Twelve Years' Wanderings in the British Colonies [New Zealand sections]

J. C. Byrne

First published by R. Bentley in 1848

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

Epub © 2014 Early New Zealand Books Collection

ISBN 978-1-927289-97-6

[TITLE PAGES]

TWELVE YEARS' WANDERINGS IN THE BRITISH COLONIES.

VOL. I.

[Page ii is blank]

TWELVE YEARS'
WANDERINGS
IN THE BRITISH COLONIES.

FROM 1835 TO 1847.

BY J. C. BYRNE .

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. 1.

LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.
1848.

LONDON:

Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street.

[CONTENTS]

CONTENTS

TO THE

FIRST VOLUME.

General remarks on Emigration.....1-43

NEW ZEALAND.

CHAPTER I.

Origin of the settlement – Climate – Produce – Inhabitants and soil...... 47-62

CHAPTER II.

Early trade of New Zealand – Whaling and Whalers – Causes of the failure of colonization on an extensive scale – Number of white population ..... 63-86

CHAPTER III.

Prospects of New Zealand – Its advantages and disadvantages for immigration – Market price of food, &c. ..........87-94

NEW SOUTH WALES.

CHAFFER I.

New South Wales – Its discovery – Colonization – Progress – Population – Increase of stock, sheep, cattle and horses – Imports and exports – -Revenue – Shipping ....97-123

CHAPTER II.

Sydney – Its population – Religion – Corporation – Environs – Public Houses – Buildings and gardens – Police-office. .....124-147

CHAPTER III.

Towns of New South Wales – Mode of government – Land system – Squatting ..... 148-200

CHAPTER IV.

Labour in New South Wales, convict and free – Produce – Climate-State of society – Banking system. .....201-257

CHAPTER V.

Punishment of convicts in New South Wales and the Penal settlements – Aborigines – Conclusion and remarks .......258-202

AUSTRALIA FELIX; OR, PORT PHILLIP.

CHAPTER I.

Discovery and settlement, soil, climate, produce, and minerals – Imports and exports – Revenue, Crown lands, population and cultivation......295-329

CHAPTER II.

Melbourne; extent, situation, population, municipal privileges and rights – Geelong, Belfast, and Portland, new townships – Rates of wages – Prices of provisions and goods......330-364

CHAPTER III.

Aborigines – Squatting – Government – Separation from New South Wales......365-410

CHAPTER IV.

The preys – Causes of the ill success of many of the original emigrants to Port Phillip – Prospects of the colony and its natural capabilities.......411-431

GENERAL REMARKS ON EMIGRATION.

TWELVE YEARS' WANDERINGS

IN

THE BRITISH COLONIES.

GENERAL REMARKS ON EMIGRATION.

AT no period has emigration ever occupied a greater share of public attention, than it is likely to do during the year 1848.

Acknowledged in the past Session of Parliament as a measure of great importance towards the amelioration of the position of the lower classes, particularly amongst the Irish, it is almost certain to be largely promoted by ministerial measures during the Session of 1848. Yet, although for years past, thousands on thousands have annually left the shores of Great Britain and Ireland, to seek a home in distant climes, it is a fact, but too well established, that the greater portion of those who have thus left their native soil, have done so without being in the least acquainted with the real condition and prospects of the land which they have chosen for their future home, in order to better their condition.

From time to time a rage or mania has prevailed for emigration to different places, as circumstances or the

writings of individuals – too frequently interested – have attracted attention to them. One year Canada, another the Western States of America, then South Australia, New South Wales, New Zealand, each in rotation; again, Canada and the States have been, and are now, the chief points. "Anywhere is better than home," is too frequently the saying of the intending emigrant, who often cares little for, and knows less of, the country to which he is bound, being at the time too well satisfied at escaping from the harassing competition in every profession, trade and calling, experienced at home.

The die once cast, it is almost impossible to recal it, so if the climate, habits or prospects of the place do not suit the immigrant, change is generally out of the question; and a course thus adopted in ignorance, is mourned in experience, and expiated by continued struggles through life, or an early death from the effects of the climate.

Of these facts, thousands of well authenticated instances exist; and not one seat of immigration, either under the dominion of the United States, or the jurisdiction of the British Crown, but could furnish too many examples of persons who if they had taken time for consideration, and decided with prudence on their proper place of destination, through its adaptability to their own position and means, might have become prosperous and happy members of the society amongst which they cast their lot, instead of being a burthen to the community and a bar to its prosperity.

It is with the desire of affording general information with regard to the manners, habits, customs, and prospects of the many seats of immigration, together with particulars

of the climate, rates of wages, and value of property in each, that the author offers the following observations.

The knowledge communicated and the facts explained, are not collected from the information of others, but are the results of personal experience, the author having travelled and dwelt in almost every British colony under the Crown, as well as in various parts of the United States of America.

Almost every similar work that has been published, separately treats of one country or colony, to which the knowledge of the writer is confined. Of that alone he necessarily treats, that alone he holds forth as the most advisable and judicious place for the emigrant to proceed to. There, it generally happens, his lot is cast; perhaps his family is settled; there, all he possesses being invested in his new home, the prospects of the place are identical with his own; labour is capital in a new or thinly peopled country, and that, for his own benefit, he seeks to draw to his abode.

Induced by cheering representations, others inconsiderately follow in his steps.. They find too late that they have chosen a country unsuited to them; they have landed in a distant clime with ideas foreign to it, with prejudices or opinions which take time to eradicate; so that if they originally possess means, these vanish before they become perfectly conscious of the realities passing around them.

The habits and prejudices of old settled countries, are, most generally, sad bars to success in new ones; to be successful as an immigrant or colonist, caution, some experience, energy, perseverance and industry are absolutely necessary. The comforts of "home" must, at least for a

time, be given up; and all classes of persons, to secure ultimate success as colonists or settlers, should be fully prepared to endure privation and fatigue of no slight description; it may be their lot to find their bed at the foot of some giant tenant of a vast forest, or within the walls of a hut, through which the chill blasts of winter penetrate, as well as the summer sun's scorching rays.

At present, there is scarce a colony under the British Crown, which does not swarm with half-pay, or retired, officers of the army, or navy; they are to be found amidst the forests of New Brunswick, and Upper Canada, and at the Antipodes in Australia, and New Zealand.

From a strange idea that seems to have pervaded the policy of the British Colonial Office for years past, almost all the Governors of colonies are appointed from amongst the military and naval services; consequently, it is not surprising to see the junior branches of these services, monopolising a very great proportion of the government situations of any value in our colonies.

From their habits of discipline and the ideas imbibed in their profession, it would be hard to find a class of men less fitted to fill the Legislative and Executive departments of a new and rising colony. Their education renders them essentially unfit to direct or control the free enterprising spirit which actuates the pioneers of civilization: – military subordination is not compatible with free colonization.

Nor yet is this class of persons better fitted to become settlers; find them where you will, they are anything but successful in this capacity.

In Australia particularly, although there are hundreds on hundreds of persons who have been officers in the army or

navy, yet, it is a question if a dozen instances of considerable success, as settlers, can be adduced from amongst them.

This is not only owing to their original habits and manners in the army; but is in a great measure the consequence of the ignorance with which they enter upon the new life they have embraced: neglecting, in the first instance, before embarking upon their career, to study well, and procure every information with regard to the natural and social peculiarities of the country they have adopted.

Among the great seats of immigration, the Crown Colonies in Australia, the British possessions in North America, and the United States, are the chief.

Of these, the most advisable for an emigrant, or, at least, those most in favour, are, Canada, New Brunswick, the southern and western States of America, the Cape of Good Hope, or Southern Africa, Van Dieman's Land, Swan River, South Australia, Port Phillip, or Australia Felix, New South Wales, and New Zealand. Amongst these, there is a large field for choice, for they comprise almost every description of climate and soil.

South America, moreover, presents a vast extent, to many parts of which colonization might be well directed, if property and life were more secure, governments more powerful, and political revolutions less frequent there. In Chili, many thousand emigrants, natives of Great Britain or Ireland, have found a prosperous and happy home amongst the valleys at the foot of the Andes, and the result has been the improvement of their adopted land, and a vast extension of its trade through the Port of Val-

paraiso, now the great entrepot on the western shores of South America. But, liable to sudden political revolutions and to desolating earthquakes, South America does not approach many of the British colonies in advantages presented to the emigrant. The author will endeavour, to the best of his ability, to set forth the advantages and disadvantages of each of those great seats of immigration, their true social position, prospects, and climate, so that all intending emigrants may be the better able to come to a decision as to which is the best place for them to settle in and most suited to their means and requirements.

Emigration, when conducted with prudence, is a public blessing; while it relieves the home country of superabundant members of the producing classes, it also creates a market for the produce of our looms and manufactories. It promotes the prosperity of thousands who, if they continued in their fatherland, would, from excessive competition, be merely able to eke out a miserable existence – ending their days, perhaps, in the receipt of public or private charity.

Such a fate as this, is, as a rule, impossible in any one of the countries before named. With no rates or taxes levied on the articles necessary for subsistence; with land cheap because plentiful, and the produce of that land, in the shape of animal food and agricultural produce, vastly lower in price than at home; industry cannot fail in procuring not only present means of ample support, but, with perseverance, ultimate prosperity; so that instead of ending his life in a workhouse, the labouring emigrant in most places, in his old age, has the happiness of seeing around him his offspring prosperous and contented, free-

holders of the soil on which they dwell in substantial comfort and independence.

The struggle for existence of the lower and middle classes, at home, annually becomes more difficult as population increases and wealth consolidates in the hands of those already rich. The prosperity of the mass of the population is very seldom advanced in any country which encourages the growth of enormous wealth amongst a few individuals. The struggle between capital and labour then becomes unequal; and no matter whether cotton lords, iron lords, railway lords, merchant princes, or the aristocracy of land are in the ascendant, the result is still the same: the further centralization of wealth amongst those already in possession of it.

Free trade in corn may at present, and even for the future, lead to cheap bread, which will enable the producer to exist on a lower scale of pay, but cannot materially reduce the price of animal food, and those other articles of general use which the masses have brought themselves to consider absolute necessaries. Consequently, as the price of meat increases, it gradually becomes out of the power of the mechanic or labourer to obtain it; his scale of diet is thus compressed, former wants are becoming luxuries, and as population and competition increase, all that will be attainable will be the cheapest articles of human food sufficient to prolong the thread of life, and enable him for weary years to bear his manual toil. Who then, with those facts before them, would or should hesitate to seek in emigration better hopes and prospects, and a country where the proprietary of soil is not confined to certain classes, or the food of man, bestowed by a benevolent Providence, consumed only by the rich?

But even in the remedy suggested, there are evils, when not carried out with prudence and foresight. An over-extensive system of emigration to any one place may produce the very evils from which the voyager is flying; disease and death at sea from over-crowded, badly ventilated ships, are also too often the fate of the emigrant, and too much caution cannot be exercised in guarding against such contingencies. Resolved on with care, and a knowledge of your adopted land, a determination to emigrate should be carried out with system and discretion, and to that end the writer will endeavour to direct the reader.

It is not every description of persons that would profit by emigration. There are classes and individuals who had much better remain at home, if they can obtain a living there. In many of the colonies, young medical and other professional men are to be found in great excess, and consequently disappointment, misfortune and want are their lot, until absolute necessity compel them to become "drawers of water and hewers of wood" in the true meaning of the words. The writer has in numberless instances met men, who could eloquently quote law authorities and descant on medicine, employed in "felling and burning off," or watching sheep and driving bullocks; law, medicine, or classics, have but few patrons in new countries.

Clerks, or men who have received a middling education, and have been employed in the counting-houses of merchants or shop-keepers at home, are very much too apt to surrender the comforts and advantages they enjoy, to take the chance of high salaries, and what is sanguinely thought, certain success, in the colonies.

As a general rule, clerks, with the sober, steady, matter-of-rote ideas they imbibe at the desk, are not a class of men at all suited, either to advance themselves, or promote the interests of new colonies. Besides, the demand for their services is always so much less than the supply is capable of meeting, that the rate of remuneration is always low when employment can be obtained. The principal reason that renders employment for men of education, as assistants or clerks, so limited, admits of easy explanation.

There does not exist in any colony, those extensive mercantile concerns, manufacturing establishments, or large shops that require such numerous assistants as at home. A merchant or a shop-keeper in a colony, is generally able to transact his own business, or find within his immediate family the means of doing so, as far as accounts are concerned; and if he should require assistants, he is but too likely to seek them amongst those born in the colony, or from those who have resided in it some time, as from local knowledge they are much more likely to suit him. In all old communities where aggregate wealth is considerable, the professional or educated man or clerk without capital is likely to find a market and demand for what is to him his capital, viz.: his profession or education; but in a new colony there is but little chance for him.

