him a large portion of his crime and pauper taxes, in increasing the general prosperity and contentment of the community, and in materially increasing both our colonial export, and our colonial import trade. In truth, the argument that it is sound policy to continue paying some millions a year in charity-taxes, crime-taxes and pauper-taxes, for the maintenance of a portion of our poor and destitute only in order that when we want to employ one of these poor and destitute we may hire him for 2s. a day instead of 3s., would be an argument so repulsive to common sense, and so opposite to the first principles of political economy and common humanity,

STATE EMIGRATION.

that it is difficult to imagine any one seriously urging it in 1857 as an argument against emigration.

Another spurious argument which might perhaps be urged against increased emigration is this – that it would reduce our population, and that our population is none too large. Now, passing over the question of whether nearly 30,000,000 of people in these little islands is, or is not, too large a population for these little islands to support, we may, I think, reasonably argue that an increase of emigration would not lead to a decrease of population. An increase of emigration would be attended with an increase of national prosperity and individual well-doing; there would be less crowding and rivalry and competition in all the walks of life; there would be an increased export and import trade, and a decreased taxation; profits would bo high, wages high, employment plentiful; the agricultural interest, the shipping interest, the commercial interest, the manufacturing interest, would all be flourishing; and under these circumstances the matrimonial interest would unquestionably be flourishing, and pay perhaps even double profits. A large portion of the male millions of the United Kingdom do not take wives because, as they avow, the times are not good enough to allow them to indulge in expensive luxuries; and the production of children in this country is by no means commensurate with our intrinsic manufacturing power of producing children.

The Registrar shows us that marriages increase in seasons of national prosperity; a good system of emigration would permanently increase the national prosperity; it would, therefore, increase the number of marriages, increase the number of children; and as under a good system of emigration and colonisation, emigration and colonies would offer a career for millions of the unborn, and remove all "restrictive fears" as to what is to become of the children, we might reasonably say, that not only would emigration increase the number of marriages, but that it would also increase the produce of marriages; and that thus the steady annual emigration of a larger number of our people to our

STATE EMIGRATION.

colonies, would result not in the decrease, but in the increase of our home population.

In truth, however, the aim of those who would establish a State system of emigration is not so much to increase emigration as to improve the direction of its course. Of the thousand people who daily leave us, only some 400 go to our colonies, the 600 go to the United States. In the last ten years, whilst 2,000,000 of our surplus population have gone to the United States, fewer than 1,000,000 have gone to our various colonies. Now even in a commercial pecuniary point of view this is a fact to be deplored. English colonists, especially English Australian colonists, consume British manufactures to quadruple the amount consumed by American citizens; and if the whole of these 3,000,000 of our countrymen had gone to Canada and Australia, and Africa and Zealandia, instead of two-thirds of them going to a foreign country, we should have had customers for some millions of pounds more of our manufactures, and should probably have been able to import double quantities of gold, wool, and raw produce for our manufactures. But the commercial loss, though heavy, is not the greatest loss. We lose our customers, but what is worse, we lose countrymen. The most valuable article which ever leaves our shores – the emigrant – goes by thousands, goes by tens of thousands, goes by hundreds of thousands, to increase the wealth and strength of a rival power. State-system emigrationists say that, these tens and hundreds of thousands of our countrymen should go to people our own counties in Canada, Australia, Africa, and Zealandia, and that under a sound State system of emigration they would go thither, and increase our national wealth and strength.

Believing, then, that the policy of removing our surplus poor to our own broad colonies would be a good policy – believing that it is the empty belly, not the wicked heart, which annually makes criminals of thousands of our semi-destitute countrymen – believing that it would be a cheaper, wiser, more humane policy to assist our thousands of young

STATE EMIGRATION.

destitute to a colony as emigrants, than to nurse them up here as costly paupers until blossomed into felons we have to transport them as convicts – believing that the great panacea for half the social evils which disgrace our nation, would be a sound State system of poor man emigration, I would now offer a few remarks on what I conceive to be the equitable principle of the apportionment of the cost of carrying out such State system.

When a working man removes from our mother country to one of our colonies, the good effected is a tripartite good. The mother country is benefited, the working man is benefited, the colony is benefited; and, virtually, each is benefited in about an equal degree. In practical equity, therefore, the cost of the removal should be a tripartite cost – the mother country should pay a third, the colony should pay a third, and the labourer (a year or so after he became a colonist) should pay a third. This would not only be the most equitable division of the cost; it would, I think, be a division to which each of the contracting parties would willingly assent. The mother country at the cost of from £4 to £8 per head (as the emigrant might elect to go to our near or more distant colonies), would transplant one of her oak sapling thinnings to the rich soil and free space of Canada or Australia; the colonies, at least the Australian colonies, which now bear the whole cost of bringing over the working man, would of course gladly assent to pay only one-third instead of the whole; and we know that the working man would jump at the offer of being conveyed with his family to Canada, Australia, or New Zealand, on condition that he should repay a third of his passage-money to a young land wherein he would soon become the yeoman freeholder.

Adopting this as the great pecuniary principle of that State system of emigration and colonisation which I would fain see our Legislature adopt, it is not necessary here to discuss, either the minor features of the system, or the details of that simple working practice under which the system would be the most effectively carried out. I would,

STATE EMIGRATION.

however, remark that I would make it elective with the working man as to which colony he would go to; and that as the mother country and the colony would bear an equal share of the expense of the removal of the emigrant, they should each alike have an equal share in the selection of the emigrant. Though the Australian colonies have hitherto paid the entire cost of transplanting the labouring emigrant, and have therefore gained and exercised what we may term the commercial right of demanding the best article for their money, it has always seemed to me, colonist as I am, that Australia has displayed considerable impudence in coming here, picking and culling our poor people like cattle in a fair. No doubt, young married couples who can plough and sow and reap and mow; and brawny smiths, masons and carpenters, whom no day tires, and whom the pot-house never sees, would be preferred in the colony; but, it so happens, that these are the very people who are preferred in the mother country. The truth is, that in the immense unpeopled wastes of Canada and Australia and Zealandia, the human being is so valuable an article, that provided he were not a confirmed sot, the poorest creature that ever stepped in the shape of a "worker," would be an acquisition there; and though the colonies are entitled to some of our good stuff, they are not entitled to demand all our first quality articles, and to refuse all our "seconds;" and when John Bull's sons, New South Wales, and Victoria, and South Australia, come to our labour market with their "This woman won't suit, that man we don't like, this girl is too young, that man is too old, this person is Irish, that person can't plough, this person is not five feet ten, that person has red hair," &c, &c, I for one feel that John Bull's sons would be considerably benefited by the administration of a good paternal kicking. In the selection of State-emigration emigrants, therefore, I would have the mother country nominate one, 79 and the colonies nominate another,

HOW TO AGITATE FOR IT.

so that the plums of the pudding might be fairly apportioned.

Asserting, then, that an organized State system of emigration founded on the "tripartite cost" principle, and the fair selection of emigrants, would be signally beneficial to the nation, I would suggest the following heads of a plan for getting up that popular agitation on the question which might stimulate the Legislature to consider, and then to create such system.

1. Let there be formed in London a committee of working men, colonists, clergymen, members of parliament, merchants, and other interested parties, to be called the Committee of the Emigration League.

2. Let such Committee draw up a circular briefly stating the views and objects of the Emigration League; and let the motto of such circular be "Emigrants and Colonies not Paupers and Prisons." And then let the Committee draw up a short petition to both Houses of Parliament, praying the Legislature to take the necessary steps with the Colonial Legislatures to create an organized State system of emigration and colonisation formed on the principle of tripartite cost and the fair selection of emigrants.

3. Let them send copy of such circular and copy of such

EMIGRATION ECONOMICS.

petition to the Mayor, and to one clergyman, and to one Dissenting minister in every town in the United Kingdom.

4. Let them request some popular resident – if possible some leading working man – in every such town to call a public meeting to advertise such petition, to procure signatures, and to enrol members of the League.

5. Let such signed petitions be returned to the Committee, and then presented to both Houses of Parliament.

If the Committee managed well, they might, I think by this plan, procure a million of signatures, and that too at an expense of not more than £100. Mr. Gladstone would be the man of men to present the monster roll in the Lower House; whilst Earl Grey would, I think, feel proud to present it in the Peers; and thus before 1860, the British empire might have established a State Emigration System, perhaps as valuable to her as Magna Charta, Trial by Jury, Representative Government, or Free Press.

NATURAL CAUSE OF THE GOOD OF EMIGRATION. – The natural, or political-economical cause and reason why emigration is generally beneficial to a man is simply this: – industrial combination of one artificial and one natural element, that is capital and labour, operating on soil and the productions of soil produce the wealth of old countries; but in old densely-peopled countries like England, there are so many millions of people struggling to share in and divide this wealth, that very many of them get very little of it; and many, trampled down in the crowd, get none at all. Now, capital and labour operating on soil, produce the wealth of new countries; and, though, here, there is far less of the artificial element of wealth, "capital and labour," there is far more of the natural element, "soil," and the virgin soil is richer in unrifled treasures; thus the wealth produced in a new virgin country is, relatively, much greater than the wealth produced in an old used country, and there are so few people to share in and divide the wealth that each person secures a fair portion of it.

We may illustrate this reasoning by a figure. In old-

SMALL CAPITALS.

country streams, millions of eager fishermen crowd the banks, hundreds with costly tackle in preserved waters get a salmon, thousands draw out the poor piscine prize of roach or dace, tens of thousands catch but gudgeon and sticklebacks, many catch only colds and rheumatics, and not a few of the weaklings get pushed into the mudded waters where they sink to fish no more. Now the streams of new countries are fuller of fish than the streams of old countries, and there are so few fishermen to fish them and exhaust their finny treasures, that every emigrant fisherman, armed with proper tackle, may step to the bank with his jacket off and make sure, not perhaps of regal salmon, but of goodly grilse or trout.

In old-world lotteries of life, there is one gigantic prize to innumerable blanks; in new-world lotteries of life there may be no gigantic prize, but there are innumerable goodly prizes and scarcely any blanks.

THE MODE IN WHICH EMIGRATION IS PECUNIARILY BENEFICIAL. – However beneficial emigration may be, some misconception frequently exists as to the way in which it is beneficial. It is not so much that emigration offers us higher profits, as that it opens to us many more profitable pursuits. £2000 worked in a profitable business in England, might pay. almost as good a percentage as £2000 worked in a profitable business in New Zealand. But where there is one pursuit in which such sum could be profitably worked in the former, there are fifty in the latter country. In rich, "surplus-capital-accumulated" countries like England, the various pursuits of the community are conducted on a wholesale, large-capital, monopolising scale; and in the competition for business, the large capitalist beats down, drives off, or destroys, the small capitalist. Almost all our industrial pursuits here are conducted on such a large scale, the effective working and management of them is so costly, the various public and private charges to which they are subject are so heavy, that a great number of the common businesses of life

CAPITALISATION OF PROFITS.

cannot be entered into successfully by great numbers of the people: they either do not attempt these businesses, when their little capitals lie barren at £4 and £5 per cent, and they themselves remain idlers, clerks, assistants, dependents, &c.; or they do attempt them, and fail. No man, here, possessed of a thousand or few hundred pounds, could buy land and farm his freehold; or rent, stock, and carry on any good farm, mill, brewery, manufactory, or shop. But if with such a sum, some man, more sanguine and simple than his neighbours, did venture into some business of a commercial nature, he would probably find that, wherever he might make his start, there was some old-established large-capital rival in possession of the field, who would under-buy and under-sell him, out-puff, out-advertise, and out-credit him; a rival or rivals against whom he might maintain a gallant, but anxious struggle for a few months or for a few years, but before whom he would at last retreat with the loss of part, perhaps of all, the little capital he had been fighting with. He rashly ventured into the battle with half a weapon and no armour, and he leaves the field sorely mauled and smitten.

Now in New Zealand and in all good young colonies, there are no large capitalists to swallow small ones; all industrial pursuits are conducted on a smaller, more primitive, less costly, scale, and every man may start as master, and find a business to suit his means.

CAPITALIZATION OF PROFITS. – Emigration to a young colony, too, enables a man to save more out of his profits than he can save in an old, public-burdened, high-taxed, socially-artificial, country like England. If the annual profits of a man's business, here, be £500, the various municipal and imperial taxes he has to pay, together with the expenses of that showy "keep-up-appearances" style of living which his family must maintain if they would not be slandered and sneered at by that ubiquitous social tyrant Mrs. Grundy and her sister hags, will make such a hole in his £500 that very little will be

HOW EMIGRATION PAYS.

left of it to add to his capital, and he will accumulate slowly.

Now in New Zealand there are no taxes to pay; Mrs. Grundy is unknown there, a family lives just as well, just as comfortably there, just as their neighbours live; but all live in a more honest, simple, good-old-fashioned homely style, and a man will find that out of his annual profit of £500, he has annually a handsome sum left to add to his capital or to invest in land.

PECUNIARY BENEFITS OF EMIGRATION. – I do not say that New Zealand emigration would not pecuniarily benefit much larger capitalists than the "few-hundreds" men. On the contrary, I believe there is no country in the world where capitals of £5000 to £10,000 could now be invested better than in New Zealand, and no country wherein so many sorts and classes of emigrants would realise their varied views and wishes. But if asked to define the most palpable pecuniary advantages which emigration offers to the majority of emigrants, I should briefly define them as being these – first, the number of industrial pursuits offered for the profitable employment of small capitals which can find no profitable employment at home, and which, therefore, lie barren at £4 and £5 per cent. – second, the higher value of money, the treble interest, the £10 and £15 per cent, instead of the £4 and £5 procurable on "passive investments," such as mortgages and discounts – third, the ability to lay by and capitalize a much larger portion of the annual profits of any pursuit than could be laid by and capitalized in England – and fourth, the facilities existing in a young country containing millions of fertile acres purchasable for a few shillings per acre, and where agricultural and pastoral pursuits and the creation of little landed estates are permanent and profitable pursuits, for the prosperous planting out, marrying and settling of large families of sons and daughters.

EMIGRATION KNIGHTHOOD.