Professional men, no doubt, in some instances, succeed extremely well in the colonies; but these form the exception, and not the rule; connexion, capital, great talents and enterprizing character, may raise them to comparative wealth and respectability, but the field is limited, competition extreme. Clerks also, no doubt, in some few

instances, from fortuitous circumstances, have succeeded in getting large salaries, but this is indeed seldom. More frequently, although remuneration for labour may be in a particular colony extremely high, yet the clerk does not benefit by it: he is but too often rated below even the labourer, and not paid so well.

The writer has been in colonies, at periods, when a clerk could be obtained for thirty shillings a week, while six shillings a day was paid to common labouring men or thirty-six shillings a week. It may be said: why should not the clerk then turn to labour? but this is not of such easy accomplishment. Will the man, perhaps, with a delicate and refined wife and family, willingly surrender old habits, the accustomed mode of obtaining his livelihood, or consent to submit to menial toil, "work," in its true sense, delving or ploughing the earth, unless starvation compel him? Will the educated man find happiness and contentment amongst such an ignorant body of companions as labourers in the colonies usually are – had he not better remain at home if he have any kind of a prospect of obtaining a livelihood for himself and his family? Let him, if he will, bring his children up to industry and enterprize, and when of a suitable age ship them off, on their own hands, for the colonies or Western America; they may accomplish what he could not.

It should be always kept in view by those intending to emigrate, that on bidding adieu to the shores of Britain, they must leave behind them for years to come, those comforts and luxuries they may have been accustomed to. Privation, as far as regards "comforts" must be sub-

mitted to by all, even the wealthiest emigrants; money cannot procure what they have left behind in emigrating.

On the other hand, with industry, the fee-simple of the soil on which they live may be theirs, and all the necessaries of life are to be had immeasurably cheaper than at home in any colony or general seat of immigration; no poor-house stares the decayed person in the face; plentiful food can in most colonies always be obtained for labour.

Tradesmen and mechanics are not unfrequently much astray in choosing a country to settle in, or in fact in emigrating at all. The demand for them in the colonies or new countries, such as the backwoods of Canada or the Western States, is always limited; in fact, many trades are not at all required amongst newly formed communities. Those principally in requisition are, carpenters, joiners, wheelwrights, masons, bricklayers, blacksmiths, shoemakers and tailors.

Yet shoemakers and tailors have always to compete with imported slop goods, which much lessens the demand for their services. Compositors, upholsterers, painters, glaziers, engineers, coopers, cabinet-makers, plasterers, millers, cutlers, and numerous other trades, gradually follow in the steps of the first named. They are only wanted where collective communities are formed: a plasterer, upholsterer or painter's services, are not required very often in a log hut or bush wooden-house. Tradesmen possess facilities of emigration that are entirely out of the reach of the labouring classes, and are consequently too often to be found in the colonies in disproportion to the wants of the community.

Previous to the year 1840, such was the demand that existed for mechanics and journeymen of all kinds of trade, in the Australian colonies, that extremely high wages were paid in consequence, and the most flattering accounts were forwarded to Great Britain and Ireland, to induce such persons to emigrate. At that period, carpenters, joiners, and masons, were receiving in Sydney ten to twelve shillings a day. In Port Phillip it was still higher; carpenters were there, in many instances, receiving one pound per day; and it was no wonder they represented eagerly to their friends at home the El Dorado they had found. Adelaide also paid equally high for tradesmen's labour. The consequence may easily be foreseen. The bounty system which gave free passage to these colonies was then being carried out to a large extent; and although a government regulation precluded free passages being afforded to more than a certain proportion of trades and crafts, yet this qualification was easily evaded, and an immense proportion of this class, in comparison with agricultural labourers or shepherds, introduced. They left England nominally as shepherds or labourers, but on arrival in the colonies, soon appeared in their true capacity. This was in addition to many who had legitimately gone out, paying their own passage, and such became the supply, that in 1843, the author saw hundreds of tradesmen and mechanics employed on the streets of Sydney and Melbourne, (the former the capital of New South Wales, the latter of Australia Felix), at one shilling per day wages.

Thousands at the same period, including persons of every trade and craft, even carpenters and masons (who

were in most general employment), petitioned the legislature, to assist them in removing from colonies where they could not obtain work, and to which they had been seduced by false statements, contained in pamphlets and books, many of which were published with the sanction of the authorities at home, and extracts from them actually made use of by Emigration Agents, to induce them to leave their homes.

But four years have elapsed since the author has seen the approaches to Government House at Sydney so thronged with an excited mass of disappointed, unemployed immigrants of the above class, venting their reproaches on the Government who had aided in alluring them to a place where they could obtain no work, that the military had to be held in readiness to disperse, if necessary, with the bayonet, those very individuals on whom so much trouble and money had been spent to bring them to the colonies.

These examples should act as a warning and check on every mechanic or journeyman, and induce him to decide well before he emigrates to any colony or new country. Imagine the change that many individuals of this class were at that period subjected to, in the fertile and productive settlement of Port Phillip! Such was the demand for labour in the year 1840, that employers had to beg of carpenters, in many cases, to come and work for them at sixteen shillings to one pound per day; whilst in 1843, carpenters and other tradesmen had to beg employment on the streets at one shilling per day, and at that rate even it could only be obtained, if they were able to show that a large family of children depended on them for support! These are facts that cannot be controverted. In 1843 and

the beginning of 1844, nearly three thousand persons, chiefly tradesmen and mechanics, actually left Sydney alone for the West Coast of South America, principally for Valparaiso and Lima. Greater part of those persons had been introduced into New South Wales, by funds derived from the Crown Lands, so their labour being lost, by departure for other countries, the colony derived no actual benefit from the expenditure of so large a sum of money drawn from their pockets as the introduction of such a number of persons must have required.

Yet that very Port Phillip and Sydney, from whence so many tradesmen and mechanics had to depart through want of employment, or any prospect of it, in 1843 and 1844, are now clamouring loudly for mechanics and labourers of all kinds, holding forth long lists of persons required, and the rates of wages attainable by such; this, too, in the very places where, three years since, one shilling a day on the public streets was procured with difficulty.

These facts too plainly exhibit a total want of system in emigration as carried out at present, and without well-matured plans, no extensive scale of national or private emigration can ever be successful; the same scenes that took place in 1843, in the Australian colonies, will constantly be recurring.

What does a Port Phillip paper of March, 1847, say? and how strongly does the fact exhibit deplorable mismanagement in the previous Government of these colonies, and the conduct of emigration thither?

"A fortnight since, a settler named Allen, from the Western Port district, endeavoured to engage labour in

Melbourne. The wages he offered were one guinea per week, three months constant employment, with flour, mutton, beef, and tea and sugar ad libitum, to supply the personal wants of the labourer. He was unable to procure on these terms a single hand; the objections, however ludicrous they were and may appear, are as follows: – One fellow refused to engage, because his oatmeal (which he preferred to flour) would not be boiled in new milk; and another, because a portion of his rations would be fresh beef instead of mutton. Such examples are worth a thousand essays. We do not consider we can more appropriately conclude these remarks, than by subjoining a table of the current rates of wages in the colony."

The Editor then proceeds to lay a statement before his readers, by which it would appear that journeymen of all kinds of trades, and mechanics, are in receipt of wages varying from six to nine shillings per day, with full employment, whilst shepherds, stockmen and labourers receive from £25 to £35 per annum, besides full support; female servants are set down at £25; male servants £30 per annum; men and their wives £45; and grooms £70, all with support.

What a contrast does this not offer to Canada and our North American possession, flooded with thousands of half-starved diseased Irish, seeking a place of refuge from their fatherland!

Upwards of 50,000 emigrants landed in Canada last year, previously to the end of July, a space of little more than four months, from the opening of the St. Lawrence, at the commencement of spring. Thus, the labour-market became over-burthened, and the remuneration of those who

had been some time in these colonies was reduced considerably.

Yet Canada possesses peculiar facilities, owing to the cheapness of land and the small farm system, for absorbing all the labour that is thrown into it; but, with all these, without system, immigration in these countries as well as in others, becomes at times an evil instead of a blessing. One year too great a supply of labour in a particular place, the next none; at one time any remuneration for work done, at another no work to be got, but what may be obtained by petition on the roads or streets, at the lowest possible scale of pay.

All this exemplifies equally to the capitalist, tradesman, mechanic, or labourer, the necessity of inquiring carefully, and resolving with prudence before he decides on any particular place to emigrate to.

The man of money will soon cease to be a capitalist, if he settles in a colony or country where he has to pay more for gathering his crops, or tending his flocks, or clearing his land, than the returns will justify; continued trenching on the principal, will, before long, absorb it all.

The tradesman and mechanic will, in all probability, have to deplore the hour when the comforts and employment of fatherland were left behind, if they bend their steps towards a colony, whither a mania for emigration has set in; excessive competition may, and does at times exist in new as well as old countries, and they may therefore be for years perfectly unable to obtain that employment and remuneration they seek, or which they left at home.

The labourer even should exercise a sound discretion in

his choice; although in his case, any removal from home must benefit himself and his family, because in a new colony mere labour must be more valuable than in old countries, where the bare necessaries of life are all that this class can obtain.

Yet, although it is easy to recommend inquiry, prudence, and information, before any person resolves to cast his lot for life in any particular land, and abandon home, the author is but too well aware of the difficulty that has existed in procuring ample and correct information with respect to any stated place.

In all new countries and colonies, the local press, which must be the great source of information, is so certain to magnify everything connected with its own locality, that, as a general rule, but little dependence can be placed on what it advances, and particularly on the tabular statements of wages it from time to time publishes. It may seem strange that a respectable journal should advance statements, open to contradiction on the spot, but to those who know the colonies well, it is an ascertained fact, that such is continually done, and persevered in with impunity.

Where all are equally interested in pushing a new country or colony, few will be found to find fault with the pen that exaggerates, or paints in vivid colours, the position and prospects of their adopted land. Besides, individual cases may and do exist in many colonies, where tradesmen, mechanics, and others are in receipt of very high wages, but under particular circumstances. At the same time, in the same colony, there are frequently numbers of persons of the same trade or calling, who can absolutely procure

no employment whatsoever; there is no need of them; yet the local papers of the place publish a table of wages, setting down all at the maximum price that perhaps, a few individuals are obtaining, when others are totally idle. Thus, the only fact that is made known to those at home, who think of emigrating, is, that eight, nine, or ten shillings per day is paid to a joiner, carpenter, mason, or coach-builder, as the case may be.

In an interview the writer had in the month of August with a person extensively connected with the colonies, no less than the names of twenty-seven individuals were consecutively stated to him, all of whom were at home for the purpose of advocating, by their pens or otherwise, the interests of the particular colonies with which they were connected, all of course endeavouring to make their own case the brightest of the lot. Discernment may well be said to be required in rooting out true information, from the glowing drapery in which it is dressed by the pens of those so anxious to advocate the place they are connected with.

The writer having spent twelve years in traversing the greater part of the globe, feels himself particularly qualified to lay before the public many facts connected with the colonies and the other seats of emigration, and much general information, which cannot fail of being of material assistance to all who think of trying their fortune, and casting their lot in other and distant lands.

To the labouring classes, generally, emigration must prove a blessing, but to many others, disappointment and regret may be the result, if care and prudence, com-

bined with information, do not guide them in their resolve.

But in most colonies or new countries, the man who goes out with a determination to "look well," on arrival, "before he leaps;" to be well informed before he engages in anything; and when he has adopted a course, to follow it out with perseverance and industry, prepared for rough or smooth, as they may turn up; that man must eventually succeed, and improve his condition by the change. Home ideas, however, must at once on arrival in a colony be thrown aside, and the immigrant be prepared to fall into the ways of those amongst whom he has settled, perhaps for life. But if care be necessary in deciding on a place to emigrate to, still more is it requisite to guard the immigrant, on arrival in his adopted land, from the machinations and designs of the unprincipled.

There are in all newly settled countries many who live by the ignorance and credulity of the immigrant; but it is not alone such persons who take advantage of that want of knowledge. The land owner, the land agent, the stock owner, the employer of the labourer, are all too ready to take advantage of new arrivals; everything is represented by them to suit the interest of the informant. Land in particular localities is praised; town sections held forth as investments that cannot fail to be profitable; cattle and sheep must make the fortune of the buyer in a few years; whilst even the employer endeavours to take advantage of such as have only their trade or labour to depend on, to make good agreements.

As a general rule, no immigrant should, either pre-

viously to his leaving home, or immediately on arrival in his adopted land, take any step seriously to affect his future prospects or position. He should hear with incredulity those representations that are made to him by the interested on his first arrival; and should quietly set himself down, with his pockets buttoned tightly up, so that none of his substance may disappear, until those individuals who first beset him to induce the investment of his capital in their land, cattle, town lots or farms, become tired of unsuccessful importunities, and turn their attention towards netting other "flats."

The tradesman, or mechanic even, should not, on first arrival, make any lengthened engagement. Tyrannical masters, and unhealthy or dangerous situations, may fall to their lot, or, as is very generally the case, reduced wages; this is not of much importance, if the engagement is only for a limited term.

With regard to men of money who emigrate, they experience many difficulties to their advantageous settlement. On his first arrival, a person of this class brings with him a few hundred, or a few thousand pounds, as the case may be, and, perhaps, letters of introduction to merchants or respectable settlers. As a natural consequence, the merchant or settler is asked for his advice as to the future settlement of the immigrant, who states the amount of his capital, to guide the person applied to, in giving his advice.

The old colonist probably has land, sheep, cattle, or town allotments, or some debtor or friend may have; and they are anxious to dispose of such. This is a good oppor-

tunity; the new arrival comes to be plucked, and it is soon effected. Lands, cattle, sheep, town allotments, or "runs' in a new country, are held up, as it may suit the adviser, as investments that cannot fail amply to repay the buyer, and the unfortunate victim is gulled into the purchase of land under water, or with no water at all near it; or, perhaps, a stone waste, that would take a hundred acres to feed a beast upon; or a town allotment, that may in some half century become of the value they are induced to give for it; or scabby sheep, and old barren ewes, afflicted with the foot rot; or cattle of a bad cross breed, and wild as the buffalos of the Pampas, are passed off upon them at three times their value. This is no exaggerated statement: it is a thing of every-day occurrence in new countries; aye, even still worse, for there have been not a few instances in which flocks and herds that did not exist, or lands to which there was no claim or title whatsoever, have been sold to the deluded immigrant: a few such instances the writer will relate.

The scene of one was in a Yankee Notion Store, at St. Louis, on the Mississippi. The store owner who sold everything, from a grubbing axe to needles, lace and muslin, was also agent to a land company, who had purchased from the State an immense block of land on one of the tributaries of the Mississippi, considerably to the westward of St. Louis.

The agent spared no exertion in puffing, to realize his commission on sales by the disposal of part of this land speculation. Business of another kind had brought the writer to this worthy's store; and, when he entered,

there was the dealer, eloquently descanting on water privileges, and the various kinds of timber, which he assured two young men existed in abundance on the advantageous district he had on sale. A map was produced of the property, divided into sections and allotments of every possible size and shape, nicely coloured and delineated.

It was evident that the two companions of the Yankee were new importations, or more properly speaking, immigrants with means, who were pushing westward in search of land, and they appeared to have been taken with the advertisements and puffs of the agent. With much inducement, they allowed themselves to be prevailed on to conclude the purchase, on the spot, of six hundred acres, at the rate of one dollar, and twenty-five cents (5s. 3d.) per acre, which was to be paid for in cash at once; but in case they required more land, and approved of their present purchase on seeing it, they were to be indulged with a long credit for such extension, merely paying a small deposit in the first instance. The money was paid, and a draft of the title was made out, to which was appended a map of the section purchased, with full description as to boundaries, &c, which were accurately defined; and the purchasers departed from the store, expressing their intention to proceed at once to inspect their purchase, which was distant some three hundred miles.

The Yankee turned his attention to the writer, when they had left, and "guessed" I would do "a considerable good thing," if I would purchase a lot of the same block; but, finding persuasion in vain, "reckoned" that he had

done a pretty fair day's work in making the sale, and proposed to "liquor" over it. To humour his whim, the writer accompanied the agent to the bar of an hotel, and there discussed "mint julep." Conversation turned on the land lately sold, and the Yankee acknowledged he had never seen it, nor had any correct description of it; but that it had been roughly surveyed in a mass, three years before, and from the outline of this survey, a map had been drawn, dividing it into sections, allotments, &c. Of course it was his business to describe it in the most glowing colours, for he got twenty per cent on the sales he made; he had no doubt the purchasers would find out what kind of land it was themselves. And they did so to their cost: for within a month they returned to St. Louis, anathematizing the agent, and venting all possible opprobrious terms on Yankees in general.

It appeared that when they did, after great difficulty, discover the locality of their purchase, it was found to be many miles removed from human habitations, and chiefly to consist of a low marsh and lagoon, covered with water three parts of the year; and on the whole concern, there did not appear to be as much elevated ground as would suffice to erect a house upon!

The result is easily foreseen; the purchasers were only too anxious to get rid of land, or rather water, which they had been in such a hurry to obtain; and as none could be found willing to become purchasers, they assigned their entire right, title, and estate in the "lot" to the agent back again, for the consideration of one hundred dollars, being something like one eighth of the original purchase money.

All over the States and Canada, there are jobbing land companies, having agents in the chief towns, who puff up and misrepresent land – in reality, perhaps, of no value – merely for the purpose of securing their commission, whilst there is no redress for their unfortunate victims. In Australia, similar transactions, and, perhaps, even worse, frequently occur.

In 1839, there was, in Sydney, a Mr. W – – -, who was the principal auctioneer in New South Wales; and his hammer daily announced the disposal of "inimitable" town and country allotments, and sheep and cattle of the best breeds the colony boasted of.

Day after day, his mart was crowded with hundreds of new arrivals, anxious to participate in the advantages of the good things that were there being disposed of. On one occasion, there was an extensive sheep station, beyond the boundaries, on New England Plains, to be sold, with two thousand sheep. It was a "most eligible opportunity for the man who wished to realize vast wealth in a few years;" at least, Mr. W – – - assured his audience of that fact. There was no necessity to purchase land in this instance, a Government license for temporary occupation was all that was necessary, and this only cost ten pounds, and would be transferred with the sheep to the "fortunate purchaser." The inducements set forth were strong, and the hammer fell, making M – – -, a lately arrived immigrant, with capital, the purchaser, at the rate of twenty-one shillings per head for the sheep, "station given in." Ten per cent deposit was paid on the spot, and the balance, which, with the deposit, amounted to two thousand, one hundred and ninety-three pounds, made good within a

week, on which the purchaser received an order on a person, said to be the overseer of the station, for its delivery with the sheep up to Mr. M – – -, on exhibiting the order.

Before commencing sheep farming, it was necessary that he should provide a team of bullocks, a dray, a horse for himself and shepherds to tend the flocks, with a supply of tea, sugar, salt, slops for the men, &c, before proceeding to take possession. All these, by advice, Mr. M – – – furnished himself with, and then started for New England Plains. Arrived at the small river or creek on which the station was said to exist, inquiry was made for it, but in vain; up and down, the creek was traversed for the space of upwards of three weeks, but no such sheep or such station as Mr. M – – - had bought, existed in that vicinity. It must have been a mistake, the name of the creek must have been wrongly given by the clerks. So M – – - resolved to return on horseback to Sydney, to have the matter corrected and set to rights, leaving his three men camped with the dray and supplies, in the neighbourhood of an out station, till he returned.

Some days after, he arrived at Sydney, and at once proceeded to Mr. W – – -'s mart; but lo! the doors are closed, – business there seems suspended. What can be the reason? – Has death deprived New South Wales of its finished auctioneer? A passer-by solved the difficulty. A week before, a brig, called the "Nereus," belonging to W – – -, cleared out and sailed with her assorted trading cargo. The auctioneer determined to see it off, rode down to his wharf, and went on board the

steamer which towed the Nereus out to sea, from whence he changed his quarters into the brig herself, and bade a hasty adieu to his friends on board the steamer, regretting the impossibility of giving notice of his departure to his Sydney friends.

The steamer returned with the news, and found a man on the wharf, holding W – – -'s pony, awaiting its master's appearance; creditors became alarmed, indignant, and, finally, after too long a hesitation, despatched a vessel in pursuit, which returned unsuccessful. The sequel is soon told, the station and sheep that had been sold to Mr. M – – -, existed only in the brain of the auctioneer, and the two thousand pounds that had been paid became a dead loss.

These two examples should serve as a warning to emigrants. It is impossible to foresee the drift of the designing; and there are so many ways in which they may exercise their talents, not only as regards the disposal of permanent settlements, but in exacting out of the way prices for lodging, carriage, travelling, &c. As an established rule, the emigrant should always take particular care to learn, from the owner or manager of small inns or lodging houses, what his real charge is, not only for the emigrant's own accommodation, but also for the storage of his luggage, as extensive imposition is frequently resorted to in Canada and the States under this head.

In many parts of Canada and the United States, it would be well for emigrants to apply for information, either regarding land or labour, to societies existing on the spot, whose object is to protect and guide the new comer.

Where the agents of these societies are to be found, is easily learned through the publicity that is attached to them. No charge for information is made, but the applicant is informed with civility of the description of land in certain districts, and its average price; he is instructed in the best mode of making purchases, and is directed where his labour or trade, as the case may be, is likely to meet the best market. All this is peculiarly advantageous to the emigrant, as no guide book could furnish particulars that are necessarily altering every few months.

Not only do the "touters," or agents of hotels or lodging houses, hang about and canvass emigrants on first arrival, particularly in America; but runners, connected with different lines of conveyance, rail, steam-boat and coach, press and intrude themselves, each advocating their "line," and praising in glowing colours the demand for labour and artizans, that exists in the vicinity whither their conveyances run. It often happens, that the ignorant person is thus induced to journey to a place where a demand for labour is said to exist, on canals, railroads, &c, when such is not at all the case; his fare is that which is aimed at, and when obtained, the victim is left to shift for himself as he best can.

It is too frequently the case, that both monied men and the producing classes, hang about the great towns, near the sea-board, after their arrival in America. This cannot be too strongly deprecated; in leaving fatherland, they seek new countries, where the excessive competition existing at home is not to be met with; but if they remain in the large cities of the States, they will soon

find as much difficulty in either successfully applying labour or capital, as in the country they have left. This caution is applicable to most emigrants, except such as are shipwrights, or artizans of those superior trades not in demand in newly settled places, and who may obtain employment in the more luxurious cities of the Eastern States, whose inhabitants are wealthier, and more accustomed to artificial wants, than the denizens of the forests and prairies of the "far West."

Large numbers, thousands in fact, of Irish immigrants annually arrive in the various American cities, who, on landing, are possessed of no means whatsoever to convey them into the interior. Of necessity, those persons hang about the towns where they first arrived, and tend materially to reduce the price of labour. Competition, with a class of persons who must either receive what is offered them as compensation for their labour, or starve, is of course to be avoided, and that can only be effected by seeking the interior, where a wide field is offered for every class.

It is frequently represented to emigrants, that it is not advisable to take British money with them, and in lieu of this, American bank-notes or private bills of exchange, are palmed off upon them by emigrant agents. Too much caution cannot be exercised in this matter. American bank-notes of every kind should be avoided: many of them are of no value, the banks having failed years ago; others are questionable in their value, particularly if the possessor tries to pass them out of the State where the bank is situated, a considerable discount, up to ten per

cent, being then charged. Private bills of exchange are also, except to well-informed men, dubious matters, and even they too often suffer loss by this mode of conveying money from one country to another.

British money, both sovereigns and Bank of England notes, is convertible without loss in America or the colonies; sovereigns, indeed, frequently command a premium. If the sum is small, emigrants should always convey their capital in gold; if large, Bank of England notes, or bankers' bills (of eminence) should be resorted to. The writer has, while in the colonies, had to give a premium on Bank of England notes to remit to England. Commissariat bills from the colonies always command a premium, and they are no better security than bank-notes, if the latter are forwarded separately to their destination, and with proper precautions. In all parts of the world, a British sovereign will pass for its full home value; but if conveyed by emigrants in large sums to distant lands, gold should always be insured, which can be effected at a much lower rate than any kind of merchandize. Many might imagine that when any one carries gold with him, there is little necessity for insurance, as there would be but a small probability of its being lost, without his sharing its fate: the following instance will prove the contrary.

In 1841, the emigrant bark, "India," bound for Port Phillip, accidentally caught fire, when but a short distance to the southward of the line. There were a large number of passengers and bounty emigrants on board. Fortunately a French whaler hove in sight, and sent her boats to the assistance of the burning ship, but such was the rapidity

of the flames, and the number of the passengers, that before they could be taken off by the boats, many were destroyed by fire, or had to take refuge in the sea from that element. Amongst the latter was a gentleman named A – – -, who having with him upwards of three hundred sovereigns in cash, had secured it about his person on the first alarm. The fire had driven him into the fore chains, and at last compelled him to abandon even that place and take the water, trusting to a small spar to support him until picked up; but in vain, the spar was not sufficient to counterbalance the weight of the gold, and as a last resource, Mr. A – – - had to abandon his grasp of the treasure, and let it sink into the bosom of the deep, a total loss, because uninsured. He himself was soon afterwards picked up by one of the whale boats, and deeply did he regret his vanished means, which might have been secured by the expenditure of a very few pounds in insurance. Emigrants should never trust to chance, where their material interests are concerned; certainty should, if possible, always be secured.