"SOCIAL AND MORAL BENEFITS OF EMIGRATION." – If we derive substantial pecuniary benefits from emigration, these pecuniary benefits are necessarily attended with many social and moral benefits. If, from a state of poverty, pecuniary dependence, or prostration, emigration raises us to comparative affluence and independence, it is clear that emigration must benefit us in many ways besides and beyond in our mere purses and pockets. For instance, it confers on us certain social rank and status arising both from the positive and relative pecuniary benefits it bestows. Brown in England, has £2000, he fears to risk his little all in any over-crowded business, so he funds it at 3 1/2 per cent., seeks some little situation, ekes out his scanty means, and just lives. He is a householder, pays Queen's taxes, has a vote, and seat in church; by law he is a citizen of the State – but what is Brown's social rank? Does not society hold him cheap and rank him as a sort of reputable pauper? Gentleman as he may be in the best sense of the word, are there not hundreds of people, worms in more brilliant skins crawling quickly through life with him within a mile of his door, who would no more visit him than they would visit dustman or rag-merchant; people, whose wives and daughters (neither fairer nor better than his own) would blush to be seen speaking to his family in the streets, or who would cross over to avoid them; people whose carriages, did they not splash him now and then, might seem to roll through a different world from his; people who have little more social sympathy, communion, and intercourse with him and his than they have with the Fejee Islanders or the savages of Central Africa?

Now wise Brown emigrates to New Zealand, he buys land, commences creating an estate of his own, which pays him an annual £25 per cent, and becomes one of the "upper ten thousand" – one with whom the highest in the land are happy to associate. Virtually, Brown drives his carriage – for he drives his carriage as much as any one else does, and the difference between nobody driving a carriage and everybody driving a carriage is a difference

MARRY AND MULTIPLY.

more of words than of things. Virtually, emigration has knighted Brown and Mrs. and Miss Brown are of the haute volee, and go to Court.

SETTLING FAMILIES. – Another great social and moral benefit of emigration is the provision and free space it offers for the half-dozen sons and daughters. Here, certainly, I do not speak from experience; but here, I fear, I know enough to know that full half those carking cares of life which shorten or embitter the existence of thousands of English parents, arise from the oft-put question, "What is to become of the children?" Now I venture to say that the reader shall be the confidential friend of every family in New Zealand, and never hear this question even alluded to, that is, alluded to in any anxious or desponding sense. And this arises simply from the fact that men and women, or the materials for men and women, children, are the most valuable possessions which a young and fertile country like New Zealand can possess. Her rich virgin soil, the unrifled treasures of her broad domains, need but the magic contact of population, the magic touch of human industry, to endow and to enrich millions. New Zealand is a larger and by nature a much richer country than Great Britain – her population is less than that of many an English town! She presents an area of nearly 2000 acres to every man, woman, and child at present in the country – acres purchasable for the most part at a few shillings per acre, and capable of annually producing many pounds per acre. The 80,000,000 of wild acres in New Zealand cry for people; the young agriculture, the young commerce, all the young careers and institutions of the new land cry for people; and it is true to say that in Zealandia, children are like arrows in the hands of the strong man, and that happy is the emigrant who has his quiver full.

The reader may have seen a curious but sanguine little book with the arresting title of "How to grow Rich?" Should the ingenious author ever extend his pages to New Zealand, his first maxim should be "Marry and multiply."

"THE COUNTRY WINS ME STILL."

RURAL LIFE. – Another social advantage of emigration is, that it enables us to escape from the rabble roar and rout of towns, to escape the moral and physical filth and pollutions which may contaminate and must disgust all who are "in populous city pent;" and to gratify that longing for a freehold of our own and a country life which seems to be one of the most common and most wholesome desires of our nature.

"Hackneyed in business, wearied at that oar
Which thousands, once fast chained to, quit no more,
But which, when life at ebb runs weak and low,
All wish, or seem to wish, they could forego;
The statesman, lawyer, merchant, man of trade,
Pants for the refuge of some rural shade."

An eloquent writer, speaking of rural life in a colony, says: –

"There the necessities of present life, the every-day calls upon our industry and action, the constantly-shifting scene of labour and activity, the rural cares which become comforts, bid us live out of ourselves in the world of external realities. There our friends are not our rivals, nor our neighbours our competitors. The sight of 'the human face divine' sickens us not with a sea of the squalid visages of multitudinous population, but brightens our own countenance with welcome to a brother. The mind has no time to canker within itself; we have to grapple with the palpable realities of the physical elements and the earth that is around us, not to wrestle with the diseased anxieties of the brooding mind. The nervous energy which in populous city life festers in the brain, and eats into the heart, is exhausted in the healthful activity of muscular exertion. The steers have to be yoked, the heifers low for milking, the now-fallen lambs bleat their accession to our flock. The maple yields its sugar, the sheep its fleece, the fruit hangs for our gathering. There is no exciseman to forbid our brewing our own October, or making our own soap and candles. With the day's work, the day's cares are over; the soul broods not, but sleeps. Tired nature bids us take no thought for tomorrow, for we have the promise that seed-time and harvest shall never fail; our house and our land are our own, and we have fuel for the felling. Children become a blessing and helpers

ESCAPE FROM CARKING CARE.

to us. Nature is within, and above, and around us. 'Behold the lilies how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.' If, then, the splendours of a royal court are as nothing to those natural glories which God, in the fields, by the rivers, and on the mountain side, has made accessible to the meanest and poorest of us, and which we may drink in at every sense, what is there in the crowded city, or the populous centre of wealth and civilization, that we should really prefer to the enamelled prairie, the echoing forest, the contemplative waterfall, or the fertile valley? What are not the thousand moral temptations and spiritual hazards to which a family of sons is exposed in the gay vice, the unthinking extravagance, the reckless dissipation of European cities? How many prosperous parents have their whole happiness poisoned by the misconduct or spendthrift thoughtlessness of pleasure-hunting boys; whose hearts, perhaps in the right place, and whose principles, sound and true at bottom, have their heads and fancy turned and captivated by the follies of the hour, and the 'pleasant sins' of metropolitan gaiety. In the Bush, on the prairie, on the colonial farm, if the attraction be less, the safety is the greater. The hot blood of youth sobers down in the gallop over the plain, or falls to its healthy temperature as he fells the forest king.

"Where all women are reverenced, and respect themselves, the gay bachelor can fix his regards only where he is ready to repose his prospect of happiness for life. Where vice presents no artificial gilding, and debt and dissipation are equally despised, there is small temptation to improvident extravagance; and no inducement to leave the well-paid path of cheerful industry."

LESS CARE AND TOIL. – Another great social advantage of emigration is, that it frees many of us from a life of toil, entails less work – sometimes more work of hands, but infinitely less work of mind – less care, less anxiety, less of ceaseless attention to business. Here, many a man's career on earth is little other than one long life race with millions of eager rivals picking up £ s. d. strewn scantily along the course. Slave of the lamp "till tired he sleeps and life's poor play is o'er," he toils

RETRENCHMENT AND REFORM.

through his days at a money mill, crushing specks of gold from tons of quartz. His bow is ever bent; his book of life, the cash book; his creed, work that ye don't starve, six days must thou labour and do hard work, and the seventh count thy gains. Existence has rolled by before he has thought of happiness; the faculty of enjoyment has passed away before he has leisure to enjoy; life is lost in the struggle to live. Forty years and a day has he sought the idol gold, and missed it – or found it, looked on it, and died.

If inquests were held here on every man who died an unnatural death, how many verdicts would run, "Killed by care!"

RETRENCHMENT AND REFORM. – Emigration, too, enables us to do what we cannot do here – take in sail, brace up, retrench, and reform. Oracular people who having drawn a prize in the lottery of life think that there are no blanks, are fond of remarking that if we would work as hard and spend as little in the old land as we shall in the new, we might do as well in the old land as in the new. As to "working," I venture to reverse the proposition, to say that half the work, half the toil of mind and body, half the expenditure of the vital principle, which we must put forth in the old land, an we would not starve, would produce us treble the old-land return if put forth in the new. As to the "spending," they are right – doubtless if we had wings we could fly, but we have no wings. Such is the paradoxical character of our social system, such the tyranny of our priests and idols, that often we cannot lower sail and retrench. We must sail with the tide and do as others do, in order that we may not do worse than others do; we must spend an income in order that we may get an income. The yearly expenditure of many a family should be added up in three columns – rent and taxes, expenses of living, expenses of "keeping up appearances." We spend £300 a year for our own demands, and £300 a year for the

EMIGRANT QUALIFICATIONS.

demands of society. Society travels first class, and demands gold lace, spangles, plumes, and a flunkey. If Brown having spent £300 a year for society for some years refuse to do so any longer – if he retrench, sell the brougham, saddle his own horse, dig his own acre, dine at two, put Mrs. B. in the kitchen for an hour or two, and Miss Lucy in the dairy, what would trade, society, and the Hon. Deuceace often say and do to Brown? Say that Brown had fallen from his high estate – that Brown was no longer to be trusted – that Brown was going down hill to Coventry very fast – and they would lend him a farewell kick to accelerate his progress thither. Strange to say, no one points to Brown as a model of economy, every one points at him as a beacon of extravagance, and the social rats leave what seems a sinking ship.

But let Brown carry out this "retrenchment, and reform in New Zealand, and what would society and the Hon. Deuceace say to him there? – say, "Welcome, brother, you come to do what we came to do, and are all the better for having done, and here's a hand to help you on."

QUALIFICATIONS AND QUALIFYING FOR EMIGRATION. – If asked to name the two most "money-making" qualities an emigrant could possess, or all the qualities he need possess save common honesty and industry, I should say, sober pluck and patience. It is not so much the dashing, clever, brilliant man, as the brave, stedfast, and hopeful man who climbs quickest in a colony. Great talents are good in a colony, and great talents go to a colony; but they are not relatively so useful to a man as they are in England. All the industrial occupations and pursuits of the young land are conducted in so simple, so primitive, a manner, that any man may conduct them with success. In the professions, in commercial pursuits, in all the common business of life in England, any man, however clever, competent, and persevering he may be, may have some rival who has had the tact to make clients and customers believe that

EMIGRANT QUALIFICATIONS.

he is more clever, competent, and persevering, and who thus carries off the loaves and fishes. But there are few or no pursuits in the broad fields of a young colony where a man will lose ground because of the presence of any better man than himself; and though fools don't emigrate because they have not sense enough, fools, steady fools, unquestionably might emigrate and do well.

This easiness and simplicity of all colonial pursuits renders a special training to colonial pursuits quite unnecessary. In a new country, we say any man can do anything, and that any man does do anything. That venerable aphorism of our schools, the "Ne sutor ultra crepidam," might be a golden maxim for all old-world workers – it rules none but veritable cobblers in a colony. Life in a colony is not a narrow circumscribed routine life, closely hedged in and trimly squared by tyrant form and custom. In a colony there is none of that minute microscopical subdivision of labour under which one man blows one note, and a pin passes through a hundred hands; in a colony, the development of our individual humanity is not altogether arrested by the progress of the social principle; there our claws are not pared, and each of us is something more than the revolving but stationary wheel of a machine; and there, with equal certainty and success, the soldier converts his sword into a ploughshare, the sailor steers a harrow, the merchant turns farmer, the farmer merchant, the lawyer acquires an estate by "deed of axe," not by deed of pen, the doctor, tossing "physic to the dogs," thrives better on fine wool than erst on fine ladies, and the fair Arachne of crochet may hope to become both useful and ornamental on the milking and the music stool.

Indeed, in the commonest and most profitable pursuit of all in New Zealand – the purchase of wild land and the gradual creation of a little landed estate by means of the plough and fleece – many practical colonists, so far from deeming it necessary that the emigrant should have had any home training or old-world experience of farming,

TRAINING FOR EMIGRATION.

contend that the active professional or town-bred man succeeds better, that is, makes quicker first progress, than the home bred farmer. They assert that the old world farmer, trained up to a highly artificial old-world system, a man of a class remarkable for prejudice and the slow reception of new ideas, has a great deal to unlearn when he lands in the colony, that he will lose time in clinging to many old-world fashions which are utterly unsuited to the new life in the new land. Whereas the genteel-family emigrant, the soldier, sailor, merchant, tradesman, mechanic, parson, lawyer, doctor, having nothing to unlearn, no prejudices to disgorge, their minds being the "tabula rasa," will instantly accept and adopt that simple new-world practice which they see so successful on the estates of their neighbours. However, be this as it may, there can be no question that in this, one of the chief pursuits of New Zealand emigrants, a man who had never seen a plough does, as the rule, succeed just as well as the man brought up to the plough tail.

This simplicity of the personal qualifications for emigration does away with the necessity for personally qualifying. A bachelor emigrant, or a son going out as pioneer for his family, leaning to pastoral pursuits, and deeming it prudent to get a little experience before commencing for himself, will occasionally go to Cumberland, or some hill sheep country, and take a year with a sheep farmer. He would do far better to sail at once, master some popular shilling sheep hand-book on the voyage, and give some good colonist £100 for a year's board and a year's training in the actual pastoral pursuits of the colony itself. Again, I have known ambitious agricultural emigrants prepare themselves by taking a course of instruction at the agricultural college, or on some crack farm in Norfolk or the Lothians. A perusal of the "Book of the Farm" on the voyage, and the use of their eyes and ears for a month in the colony, would have qualified them better. They have learnt Liebig, agricultural chemistry, and the scientific classification and nomenclature of soils; and, doubtless,

EMIGRANT ARMS AND ARMOUR.

with a good balance at the bankers, could create another Tiptree from another waste, and force up sixty bushels an acre, at a cost of 11s. 6 3/4d. per bushel. But, in New Zealand, nature, soil, and climate are Mechi and Liebig, and half the costly college lore is worse than useless.

Emigration works are extant, too, wherein the author, determined that his hero shall be well armed for the fight, counsels him to go with anvil saw and adze, lathe last and goose; to be at once smith carpenter and cooper, turner cobbler and tailor. Now I do not at all undervalue emigrant mechanical accomplishments; I worked as a carpenter for a year before I went to New Zealand, and attained so fair a mastery of the art that I flatter myself I could turn out a better sash than book; but I cannot counsel any New Zealand emigrant to make himself this Jack-of-all-trades man, this botcher of all and half master of none. In the first place, five-sixths of his mechanical lore would not be more useful to him than Hebrew; and an emigrant who devoted a month to each of the above pursuits might well make shoe that would lame a horse, door that would not shut, boot like a bucket, coat that would scare a crow, and tub that would not stand.

In short, the rule in this question of qualifying should be this: – When a family has deliberately decided to go to New Zealand, and no pecuniary or private matters intervene to delay their departure, they should wait for nothing, but pack up and sail by first good ship bound to the particular port they wish to be landed at; for though the practical knowledge of certain useful arts which they might acquire by waiting six months would be valuable to them, it would not generally be so valuable to them as the time and money they would exhaust in acquiring it. But when owing to private affairs, a family cannot get away for a few months, father and son might take a week at ploughing and learn the easiness of holding and setting a plough, and then buy the tools (page 355), turn an outhouse into a shop, and get some handy journeyman carpenter to

EMIGRATION AND MATRIMONY.

come for an hour or two in the evening or day to teach them the use of saw and plane, and help them to make good packing-cases, the outfit cabin drawers, an oak tool chest, one or two loose (not put together) wheel-barrows, and half a dozen doors and windows for the new house. If there be another son he might pay £5 or £10 for two or three months with some intelligent smith, turner, wheelwright, or cabinet-maker, as his taste might dictate; and Mrs. Brown and Lucy might ask some little farmer's wife to give them a lesson or two in dairy work, ham and bacon curing, &c. Indeed, where the various members of the family were heartily willing, or anxious to do this, and when circumstances were favourable to doing it, the varied knowledge they would thus acquire would be so pleasant and profitable to them, that I think it might sometimes be worth while even waiting two or three months in order to acquire it.

There is one sort of "qualifying," though, to which I would earnestly call the attention of the Bachelor Brotherhood. A colonial proverb runs, "Single men may succeed, married men must;" and any single gentleman, having a little money, and emigrating to get a little more, should stop a week, uncord the box, take out the red waistcoat, ride round the neighbourhood, simplex munditiis, Coelebs in search of a wife, and seek to add to his outfit something far prettier and more fruitful than patent plough, thrashing mill, or thorough-bred. If long a Benedick, and jokers' joke, let him say with Beatrice's bargain, When I swore to die a Bachelor I never thought to have lived to – emigrate; and if he draw a prize (and ladies say there are no blanks) he will find the New Zealand valley a golden spot, where he may exclaim, "Hic ipso tecum consumere aevo" – which, for the edification of maidens who have lost their Latin, we may freely translate into "Here, with thee and a ripe cigar, I could wear away even life itself."

EVILS OF EMIGRATION DELAY. – One of the most

EVILS OF DELAY.

fatal errors of emigrants is the error of delay. Thousands, sensible of the advantages of emigration, linger on from year to year, sink from bad to worse, and then when they have nothing left to emigrate with, emigrate as a last resource.

Now we cannot expect, and assuredly do not desire, that those who are in what they regard as safe and prosperous circumstances, should be induced to emigrate, and thus depart from the safe old maxim of "leaving well alone." But how often do those who have been going down hill for years, and who have long looked to emigration, still go on losing time and money, clinging to ruin, hoping against hope for better times, still go on feebly fighting a losing fight, still go on shivering on the brink delaying to plunge and swim to what they know to be a safer shore, until when they do go, they reach the new land in that forlornest of forlorn estates – paupers in purse and not paupers in habits and hands.

A little capital will go a long way in New Zealand, and well handled will do a great deal; but some capital is absolutely necessary, and there is such a thing as going with too little. Half the discomforts and "roughings," the disheartening difficulties, the early struggles, the slow laborious first progress of many an emigrant, do not arise because such things are inseparable from emigration, but because many an emigrant has delayed his emigration until he has landed all but bankrupt in purse. And if the reader knew as much on this point as I know, his wonder would not be that an emigrant sometimes fails to climb the hill, but that half as many climb the hill and succeed as do climb the hill and succeed. When a middle-class family of the common character and constitution has lingered on here until they have lost all but their passage money, they had better remain here, their emigration day is past. Here, I am aware I differ in opinion from many colonists, but such is my opinion, and I frankly avow it.

It is no exaggeration to say that a qualified family landing in New Zealand with their £1000 in 1857,

GO IN TIME, OR NOT AT ALL.

might place themselves in easy and independent circumstances by 1862; the same family emigrating in 1862, with half this capital, might not attain an equal position by 1870. And this rate of progress would apply more or less to any amount of capital: a family going at once with £500, might attain a position in a few years which, if they lingered on here until they had lost half this little capital, they might not attain for many years, or might not attain at all.

It is obviously impossible to name that particular era or turning point when it becomes more prudent for us to go than to stay, but as a general rule, we may certainly say that when our affairs have reached such point in the downward state that emigration has once suggested itself, the sooner we then emigrate the better.

71 The Emigration Commissioners' Report shows that upwards of 1,500,000 people have emigrated in the last five years.

72 The men who are only born to devour provisions.

73 I here include a portion of the population of the United States, who, though not our colonists, are still our emigrants.

74 Our Australian colonists alone subscribed nearly £150,000 to the Patriotic Fund; and one little colony, containing 70,000 people, which is sneered at as a sort of convict hulk, Van Diemen's Land, subscribed £30,000.

75 It may here be remarked, en passant, that not the least distinguished man of the Russian war, General Williams, of Kars, is a North-American colonist; and that a member of the Government, the Hon. Robt. Lowe, M.P. for Kidderminster, is an old Australian colonist.

76 Upper Canada. Lower Canada. Nova Scotia. New Brunswick. The Cape Colony. Port Natal. New South Wales. Victoria. South Australia. West Australia. Tasmania. New Zealand.

As the first step towards a legislative cohesion of our Home and Colonial Empire, I would provide that each of the twelve emigration colonies should elect and send a member to the House of Commons (Upper and Lower Canada, perhaps, two members). Each member to have a double vote. The American members to be paid £500 a year, the Australian £800 (including all travelling expenses). Each member to be considered the public emigration agent of his colony in England, and to visit his constituents between every session. This might seem rather hard exercise for the Australian and New Zealand members; but assuming the session to end the 1st of August, the Australian and Zealandian members (via Suez) could spend three months among their constituents, and yet be back in Westminster by the 1st of February.

77 Mr. Slaney has estimated poor rates and crime rates at £16,000,000 a year.

78 "There are upwards of 130,000 able-bodied paupers in the unions of England and Wales. Taking their maintenance at £8 per head, these persons annually cost one million and forty thousand pounds. Suppose it cost £24 a head to remove them to Australia, the total expense of the operation would be three millions one hundred and twelve thousand pounds. If this sum were raised by way of loan on the poor-rates, the interest, at £3 per cent., would be little more than £93,000. Every emigrant might be bound to pay back his passage-money as soon as he was able – an obligation in which many would fail, but which many also would perform. It is difficult to estimate the amount which would thus be returned; but even were not a single shilling repaid, the difference between £93,000 and £1,040,000 leaves a good margin for a sinking fund. There are not many financial operations the result of which would at once be so certain and so brilliant." – Times.

79 It would require to be distinctly understood that no convicts, no convicted criminals should be smuggled in under this arrangement. Individually I do not join in the colonists' cry or bray against convicts. If 5000 convicts were sent to New Zealand to-morrow, I should consider the value of any property I possessed there to be increased 25 per cent., and should regard the colony as an equally safe and pleasant home. Convictism, in my opinion, may be likened to medicinal poisons – a small dose of either is conducive to health, a large dose is death. Here, however, I am a sort of heretic, and the colonies would not, I think, join in any State system without the mother country would distinctly promise to exclude all convicted criminals from her selection of emigrants. Indeed, the mother country, under a State-emigration system of this nature, could well forego the sending of criminals, inasmuch as such a system as this would relieve her of the presence of one-half of those who become criminals.

CHAPTER XX. EMIGRANTS, FIT AND UNFIT.

EMIGRANTS, FIT AND UNFIT.

CHAPTER XX.

EMIGRANTS, FIT AND UNFIT.

I SHALL now ask the reader to consider a few remarks on three descriptions of people to whom emigration more or less relates, namely: 1st, those who emigrate, but who do not emigrate to the best place; 2nd, those who emigrate, but who would do better to stay at home; and 3rd, those who would like to emigrate, and who would emigrate successfully, but who do not emigrate.

THOSE WHO EMIGRATE, BUT WHO DO NOT EMIGRATE TO THE BEST PLACE. – Nothing is further from my intention than to attempt to depreciate the national merits and importance of such countries as the United States, the Canadas, and our North-American possessions. I have been there, and I have friends and relatives settled there. America is unquestionably a fine country for Americans; whilst Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, are colonies of which any nation might be proud.

But, except for Continental adventurers, German mechanics, Irish labourers, paupers, and the pinched and hungry who emigrate chiefly to get full belly and plenty to eat, these countries are not, I think, now the best emigration fields, and emigrating thither in 1857 is somewhat an emigration blunder and mistake.

Twenty years ago emigrants had no choice of emigration fields: they either starved in Europe, or they went to America. The Cape was a mere sanatorium for Indian invalids, the blight of convictism was on New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land, South Australia was a paper scheme, Victoria and the gold-fields did not exist,

GOING TO THE BEST PLACE.

New Zealand was unborn. All this is altered; a new creation of emigration fields has sprung up, the diggings have bridged the ocean, and half a dozen magnificent southern colonies are now brought nearer to us than Canada was to Scotland twenty years ago.

The principal reasons which long weighed with people in emigrating to America were three – shortness of voyage, cheapness of land, popular government. A little consideration will I think show us that if these ever were good and sufficient reasons for those whom we may term our capitalist emigrants, they are good and sufficient reasons no longer.

VOYAGE. – All the most disagreeable part of emigration, the breaking up one's home, the adieu to friends, the getting off, the "settling down" to sea life (page 500), comes to us just the same, whether we emigrate to Victoria or Canada, or New Zealand or Nova Scotia, or Australia or Illinois. As to the tediousness of the longer voyage, thousands of people go to Australia who tell you they enjoyed the voyage; but admit that the voyage is tedious – and what then? It only comes once. Emigration is not a yacht trip to Brighton; and he or she who would not emigrate to Australia through fear of "ennui" on the voyage, may rest assured that they are not fit to emigrate at all.

As to "safety," the voyage to Australia and New Zealand, both as to freedom from shipwreck and from disease, is unquestionably safer than the voyage to America. 80 As to "expense," recollecting that the New Zealand emigrant and his family and his goods and baggage are

THE BEST PLACE THE CHEAPEST.

actually landed by the London ship within probably ten miles of the spot where he will plant his home, and build his house, I am very much inclined to think that any good emigrant family now going to New Zealand would reach the actual scene of their operations at almost as little expense, and unquestionably with less trouble, than they would if they went to any of the western North-American settling grounds, perchance two thousand miles distant from the port where the ship would land and leave them. Whilst even if it did cost a few pounds more to get to Australia or New Zealand than to Canada-West, Michigan, or Kansas, this should be a very trivial and secondary consideration; for our object in emigrating is not to go to the cheapest-reached place, but to go to the best place. It may cost me a pound to get from London to Liverpool, two pounds to get from London to Plymouth; but if I can earn £300 a year in Plymouth, and £200 a year in Liverpool, surely I am a fool if I don't go to Plymouth.

CHEAP LAND. – Probably the finest agricultural wild land in the world may now be bought in New Zealand at from 10s. to 20s. an acre; and some inferior, but good, at 5s. an acre. Land which considering its proximity to good markets and water carriage, the ease with which it may be cleared and ever after cultivated, its intrinsic richness, and the extraordinary agricultural climate it lies in, is cheaper, probably five hundred per cent, cheaper, to buy, live on, and cultivate, than any wild land in any part of the United States of North America. Our North-American territories, it must be recollected, are not great open, grassy, pastoral, wool-growing, corn-growing, gold and ore producing countries like our Australian and New Zealand colonies, but chiefly dense, forest-choked, semi-agricultural countries, where rude plenty is wrung from the soil, tree by tree, by the hard labour of the axe. The soil, when got at, is often rich; but, as the chief implements of the North-American farmer are necessarily

SIR RICHARD IN THE BUSH.

the axe, saw, and hoe, as the cruel winters necessitate the housing and artificial feeding of ail farm stock, North-American emigrant farming is proverbially a rough laborious emphatically slow pursuit, realising plenty for the mouth, hoe-cakes, pork, and pumpkin-pie, in abundance; but putting little in the pocket; and the wild forest acres which North America offers us at 10s., 8s., or 2s. 6d. an acre, would I fear be somewhat dear even as a gift. 81

AMERICAN LIBERTY.

POPULAR GOVERNMENT. – Any emigrant who leaves England to seek "freedom" in the United States, should lead with him that silly dog who lost his meat in the water in trying to seize the shadow; and should be ever ready to act on the advice given to the immortal Pickwick, "always to shout with the crowd;" for the chief difference between the ruling power in America, the mob, and an eastern despot, is, that the one legislates with the rifle and the cowhide, the other, with the bowstring and the bastinado.

Every £50 freeholder and £5 householder can now vote for, or be, a Member of Parliament in New Zealand; and there is certainly no country in America, perhaps none in the world, where the people govern themselves so fully and so well.

I repeat, therefore, that the reasons which formerly induced the capitalist emigrant to choose the American emigration fields, if they ever were good and sufficient reasons, are so no longer. Emigrant families may now get to Australia, Tasmania, and Zealandia, with as much ease, comfort, and safety, as to Canada West, or the backwoods of the United States. Wild land is cheaper and better in New Zealand,

ZEALANDIAN LOYALTY.

climate infinitely finer, and chance of health, strength, and long life, much greater. The emigrant's progress is quicker, he accumulates faster, whilst his toil is less; his habits of life, all that he sees, hears, and does, are more home like; society is better, more English-like and polished, and there, in a loyal British colony, he is still John Bull. 82

THE UNFIT EMIGRANTS.

THOSE WHO EMIGRATE, BUT WHO WOULD DO BETTER TO STAY AT HOME. – Such a class of emigrants undoubtedly exists, but fortunately it is a small one. It is composed

THE DE SMYTHES.

of four varieties: the Too-lates, the de Smythes, the Dismal Dummies, and the Slow-Fast gents.

The first, are the Laggards, described page 622. The second, are the fastidiously-genteel people of feeble intellect, and the silver fork and snob order; people who would prefer a crust and sour claret in the drawing-room, to roast beef and a tankard in the kitchen; people who regard the flunkey as an institution, and who, like the Oxford man, would not save you from drowning, because you had not been "introduced." Mr. and Mrs. de Smythe (small d, mind) shrivel up before the great heartiness and manly simplicity of emigration, and are as much out of place in a colony as a dancing dog in a fox hunt. 83

THE DISMAL DUMMIES.