But that first absolute necessity in emigration, of crossing the ocean, has not yet been touched on; however, it nearly concerns in many ways, the existence, hopes, and happiness of the emigrant of every rank and station. In long and distant voyages, the accommodation of the emigrant becomes a question of life and death; whilst even in the shorter transit to America, it is of importance, more particularly to "intermediate" and "steerage" passengers. In preparing for a long sea voyage, even for a month, there are many things to be looked to. First in im-

portance, is the character and accommodation of the ship. Light and ventilation should, above all things, be well looked after, they are absolute necessaries to guard against disease. In dock, even the best cabins look much lighter and more airy than they are at sea, when port-holes have to be closed, sky-lights let down, and stern-ports, in small ships, caulked in. The nearer the cabin is towards the centre of the vessel, the motion is of course more reduced; but then both light and air should be secured, by having a port-hole with a bull's-eye (of glass), and facilities to open it easily in warm or fine weather, when required. These are frequently apparent while the vessel is in harbour, but when out at sea, dead-lights are let down over them and secured, so that light and air are both shut out. Cabin passengers should, if possible, engage their berths in the poop, if such exist, as these cabins are more light and airy than below. Emigrants of the lower classes, "steerage" and "intermediate" passengers, are always accommodated below, "'tween decks," and as their quarters are nearest the water's edge, the faculties for obtaining light and air are decreased. Much light can seldom be obtained from side-ports in passenger-ships, except of the very largest class; as it would be dangerous to have many ports with bull's-eyes fitted in their sides; it is most frequently obtained by pieces of thick opaque glass, inserted in the decks of the vessel, at intervals. Air is, more particularly in bad or rough weather, obtainable only through the hatchways, one or more, as they may be kept open. At sea, the entire hatchway can seldom be up, as the spray that comes on board would then wash down into the hold.

This is particularly the case in bad weather, when merely a small scuttle in the hatchway is all that can be left open for the ascent and descent of passengers, and the admission of air. The "'tween-decks" of an emigrant ship, with three or four hundred passengers, sunk in darkness, and with the little pure air that descends through, perhaps, two scuttles, one in the fore-hatch and one in the after, in bad weather, may be imagined: to describe it adequately is impossible. The sickness of many, the effluvia of hundreds of heated bodies, with the associated odour arising from every kind of provisions the passengers possess, but too often generate fevers of the most virulent kind. Disease then prevails in the crowded space; attention, such as the wants of the sufferer require, cannot be administered; and, unless the destined port is soon reached, death and an ocean grave is frequently the poor emigrant's fate. These ship fevers are often communicated to the crew and cabin passengers; on long voyages, indeed, they become appalling, and even on those of limited duration, they are often fearfully fatal.

During the summer of 1847, the extent of disease in vessels bound to the States or to our American possessions, was very great. Many instances have occurred of ships losing one third or one fourth of their emigrants on the passage, another third being laid up in fever on their arrival in Canada, where no small proportion of those landed have also died at the quarantine stations. Up to the commencement of August last year, rather more than seventy thousand emigrants were landed in Canada, and of these, it is calculated that no less than twenty-three thousand

were suffering, on arrival, from fever or its effects. Of course, with a few occasional exceptions, these were exclusively steerage passengers, deprived of light, ventilation, and a sufficient diet, during the voyage.

Passengers of all classes should, if possible, always take their passage by ships that are constantly in the habit of trading to their destined port. These have a character to maintain, which leads to a better treatment of passengers than is likely to be met with in transient vessels, which may make but one solitary voyage to the place, the owners caring but little what accommodation they give, merely looking to, and calculating on, as large as possible an amount of profit from the ship. Large ships should be generally chosen in preference to small ones, unless the latter carry very few passengers; cabin emigrants should prefer a small party of companions to numerous ones in the cuddy, as disagreements and squabbles, frequent on ship-board, are then less likely to occur. "Steerage" and "intermediate" passengers should, next to light and ventilation, seek room, and avoid over crowded ships: water-closets should be especially looked after, as many ships have none for steerage passengers, or in such situations as to be completely unavailable, particularly to females in rough weather; cabin passengers often suffer much from this cause also. Emigrants, whether cabin or steerage passengers, should, if possible, always procure single berths; a double berth, even in the most commodious cabins, is uncomfortable in bad weather and, in the steerage, unhealthy. Many of the emigrant vessels to America fit up berths to contain three or four each, and those are often occupied by males and females

of the same family, indiscriminately, though they may happen to be but distantly related! The immorality and bad tendency of this is too apparent, and should not in any case be permitted.

It is absolutely disgraceful, alike to the Government of the country and the Legislature, that no measure has been adopted for the complete supervision, classification, and accommodation of passengers of the lower classes, in transient ships. The only steps taken by the executive, with regard to general passenger vessels for emigrants, are first, a survey to ascertain that the ship is sea-worthy; then a curtailment or restriction of the number of passengers, in proportion to the ship's tonnage; and, lastly, the declaration of the Government emigration agent at the port from whence the vessel sails, that she has a proportionate quantity of bread and water on board. This particularly applies to vessels bound to North America; private ships for distant colonies, seldom carrying a large number of passengers, are less subjected to the control of the Government agent.

Ships proceeding southward, and crossing the line with a certain number of passengers, are compelled by law to carry a surgeon. This is not at all the case in vessels bound to any part of North America; but sadly has the want of a surgeon been made apparent by the frightful casualties through fever, in the greater number of the ships carrying passengers, during the past year, to Canada. In their protection of emigrants, the Americans are much before England, as, under a heavy penalty, they bind all ships entering their ports to a much smaller proportion of passengers, according to their tonnage, than what is allowed by Great Britain.

The system at present enforced in all passenger-ships carrying emigrants on account of the South Australian Commissioners, is much to be commended, and might, in part, be made applicable to all emigrant ships. Classification is adopted in these vessels, the single males and females are in separate parts of the ship; whilst, again, both are divided by partitions from the married persons. Every morning a certain number of each class clean thoroughly their quarters; three or four of the best conducted of them, acting as superintendants, not only over this matter, but also in suppressing at all times nuisance, noise, or disorder. These persons sometimes act as teachers to the young, receiving a small remuneration in the colony. All are, however, under the management of the surgeon-superintendant, whose control over the emigrants, their regulation, provisions, &c, is unlimited. If provisions or water should fall short, he has even the power to compel the captain to put into the nearest port. A certificate from this gentleman is necessary for the captain or agent of the ship, before the last moiety of the contracted passage money is paid by the colonial authorities.

It certainly would be difficult to apply all these regulations to transient vessels bound to America, but a surgeon-superintendant should be on board each ship, the sexes should also be separated, except in the case of married couples. The arrangement of the berths should be under a certain specified plan, and not more than two persons allowed in each. It may be thought this would lead to much expense, but this is clearly proved not to be the case, by the South Australian Commissioners getting their

emigrants carried out for an average of £12 12s. per head, to the furthest part of the globe.

The next point of importance is, to inquire into the character of the captain. If he is a sterling man, his inferior officers are generally well conducted, and may much promote the happiness of the emigrant, particularly of the lower class. It would be well to ascertain if the commander has been long in the vessel, and if he is known on the line, as one accustomed to that particular trade; these are two material guarantees for his good conduct. At sea, the power of the captain is extreme in every way; and this authority should always be supported, unless when carried to such a length as would affect the safety of the passengers. Even when captains proceed to the greatest extremities, and perpetrate most outrageous doings, the crew are too likely to support them against the passengers. The anger or resentment of the commander of a vessel should never be provoked by any class of persons; for he has the means, without openly committing himself, of turning the ship into a "very hell" for the offender: this the writer has seen many times strongly exemplified, especially in long voyages; and he was once witness of a suicide, committed by a cabin passenger, under the influence of excitement, caused by petty annoyances heaped upon him by the captain. Respect should invariably be shown to that person, to whom, in going on board ship, you entrust your life. His commands and requests should always be met with alacrity, so that a feeling of mutual regard – if only temporary – may be promoted. It is not easy to judge of captains of ships when on shore; they seem for that period to assume another nature, with their

"go a-shore clothes;" and the mild, cheerful person we meet on terra firma, is often scarcely recognizable in the stern, tyrannical, abusive personage he proves to be at sea. Sobriety, on his part, ought above all to be looked after; for no human being should trust himself at sea with a drunken commander. Many of these points it is extremely difficult, especially for those who are not cabin passengers, to learn; but if the commander has been regularly trading to the port whither they are bound, and has been in charge of the same ship for some time, that may be considered sufficiently satisfactory, unless something decidedly unfavourable, and well authenticated, is learned against his character.

There yet remains one most important point to touch upon, of vital interest to the emigrant, and that is choice of climate. The colonies of Great Britain themselves present every diversity, from the scorching heats of Africa, to the six months' winter of Canada and Nova Scotia. Thus, the range, even for those who wish not to quit the protection of British laws, is as extensive as could be wished for, and leaves no excuse for the unsuccessful emigrant attributing his failure to climate; if he resolves upon the adoption of a particular country from genuine information, he cannot easily err. Few, however, do judge with prudence and sound consideration; a vague statement of fertile lands, or large fortunes amassed by particular individuals, induce the first idea of emigration; and, once resolved upon, headlong on their course, rush the crowd, in total ignorance of whither they are bent.

It was on the banks of the Missouri, in the "far West" of the United States, after traversing some miles of

rich flats, formed by alluvial and vegetable deposits, that the writer alighted from his horse, and approached a large and spacious weatherboard house, with extensive outbuildings and stock-yards; while in the distance waved the tall and graceful stems of broad acres of maize, fast ripening beneath the sun's still warm autumnal rays. Hanging his horse's bridle on a panel of fence, near the slip rail by which he entered the enclosure – on which the house stood – the author approached unnoticed; and, although the front door stood open, rapped for admittance. From within, a voice issued, directing the stranger to walk in; on doing so, he found himself in the main room of a comfortable farm-house, with evidences of prosperity heaped around, yet no human face was to be seen. But again the voice was heard inquiring what was the visitor's business. It was soon told: the traveller wanted accommodation for the night, as he had been informed there was no tavern within a long distance, and he had ridden far. Without hesitation he was made welcome, but assured he must help himself, as the farm servants had not yet returned, and the entire family were laid up with ague. There, in different rooms, were father, mother, three sons, and two daughters, all cadaverous-looking objects, shivering and shaking in palsied agony, beneath heaps of blankets, sheep and deer skins, piled on each other. An old traveller, the author soon made himself at home; and when the farm servants returned, a savoury meal of "pork and chicken fixings" soon smoked upon the board. The master of the house was once a Northumberland farmer, but had emigrated; journeyed to the far West, and purchased the land upon which he was located. Amply did the soil repay the culture, and

plentiful was the produce in the farmer's barns. Worldly wealth had increased with him; but ague – the affliction of the country – had come upon him and his family, in whose countenances the ruddy glow of health had long ceased to be visible. Over and over again did the poor man say, that gladly would he return to the comparative poverty of his early days, and resign all he had acquired, to have health restored to him and his. But his lot was cast; and he must linger on a life of neither comfort nor enjoyment, although all his wants were supplied by his farm, almost to excess.

Plenty, and a bounteous increase of the world's goods, had failed in this instance, as in a thousand others, to ensure happiness – for health was wanting. Trace the sluggish and muddy waters of the mighty Mississippi into the far West, and fever and ague will be found to form a sad draw-back on the advantages of that country. And long years must pass away before this region will become healthy. The dense forests will have to be cleared away, as well as the noxious gases emitted by the deep rich brakes along the river's bank. Proceed still further northwest, until the distant regions of Upper Canada, beyond Lake Superior, are attained – ague is even prevalent there; but then the great fault of the British North American colonies, as respects climate, is, the length and severity of the winter, precluding all tillage of the land, and restricting the application of labour. Felling or chopping timber is the only employment that can, in the winter season in Canada, be pursued out of doors.

What a much more desirable climate exists in all the Australian colonies. Dry and healthy – except in

New South Wales at times of drought – field labour can be continuously pursued without injurious effects. Snow, there may be said to be none; and frosts are so slight, as to disperse before an hour's sun.