What, colonially but somewhat paradoxically, are called "Dismal Dummies," or grumblers, for the genus is by no means dumb, constitute the third order of Unfit Emigrants. When wheat or wool falls, or when trade is less brisk than usual, farmers and traders grumble in New Zealand just as they do in England; indeed, a certain amount of grumbling seems essential to human felicity, and it would be a most arbitrary interference with the liberty of the subject to interdict any man from grumbling at his pleasure in New Zealand. But the Dismal Dummy, the unfit emigrant grumbler, is the man or woman who grumbles always. These unfortunates generally give the colonial community to understand that they never wished to emigrate – that they were doing well at home, and were likely to do better; and that it was their friends who over persuaded them to emigrate. A considerable portion of their daily occupation and amusement is found in abusing the colony, in denouncing their neighbours, and in bemoaning their lot. The towns are villages; the streets are unpaved; there is neither gas nor water-cart; the sun is too brilliant, the sky too blue, the trees too large, the meat too fat, the house not so large as the house they lived in when they kept three servants and visited a family who knew a baronet; and they only wish they were back. This is a wish in which colonists sincerely join; for not only are such unfortunates a grievous bore and nuisance in the little colonial community, but they really do injury to a colony by invariably writing about it in the "dismal dummy," and "sackcloth and ashes" strain.

Now the male or female "Dismal" is generally some one who has emigrated reluctantly, some one who has been a sort of pressed emigrant. I would therefore caution any lady or gentleman who is not willing to emigrate, to stay at home; they will get no sympathy in a colony, and they

THE SLOW-FAST "GENT."

will probably come to grief; and I would further caution all friends and advisers of such lady or gentleman never to press them to emigrate, but rather to press them to bear the ills they have than fly to those they know not of.

The fourth variety of the unfit emigrant is the "slow fast" gent, the ne'er-do-well. The Town type of this variety is sketched in a sentence. He is a youth who has lived fast and gone early to seed, he is known to tailors, and has heard of County Courts, he illustrates casinos, and is loud at the Cider-cellars and the Pic, he haunts night billiard-tables with other small birds of prey, and knows a thing at cards, he is far above work, and far beneath it, and, like the lazy dog, leans against the wall to bark. One would scarcely imagine that such a "gent" would ever go to a colony – he does not go, he is sent. When he has exhausted each miserable shift which green credulity offers to his tribe, when fairly "stumped" and tractable, his friends count him £100, ship him off to Australia, Africa, or New Zealand, and hope they are quit of him. But no, like a bad bill, he comes back, colonially noted and protested too, and at considerable expense to those who issued him.

The army, hotel-touting, billiard-marking, bus-driving, bill-sticking, street-singing, many industrial pursuits are open to a gentleman of this stamp in old-world cities; none are open to him in a young colony; and if he will be warned, he and the other three varieties of "unfit emigrants" will cling to home, and leave bad alone for fear of worse.

THOSE WHO WOULD LIKE TO EMIGRATE, AND WHO WOULD EMIGRATE SUCCESSFULLY, BUT WHO DO NOT EMIGRATE. – It is, I think, impossible to have an extensive circle of acquaintance, and to mix freely in society in town and country, without coming in contact with many excellent people, who have every inducement to emigrate, who are well fitted to emigrate, and who would like to emigrate, but who, nevertheless, do not emigrate. They are placed

EMIGRATION BUGBEARS.

in this paradoxical position, and restrained from emigrating, more or less, by certain bugbears which, with the reader's permission, we will briefly dissect, and which, however unsuccessfully, we will briefly attempt to dispel. 84

1. Dislike of publishing to their circle that their circumstances are such as to render emigration a prudent step; opposition of acquaintances, &c.

2. Fears that their want of certain assumed necessary qualifications incapacitates them for successful emigration.

3. Natural feelings of repugnance at leaving home and friends.

4. The strangeness and seeming uncertainty of the new future; fears of not doing well; and remoteness of the scene.

5. The assumed roughness and privations of the new life.

6. Assumed social deficiencies, absence of good society, amusements, and means of education, &c.

1. Surely this is an unreasonable scruple. If, on due consideration, a family have arrived at the conviction that emigration would be their true "elixir vitae" medicine, why not take it? Probably three-fourths of their true friends, and of those more sensible acquaintances whose opinion they ought to value, would commend their resolution. As to the rest, their fair weather visitors, morning callers, club cronies, dance partners, tea-table gossips, "id genus omne," who and what are they, with their pribbles and their prabbles, to stand between me and what I conceive to be good for me? Brush them aside with the flies. If Captain Joker, unattached, tell Adjutant Poker over their cups that that unfortunate devil Brown is off

LAUGH, GO, AND WIN.

to cannibal New Zealand, where some day he will be devilled Brown and eaten, why not applaud Bardolph's potent joke, and promise, when tailors trouble and when billiards fail, an he will shave, live cleanly, and foreswear sack, to make the gallant man head shepherd of a station and commander of ten thousand sheep. Bent on high designs, "bound to fresh fields and triumphs new," Mrs. B. and Miss Lucy, like the lady in Comus, may pass scathless through the mowing ranks of the old women of either sex; and if their emigration impart any extra flavour to "Mrs. Grundy's" pekoe, let them remember that the "Grundy nuisance" is about to cease for ever, and not envy the wretched hag the last enjoyment they afford her.

Half the sneering opposition which we oft encounter when we talk of emigrating, proceeds from no solicitude as to our welfare – many who jeer most at us well know that if they did their duty, they would emigrate too – like us they are standing on hollow ground, but they lack the pluck to seek a firmer shore – sinking, they would have us sink too.

When clamour is rampant, then, and jests rife, let Brown whistle and pack up, and call to mind what Solomon said about braying a fool.

2. The remarks, page 617, will, I trust, tend to dispel this most unfounded fear. Any good emigrant now going to New Zealand, willing to put his shoulder to the wheel, willing to learn and to do his best, will do well enough, and will unquestionably find himself the right man in the right place.

3. NATURAL FEELINGS OF REPUGNANCE AT LEAVING HOME, FRIENDS, AND COUNTRY. – What is "home?" Is it the particular four brick walls within which we happened to be born? If so, scarcely one of us ever lives in home. Is it the particular city, town, village, hamlet, or clachan

HOME AND FRIENDS.

we happened to be born in? If so, such home is often changed by a man half a dozen times in his life; as when he moves from Connaught to Cork, or from Cornwall to Cumberland, or from Scotland to Liverpool, or from Londonderry to London. Home, I take it, is that place where, for the time being, a man sets up his house and household gods, where he has his wife and bairns and books; and if he carry these things with him, he carries his home with him, whether he migrate from Nottingham to New Zealand, or from Nottingham to Northumberland; and the Roman was right when he said, "Where I am well off, there is my country."

As to leaving friends, friends are of two sorts, dear friends and dinner friends – those who would lend us a ten-pound note, and those who would not. As to the hundred latter, they are gay agreeable people, most social butterflies who know the sunny side of the peach, who sip your wine, shawl your wife, escort your daughter, and render you and society a thousand little services. But we may leave them, and live. As to our half-dozen dear friends, if we could carry them with us, the movement would be a perfect one. Sometimes, if we try, we can carry one or two of them with us; when we cannot, we must e'en say good-bye for a bit, and see them by letter. When a man emigrates, he emigrates to secure certain substantial benefits for himself, his wife, and children – these are his nearest and dearest friends, and these always go with him. Moreover, he will make plenty of friends in New Zealand. The very fact of his having chosen that country in preference to any other, makes him a popular man the moment he steps ashore. He is in no one's way there, he will push no one down the hill in climbing it himself, and he is received in a spirit of freemasonry by a community of his equals, who like him have left the old land to better their fortunes in the new.

As to leaving the land of our birth, "Omne solum forti patria est;" but in going to New Zealand do we, virtually, leave the land of our birth any more than when we go to

THE NEW ZEALAND BRITONS.

Jersey, Scotland, or Ireland? New Zealand, rightly regarded, is an integral part of Great Britain – an immense sea-joined Devonshire. An Englishman going thither, goes among his countrymen, he has the same queen, the same laws and customs, the same language, the same schools, the same churches, the same press, the same social institutions, and, save that he is in a country where trees are evergreen, and where there is no winter, no opera, no aristocracy, no income tax, no paupers, no beggars, no cotton mills, he is, virtually, in a young England.

Neither does he in any sense become less an Englishman, or an inferior sort of Englishman. National boasts, Cressy, Poictiers, Trafalgar, Waterloo, Inkerman, Shakspeare, Milton, Newton, Pope, and Burns, belong as much to the Briton in New Zealand as to the Briton in Mid Lothian or Middlesex. The New Zealand colonist has at once all the bright recollections of the England he has left, and all the bright prospects of the England he has reached; the past glories of the old land, the dawning splendours of the new.

No degeneracy of race, no personal inferiority, attends emigration. Emigration is a career which calls up pluck, bottom, energy, enterprise, all the masculine virtues. The feeble-minded, the emasculate, the fastidious, the timid, do not emigrate; they bow their necks to the yoke, ply the distaff, and spin wealth for the great at home. It is the strong and the bold who go forth to subdue the wilderness and conquer new lands. The 50,000 colonists in New Zealand would probably comprise more men naturally fitted to rule the senate, conduct the press, dominate the seas, and "set the squadron in the tented field," than any promiscuously taken 50,000 of their countrymen in England.

4. THE STRANGENESS AND SEEMING UNCERTAINTY OF THE NEW FUTURE, FEARS OF NOT DOING WELL, AND REMOTENESS OF THE SCENE. – Strangeness, here, is novelty, and novelty is generally pleasing. There is little or nothing radically

FEARS OF THE FUTURE.

much stranger in emigrating, than in moving into a new house, or in dining at two instead of six, or in putting on new bonnet or boots; and nothing in it to which any sensible man or woman would not become almost as soon reconciled, accustomed, and familiar.

As to the seeming uncertainty of the new future, save death and taxes, everything is uncertain. If we could insure every New Zealand emigrant a thousand a year, New Zealand emigrants might soon have to re-emigrate to the Fejees. All we can say as to "uncertainty and fear of not doing well" is this – there is no uncertainty as to the fact that for many a year we have been doing badly here, there is every appearance of certainty that if we remain here we shall do worse here; and though every rule has its exceptions, though we may know a de Smythe, or a dismal dummy, or a too-late man, or a slow-fast gent, who has failed at emigration as at everything else, we know that for half a century emigration has saved or substantially benefited millions of old-world emigrants, and may reasonably expect that emigration will benefit us just as it has benefited the millions who have gone before us.

As to the bugbear of remoteness of scene and being out of the world, New Zealand is as much in the new world as England is in the old world. All that we value most is with us. The Australian continent, with its London-Sydney and Liverpool-Melbourne, is our Europe; whilst, if our connection with the old world be essential to our happiness, we may get the gossip of Paris and St. Petersburg in New Zealand as soon, as fifty years ago, it was got in Edinburgh or Aberdeen; may shake some friend by the hand on the 1st of May who left Southampton on the 1st of March; may sow spring wheat, visit London, and be back in time for harvest, and see Manchester and Birmingham bagmen come to New Zealand twice a year for cash and orders.

5. ASSUMED ROUGHNESS AND PRIVATIONS OF THE NEW LIFE. – This is an objection which applies far more to

BREAD AND BED MAKING.

the pioneer, tent-dwelling days of new settlements, than to such later more advanced days as have now been reached in New Zealand; and far more, as observed page 622, to the too-late, capital-exhausted emigrant than to the more prudent family who go in time.

Speaking of New Zealand as it is now, but asking the reader to recollect that a greater social change and advance takes place in a young rising colony like New Zealand in five years than takes place in any old-grown country like England in five-and-twenty, I think we shall describe all the "roughness of living," domestic privations and discomforts, to which a New Zealand emigrant family would now temporarily be exposed, if we say this – they would probably not live, at first at least, in so fine or so well furnished a house as the one they had left; but it would be a house as good as their neighbour's, would be pretty and comfortable, and would be their own; and their table would be quite as well if not better supplied. They would have very much worse roads, and no public conveyances, and would have to walk and ride on horseback a great deal more; and ladies would probably have to do much more domestic work than fell to their lot in England. Help may always be had for periodical washings and cleanings and great occasions; but female servants are very scarce, and much addicted to marrying; and Mrs. B. and Miss Lucy would probably have to make many more loaves, pies, puddings, and beds than they ever made in Mr. Brown's establishment at Clapham Rise or Notting Hill. But it is to be recollected that owing to the verandah-cottage character of the houses and to the more simple style of living, household work would be much lighter in the New Zealand establishment; and further, that though at Clapham, did the butcher catch Mrs. B. in the kitchen making a loaf, he would probably send in his bill and demand instant payment; and that though Miss Lucy's making a bed at Notting Hill might annihilate her matrimonial prospects for ever, no such deplorable results would ensue from the like deeds in New Zealand, where every lady

SOCIETY.

makes herself useful as well as ornamental, and thus blooms in more roseal charms. The house we build, too, is ever a palace; and there is a vast difference between making a loaf or a bed for ourselves for love, and in making them for our masters and mistresses for money.

6. ASSUMED SOCIAL DEFICIENCIES, ABSENCE OF GOOD SOCIETY, AMUSEMENTS, AND MEANS OF EDUCATION. – This is, or rather used to be, one of the commonest objections to emigration; but, unquestionably, as regards emigration to New Zealand, it is one of the most unfounded and unjust. Whatever may have been the faults and failings of that Wakefield system of colonisation on which New Zealand emigration was founded, and they are neither few nor light, the system had this merit, it drew to New Zealand a much higher class of emigrants than had ever left the mother country since the Cavalier Settlements of Delaware and Virginia were founded; and selected its free-passage, working emigrants so carefully, that almost every mechanic and labourer carried to New Zealand was a picked man.

Petres, Molesworths, Cliffords, Dillons, Tancreds, Congreves, Wortleys, Vavasours, Cholmondeleys, scions of many old English families, have settled in New Zealand. A considerable portion of the Canterbury colonists were such people as you meet at fat rectors' tables and good country-houses. Retired professional men turned agriculturists, "vieux moustache" of the line or Indian service grown cunning in wool, quiet country families with broods of sons and daughters, enterprising younger sons, all living on and creating their little estates, with a considerable sprinkling of black coats, scarlet coats, government officials, and the mercantile classes, constitute full half the entire population of the colony. I think no stranger would now visit Zealandia without being agreeably surprised at the high but homely tone of society, and forcibly struck with the steady industrious character of all orders of the young community; and for friendliness of feeling, pleasantness of intercourse, intellectual and moral endow-

EMIGRANT ARISTOCRACY.

ments, I fancy the social circles of New Zealand would generally be found quite equal to anything which the emigrant family had left in England.