But, above all, Australia is free from the pestilential vapours and miasma that are common in many new countries, and which arise from decaying vegetable deposits. The trees of Australia are evergreens; and, although in process of time, the foliage of one year passes away, yet it may be said never to form a deposit. It remains upon the tree until the action of the sun and weather upon the leaf has had the effect of dissipating its substance, nought remaining but a dry shred, totally devoid of juices likely to resolve into gases. This provision of Nature disposes of what would otherwise prove most unhealthy, if subject to the course of European or tropical trees, in the formation of deposits of matter, which would soon putrify beneath a warm sun. Even the climate of South Africa, as far as health is concerned, and the ability to labour in the open air, is before most parts of the Western States and Canada. But to particularize each, would require more space than this sketch will afford. Urging attention to these points, the writer will, in the progress of his work, give such information upon the climate of each place described, as to enable the reader to come to a conclusion for himself as to which will suit him best: the snows and frost of North America, the heat of Africa, the dry atmosphere of Australia, or the temperature of New Zealand.

In emigrating, the new settler should pay especial attention to the general character, situation, and proprietorship of the soil of that country whither he purposes transporting himself

and his fortunes. The author would particularly call the attention of emigrants to this point. In some colonies, although the upset price of land may appear low, yet the expense of clearing is such as greatly to enhance the actual cost before the soil is in a fit state for cultivation. In Lower Canada, the average outlay for clearing waste land per acre is about three pounds sterling; in Western Canada, four pounds; in the other British North American possessions, about the same amount; in the Western United States, from two to six pounds per acre, according to circumstances; in the Cape Colony, two pounds; in New Zealand, timbered land, from four to twelve pounds per acre; fern land, one to two pounds; whilst in the Australian colonies vast tracts of cleared fertile land are to be met with completely ready for the plough, more especially in Australia Felix and South Australia. The cost of clearing timbered soil in the latter colonies, intended for cultivation, is considerable. The accessibility to a market for produce raised is the next thing to be considered, and should be carefully inquired into; whilst a yet more important matter is the title and tenure that emigrants will receive on purchasing waste lands. As a general rule, all purchases direct from the Crown of Great Britain in the colonies may be considered most secure; this is also the case as regards land purchased from the Government in the United States; but in transactions with land companies, private or public, the utmost caution and circumspection should be exercised. This has been strongly exemplified in the case of the New Zealand Company, which sold tens of thousands of acres to individuals who were induced to proceed thither, but were kept in a state

of suspense for years, without obtaining their land, until ruin descended on them, in consequence of differences between the Crown, the Company, and the Aborigines.

Emigration does, indeed, present a great and beneficial resource to hundreds of thousands, who, on account of limited means, or excessive competition, can but struggle on at home from year to year, without a chance of improving their condition or that of their children; although, as already stated, there are many who had better remain at home. But, as a general rule, an energetic, persevering, industrious, healthy man, with or without capital, can improve his condition and the prospects of his family by emigrating. But, above all, before any person should determine on such a step, it is advisable that he should weigh well the merits, advantages, and disadvantages of the various lands that offer scope for the enterprise and industry of those who seek to better their condition, by leaving the crowded parishes or marts of Britain, to seek a home in the pathless forest, or upon the wild prairie. One country or colony may possess advantages over others, for particular classes of individuals. The weaver or cotton spinner, whose labour is not required in the half-peopled districts of New South Wales, may find employment and good remuneration at the manufacturing emporiums that are continually springing up amongst the States of the American Union. Certain trades, also, will prosper in one place, whilst those who depend on them will starve in another, unless they turn their hands to, and follow other callings more in request in the land of their adoption. Capitalists, whose funds in one place would vastly increase, might, and often have, in

another, seen their means vanish from their grasp, like the morning dew before the summer sun. The farmer, the man of limited means at home, can, by a judicious choice of a new land, soon dispel the doubt and uncertainty that hang over his prospects, and weigh down his mind, absorbed by the interest and fate of the young family that surrounds him. The younger sons of aristocratic, or respectable families, who have little to expect from the adoption of either of the over-crowded professions at home, may find, in emigration, a field for the profitable employment of their talents and their limited capital, without submitting to the drudgery of trade. By perseverance, they will most likely succeed in founding, in new lands, a branch of the old stock which may, in future years, outshine the parent stem. Oh! for the joyous feeling of the mind, and its hopeful aspirations, when the enterprising emigrant shall pitch his tent on some well chosen and fertile valley, where Nature alone dwells, but which his mind's eye shall people with his numerous descendants, in peace, happiness, and plenty.

NEW ZEALAND.

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NEW ZEALAND.

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CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER I.

ORIGIN OF THE SETTLEMENT-CLIMATE-PRODUCE-INHABITANTS AND SOIL.

BEGINNING with New Zealand, that colony furthest removed from England, the author will proceed to describe the other British settlements, as their distance from Europe decreases.

New Zealand lies to the south-east of Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, whence it is distant about fifteen hundred miles. It consists of three islands, and extends from latitude 34° 25' S. and longitude 172° 35' to latitude 47° 20/ S. and longitude 167° 10'.

For upwards of thirty years, it has been the resort of traders and others, who went there from New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land; some for the purpose of trading with the natives, others in order to establish whaling stations; whilst not a few were debtors, taking refuge there from their creditors in the colonies, and escaped convicts. Of these the greater part settled in the northern parts of New Zealand, but many preferred the neighbourhood of the Bay of Islands and River Thames, where large numbers of whalers were in the habit of

calling to procure refreshments, and a few odd stores, which were supplied to them by the natives and white traders. The refreshments thus provided, generally consisted of pork, yams, and sweet potatoes. The natives breed vast numbers of hogs, which they partly feed on fish.

Calculated by its position to be of value to any of the three great maritime powers – England, the United States, and France – whose subjects extensively carried on the pursuit of whaling in the Pacific Ocean, New Zealand was made at different periods the subject of claims by the three powers, but was ultimately acknowledged as independent. Consuls were, from time to time, appointed by the three named powers, to watch over the interests of their subjects in the islands, and a Mr. Busby performed that office, on behalf of Great Britain, for some years.

The attention of Missionary Societies, particularly the Wesleyan, had been early attracted to this, as well as others of the South Sea Islands, and numbers of missionaries were, at different periods, introduced amongst the natives; with what success for the interests of religion, it is unnecessary for the author to say.

These gentlemen, many of whom were Americans, did not always confine themselves to the duties of their sacred office; they traded, bought and sold, first goods, then land, till they became purchasers, from the natives, of vast tracts of country.

At first, these purchases were made for little more than a nominal consideration; a few beads, a musket, some blankets, and a little powder and ball, were sufficient to purchase tracts which were measured, in the language of the missionaries, by miles. As the demand improved, so

ITS EARLY TRADE.

did the price required by the natives increase, although their own title only consisted of tenure by force of arms; so that frequently many native chiefs claimed the right of disposing of the same tract of land.

Trade extended as land was acquired, and white settlers came down from New South Wales; many of the merchants and proprietors of which extended the circle of their operations to New Zealand, and became purchasers of land from the natives.

The traffic in New Zealand flax also progressed, the natives bartering it for the commodities of the whites. This flax, which grows wild in a great measure, is first dressed roughly by the natives, before being disposed of. Its fibre is particularly fine, fully equal, if not superior, to the best Manilla. Of late years, the production of it has actually decreased, particularly since the dominion of the British Crown; the plant from which it is produced has not as yet become an object of culture with the European population, and the natives now pay little attention to it.

In consequence of the annual large increase of British subjects in New Zealand, the attention of the Home Government became more and more attracted to the settlement, until it was finally resolved to take possession of it by the Crown.

In order to give a colouring to this violation of the former recognition of its independence, Captain Hobson, a gentleman who had previously visited the islands, in command of the 'Rattlesnake' frigate, was sent out nominally as Consul, with extended powers, but in reality as Governor.

On his arrival in New Zealand, in the 'Druid' frigate, he lost no time in drawing together a number of natives, some of them chiefs, whom he easily conciliated, by the distribution of a few presents. Those natives were assembled at Waitanga, and, although they did not represent a tithe of the native population, yet a treaty, known by the name of the place where it was concluded, was signed by them, surrendering the sovereignty of the islands to Great Britain, in which treaty was also conveyed to the latter, a right of pre-emption over all lands disposed of by the natives. No sooner was the treaty of Waitanga concluded, than British authority was proclaimed, and Captain Hobson announced as Lieutenant-Governor, under the jurisdiction of Sir George Gipps, Governor of New South Wales, and the council of the same place.

The treaty was effected in the northern part of the north island, with a few chiefs of that neighbourhood. No representatives from the middle or south islands, the latter of which is commonly called Furneaux Island, were present; although it was a notorious fact, that scarce two tribes in New Zealand were at perfect peace with one another, yet the act of a few natives of a distant part of the north island was accepted as a sufficient authority for the British Crown to take possession of the three islands.

No sooner was dominion assumed, than agents were dispatched to various parts to obtain further signatures to the treaty, and numbers attached their marks to pieces of parchment, of the tenor of which they understood but little, it being frequently not even read to them. The

CLIMATE.

author has heard it asserted, that a piece of tobacco, a little powder or lead, easily induced the natives to put their sign manual to that which willed away the liberty of their country; but which they did not understand at the time. Witnesses were not wanting, many were easily procured to perform this part of the ceremony, one of the principal agents being the commander of a small trading vessel, well acquainted with the bays and coasts of New Zealand.

Previous to the departure of Captain Hobson from England, public attention had been much attracted to those islands, and a company was formed for the purpose of purchasing lands from the natives, and colonizing them. An expedition for that purpose left England in the beginning of 1839, under the management of Colonel Wakefield, and was quickly followed by a large number of emigrants, many of whom were persons possessing considerable means. Captain Hobson did not sail till much later in the year 1839, arriving at New Zealand, after visiting Sydney, in the January of 1840.

The climate of New Zealand very much resembles that of the south of England, in spring and summer, although the northern island is much warmer; no portion of it is visited with the severe frosts usual with us at home.

The three islands are particularly temperate, which is accounted for in a great measure by no portion of them being at a greater distance than sixty miles from

the sea. So pure is the atmosphere, that no danger exists from sleeping in the open air, at any period of the year.

New Zealand is visited by frequent rains, none of which are of any long continuance, as the strong winds that prevail, and the narrowness of the land, prevent any very large masses of vapour from condensing over the islands.

Numerous small rivers and brooks of pure water descend from the interior, which contribute much to the health of the inhabitants.

The produce of New Zealand has not been as yet fully developed. The agricultural portion of it consists of maize, wheat, oats, and yams, the sweet potatoe, the common potatoe, pumpkins, and the ordinary European vegetables; little or no fruit exists, but from the soil and climate, there is no doubt that all kinds of fruit and vegetables, of the tropical and temperate climates, will flourish here as soon as a sufficient time has elapsed to admit of their cultivation.

Of timber, New Zealand possesses many exceedingly fine specimens: that most known and appreciated is, the Kauri tree, which grows to an immense altitude, and produces some of the finests spars and masts for ships in the world. Although not what may be called a hard wood, it is somewhat of the pine species, but more durable and tougher. Timber of many other species covers most of the islands, amongst which, are some beautiful woods suitable for cabinet purposes, and others fit for ship building.

The native flax, which formerly was the staple article of the island trade, is much esteemed in the home market, and will, no doubt, when labour is more plentiful and

ITS PRODUCE.

the country more settled, be generally cultivated, on account of its soft silky texture.

The animal produce is extremely limited; before the settlement of the Europeans, it may have been said to be confined to pigs, with which the island abounds. They are supposed to be the produce of animals left there by Captain Cook, and other early discoverers.

Cows, sheep, and horses are now becoming general, being imported in considerable numbers from New South Wales and Port Phillip; yet their increase must for a length of time be limited, owing to the nature of the country.

The mineral wealth of New Zealand has only been very partially explored. Iron-stone exists in many parts, and copper mines have been discovered towards the northward, at a place called the Barrier Reefs; the produce, however, is, as yet, neither very large nor very rich.

Coal has very recently been discovered at Massacre Bay, close to the north-west extremity of Middle Island, in latitude 40° 35' S., and near the entrance of Cook's Strait.

The seas around New Zealand, as also its rivers, abound in fish of many kinds. A great portion of the food of the natives is procured from this source.

Whales, both sperm and black, visit the shores of the island at certain seasons, but not now in such numbers as formerly. Whaling stations have for years existed on various parts of the coasts, from which three or four boats are manned in pursuit of those monsters of the deep whenever they appear. These stations are owned either by Australian or Van Dieman's Land merchants, engaged in the whaling trade, who possess small vessels which carry the produce to Sydney, Hobart Town, or Laun-

ceston. Numbers of South-Sea ships of every maritime nation knock about the coasts at certain seasons in pursuit of the whale.

These vessels were, at one period, in the habit of visiting the New Zealand ports in large numbers for refreshments; but since the establishment of customs' dues and regulations, they have almost ceased to enter them, calling now at some of the Pacific Islands, where they are not hampered or molested by such obstacles.

On the face of the globe there does not exist, in a natural state, a finer specimen of the human race than the New Zealander.