New Zealand is not a country of pig-sties and palaces, paupers and millionaires, and twenty intermediate castes; but a country of cottages and two classes, an independent middle class and an independent labouring class. In New Zealand, therefore, we find none of those inequalities in society, none of those scrupulous "ko-toeing" ceremonies and distinctions which poison half our social enjoyments at home. In New Zealand no one cuts us because we don't keep a carriage, for there, as before observed, we all keep our carriages; we don't turn grey from anxiety to get out of this "set" or to get into that "set," for there is but one set, and we are in and of it; we are all county families, we all go to Almack's, we are all of the "haute volee," and we all go to Court.

It should be remembered, too, that the goodness of society in emigration countries like New Zealand, good as it may be, is improving. People are now beginning to ask themselves very frequently whether emigration be only a resource for paupers, whether it be not a career for a gentleman quite as honourable as any profession, and far more profitable; and we may now meet a class of families in emigrant vessels who, ten years ago, would almost have shuddered had an emigrant come between "the wind and their nobility."

In regard to sports and pleasures, such things as public amusements, sights, theatres, and raree shows, are, of course, few and far between; but these things are needed for blase loungers in old-world cities, rather than for active colonists in a colony. A family occupied on their own acres, creating an estate which they are to enjoy, are every day performing in a varied theatre of real life, which exceeds in interest, and far exceeds in profit, the mimic play. Every settlement, however, has its annual anniversary sports, its races, race-balls, flower-shows, regattas,

BALLS AND BALL-ROOMS.

concerts, lectures, and occasional public festivities; and there are quite as many public amusements as colonists need, or can enjoy. 85

AMATEUR THEATRICALS.

Frigid dinner-parties, where heavy men in mourning meet in stolid gravity to devour more than they can digest,

TABLEAUX VIVANS.

and to muddle themselves with curious sherries and compounded ports, are calamities from which New Zealand

WORK AND PLAY.

at present is happily free. But there is a great deal of homely hospitality and friendly informal "fortune-du-pot" visiting among the colonists; and social meetings, merrymakings, harvest-homes, fetes champetre, tea and dance parties, gypsy parties, kiss and pic-nic parties, &c, succeed each other in quick succession.

In fact, nothing can be more preposterously absurd than to picture the life of the New Zealand emigrant of the present day as one dull round of dreary toil, without a gleam of sunny pleasure; as all chop, chop, dig, dig, for the men – all wash, wash, mend, mend, for the women. Why should it be so? It is quite true that the emigrant must work; but it is equally true that a comparatively moderate working, either of head or hands, will give him "plenty and to spare." Now, he who has this, is just the man who can afford to laugh and enjoy himself a little; and it is frequently remarked, and with great truth, that colonists, as compared to old country folk, are a very merry set of people. The honest man who creeps along the London streets under the burden of a large family and the income-tax, whose life is one continued struggle against the fierce competition of his neighbours, whose to-day closes in anxiety, and whose to-morrow dawns without hope, does not laugh much, and would almost as soon commit petty larceny as a joke. But transplant him to "laughing plenty" in Zealandia, or in some other good colony, and he will joke fast enough; or possibly become jolly and blown into a Mark Tapley.

Let intending emigrants remember, then, especially the younger portion of them, that if they will only work, they certainly may also play; and that the sports and pastimes, the social pleasures and amusements of their fatherland

COLLEGES, SCHOOLS, GOVERNESSES.

will still be theirs in New Zealand – a little shorn, may be, of the polished lacquer of high refinement, but gaining in hearty homeliness and honest sincerity.

With respect to religious and educational institutions, there is little to desire.

In the north, an excellent college, on a scale that would do credit to a colony fifty years older than New Zealand, has been founded by our admirable bishop, Dr. Selwyn. Churches of almost every denomination, grammar schools, academies, and seminaries, are found in almost every settlement; and the means of education in New Zealand are probably quite equal to those of many country towns and rural districts in England. Where, however, there is a large family of young children, and where the means of the emigrant would permit of such a profitable addition to his forces, I should recommend his taking out a governess; a young lady who, vowing to remain in "maiden meditation fancy free," for at least a year, would box the children, help the mistress, and make herself generally useful, striking, and agreeable; for though public schools are good, roads to learning are not royal, and the small day scholar is occasionally ingulphed in the deep mud rut.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – -

SOCIAL POSITIONS WHICH NEW ZEALAND EMIGRATION WOULD IMPROVE – WHO SHOULD EMIGRATE.

RETIRED GENTEEL FAMILIES. – No class has stronger reason for emigrating, none would be more benefited by emigrating, than that large class known as the "Retired Genteel Families:" younger sons who have married on small patrimonies, professional men who have abandoned professions, officers retired from the various services, and the like, who, with capitals of £3000 to £5000, retreating from the roar and bustle of life, have either congregated in

THE RETIRED GENTEEL FAMILY.

little troops in cheap continental towns and the channel isles, or isolated themselves in quiet village nooks, to eke out their slender means and to vegetate through life in genteel poverty and precarious independence.

Families of this order do not embrace this cold unfruitful life because they like it, they are driven to it – poverty is the unstatutable offence of modern conventionalism, and has transplanted them to holes and corners where poverty is the common lot. Our imperious social mandate forbids them to improve their fortunes in any of those so-called ungenteel pursuits which their small capitals would enable them to embark in. No gentleman of this order could turn tradesman, and keep a shop; Brahmin born, he must Brahmin live. The higher, "large-capital-demanding," pursuits, are as effectually barred from him as if they did not exist. Whilst assuming that society would allow him to embark in the one, or that capital would allow him to embark in the other, that he became tradesman or brewer, what would be his chance of success? – the competitive warfare which he, a novice, would have to wage in either line against adversaries trained in all the wily trickeries of trade would rout him from the field with loss of baggage and military chest.

With the reader's permission, we will take a fair average specimen of this class, glance at their common position and prospects here, and then glance at what they might make their position and prospects in New Zealand. Let us suppose our retired genteel family to be father and mother, and two or three sons and daughters, having a funded £4000 yielding them, if they have emigrated to the Continent and escaped income-tax, £160 a year or nine shillings a day for seven people. To point out the true position of this family, would be to point out the position of the sun at noon day. We all see it, and if we turn away from it, it will not be on account of its brilliancy: look at the father passing through life sucking his cane top on the Boulogne pier, a superior pot-house quidnunc – look at the daughters, shabby-smart, their

WHO SHOULD EMIGRATE.

looming future the pale governess or celibacy in lodgings – look at the sons, acquiring tastes and habits no more fitting them for the pursuits they will descend to, than the peacock's plumage fits him to battle with the eagle.

Now led by their fortunate star this family moves to New Zealand. Half their capital enables them to buy 500 acres of fertile land, to build themselves a handsome cottage and to cultivate, and in two or three years to create, a snug estate, the annual produce of which shall enable them to live in easy peace and plenty, and to practise a hearty, if homely, hospitality. The remainder of their money put out on good security at £10 per cent, produces them an annual £200, which annually may be added to their money capital, or profitably invested in land; and in all human probability, the estate which they have formed would in five or six years' time be worth, and would actually fetch in the market, three or four times what it had cost to create (see pages 359 and 417). They have a far more plenteous table than before, are as well clothed, enjoy a finer climate, probably better health, finer natural scenery, and society at least as good as that which they have left, and probably far better and more beneficial. If the head of the family be ambitious of public life, local and general Parliament are open to him; and though this may provoke a smile, we may perhaps assert that framing the laws and guiding the affairs of a young nation like New Zealand is quite as interesting, and probably quite as high a mission as that of tinkering up the moss-grown institutions of any old-world State. When their time comes, sons and daughters marry among their equals, and have each that handsome portion in cash capital and colonial experience which enables them to commence a new step of rising in the world, and to look forward to their own children, vigorous natives of the soil, continuing the upward progress borne on by the rising fortunes of the young and growing land.

Families of this description so fixed in New Zealand, with a good general servant or two as at page 462; are

BRUSSELS AND BOULOGNE EMIGRANTS.

virtually in the position of a "county family;" they literally become the country gentry, magistracy, and squirearchy of the new land. And always assuming that they accept the new career heartily, that papa and mama, girls and boys, are volunteers, not pressed men, if the ladies will excuse the Irishism, if they only be willing to laugh at first changes, small roughings and make-shifts; if they all be willing to make themselves useful both with head and hand, to do as everybody else does, put on the merino and go into their own kitchen, pull off the coat and go into their own fields, there is, humanly speaking, no doubt that New Zealand emigration will substantially improve their lot, and more or less in the very manner we have pictured.

I do not for a moment conceal, on the contrary I would desire to blazon forth, that to realize this new estate in the new land, such a family, at first in particular, would have to do many things for themselves which they never did before, would have to perform for themselves many semi-menial domestic offices, and would all have to put their shoulders willingly to the wheel; but I say these things are but the scratches in getting through the wood, and I look at the prize won when they are through the wood. The work we ask them to do is the work their equals around them do, work which they can do, nay, work which in three cases out of four they would like to do, work which, physically, morally, mentally, they would be all the better for doing, work not derogatory to countess, peer or peasant to do. Is a man, noble or simple, less honourably engaged ploughing his own fields in New Zealand, than hulking through the dirty streets of some Continental refuge for the "destitute-genteel," and dining at the dingy one franc table d'hote with "pain a discretion?" Is his wife less the lady busied in the goodly kitchen of the rising farm, than sitting stiff in twice-turned silk in the faded parlour, listening to the miserable fadaises of military dowagers, and the bleeding experiences of that great card warrior Captain Rook? Are his daughters less delightful, because they

YOUNG LADIES.

have shelved the brigand and the 119 sorrows of some stupendous heroine, and opened "she stoops to conquer" Soyer and the cookery books? Are they less elegant or wife-like, busied butter-making, or rosy in the blooming garden, than pale daudling over some protracted crochet monster or hurdygurdy harpsichord? Are his sons less likely to grow into honourable, and useful men, because high slang and low billiards have flown before the healthy activities of the stock station and the harvest field?

Surely not. Surely we must think that families of this and many kindred types would have longer and happier and more prosperous and more honourable lives "estate-creating" in New Zealand, than in muddling away their best days in the sterile fields of genteel poverty at home; and did we not remember the tyranny of custom, the force of example, that habit is stronger than nature, we might I think well marvel that so many thousands of this class are content to lead the wretched life they do; content whilst hungry, to creep on in the old path which leads to barren briars, instead of stepping into the new path hung with goodly fruit, where they might pluck and eat their fill.

PROFESSIONAL MEN. – Families of ill-paid struggling professional men could now do in New Zealand, precisely what the "retired genteel family" class could do; and such families have, I fear, quite as much substantial cause for getting to a newer and wider land.

The brief remarks page 421, may show that professions are at least no hindrance to any fresh career in New Zealand; whilst the following extract, taken I think from an emigration article of the "Times," pictures a state of things far too true and real.

"Here industry seeks employment, talent occupation, and capital investment. There are – explain it how you will, or propose to remedy it as you choose – there are at present too many of us in this country. It is not only that there are

PROFESSIONAL MEN.

too many bricklayers, carpenters, wheelwrights, smiths, and weavers, but too many lawyers, doctors, half-pay officers, and small capitalists – in short, too many men living on a bare subsistence, without the prospect of leaving the same to their children. These people are, in some respects, worse off than parish paupers. The latter can sink no lower than they have sunk – nay, they may rise higher. Their children, at the worst, take their degradation by inheritance, and may rid themselves of it. But what is, too frequently, the prospect of the professional man who, by incessant labour, contrives to eke out a subsistence for a large family? If he dies, what is to become of them? If he leaves nothing, they must sink into pauperism. If he leaves a little, are they much better off? Take the case of a man who leaves a fortune of £4000 between five or six children. What does this amount to? To a costly and, perhaps, barren education. The sons go out as clerks, private tutors, or curates. The daughters fade into governesses in 'genteel families' at Tooting or Blackheath. We need not enlarge upon either situation. Quis non Eurysthea durum novit? Who does not know the struggles of indigent and educated gentility, of struggling mediocrity and starving refinement?

"The middle classes – nay, the 'comfortable' members of the middle classes are quite as much interested in emigration as those who are by a misplaced emphasis called 'the working classes.' Every man who is bringing up his children to any craft is interested in finding for them a field of work more ample than can be found at home. Every man who will leave a small fortune to his children is interested in finding for them a more rich and remunerating investment than capital can acquire in a country where profits are compressed by the competition of money to their minimum.

"Not in one grade or class, but in all, may be found men and women who hide the realities of an irksome indigence beneath the semblance of a coveted content, and who increase the burden of a dependence which they cannot relieve by the weight of a pride which they cannot control. It is not only in the dark alleys and fetid passages in which mechanic drudgery reposes from its daily task – it is not in the narrow and noisome lanes which skirt the suburbs of a manufacturing town – it is not in these alone that men eat the bitter bread of disappointment and distress. There is other labour than that

THE CHURCH. – THE BAR. – THE SURGERY.

of the spade, the plough, and the loom, which yearns for the employment which it cannot get; there is other poverty than that of the Dorsetshire labourer or Lancashire operative which might deserve the mercies of a workhouse. We omit to name the long list of those who have been ruined by profligacy or impoverished by prodigality. The spendthrift and the libertine claim neither the assistance of the State nor the sympathies of society. But there are others who without the sin have suffered the punishment of the thoughtless. There are countless numbers of men whose worst fault is the unconscious misdirection of talent and the unadvised misapplication of capital – who have brought to the common mart of human traffic productions too costly or acquirements too ordinary for the necessities of daily life – and who retire with withered hopes and seared hearts from a premature struggle with fortune. London could tell of hundreds of needy adventurers, ferreting every nook and cranny of possible occupation – taking refuge from the persecutions of starved but stubborn pride in every euphemism imaginable – ignoring the habits of early youth and the impressions of early education in the most obnoxious pursuits and the most unseemly toil: – of artists whose easel rots in the obscurity of passive discontent; of scholars whose lore has been barren of profit, and fertile of discomfort: – of lawyers and doctors whose science rusts in the poor garret or the squalid chamber – in a word, of men of education, acquirements, and capacity, whose means have been exhausted in preparing them for an arena which they are doomed to quit in the first agonies of a premature failure.

"These men are to be pitied. It goes to the heart to see a man of refinement and taste pining on less than a pauper's daily food. It is a bitter sight to witness the repining discontent or the sullen magnanimity of those who, brought up as gentlemen, crave the wages and the work of office-sweepers and errand-porters. Yet of such is London full. What is common in the metropolis is not rare in the provinces. Other cities exhibit in their different proportions the same anomalies of society and the same asperities of fortune. There is in the British empire an enormous aggregate of unemployed capabilities and unprofitable skill."

TRAINING SONS FOE PROFESSIONS.