Formed in nature's finest mould, joining great height to immense muscular power and agility – erect as an arrow – no finer model for the sculptor could be obtained. Their colour is brown, not much darker than the Spaniards; the females are fairer than the men, but equally well formed.

Hospitable, generous, brave, and warlike, the character of these islanders has suffered only in consequence of their being addicted to cannibalism. This, however, was only practised upon the bodies of enemies killed in battle; it was never their custom to kill their prisoners or children, as has been asserted, for this purpose. Indeed, cannibalism was more practised as a rite, a form of thanksgiving, at their feasts for a victory gained, than for the gratification it afforded.

Of late years, since a more extensive intercourse with whites, cannibalism has very much decreased, if indeed it is ever practised at all now.

At all times the native New Zealanders have shown

CHARACTER OF THE ABORIGINES.

great generosity towards the whites, many of whom have taken wives amongst the former, and found them make good, virtuous, and constant helpmates.

Even the collisions between the British Government and themselves, since the occupation of the islands as a Crown colony, has not caused them to alter their behaviour towards those whites, who took no part in the military proceedings against them.

At several points where the military forces were checked, and met with severe loss at first, the natives, although victors, did not perpetrate a single injury to the life or property of any of the settlers within their power, and not one outrage on female virtue took place. They avowed that they waged war with the Government, and not with private individuals, who would be safe when in their power. So open, so manly are their habits, that even when about to attack an enemy, they will not do it secretly, but first send to apprize them of their intention.

In war, at present, they are a formidable body amongst the dense woods and precipitous hills, being excellent marksmen, and are all well armed with rifles, muskets, and fowling-pieces, obtained in trade from the white settlers.

Most fortunately, after several years' sad misgovernment, the judicious conduct of the present Governor, Captain Grey, has effected a general peace with the natives; so that it is hoped we shall in future, by just conduct, possess them as friends, and not have to oppose them as enemies.

The differences between the natives and whites originated with claims to land made by the latter; and led,

in the first instance, to an ill-planned expedition, for the purpose of capturing two native chiefs, Raipuratra and Rangihoeta, who had pulled down and burnt a surveyor's hut, on some land to which they asserted the New Zealand Company had no right.

The expedition proceeded from one of the Company's settlements in Cook's Straits, to the neighbourhood where it was supposed the two chiefs were to be found. It was headed by a Mr. Thompson, a magistrate, Captain Wakefield, an agent of the Company, and several officials, surveyors, and other whites, who had been sworn in as special constables, and armed.

The chiefs were found up a small rivulet some eight miles from the coast, where a Government brig had conveyed the party and landed them. Some thirty followers and many females were with the chiefs, who were required by Captain Wakefield and Mr. Thompson to surrender as prisoners, which was declined; a conversation, but not of any violence, ensued, during which a shot – it has never been ascertained from which party – was fired; a melee followed, several were killed on both sides, but the Europeans, to the number of between forty and fifty, fled. They were pursued a small distance to the rivulet, which most of them had crossed by means of a canoe. Many were here killed, but those across the rivulet were pursued no further, but allowed to make their way to the coast, whence they were taken on board the 'Victoria' without molestation. Meanwhile, the officers and heads of the party, who had been deserted by their comrades on the far side of the brook, surrendered to the natives; but the wife of one of the chiefs, who was the daughter of another,

MASSACRE OF WAIRAU.

having been killed by a shot, the prisoners were put to death by the natives, as soon as the chiefs were informed of their loss.

This was called the Massacre of Wairau, from the name of the place where it happened; upwards of twenty whites, amongst whom were Captain Wakefield and Mr. Thompson fell in the battle, or were cut down afterwards. A stigma has been thrown on the native character in consequence of this action, but they certainly do not deserve all the odium heaped upon them. It should be remembered that the whites were the aggressors in the opinion of the natives, in seeking to arrest their chiefs; that the beloved wife of one, and daughter of another, had been killed by the fire of the whites; that those who were across the rivulet were suffered to escape unmolested, although every one might have been destroyed before reaching the coast; and, above all, it should be considered that the deed complained of was done immediately after the heat of battle, and under the influence of revenge for the loss of a dear object, so powerful in the savage breast.

On the whole, the race of New Zealanders are much to be admired, and it is indeed to be hoped that they may be preserved, and not exterminated as has been the case with the Aborigines, in too many of the Crown colonies.

The constant internal wars amongst the New Zealand tribes have always kept their number very limited; at present, the total native population on the three islands is supposed not to exceed one hundred and twenty thousand, dispersed over an area of land exceeding in extent the whole of Great Britain and Ireland. Fond of a free life, and averse to much manual labour, many of the Abori-

gines are yet to be found dispersed amongst the whalers in the South Seas. They make capital seamen for that purpose, being particularly expert at the use of the oar. Many are to be met with in the ports of the Australian colonies, and along the seaboard of the western States of South America.

Since the general settlement of the islands by the whites, the open generous character of the Aborigines has been, particularly in the way of trade, much deteriorated; and they are now as sharp and keen at a bargain, and as ready to take advantage of any one as many of the white traders, who are possessed in some instances of but a small portion of honesty.

Throughout the whole extent of the South Seas and Pacific, no Aboriginal race is possessed of such intellectual faculties as the New Zealanders.

When an imperceptible amalgamation of the race of whites with them was taking place, previously to British dominion in their islands, by means of intermarriages, this intellect was in general only used in promoting fair trade and mutual prosperity. But since the British Union Jack has waved over those shores, a change has indeed come over their spirit. Imbued by an incapable Protectorate with the belief that the interests of the white population were directly opposite to their own; and that the newly arrived colonists wished to obtain their lands for nothing, and procure every possible advantage over them; they have exhibited great ingenuity in resisting claims on land, advanced by parties who had in some way or other effected purchases of such land.

At one period, the natural high disposition and honour of

CHARACTER OF THE NATIVES.

the Aborigines would have led them to protect, if necessary, by force of arms, any one purchasing land from a particular tribe. Now, every possible obstacle is thrown in the way of the settler obtaining or retaining possession. Why is this change? How has it been caused?

Under the specious title of a Protectorate for the Aborigines, the chief and subordinates of this self-created body, lost no opportunity of fixing in the minds of the natives a superlative idea of the value of their land, and excited their opposition to the settlers, by reminding them of the small value they had originally obtained for it.

This was not all, the Government were represented to the shrewd and calculating natives, as their friends and the opponents of the settlers who had obtained land from the Aborigines before the official settlement of the islands. Native cupidity was excited; one step more and the Protectors satisfied the natives, that by asserting claims and setting forth rights, the Government would compel further remuneration to be accorded to them, for lands already disposed of. This was sufficient; honour was lost sight of by the native savage when cupidity was thus unwisely excited by some of the religious teachers of the white settlers. Thus, has the Aboriginal character suffered much in the way of fair dealing, from connection with those who should have been the very parties to inculcate it.

The soil of New Zealand is varied, but taken as a whole, it may be fairly said that but a very small portion of it is calculated for cultivation.

In the vicinity of the coast, the land is broken into steep hills and deep valleys, so that access into the interior is

very difficult. In the interior, where no settlements have as yet been attempted, high table lands exist at many hundred feet elevation above the sea; but with very few exceptions, these plains are covered with thick interminable forests, not such as those in Australia or America, but complete masses of vegetable matter, through which the human eye cannot penetrate.

Vast, noble trees, the trunks of which not unfrequently are eight or nine feet in diameter, rise above your head to an immense height, perhaps without a branch for eighty or ninety feet. Devoid of grass, the earth produces creeping plants of various denominations, which circling from tree to tree, form an impervious barrier, where native paths do not exist. So thick, so dense, so impenetrable are these forests, that it would be utterly impossible to pass a yard into them, without the use of the axe to hew your way.

There are here and there, amongst the table lands, small open spaces, but none of any great extent; and even such are covered with tall fern, which takes the place of herbage. The soil may be said almost to produce no grass in its natural state; cattle or sheep when introduced principally subsist on fern, and the leaves and branches of shrubs and trees.

The Aboriginal population seldom dwell in the interior, they are generally to be found on the sea coast, or in the neighbourhood of rivers which give an easy access to the sea, as they much depend on fishing for subsistence.

The spots of land cultivated by them are also in the same neighbourhood, in which may be said to exist the best soil. The banks of rivers or streams, and occasionally a

NATURE OF THE SOIL.

sloping knoll or the bed of a valley, are the places most suitable for cultivation.

The number of the population, (Aboriginal) having at all times to which our knowledge extends, been extremely limited in comparison with the extent of territory held by them, they have experienced no difficulty in choosing spots where they could, with great success, carry on their cultivation of yams, potatoes, &c.

These good lands have in general been retained by them, and not sold; and it may truly be said, that they are annually becoming less disposed to part with the best soil, such as is available for cultivation, by being clear of timber.

The hills towards the coast are so extremely steep, that if even they were stripped of the superabundant vegetation that covers them, in the shape of timber and creeping plants, yet they would be of no value to the agriculturist, as the heavy rains that often prevail, would soon wash away from their sides the fruit of the husbandman's toil.

An extensive knowledge of the country enables the writer to state, that at present not one fiftieth part of the land of New Zealand would repay cultivation, and that not one hundreth part is available for that purpose, without such an expenditure as would, in most instances, cost as much to clear it as the fee simple of land in England could be purchased for. The rains, which so frequently prevail, together with the extreme temperature of the climate, are most favourable to the production of every kind of grain; and now that fruits of various descriptions are being introduced by the European settlers, there is no

question but that they will fully answer every expectation, as vegetables have done. Native flax, which has been so well found to suit the soil, cannot at present or for some time be cultivated by the Europeans, on account of the scarcity of labour, and their distance from a market.

The vine has been tried as an experiment in the best soil, and has been found to answer so far as the trial went.

Some of the tropical productions, as sugar, cotton, &c, can never be grown at New Zealand, on account of the climate.

The soil does not produce grass, or any substitute, to such an extent, as to render it advisable to rear cattle and sheep as articles of export, either in their live state, or as wool, tallow, hides, &c. The dense forests also render the space over which they can roam very confined; so that, at least for ages to come, the colonists can never expect to realise wealth or competence from grazing and breeding live stock, the produce of which must, for a length of time, be confined to the mere supply of the wants of the inhabitants.

Throughout the soil of New Zealand, strong indications exist of a volcanic origin; the ironstone found there exhibits visible traces of having been, at some period, exposed to the action of fire. Coal has been, as already stated, recently found, and no doubt will ultimately prove of much value for smelting, and commercial purposes.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER II.

EARLY TRADE OF NEW ZEALAND – WHALING AND WHALERS – CAUSES OF THE FAILURE OF COLONIZATION ON AN EXTENSIVE SCALE – NUMBER OF WHITE POPULATION.

THE trade and intercourse of New Zealand with the civilized world may be said, previous to the year 1836, to have been carried on through a few schooners and small craft, belonging to Sydney and Van Dieman's Land; and a very large number of whalers of every nation, that resorted thither either for refreshment, or for the purpose of establishing on shore temporary erections for "trying" out oil from the blubber they had previously procured.

The small craft resorted to the shores of the islands, trading and collecting flax, pork, and potatoes, to carry to their own ports, and also to convey stores to whaling establishments round the coasts, belonging to New South Wales or Hobart Town merchants; bringing back in return the oil that had been procured. A number of store-keepers and a merchant or two, on a small scale, had established themselves in various ports, particularly in the neighbourhood of the Bay of Islands and the river Thames, for the purpose of trading with the natives. Many ships also put in for refreshment, after

a long stay at sea, on the south-west coast of America, or the shores of Japan, requiring many necessaries in pursuit of their avocation: cordage, canvas, instruments, slop-clothing, tobacco, and many other things, which they might have run out of, in consequence of remaining in the South Seas and Pacific Ocean, longer than they had originally projected.

The Bay of Islands, situated in the north island, offered a spacious and safe harbour, of easy access, to all vessels; whence they could as easily depart, after having furnished themselves with what they required.

Lying also in the track of whalers, as they followed in those seas the migratory movements of the monsters of the deep, vessels of every nation employed in the fisheries resorted to the Bay of Islands and other ports of New Zealand; not only on account of the excellence and superiority of the harbours over most others in those seas, but also in consequence of their convenience, the cheapness of provisions, the possibility of procuring such stores as they wanted, and the non-existence of harbour dues, customs regulations, or any other annoying control.

The refreshments furnished to ships were repaid generally by tobacco, spirits, powder, ball, muskets, blankets, and trinkets. The native was contented, happy at procuring these accessions to his original wealth; the whaler was satisfied with his cheap supplies from them – pork, potatoes, and other vegetables; and the white store-keeper was also contented with his barter, having furnished his goods to the ships, and taken in return oil, which he afterwards shipped to Sydney.

NOW DESERTED BY WHALERS.

Composed of English, French, and Americans, but chiefly the latter, the whalers are, taken as a body, a bold reckless set of men, impatient of control when once out of the precincts of their ship, and from under the jurisdiction of their commanders. Each naturally averse to the government of any other country than his own, and always looking forward when they set their foot on shore in the Pacific Islands, to the gratification of their passions, it is readily to be supposed, that a port where British authority was established, would be no favourite with them.

The masters of whalers, also, too frequently participate in the feelings of their men, and when the irksomeness of customs regulations and port formalities, together with dues and duties were taken into account, and joined with the previously stated causes, it is no wonder that the Bay of Islands, on the establishment of British authority, became deserted as a place of call for South-Seamen.

Port regulations, customs forms, duties &c, had been imposed, when Captain Hobson proclaimed British sovereignty, or, soon afterwards. Gradually the ports became deserted, till, at length, on often repeated remonstances, the Bay of Islands was again declared a free port, but yet not altogether without its official annoyances. The amendment, the recantation, came too late, the mischief had been done; and where formerly thirty or forty whalers, bearing the Stars and Stripes of the Western World, the Tri-colour of France, and the Union Jack of England, were to be seen, now a solitary one or two may be found, and that at distant intervals of time. Although the whaling trade is annually vastly increasing, yet the

formerly unnoticed islands, further north in the Pacific, obtain all the benefit of it, because they are free.

It is in the waters of those seas, that the grand nursery and source of employment for American seamen exist. The French also, particularly the merchants of Havre, have made, of late years, vast exertions to promote their South Sea trade in whaling; and, at the present time, although such a startling fact will scarce be credited, they possess considerably more ships employed in this trade than the English.

But the Yankees far, very far, surpass the other two nations together, in the extent of their whaling operations, more vessels being fitted out of New Bedford and New Haven in the States, than out of the two great ports of London and Havre united. The total number of ships employed in this trade by the United States, exceeds twelve hundred sail, which is more than six times that which England and the colonies employ in the same manner.

A peculiarity exists in this trade, exhibiting the different mode in which it is carried on. Whilst English vessels, particularly those from home, will not lower a boat in pursuit of a black whale, both French and Americans take black and sperm whales, as they happen to come across them.

The reason assigned for the English ships only taking sperm whales, is, that black ones would not pay a ship fitted out for a three or four years' voyage, at an expense of from twenty to thirty pounds per ton, on the registered tonnage of the ship, not including the value of the vessel herself. The proportionate value of sperm oil compared with the other, is generally as four or five to one.

CREWS OF WHALING SHIPS.

The colonial vessels employed in the South Seas are not so particular, many of them catch what they can; but they seldom remain at sea longer than twelve months from their own port.

The Australian colonies, that is, Sydney, Hobart Town, Launceston, Adelaide, and one or two minor ports in Van Dieman's Land, may altogether fit out fifty sail of ships for the whale trade; besides these, they send out to various parts of their own coasts, and those of New Zealand, land parties of ten to twenty men, or even thirty, with two to four boats, and the necessary apparatus. These establish themselves at convenient places, where whales are known to resort, generally open bays; and pursue their avocation, sometimes with great success, whilst the season that the fish remain on the coast lasts; the produce and men are then conveyed back to their port, by vessels which call for them, and the value of the oil divided amongst them and the fitter out of the expedition, according to shares previously agreed on. Many sperm whales visit the coasts of New Zealand; they are easily distinguishable from black fish by their spout as they rise to breathe.

The mixture of people to be found amongst the South-Seamen is extraordinary; not one of the islands of the Pacific and South Seas, but furnish many useful hands for the fisheries. New Hollanders, low as they are in the scale of humanity, are yet to be found amongst the crews of those ships; Chilians, Peruvians, Patagonians, every cross of the Spaniard, Portuguese, and South American Indians, as well as some Malays, and samples of every European race, Dane, Swede, Dutchman, Frenchman, Italian, all are here mixed up. Negroes who

have been emancipated or purchased their freedom, compose, in some instances, a considerable portion of the crew of Yankee whalers, and numerous convicts who have in various ways escaped from the colonies, swell the number of this varied and oddly assorted throng.

The state of some of the Pacific Islands, owing to the number of runaways of every nation that escape from whalers when they visit any island, is scarcely to be conceived. Not unfrequently, indeed, unruly individuals of a crew are landed with or without their own consent, as the case may be, on some one of the thousand scattered islands that dot those seas.

The tale of one is that of all. After desertion, connections are formed with native females, and for years, sometimes for life, they remain in a half-savage state with their paramours, adopted generally into the native tribes. Not unfrequently they get tired of this life, from various causes, and when a ship calls, that they think will suit them, they engage themselves on board, remain five or six months, to desert again at the end of that time at some other island.

Large sums in wages, earned on board, are often left behind without a thought; though sometimes the owners suffer by the deserter having overdrawn what was due to him in slops and tobacco.

The writer, from an intimate knowledge of the South Sea trade, does not conceive, that classing vessels of all nations together, one half the crews that leave the ports from which they have originally sailed, return in the same ships, if they ever return at all. Desertion amongst those islands, where, by the aid of a sunny clime, the means of subsistence is so easily procured,

THE WHALING TRADE.

and sensual appetites so readily gratified, owing to the disposition and simple ideas of a half savage race, is not always confined to the hands of a ship, it often extends to the officers.

Whalers are not like other ships; they carry a much larger number of hands, of which only such a proportion as is necessary to work the ship and do its other duties need be able seamen. The greater portion of a whaler's crew are merely required to pull in the boats and assist in cutting off the blubber, and "trying" out the oil. This is work that any human being can perform, if he be possessed of animal strength; the composition of whalers' crews is thus easily accounted for from this cause alone, leaving aside the difficulty of replacing good seamen when they abscond.

The whaling trade, aided by the small trade in native flax, was originally what gave prosperity to New Zealand, to a limited extent, previous to the Crown taking possession, and such is the reason that so much is here said of it. Moreover, if attention were drawn to the advantageous position of New Zealand as a place whence capitalists might fit out whalers, and endeavour to recover some portion of that valuable trade, which seems annually more and more to be passing into the hands of the Americans, those islands might become of some service to Great Britain, and not remain an incubus upon it as at present, at an annual expense of thirty-five thousand pounds, exclusive of the troops it is necessary to retain there.

Attracted by official representations, private enterprise, as well as the collective resources of the New Zealand

Company – at that period without a charter – were first put forth in 1839, for the regular colonization of the islands of New Zealand. As the New Zealand Company became a prominent body in the promotion of extensive colonization, it may be as well here to state, that although that body was formed in the early part of 1839, and dispatched an agent, Colonel Wakefield, and others to purchase lands from the natives, yet it was not till the close of 1840, after news had arrived of the treaty of Waitanga, and the pretended cession of the islands by the Aborigines to the Crown, that negociations were entered into with Lord John Russell, then at the head of the Colonial Department.

These negociations ended by the Company obtaining a charter, by which their capital was fixed at three hundred thousand pounds, and a free grant of land conferred on them, on the undertaking that emigrants should be conveyed out under conditions, and in a certain proportion to the land granted, which land was understood to have been previously obtained by purchase from the Aborigines by Colonel Wakefield.

Thus had the New Zealand Company, in compliance with the wish of the Colonial Office, surrendered, nominally, any right they had to lands merely purchased from the natives, accepting, as a better title, the grant of the Crown with its appended conditions.

This was done to prevent collision between a body, such as the Company, and the Colonial Office, on the question of pre-emption of the soil, secured to the Crown by the treaty of Waitanga.

From the first, the Colonial Office and Sir George Gipps, the Governor of New South Wales, under whose

THE COURT OF CLAIMS.

jurisdiction Captain Hobson was first placed, had resolved not to acknowledge the right of the natives, even previous to the treaty, to dispose of their lands to private individuals.

The years of labour, privation, danger, expatriation, and enterprise the settlers had undergone were nothing, they were not to be thought of: their acting as the pioneers of civilization was no recommendation, their purchases from the natives or the gifts of land obtained by them with Aboriginal women they had taken as wives, were not to be allowed, except in so far as they could prove they had paid a reasonable sum for the land.

What that reasonable sum might be, was left to a commission, called the Court of Claims, to decide; and after the expensive and prolonged legal formalities of this body, the original settler, who had dwelt for years in many instances on, and cultivated a portion of, this land, which he had come to look upon himself as much entitled to as the noblest family in England to their domains, was adjudged a small portion, not in accordance to the value of the land at the time he had acquired it, but what it was supposed to be worth at the period the Court of Claims investigated the matter.

The real cause, the true promoter of this system, was Sir George Gipps. Land had become most valuable in New South Wales; a real mania to acquire it existed there, fed by his policy. He had remitted vast sums to the Home Government to promote emigration; he had become the favourite of the Colonial Office; and seeing public attention turned to New Zealand, to ingratiate himself further with the Colonial Office, he hoped to reap the same

golden harvest from New Zealand, as he had done from that colony, more immediately under his jurisdiction, with little adequate consideration as to the future consequences.

But there were competitors in the race for the golden showers expected to be realized from the land of those islands. The Crown had come too late into the field, it was forestalled; private enterprize, resident merchants, traders, settlers, and Sydney capitalists, denominated "land sharks" by Sir George Gipps in "his Council," had as a matter of speculation, purchased, some for small considerations, others for greater value, large tracts of land, many miles in extent, from the Aborigines. These would be competitors with the Crown in the land market, so Sir George recommends and directs to be carried into effect, a resumption of such lands so disposed of, and the granting of a mere fragment under the Court of Claims, as previously described.

As well might the Government at home seek to interfere in private speculations, as to annul at one fell swoop the gifts and sales of a people, who had been for years acknowledged and treated as independent.

The pretence under which this was done, was, that the New Zealanders had been imposed upon, and cheated by "land sharks;" that in some instances miles in extent of land had been obtained for a few hundred pounds' worth of fire-arms, powder, blankets, spirits, &c. The bona fide settler who had bought his land to live upon, to bring up his family on, was confounded with the speculator and "land shark."

But what was the value of the land? Whether the

VALUE OF LAND.

"land sharks," as they were called, had bought it too cheap, or not, time has best told: the Government have now at their disposal millions of acres of it, and what is its value? Really, for the most part, nothing! And the best of it, the choice portions, are too generally, indeed, not worth the sum given for it by the original buyers to the natives. Of course, in this, the writer does not include town, or suburban allotments immediately surrounding the towns.

To the natives, even, of what value is it? Indeed, but little. One hundred and twenty thousand Aborigines inhabiting an extent of territory exceeding in size the entire of Great Britain and Ireland. Even these natives cultivated the soil but scantily: their wants were very limited, their industry not great, and the choice spots they cultivated, they seldom or never disposed of. Where, then, could be the value of the land to the Aborigines? How could they be cheated; of what use really was the soil to any one, without population; and what would not the importation of labour cost; and when procured at an immense outlay, where – how – in what manner, would it repay the expense?

These facts Sir George never thought of: he had, by a system of his own, raised land in Australia to such a price, that it has since nearly ruined nine-tenths of the population. Hundreds of thousands of pounds had been thereby obtained by land sales, which he sent to England to relieve it of its superabundant population: it pleased the Colonial Office, and that was sufficient.

Had then the land of New Zealand become intrinsically

worth more to the purchaser, than the tens of thousands of acres that had been granted twenty and thirty years before, in the best situations in New South Wales, to the McArthurs Lawsons, Berrys, and scores of others, the great landlords of New South Wales? No! nor a tithe as much; because the Government had provided not only the land to these gentlemen, but it also gave them labour without payment. The convicts of the colony were assigned to them by hundreds, as they arrived from England, the assignee being merely bound to subsist and clothe them after a very poor manner, whilst the New Zealand "land shark," if he wanted to cultivate his land, would have to import free labour at an immense expense, and pay for its use equally high.

One of the principal causes of the failure of colonization, in New Zealand, is clearly traceable to the undue interference of the Government with private enterprise; a system vigorously disclaimed as impolitic at home, yet practised so very largely in our distant colonies..

But to follow up the course of events in New Zealand. No sooner had Captain Hobson concluded the treaty of Waitanga, obtained pre-emption of the soil, and received directions from his superior, Sir George Gipps, to resume the right to the lands already disposed of, then he took the following step, as one way of carrying out those instructions.

The Bay of Islands being the principal place of trade, thither had Captain Hobson gone, on arrival in New Zealand. The principal settlement at that period within the district of the Bay was Korarorika; the

THE CLENDON JOB.

name of the town, founded and inhabited for years by those traders that supplied the whalers resorting to the Bay.

The site did not entirely meet with the approbation of the Lieutenant-Governor. A gentleman, named Clendon, resided at that period at Korarorika, and acted as American Consul, being a citizen of that Republic, which had at one time advanced claims to the New Zealand Islands.