FAMILIES TRAINING SONS FOR PROFESSIONS. – How often do we see a struggling middle-class family sacrificing or curtailing their own modest pleasures, pinching, saving, scraping, to spare the means of putting one son in a profession! The perfect training and education of this son for any of the professions will, I apprehend, cost from £1000 to £2000 – well handled, literally a fortune in New Zealand – will it be a fortune in the profession? Of the thousand and one young men who every year enter the serried ranks of church, army, navy, civil-service, law, medicine, how many help themselves on, and help their families on, and how many fail to do either? Now that our Crimean disasters, the blunders of our diplomacy and civil-service, are tending to break up the old system of patronage, to promote merit rather than rank, to put the best man in the best place, it seems to be thought that the professions will be a better career, and in one sense they will – but there will be no more prizes in the professions and no fewer blanks; the hundreds will still continue to draw the one, the thousands to draw the other. It is only that A may get the prize instead of B; and now that A and B are to start fair and know the laws of the course, B may win as well as A.

Would it not he wise policy on the part of such a family to give their "hope and prop," a nobler, a richer, and a far more certain career, than arms, arts, law, civil service, physic or divinity? Would it not be better to send him to New Zealand, get him letters of introduction, and to place him with some good colonist at £100 a year, as their pioneer herald laying the foundation of a better fortune for them all? If we could see the "balance sheets" of thousands who entered the professions ten years ago, I fancy that the answer to our question would be a most emphatic affirmative. Are there not hundreds of clever young men grey in the law, who scarce make enough by law to pay for wig and gown; hundreds of young surgeons, who for all they get, had better be barber surgeons, and add shaving to bleeding; hundreds of meek curates in

THE BACHELOR HEIR.

rusty black, who preach the evils of wealth, and exemplify the evils of poverty, on a hundred a year with six children? And with facts like these patent to us all, is there really much difference in the sanity of the acts, whether you pitch £1500 into the sea, or spend it in training a son for law, church or physic?

Our own goose is ever a swan, and we think swans are never plucked; but goose or swan, the professions frequently pluck our bird, and when they leave him his feathers, they often dole him but little grass and less corn.

BACHELOR HEIRS. – Some writer asks "how many young men are there with capitals of from £1000 to £3000 who consume in the fatal inactivity of a lounging life, the youth, health, strength and money, which would be of incalculable service to them in a colony; with sisters sinking into governesses, brothers drooping into clerks; throwing away all the advantages of mental cultivation, barely living, and that without position, prospect or ambition. Why is it that so many of this class prefer stagnation amidst luxuries which they cannot share, to the creation of an independence which they might transmit to their children amid the plains and valleys of a new world?"

Why indeed! – a young man of this class, our "bachelor heir," has often no profession; and any good pursuit of trade might require more capital than he could command, or impose more plodding industry, confinement, and restraint, than he could bear. He passes his early days in a sort of "grub and butterfly" existence, consuming honey much faster than he makes it. You see him patent-boot pet of evening parties, glossy in moustache, tight in glove, correct in collar, accurate in stud, glorious in raiment and fine linen, cool to the ladies, imposing in gravity and the noli me tangere air, the "rose and the expectancy" of the fair room. You meet him at the Derby; or at the Freres Provencaux; or up the Dee, trouting;

INVALID EMIGRANTS.

or in Norfolk, shooting; or at the Casino, or at the Star and Garter, with "a little party in pink;" and ten years after, facilis descensus – he gives you your ticket on the Great-Western, seedy parent of five children and a baby, tenant of a brick-box, and master of £60 a year!! Or, if he has shunned marriage, and been prudent, you find him at fifty, the old beau in stays, forcibly feeble in whist and twaddle, a neuter-negative and blase fribble, victim of dyspepsia and sport of Cyprians!!

Could he but have read the future, he would have early asked Cousin Lucy her opinion of matrimony and emigration, have taken her and her advice, a brother and a sister, and gone to some new land; when, ten years after, we might have come on him in New Zealand, the jolly country squire, with brood of blooming children and lord of ten thousand sheep.

Whilst the breeze lasts, whilst there is any wind in the sails, it is seldom too late to tack and stand off shoals; and if such a youth thinks he has dissipated too much of his means to allow him fair chance in the new career, what easier than to advertise in the Times or Australian and New Zealand Gazette, for a "New Zealand Emigration partner," join himself to some stout ally with a few hundreds, proceed to New Zealand, turn pastoral cavalier, and find the golden fleece?

– – – – – – – – – – –

INVALID EMIGRANTS. – I trust that no medical reader will imagine for a moment that I would defraud him of his professional prey of long-suffering valetudinarians, by recommending all such to throw physic to the dogs, and to swallow New Zealand emigration as a sort of bolus specific. But there are many excellent families in Great Britain who are neither exactly emigrants nor exactly invalids, but who verge on both: families, some of whose members cannot live comfortably in England, and who emigrate to Madeira, Nice, Naples, or some Mediterranean

NEW ZEALAND VERSUS NICE.

Sanatorium, partly on climatic, partly on pecuniary considerations. One or two families of this class have already left Madeira to settle in New Zealand; the general testimony as to the invalid merits of the New Zealand climate confirmed by the remarkable tables, pages 112 and 556, seem to prove that as a "Sanatorium" for the majority of ills flesh is heir to, New Zealand is actually the first place in the world. The voyage would, I apprehend, be found generally beneficial, and once landed in the breezy England of the South, the invalid family might find that the Rev. Mr. Yates in his excellent early work on the country, used no idle figure of speech when he said that "there the sickly become healthy; the healthy, robust; and the robust, fat."

"But it is not only that New Zealand is said to be superior as a "Sanatorium" to many European resorts, it is superior as an "Exchequer," it is not only that an invalid family might become more robust in New Zealand than in Nice or Madeira, they would become richer, some two or three times richer positively, and many times richer, relatively. If with £5000 to £6000 invested in the funds, they emigrate to the Mediterranean or Madeira, they have an income of less than £300 a year; this sum invested in good landed securities in New Zealand, would produce them an income of at least £600 a year: and a family with £600 a year in New Zealand would occupy a social position which they would not command in England with £1200 a year.

In short, it appears to me that families of this description, either with small or larger capitals, might advantageously plant themselves on the shores of Cook's Strait, or in the Nelson bayside-Brighton Settlement; invest three-fourths of their capital at £10 per cent., buy 50 acres in some geranium dell inland, or in some myrtle clad nook by the sea, put up a rustic rose-covered cottage, keep cow and pony, cultivate the garden, tend the bees and flowers, rear game and fruits, fatten their own poultry, brew their own beer, kill their own mutton, sit under their own vine and fig-tree; have good society, beautiful

THE SHOP AND THE CIVIC CHAIR.

scenery, and every domestic comfort; and really pass a very pleasant easy-active life, where dyspepsia, ennui, hypochondria, and many a demon of disease would find no lurking-place, or resting spot.

COMPETITION-CRUSHED TRADESMEN. – No class of people emigrate more freely or more successfully than families who, owing perhaps, to a combination of bad debts, low profits, short custom, excessive competition, rates, rents, and taxes, have literally cut the shop, and made off to a new country before bankruptcy; and it appears to me, that many a young man, bred to business, steady, active, intelligent, married, and about to open shop with a few hundred pounds, might well pause a moment ere he put up his name and consider his chances, pause and take warning, and then follow his seniors' good example.

Almost every nation affects some popular myth, tradition or belief. The Chinese, I think, consider their Emperor to be ex officio brother of the moon, a tribe of ragged savages in Central Africa call themselves "first flower of the earth," Jonathan guesses he is free and can whip the British, Welshmen are ancient Britons, and had a prince called Madoc, Prussia swears by philosophy and police.

We are a nation of shopkeepers, our " myths" are commercial: in 1857, we still quote "Whittington and his Cat," and believe in "industrious apprentices," and our Sir Peter Pertinax and Sir Peter Laurie oracles, still tell such young tradesman as the above, that he may become Lord Mayor of London! Of course he may, but then he mayn't: and prosaic practice and the Insolvent Courts unfortunately show that he and hundreds like him, after a well-fought battle for the Civic Chair, only seat themselves in Whitecross Street.

But it is not only that the pecuniary results of small shopkeeping are bad – how about the moral? Do we not know that excessive competition and the insane rage of the

TENANT FARMERS.

public for cheap things, has made a considerable portion of the retail trade of this good kingdom, a lie and a sham? and is the wholesale much better? is there not "something rotten in our whole state of Trade?" is it only that we have heard of the Lancet, of Dr. Hassel, and of death in the pot, of rag prints, jewellers' shams, and publicans who should put up pestle and mortar for sign, and "drugs sold here?" do we not know that now-a-days, a bale of Manchester goods is bought in many a foreign market, much as we should buy a horse in Smithfield? have we not Banks, Ali Babi and the Forty Thieves, where each window should be lettered "cash and customers taken in here?" Of course we know all this; and we know that in many a retail trade a man, honest-willing as he may be, if he would live by his trade, is virtually obliged to do things which he knows to be wrong, things which a cheapness-smitten public lure, nay compel, him to do.

Deliberately to go into, or to continue in, a business that keeps thousands poor and makes some dishonest, surely cannot be either a prudent or a commendable step. Would not many who keep shop, or who are about to keep shop, and angle for stray customers in troubled waters, do better to close windows, elude the tax-gatherer, and clear off to a young country like New Zealand, whilst they have the few hundreds left wherewith to escape?

TENANT FARMERS. – Small tenant farmers with large families, have very powerful reasons for emigrating, and are admirably fitted for New Zealand emigration.

Many a hard-working industrious man of this class, except that he has got enough to eat, is here little better off than one of his day-labourers. What with rent, tithe, tax, and game-laws, the small farmer's share of the annual produce of his hired acres is a very meagre share. He, of all men, is the man who eats his bread by the sweat of his brow; all but "adscriptus glebae" he toils through life at the muck cart as his father did before him, and for what? –

THE COUNTER AND THE DESK.

to get the rent for audit day. If his sons are lucky, they may look forward to doing the same – if unlucky, they will take country service or the Serjeant's shilling, and march to glory at sixpence a day; and his daughter will become the squire's menial and wed the groom, or the poor milliner girl with her pleasant path of city life. He farms his landlord's acres, and his landlord farms him, and the latter has the best estate. The sum which a hundred-acre tenant farmer pays in one year for his rent, tithe and tax, would buy and stock him a New Zealand freehold of 200 acres. In New Zealand he would be Landlord; his little capital would at once place him in the position of an independent yeoman, farming his own estate; and with common industry, with half the anxious toil and trouble of his old-world life, every member of his family in a few years' time would be married, settled, and provided for in a manner which might well have seemed incredible to him had he remained "tenant toiling" in England, on the hundred acres which he hired.

THE COUNTER AND THE DESK. – As to the host of young men, the "waste-surplus" of our lower middle class families, whose chief solicitude is the ways and means of earning honest bread, what can we say! Is is not notorious that young fellows of this class, fairly educated, active, honourable, and intelligent as they may be, really seem to be of less value and consideration to society, than new mangles, patent ploughs, or prize pigs?

Tastes differ, and it is well they do. But rather than be thus appraised, rather than grow up here cumberer of the earth with no better chance than that of finding myself some day behind the counter with a bonnet on, measuring tape and bobbin to mincing misses, or of becoming the snubbed clerk with the pale wife and the seedy children, nailed to the dingy desk for life for £60 a year, I would turn and breast the current; pull off my coat, take six months at

THE COUNTER AND THE DESK.

some manly handicraft, and then, spite the dark warnings of Aunt Tabitha, spite the twaddle of my male friends in petticoats, I would secure cheap passage to Australia or New Zealand and taking ten pounds and my trade, common sense, common energy, common industry for my arms, would trust to God and myself to achieve me a happy escape and a good deliverance from that grinding, social serfdom, those effeminate chains, my born and certain lot in England.

80 If the reader doubt this, let him consult Lloyd's list; remember the "President" and the "Pacific," and the disasters he hears of every winter and spring. As to sickness and disease, let him consult a certain Parliamentary paper, a letter to Lord Hobart, from his cousin, Mr. Leslie Forster, describing the voyage of 900 passengers to New York in a Liverpool ship, an article on which appeared in "Chambers's Journal."

81 Sir Richard Bonnycastle, a soldier settler, who seems to have pitched his tent in Canada, and slightly caught a tartar there, gives us this account of Canadian farming: "I have seen a good deal of farming and of farmers in Canada. Farming there is by no means a life of pleasure; but if a young man goes into the bush with a thorough determination to chop, to log, to plough, to dig, to delve, to make his own candles, kill his own hogs and sheep, attend his own horses and oxen, and 'bring in firing at requiring,' – it signifies very little whether he is gentle or simple, an honourable or homespun, he will get on. Life in the bush, however, is no joke, not even a practical one. It involves serious results, with an absence of cultivated manners and matters, toil, hardship, and the effects of seasoning, including ague and fever. When you have cut down the giant trees on a few acres, then comes the logging. Reader, did you ever log? It is precious work. Fancy yourself in a smock frock, having cut the huge trees into lengths of a few feet, rolling these lengths into a pile, and ranging the branches and brushwood for convenient combustion; then waiting for a favourable wind, setting fire to all your heaps, and burying yourself in grime and smoke; then rolling up these half-consumed logs, till, after painful toil, you get them to burn to potash. Wearied and exhausted with labour and heat, you return to your cabin at night, and take a peep at your shaving glass. You start back, for, instead of the countenance you were charmed to meet at the weekly beard reckoning, you see a collier's face, a collier's hands, and your smock frock converted into a charcoal burner's blouse. Then, when you plough afterwards, or dig between the black stumps, what a pleasure! Every minute bump goes the ploughshare against a stone or a root, and your clothes carry off charcoal at a railroad pace. It takes thirty years for pine stumps to decay; five or six for the hard woods; and it is no use to burn them, for it only makes them more hard and iron-like. Your food, too, is very spicy in the bush. Barrels of flour, barrels of pork, fat as butter and salt as brine, with tea and maple sugar, which tastes very like candied horehound, and a little whisky, country made, which tastes like bad Kirschwasse, mixed with tepid water. Then there are the labours of the seven months of winter, of the aguish wet autumn, of the uncertain spring, of the tropical summer, of ice, of frost, of mosquitoes and black flies, of mud and mire, of swamp and rock, and all the other innumerable drawbacks with which the spirit of the settler has to contend, and the very coarse and scanty fare which solaces him after the toils of the day." – The above is the picture which Sir Richard draws of colonization in Canada by a gentleman of moderate capital.

The italics are the author's.

82 QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY. – The interest naturally attendant upon the important proceedings of the General Assembly has obliged us to neglect, in some degree, matters of a more domestic character in connection with the progress of this province. The thirty-seventh anniversary of the birthday of Her Majesty was observed in the usual loyal and patriotic manner in this province. The public offices and most places of business were closed. The "William Denny" and the vessels at present in the harbour were all decorated in their best bunting. At twelve o'clock seven pieces of artillery, which had been conveyed for the occasion from the "Britomart" to the square of the Albert Barracks, rolled forth a salute of twenty-one guns; the 58th Regiment, having previously trooped the Queen's and the regimental colours, performed other military evolutions, and, being drawn up in line, followed the seventh, fourteenth, and last gun with a feu de joie. The firing was succeeded by three hearty cheers. At two o'clock his Excellency held a levee at new Government-house, in front of which was drawn up the band of the 58th and a guard of honour, under the command of Captain Cooper. The levee was attended by the Right Rev. Dr. Pompallier, R. C. Bishop, Ven. Archdeacon Abraham, his Honour the Acting Chief Justice, the Officer commanding the troops and suite, the Honourable the Attorney-General, Colonial Secretary, Colonial Treasurer, and members of the Executive Council; the Honourable the Speaker and members of the Legislative Council, the Honourable the Speaker and members of the House of Representatives, including their Honours the Superintendents of Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, and Otago, the Chief Land Commissioner, the military officers, and a large number of the local gentry and principal inhabitants.

CELEBRATION OF PEACE. – The restoration of the peace of Europe was solemnised in Auckland on Wednesday, August 12th, with all possible military and naval display, the day proving to be one of real holiday and enjoyment. At sunrise, the signal staff at the north head was one mass of particoloured bunting, arranged in a manner highly creditable to the good taste of Mr. Dudor. At eight a.m., the fine ship "Lord Burleigh" gave a gun; and, simultaneously with others, "dressed" in her best from truck to taffrail. The "Lord Burleigh," the "Sandford," the "Moa," the "Eleonora," and the "George," were especially conspicuous on the occasion. A little before eleven o'clock the town began to take a position in the Albert Barrack Square; and never since its formation was so large or so animated an assemblage congregated within its walls. The House of Representatives and the Legislative Council had both proposed to sit "for the despatch of business;" but neither chamber could muster a quorum to debate, or a single "gentleman of the press" to report progress. In the strains of martial melody and in the manoeuvring of martial columns, all classes found "metal more attractive;" and from eleven to one o'clock the heart of Auckland might be met with in the Albert grounds. Whilst the preparatory arrangements were being made, the splendid band of the 58th discoursed some of their most eloquent music. The ground was kept by the Sappers and Miners. Very shortly after eleven o'clock, the 58th Regiment having formed line, the imposing and graceful ceremony of trooping the colours took place. This was followed by the regiment breaking into open column and marching past in slow and ordinary time. The line having again formed, the battalion went through the manual and platoon exercise, after which a review upon an enlarged and interesting scale ensued, the opening guns, of a salute of 101 guns from Fort Britomart having given the signal. The fire of infantry commenced by companies from the centre, and was remarkably true and simultaneous. After this, the column charged front, formed square, manoeuvred by wings, sent out skirmishers, felt for the enemy in all directions, rushed to the charge with loud and exulting cheers, and blazed away at him with all the animation which five-and-twenty rounds per man could inspire. In a word, the review was a really interesting spectacle – by far the best that has ever been witnessed in Auckland; and the efficient and soldierly manner in which it was conducted throughout must have been as gratifying to Colonel Wynyard, his officers and soldiers, as it was acceptable to the numerous spectators assembled to enjoy the display. The battalion having finally taken up its original ground and once more formed line, now advanced in review order, halting in the centre of the Barrack Square. After a general salute, Colonel Wynyard gave the word – "Off caps – three cheers for the Queen." The reply was as loud as it was loyal; and the review was at an end. According to general opinion, both military and civil, it was a review which, from first to last, would have reflected the greatest credit upon any corps in Her Majesty's service, whether of the guards or of the far-famed Highland brigade. When the "Britomart" ceased firing, the ships "Sandford" and "Lord Burleigh" took it up, delivering one-and-twenty guns each, so well charged and so accurately timed as to elicit the professional remark that the naval gunners were thoroughly au fait at their work. And at sunset, to the music of the "Burleigh's" carronades, every ship struck her bunting with as much precision as it they had formed a light squadron of Her Majesty's cruisers. And thus terminated the celebration of peace with Russia in Her Majesty's good and loyal city of Auckland.

83 One Mrs. de Smythe, who in an evil hour went to a colony, had the misfortune to be a staff officer's daughter, and as there happened to be no other staff-officer ladies in the place, she voted society low, and had to be conducted home again with ruffled plumes and at great expense.

84 Fears of the voyage, doubts and difficulties as to departure – preparations, &c, might be added; but Chapters XV. and XVI. are, I trust, calculated to scatter these bugbears by showing that the way out is clear and safe, and that nothing is necessary in going but to will to go.

85 NEW PLYMOUTH. – During my late visit to New Plymouth, a hard-working but dissipated little settlement in regard to gaieties, one colonist – a bachelor, ladies! – gave a rural fete in the morning and a public fancy dress ball in the evening, which is said to have cost him £300 – and amateur theatricals were played in great force before His Excellency the Governor, who happened to be then visiting the settlement.

AUCKLAND. – "The Governor's Ball. – On Thursday evening his Excellency and Mrs. Gore Browne gave a ball in the new Government-house, in honour of Her Majesty's birthday, the celebration of which had been postponed till that day in consequence of the non-completion of this spacious and costly building. The whole of the ground-floor was made into the ball-room – presenting to the spectator a sight hardly to be expected in so young a colony as this. The length of the salle-de-danse was over one hundred feet, with proportionate width and height. It was brilliantly illuminated with wax tapers, both in chandeliers and side-lights; and the artistic taste which directed the decoration of the entire suite of rooms led to the adoption of tinted shades, which threw a beautifully-softened light on the faces of the dancers. The walls were elegantly festooned with the leaves of the lauristinus, the graceful tree-fern, and the silver acacia, mixed with wreaths of flowers, and circles of swords. In the centre of the ball-room an orchestra was erected, and there the band of the 58th performed. In the adjoining ante-rooms the supper was laid out; and we may fairly state that it was not "antipodean" in any sense that Soyer would put upon that word. Other rooms were devoted to coffee and light refreshments. The invitations comprised many hundreds of the leading residents of the city and province – not omitting the southern members, some of whom, over a glass of the sparkling wines of France, congratulated their Auckland fellow legislators on having given them the opportunity of resolving that the next sitting of the Assembly should be held in the city of Wellington! Dancing was kept up with much spirit till five o'clock. We do not attempt to give a list of names, for it would be a long one; but we must not omit to state that among the most interested of the visitors were the following native chiefs, who pronounced the whole affair to be "kapai" (good, capital), though they remarked that they should be rather jealous if their favourite Wahine (wife) were to waltz with anyone but themselves: – Te Wherowhero, chief of the Waikato district; Te Katipa and Te Kaihau, chiefs of the Manukau district; Te Uira, chief of Ngatiwhatua; Te Kanawa; Te Wharepu; and Te Haupehi, chiefs of Kawhia. They signified to his Excellency, through Mr. Davis, their gratification at being present, and they also held a long korero (talk) with their old friend and acquaintance Colonel Wynyard."

NELSON. – "Amateur Theatricals. – -The Nelson Amateur Dramatic Society have recently given two performances, which have been rendered doubly attractive by the able assistance afforded to them by the charming Mrs. Foley. The first took place on Friday, the 8th August, when they played 'The Sentinel,' 'Bombastes Furiosa,' and 'The Dead Shot;' and the second on Thursday last, when they played 'The Sentinel,' 'The Loan of a Lover,' and Buckstone's amusing farce, 'The Rough Diamond.' The bill of fare on Thursday was rendered more attractive still by the addition of four tableaux vivans, three of them selected from Sheridan Knowles' play, 'The Wife,' and one from 'Maritana.'

"It is in no degree derogatory to the amateurs to state that there was a marked improvement in their acting throughout, and this we believe is attributable in a great measure to the instructions of Mrs. Foley. They appear more at home on the stage. There is less of the gene almost inevitable with amateurs, and we have no hesitation in saying that could they spare the time necessary for frequent rehearsal, they would even vie with many professional actors. Mrs. Foley is eminently natural in her acting. There is no straining after effect. Nothing could be better than her acting in 'The Sentinel.' Her imitation of the ferocious grenadier, through which the natural fear and trepidation of the woman oozed out, was remarkably clever. In the 'Dead Shot,' her assumption of the temper of a shrew, and of the brusque manners of the 'manly young lady,' in order to get rid of her lovers, might have afforded a hint even to Dickens, in his 'Sketches of Young Ladies.'

"We must not omit to notice the tableaux vivans exhibited on Thursday last. These were originated and arranged by Mrs. Foley, and they did credit to her judgment and good taste. The costumes were most rich and appropriate; and the beautiful scene from 'Maritana' where she dares the King to approach her, was rendered with remarkable effect."

OTAGO. – AGRICULTURAL SHOW. – "Friday, the 18th of April (says the 'Witness'), was a great day in the history of Otago, for it witnessed the triumphant inauguration of an association for the encouragement of good agriculture in the province. Nearly a hundred members have already been enrolled – numerous donations are promised – and next year it is probable that the plain of Tokomairiro, in addition to the repetition of the ploughing match of this year, may witness an exhibition of stock. The ploughing match took place on land belonging to the secretary, and the warmth of a bright autumnal sun, just sufficiently tempered by a gentle breeze, a cloudless sky, an atmosphere as pure as that of Italy, the bright eyes of the ladies of Tokomairiro, and a thronging people determined to be happy, combined to render it a day to be remembered with pleasure by all who were present on the occasion. The dinner took place in a tent erected for the purpose on the ground. On the cloth being cleared, 'God save the Queen' was sung; and the toasts of 'The Royal Family' and 'The Governor and his Lady' were heartily received. Mr. Hardy, in a telling speech, proposed 'The Allied Armies and Navies,' and won for the gallant fellows who compose them a stentorian three times three from the company, which was taken up by the Maories assembled outside, until old Naungatua returned the echoes again. Mr. Dewe proposed 'Success to the Tokomairiro Association, and to the agriculture of Otago generally,' and in an amusing speech drew a contrast between the wilderness of 1849 and the crowded stack-yards and smiling gardens of 1856 – the Totara bark and mud edifice of the early days of the settlement and the substantial houses now dotting the beautiful plain in all directions. Song, 'The Bonnie Hills o' Scotland' – Captain Simpson."

APPENDIX. AUCKLAND LAND REGULATIONS.

APPENDIX.

AUCKLAND LAND REGULATIONS.

SINCE the abstract (page 512) of the Six Provincial sets of Land Regulations was made, and since the remarks, page 509, were written, the Auckland Regulations have been altered, and the following are the leading features of the New Regulations, which are at present in force.

1. All country lands are sold at 10s. an acre cash (save where the lot is less than 40 acres),

2. When two or more applicants apply for the same lot, the lot is put up to auction at a minimum price of 10s. an acre, and sold to the highest bidder: the biddings being confined to the applicants.

3. Land in lots of not less than 20, or more than 100 acres, may be sold at 15s. an acre, on credit, as follows: – 1s. an acre to be paid on making application for the land, 1s. an acre at the end of the first, second, third, and fourth years, and the balance (10s. an acre) at the expiration of the fifth year.

This alteration in the Auckland Land Regulations must, I think, tend to show that the remarks made, pages 508 and 526, as to the instability of any one of these six sets of Provincial Land Regulations are only too true. Indeed, Auckland would seem to delight in alterations. Two of her Superintendents have already given the Province two sets of Regulations; and the following passage from a third Superintendent's opening address to his Provincial Council

shows that the unfortunate Province may soon be made the subject of a third set.

"Deeply sensible as I am of the injuries which may arise from capricious and frequent alterations of Land Regulations, I am nevertheless impressed with the necessity of an immediate change, 86 those now existing not being, as I believe, calculated to promote either of the objects which I have named. Of the several modes of administering the Waste Lands which have been in use in this Province, none appeared better calculated to accomplish those ends than the Regulations adopted by the Provincial Council in March, 1854. They were drawn up with the utmost care: received the almost unanimous assent of the representatives of the constituencies, and, in their practical effects, so far as they were permitted to operate, have not, I think, disappointed the expectations of their promoters. It has been shown that under those Regulations 20,700 acres of land were sold, and under their "Special Occupation" clauses 15,162 acres were taken on lease under the improving conditions, within a very short period. Accordingly, then, amongst the earliest measures which will be submitted for your consideration will be a Bill for the disposal and management of the Public Lands of this Province, framed upon the principles of, and differing but little in detail from, the Regulations of 1854."

– – – – – – – – – – –

The following is the letter alluded to in the note to page 414: –

The Elms, Grays, Essex.
11th Feb. 1857.

Dear Sir, – Pray rid yourself of the idea that our Merinoes are crossed. They are quite pure. That fresh blood has been introduced is true, but it has been got from Merino flocks, reported to be the first in the world for quality of wool. Our sheep are heavier, and have a stronger constitution than the Merinoes of the Continent; they carry fleeces of extreme fineness and thickness; and we believe, that for a com-

bination of the qualities looked for in fine-woolled sheep, they are unequalled.

We have long bred these sheep expressly for the Colonies, and on the information of Colonists themselves as to their requirements; and we cannot doubt but that with equal purity and superior size, constitution, and quantity of wool, Colonists find in them what is wanted, in a greater degree than in any Continental flocks they can select from. If you feel disposed to see them, nothing would give us greater pleasure than to show them to you.

Our present price for Rams is 10 guineas each. Ewes, we have not been able of late to part with, for owing to the great demand we have had for our Rams, we require every Ewe to produce Rams.

Out of six Rams sent last year to the Cape of Good Dope in one lot, three were sold for £80, £90, and £100 respectively, as may be seen by reference to the Graaf Rainet Herald of the 13th Oct., 1856.

You will probably be aware that these sheep of ours shown among the fine-woolled sheep of the Continent at the Paris Exhibition of 1856, were thought worthy of a gold medal and first prize of 600 f., and excited great astonishment. The Continental judges were prepared for excellence in our mutton-producing races, but hardly for what they saw in our Merinoes.
I am, dear Sir, yours faithfully,

THOS. STURGEON.
Charles Hursthouse, Esq.,
Ramsgate.

– – – – – – – – – – -

The following extract from a late Sydney Herald shows that an emigration has actually commenced from our North American colonies to New Zealand, and tends, I think, strongly to corroborate the remarks made at page 624: –

"In Canada and Nova Scotia there exists a very strong feeling in favour of Northern New Zealand. A few years since a body of Nova Scotia Highlanders arrived in Auckland from Adelaide. They located themselves at Wangarei, a settlement about eighty miles from Auckland, having the advantage of an excellent harbour, a noble river, and a considerable area of

fertile agricultural land, partly fern, and readily and inexpensively reclaimable; partly forest, with ample supplies of timber for fencing, ship-building, and firewood. Here these diligent Nova Scotians have created a thriving and a goodly home; and to this home they have invited others of their kindred race – the ship 'Gertrude,' from Cape Breton, with 230 immigrants, having touched at Simon's Bay on her way to Auckland, where she is hourly expected. These are the men through whom colonial wealth is derived. Those here have, this season, their 500 or 600 acres of wheat in plant, all put in with the hoe; they are seeking to add fresh strength to their own. The tidings of their success will be apt to induce others to imitate their example, and give an additional impetus to those Canadians who only wait the means of settlement to cast their lot among us. Every endeavour will be made to facilitate such true and beneficial colonization; first, by acquiring as large an amount of native lands as the provincial resources will admit, and then by disposing of them on the most simple and liberal terms."

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

AUTHOR'S ADDRESS.

In the remark made page 8 as to my willingness to give the emigrant reader any little special or personal information in my power, I have given my address at 28, Thavies' Inn, London, and any letters sent there would be forwarded to any part of the country which I might be visiting. If, however, in consequence of any postal miscarriage, no answer were received in writing to this address, any communication addressed care of my Publisher, E. Stanford, 6, Charing Cross, would be sure to find me.

Woodfall and Kinder, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.

86 There seems to be reason to infer from the tenor of the address, that this "change" may be the partial re-enactment of the "special occupation" and "military" clauses described at page 513.

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THE GENERAL ATLAS OF ANCIENT AND MODERN GEOGRAPHY, containing 174 Maps, exhibiting the political divisions and principal features of all the known parts of the World, with an Alphabetical Index. In One Volume, half-morocco or russia, Price £7 7s.

THE FAMILY ATLAS, containing 80 Coloured Maps, with the Index. Half-morocco, Price £3 3s.
*** Among the most important alterations to be found in this Edition, the Publisher would desire to mention – the Map of England and Wales, Geologically coloured, by Sir Roderick I. Murchison, Director-General of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland; the annexation of Oude in India; the Revision of the Map of the Asiatic Archipelago, by John Crawfurd, Esq., F.R.S., author of the celebrated Dictionary of the Archipelago; the discoveries in Africa by Dr. Livingston and others; the thorough revision of the Map of New Zealand, from the Admiralty Surveys of Captain Stokes, R.N., with Discoveries in the Interior, by Walter Mantell. Esq.; the Star Maps by Sir John Lubbock, Bart.; and the Plans of London and Paris, showing all the alterations in those cities to the latest date.

THE CYCLOPAEDIAN ATLAS, 39 Maps, with Index. Price £1 1s.
*** This is the Companion Atlas to the National, English, and other Cyclopaedias.

ATLAS OF INDIA, 26 Coloured Maps, revised by John Walker, Esq., Geographer to the Honourable East India Company. Half-bound, Price £1 1s.

EDUCATIONAL ATLASES.

HARROW MODERN ATLAS, 29 Maps, with Index. Price 12s. 6d.

HARROW MODERN JUNIOR ATLAS, 14 Maps, with Index. Price 7s.

SCHOOL ATLAS OF CLASSICAL AND MODERN GEOGRAPHY, 25 Maps, and Index to both Classical and Modern Maps. Price 12s. 6d.

HARROW CLASSICAL JUNIOR ATLAS, 11 Maps, with Index. Price 7s.

HARROW CLASSICAL ATLAS, 23 Maps, with Index. Price 12s. 6d.

UNIVERSITY ATLAS, 50 Maps, with Index. Price £1 11s. 6d.

MAPS RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY EDWARD STANFORD,

6, CHARING CROSS, LONDON.

THE WORLD.

JOHNSTON'S COMMERCIAL CHART OF THE WORLD, on Mercator's Projection, containing the Position of every place of Commercial Importance, and showing the principal Currents of the Ocean, with their direction and rate of progress, with an enlarged Map of Central Europe, giving the Railway Communications, and distinguishing the States forming the German Customs Union; Tables of Distances between the Principal Ports, &c. Scale, about 5 1/2 deg. to 1 inch; size, 6 feet by 4 feet 8 inches; in 4 sheets, coloured, £2 12s. 6d.; mounted in morocco case, or rollers, varnished, £3 3s.; on spring roller, £6 6s.

THE WORLD, on MERCATOR'S PROJECTION, designed by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Price, 2 sheets, 1s. 6d.; case 3s.

ENGLAND AND WALES.

GEOLOGICAL MAP OF ENGLAND AND WALES, by SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, F.R.S., D.C.L., Director-General of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland. Third Edition, corrected to the present date, fully coloured by hand. Price, sheet, 5s.; case, 7s.

A SPLENDID MAP OF ENGLAND AND WALES, on a scale of 5 miles to an inch, with all the Railroads and Railway Stations distinctly laid down (projected from the Triangulation, made under the Direction of the Hon. Board of Ordnance). The Map comprises the principal Roads, Rivers, and Canals; the Parliamentary Divisions of Counties; the Site of nearly every Church, distinguishing the nature of the Living; the Seats of the Nobility and Gentry; and the Distance in Miles and Furlongs of each City and Town from the General Post Office, London. Price in 9 sheets, £2 12s. 6d.; coloured and mounted on canvas and rollers, or in case, £3 13s. 6d.; rollers varnished, £4 4s.; spring rollers, £6 6s.

STANFORD'S TRAVELLING RAILWAY AND ROAD MAP OF ENGLAND AND WALES, on a scale of 12 miles to the inch; size, 36 inches by 42, fully coloured, price, 1 sheet, 6s.; case, 8s. 6d.; rollers varnished, 12s.

*** For list of Maps and Handbooks to the Continent, see Stanford's "Passport Circular," sent free by post for one stamp.

LONDON, COLOURED TO SHOW THE NEW POSTAL DISTRICTS.

A NEW MAP OF LONDON, on a Large Scale, compiled from actual Survey, comprehending all the recent improvements, and coloured to show the new Postal Districts. Size 74 inches by 50 inches. Price, in case, 42s.; or on rollers and varnished, £3 3s.

THE MAP OF LONDON, coloured to show the New Postal Districts, prepared by direction of Her Majesty's Postmaster-General, for the use of the Provincial and London Post Offices, to facilitate the earlier delivery of letters, &c. Price, sheet, 5s.; case, 7s. 6d.; rollers varnished, 10s. 6d.

THE USEFUL KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY'S MAP OF LONDON, coloured to show the NEW POSTAL DISTRICTS, with the Post Office List of principal streets and places as divided into Postal Districts, by command of the Postmaster-General. Price, plain, 1s.; coloured, 1s. 6d. in sheet or folded; mounted on linen in case, 2s. 6d.; rollers varnished, 6s.

SCOTLAND.

A MAP OF SCOTLAND, with all the Railroads and Railway Stations, the Seats of the Nobility and Gentry, &c, &c, distinctly laid down; the Map also comprises the Principal Roads, Rivers, Canals, Lochs, Mountains, Islands, &c, &c. Scale, 5 3/4 miles to an inch; size, 76 inches by 52. In six sheets coloured, price £2 2s.; mounted on canvas and rollers, or in ease, £3 3s.; rollers varnished, £3 13s. 6d.; spring rollers, £5 5s.

Maps recently published by E. Stanford.

STANFORD'S TRAVELLING, RAILWAY, AND ROAD MAP OF SCOTLAND, showing also the Rivers, Canal, Lochs, Islands, &c. Price, sheet, 2s. 6d.; case, 3s. 6d.; rollers varnished, 8s.

MAP OF SCOTLAND, Designed and Published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, corrected to the present time. Price, folded, 1s.; mounted in case, 2s.

IRELAND.

STANFORD'S TRAVELLING ROAD AND RAILWAY MAP OF Ireland, showing also the Rivers, Canals, Lochs, Mountains, &c. Price, sheet, 2s. 6d.; case, 3s. 6d.; rollers varnished, 8s.

MAP OF IRELAND, Designed and Published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Corrected to the present time. Price, folded, 1s.; mounted in case, 2s.

ASIA.

A PHYSICAL AND GEOLOGICAL MAP OF INDIA, by G. B. Greenough, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. Price, 9 sheets coloured, £3 3s.; case or rollers, £4 4s.

MAP OF INDIA, in 12 sheets, with Index Map, prepared under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and Revised by John Walker, Esq., F.R.G.S., Geographer to the Honourable East India Company. Price, in case, £1 1s.; or sheets, 9s. 9d.

A MAP OF ARABIA PETRAEA, THE HOLY LAND, AND PART OF EGYPT (ANCIENT AND MODERN), exhibiting their Physical Features, accompanied with Geological Notes. Well-suited to illustrate those parts of the Old Testament which relate to the Exodus and Journeyings of the Israelites, and their Settlement in the Land of Promise. Compiled from the most authentic sources of information. By Richard Palmer. Scale, 10 miles to 1 inch; size, 51 inches by 38. On 3 sheets, coloured, price 18s.; on canvas, in case, or black roller, £1 5s.; mahogany roller, varnished, £1 10s.

AFRICA.

DR. LIVINGSTON'S DISCOVERIES IN AFRICA. – THE MAP OF AFRICA, in the Series designed and engraved by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, illustrates the Route and Discoveries of this distinguished traveller. Compiled from the Maps in the possession of the Royal Geographical Society. Price, folded, 1s.; mounted in case, 2s.

MAP OF THE EASTERN FRONTIER OF THE CAPE COLONY, compiled by Henry Hall, Draughtsman to the Royal Engineers, Cape Town, from Military and other Surveys; dedicated by permission to Sir J. F. Burgoyne, K.C.B. Price, sheets, £1 1s.; case, £1 5s.; rollers varnished, £1 11s. 6d.

MAP OF AFRICA, from the Equator to the Southern Tropic, showing the Routes to Lake Nyassi, Moenemelzi, the Muropue, the Cazembe, and across the Continent. With the Discoveries of the Missionaries in Eastern Africa. By WILLIAM DESBOROUGH COOLEY. Price, sheets, 5s.; mounted in case, 7s.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.

MAP OF THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES, Published under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Price, sheet, 1s. 6d.; case, 3s.

MAP OF THE SETTLED DISTRICTS OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. By H. Higginson and John W. Painter. Price, sheet, 4s.; mounted in case, 6s. 6d.; rollers varnished, 10s. 6d.

MAP OF NEW ZEALAND. – The Useful Knowledge Society's Map of New Zealand recently thoroughly revised from the Admiralty Surveys, and additions in the interior, by Walter Mantell, Esq., &c. Price, folded, 1s.; mounted in case, 2s.

Maps recently published by E. Stanford.

A MAP of THE PROVINCE of CANTERBURY, NEW ZEALAND, showing the Freehold Sections and Pasturage Runs. The Map is based upon the Admiralty Surveys, the Trigonometrical Survey made by order of the Provincial Government, and the communications of Colonists. Scale, 5 miles to the inch, with an enlargement of Christchurch and its Neighbourhood, on a scale of half an inch to a mile. Price, sheet, 7s. 6d.; case, 10s: rollers varnished, 15s.

AMERICA.

MAP OF THE UNITED STATES, THE BRITISH PROVINCES, MEXICO, AND THE WEST INDIES; showing the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, 4 sheets. Price, in sheets, coloured, £l ; case, £1 10s. (New York.)

CANADA, UPPER AND LOWER, WITH THE RAILWAYS. – Maps of these Provinces in 2 sheets, are published in the Series of Maps Designed and Published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Price, 2 sheets, folded, 2s.; mounted in case, 4s.

*** For complete List of Maps and Guides for Emigrants to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, &c, see Stanford's "Emigration Catalogue." Sent free per post on receipt of one postage stamp.

CENTRAL AMERICA.

MAP of CENTRAL AMERICA, including the States of Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica; the Territories of Belise and Mosquito, with part of Mexico, Yucatan, and New Granada, showing the Routes between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by way of Tehuantepeque, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama, with additions from the latest Surveys of the Admiralty, by S. Moss, Col. Lloyd, Garilla, Codazzi, Hughes, Childs, and other documents: the Railway Surveys in Honduras, contributed by the Hon. E. G. Squier, formerly Charge d'Affaires of the United States to the Republics of Central America. Price, sheet, 7s. 6d.; case, 10s.

In addition to the Maps mentioned in this List, the Stock of Edward Stanford includes all the last Maps published in England, the Colonies, and the Continent.

STANFORD'S EMIGRANTS' GUIDES.

CANADA, its present condition, prospects, and resources, fully described for the information of intending emigrants, by William Hutton, a Resident Agriculturalist in that Colony for the last twenty years, and Secretary to the Government Board of Statistics. Second Edition, with the Government Regulations relating to the FREE GRANTS, and a Map showing their position, and the Railways. Price 1s. 6d.

AUSTRALIA, as a field of Capital, Skill, and Labour, with useful information for Emigrants of ail Classes, by John Capper, late Editor of "The Emigrants' Journal," Author of "Our Gold Colonies," &c, &c, 1s.

NEW ZEALAND, its present condition, prospects, and resources; being a description of the country and general mode of life among New Zealand Colonists, for the information of intending Emigrants, by Edward Brown Fitton, a Landowner and late Resident in the Colony. Price, with Map, 4s.

COOPER – New Zealand Settler's Guide, a Sketch of the Present State of the Six Provinces, with a Digest of the Constitution and Land Regulations, and two Maps, by I. Rhodes Cooper, Capt. 58th Regt, Price 2s. 6d.; per post, 2s. 8d.

CANADA – The Canadian Settler's Guide. By Mrs. 0. P. Traill. Seventh Edition, considerably enlarged, two parts in one, price 5s.; or Part I. separately (more especially adapted for European circulation), price 2s. 6d.

*** This work is published under the sanction of the Hon. P. M. Vankoughnet, Member of the Legislative Council of Canada, and Minister of Agriculture, Canada West. Persons ordering copies are requested to be particular in stating whether they want the complete book or only Part I.

London: EDWARD STANFORD, 6, Charing Cross, S. W.
Agent for the Ordnance Maps and Admiralty Charts.

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