Mr. Clendon, possessed on the shores of the Bay of Islands, a block of between three and four hundred acres of land, which he had purchased from the natives some time previous for an amount of goods, not exceeding in value at the outside fifty pounds. On this very spot Captain Hobson pitched as the site of his chief town, and concluded his purchase of it, from Mr. Clendon, for the enormous sum of fifteen thousand pounds sterling, one thousand of which was paid down in cash. Thus the Lieutenant-Governor's first act towards establishing a capital, was at complete variance with the system of Resumption and preemption long previously decided to be acted on. But this was not the worst part of this act; it fixed a seeming value on land, which raised the ideas of not only those present, but the residents in other colonies, and even at home. It placed the official stamp of authority on an enormously high rate of value, as regarded all lands, but particularly those in the Bay of Islands. It raised, it excited the cupidity of the natives: – the Government, through the Governor, had actually bought a block of three or four hundred acres of land, which had originally cost scarcely fifty pounds, for the enormous sum of fifteen thousand pounds. But what

kind of land was it? Stony, rocky, uneven ground, with no depth of water in front, and which it would have taken four times fifteen thousand pounds to have rendered fit to build a town upon.

Yet this land, at the time, was projected to be divided into lots by the executive, and disposed of to the public at a considerably increased rate in price.

As soon as Sir George Gipps was informed of the purchase, it was disallowed by him; but by a dispatch from home, the Colonial Office had rendered New Zealand independent of Sir George Gipps, and erected it into a separate colony under Captain Hobson.

The Governor was embarrassed, Mr. Clendon demanded payment of the balance due to him, fourteen thousand pounds, which he had not received in consequence of Sir George's disallowance of the purchase.

Money was scarce with Captain Hobson, although he had received some large advances, seventy thousand pounds, from the New South Wales treasury. So payment in money not being convenient, Mr. Clendon was remunerated by a grant of thirty acres for every one given up by him, in a locality to be chosen by himself; and a rent up to the date of the grant, from the day of Captain Hobson's purchase, was paid at the rate of fifteen hundred per annum, for past occupation.

In this manner nearly twelve thousand acres of the best land that could be chosen in one block were given away for a thirtieth part of that quantity, not of soil, but of stones, tumbled in confusion over one another.

The result was, that after a short trial, Mr. Clendon's block, that cost so much, had to be abandoned as totally

SIR GEORGE GIPPS.

unsuited for the erection of a capital, and another site was chosen. What induced Captain Hobson to perform such an act is inexplicable; the site had not even the recommendation of being near the elder settlement of Korarorika. Mr. Clendon, although not a British subject, was afterwards advanced to a seat in the Council of the Colony by the Governor, with whom the entire nomination of such rested.

The injury that this act entailed on hundreds of families, is inconceivable, and the suffering of the whole colony, from the same cause, was very great.

The simple fact of such a price being paid for land by the Government, led persons, at a distance, particularly at home, to consider that land which they never saw, but which was sold at one pound an acre in the same country, must be immoderately cheap in comparison.

The fact was blazoned abroad, and made the most of by all those interested in the prosperity of New Zealand. Its appendages were not brought to light; Sir George Gipps' disallowance of it was not placed side by side with it; – the mere fact of the price was all that was made use of.

Hundreds with their families, in the colonies and England, abandoned comfortable homes, and invested, in some cases, after paying their passages, their all in New Zealand land, which was then selling in London by the Company.

Sir George Gipps, in the opinion of many, is not entitled to much credit for his disallowance of the Clendon job. It was not that he thought the price so much out

of the way. Land in Australia had brought more, but it was the stamp of confirmation of rights acquired from the natives by simple purchase of them, that particularly offended and displeased, leading him to refuse his sanction to the acts of his then subordinate.

Thousands are now condemned to drag out a weary hopeless life on the shores of New Zealand, with their prospects, and those of their families effectually blighted; and with not even the means to quit the scene of their disasters, which they would willingly do, leaving their land which they paid so dearly for behind them. Tears, it may be truly said of blood, have been shed to atone for the folly of a rule placed over that unhappy land by the Crown; and life itself has but too often passed away in the struggle against blighted hopes, ruined prospects, misery and want. Suicide also has aided not a few to escape from those miseries drawn on their shoulders by the errors and follies of others.

Captain Hobson is gone! he did not long survive the Clendon affair in its final settlement, an attack of paralysis opened the tomb, and it closed upon him with its remorseless grasp.

Happy is it that he lived not to see the misery and ruin which he so much helped to cause, for indeed his were errors of judgment, not of the heart. Bad, selfish, jobbing, dishonest advisers he had around him, and without sufficient strength of mind, or capacity to fill the office to which he had been appointed, he became the tool, the victim of those advisers.

Who is to blame? Undoubtedly the system pursued

SETTLEMENT AT COOK'S STRAITS.

for too long a time, of appointing military and naval officers to the government of colonies, which their previous education and habits totally incapacitate them to fill with credit to themselves and satisfaction to those they rule. The general purchases of land, made by original settlers and Sydney capitalists, were in that part of New Zealand nearest to Sydney, and in which the Bay of Islands is situated. This was the most northerly part.

The scene chosen by the New Zealand Company was different. Colonel Wakefield pitched upon Cook's Straits, as the most central spot and best calculated for settlement.

These Straits are of no great width, but divide the northern island from the middle one. The mouths of the Straits lie nearly east and west, and in consequence of the prevailing winds being from these directions, they rush through the narrow channel, formed by the Straits, with vast velocity, being thrown to that spot as a focus, by the high lands of north and middle island, on either side, which prevents them passing over the land, and dispersing more equally. Constant gales of wind may be said to prevail, nearly the whole year round, on the shores of these Straits from this cause.

The principal settlements of the company are established on the northern side, and of course they partake largely of the disadvantages resulting from this cause. Colonel Wakefield had not been long arrived, when some ships with emigrants of the Company followed him, and still larger numbers poured in after the Charter was obtained from Lord John Russell. One

of its conditions being, that land should only be granted the Company in the proportion of four acres for every pound sterling expended by them in promoting and forwarding emigration. At the same time it was required, that if those lands had not been already purchased from the natives, such purchase should be effected, and this duty was principally to devolve upon the Government, who were to put the Company in possession, but not at the expense of the Crown.

Immediately after the Company's settlements had been established in the neighbourhood of Cook's Straits, jealousy arose between them and the more northern settlements. Disagreements followed with the officers of the Government, and misunderstandings with the Governor, who did not look with a favourable eye upon the Company, they being somewhat independent of him. The settlers to whom the Company had sold the land in London, and who had come out in ships chartered for the conveyance of such passengers, in the expectation of at once getting possession of the land, and commencing operations on it, were thrown idle about the newly formed towns, compelled to live upon those resources they had intended for the cultivation of the soil.

With some, these means were limited, for, in general, the extreme desire to obtain as large a portion as possible of land – originally thought so cheap – had been too strong an inducement, and had led them to invest their all in such purchases, hoping to realize great profit by a re-sale of a portion on arrival in the colony. What then was their disappointment when neither possession of land for cultivation could be obtained, nor remunerative work, by which

RECENT GOVERNORS.

their families could be supported. Some departed after a time to Valparaiso and Lima, others to Sydney and Van Dieman's Land or Port Phillip; whilst the greater number, tied down by having their all invested in land purchased from the Company at home, and in daily expectation of either getting possession of the same, or obtaining a return of their money, lived on from day to day, until all were reduced to poverty, if not actual want.

After Captain Hobson's death, Lieutenant Shortland, at that time Colonial Secretary, became acting Governor; to him succeeded Captain Fitzroy; and now Captain Grey, a sensible, energetic, pains-taking gentleman, sways the destinies of this colony.

From time to time the Company obtained from one or other of these Governors, by driblets, patches of land which were immediately divided amongst the first claimants who possessed land orders which they had paid for at home. Many of these orders yet remain unsatisfied; in some instances their holders will probably never even seek the land they have paid for.

The sites of the Company's towns – the three principal, as before mentioned, being Nelson, Wellington, and New Plymouth – having been early secured by Colonel Wakefield, and settled, the lands in them and the surrounding suburban allotments, were put up and sold by auction. This took place previously to the calamities of the colony, and whilst the mania caused by the high value of land through Captain Hobson's purchase still existed. Consequently, a high price was paid by those who were so fortunate as thus to obtain a home of their own, or land enough to raise vegetables and a little

grain upon. Such has been the depreciation, the transition from a land mania to a "land horror," that not one tenth the price paid at those sales could now be obtained.

In the year 1843, the author, then on a visit for a short time at Sydney, strolled down to the extreme point of the rocky promontory, on which that city is built.

It was noon – the sun was shining brightly, its rays glittering over the magnificent estuary of Port Jackson, and its hundred coves and bays. Taking a seat beneath Dawes' Battery, at some elevation above the water, on one of the many rocks scattered about the prospect around – with their bluff heads covered with verdure, stretching out into the main arm of the bay – the scattered white cottages, with green verandahs, peeping out of surrounding woods at the bottom of deep inlets, and in the distance the ranges of the Blue Mountains, for a time attracted and absorbed all attention. But when the scenery had afforded its gratification, and more notice was taken of the busy scene passing on the water, as numerous boats rowed to and fro, and vessels under easy canvass traversed the bay, his attention was drawn to two ships, which, dropping down with the tide, were making their way to the ocean. From the numerous cabbages, pumpkins, melons, and pressed bales of hay that hung around their sterns and encumbered their sides, it was evident they were bound on a distant voyage, in all probability for England. Fatherland, with its visions of early hope and happiness, rose vividly in the mind's-eye; when, after a time, a small wherry detached itself from the side of one of the ships where it had been towing, and pulled for the

RUINED EMIGRANT.

shore close beneath, where one individual landed, and the boat, with another person who managed it, proceeded up the harbour. Ascending a few steps, the man who had landed threw himself on a rock, and turned his gaze on the ship he had just left. A wish to know where these ships were bound to, induced the author to join the man who had just quitted the ship. Both vessels were about to sail for England; and, after some conversation of home and the colonies with the stranger, evidently a gentleman by birth and education, but much reduced in appearance, he communicated to the author the following sad narrative, which will serve to explain the situation of many other settlers in New Zealand.

More than three years before, the golden prospects of New Zealand, and the richness and value of its lands, had been blazoned abroad through England, and the attention of himself, amongst hundreds of others, had been drawn to the place. A marriage with a beautiful girl previously to that period, against the consent of his parents, had entailed upon him their anger and estrangement, and for pecuniary resources he was thrown completely upon a small freehold left by a deceased relative, which produced some £300 per annum.

Divided from the protectors and friends of his early youth, with a beautiful and affectionate wife, and an increasing family, he had long felt the irksomeness of a continued residence in England, without profession or employment, and attracted by the visions New Zealand held forth, he resolved to emigrate thither with his family, chiefly in order to promote their future welfare.

The freehold was disposed of; a considerable portion of

its produce passed into the hands of the New Zealand Company in London for the purchase of lands, and the remainder was required for the outfit and passage.

All arrived safe. At first, visions of the future were bright: all was excitement, land was worth anything, and every hope was held forth to him of early getting possession of the many acres he had purchased. A sale of town allotments in Nelson took place; he attended it and became the purchaser of one, on which carpenters were hired to erect a portable house brought from home, made of wood, and put together with screws. This being accomplished, the remainder of the allotment was fenced in and cultivated as a garden. Comfortably settled, he then sat down calmly awaiting the completion of surveys preparatory to taking possession of the land he had purchased of the Company.

Bread, meat, every kind of food, was dear, beef being two shillings per pound, and mutton nearly the same price, all having to be imported from Australia. Week after week, month after month passed away. Disputes and differences between the Government and Company had arisen and grown apace. No land could he obtain. Gradually his funds were lessened, till the means that were reserved to purchase oxen, cows, and horses, and to cultivate the land, were exhausted. Drays, harness, and the many other things that had been brought out, had then actually to be bartered for the means of support for his family; till at length money had to be borrowed on the very house they resided in, at forty per cent, interest, to provide food. In short, after possessing all the comforts of life, they had been reduced to live only on pork, potatoes, and Indian corn, purchased from the natives.

NOT ADVANTAGEOUS AS A COLONY.

Even this resource failed just as he had received a notice from the officials of the New Zealand Company, that some portion of the land bought in London could now, after a lapse of three years, be given up to him. It came too late, he had neither funds, nor energy to cultivate it; "hope deferred maketh the heart sick!" he was only enabled to borrow a small sum of money on it, a portion of which he employed in paying his passage to Sydney, leaving the rest to support his family. He was now endeavouring to obtain a situation as steward, or in some other capacity, on board a ship bound to England, hoping by a relation of his sufferings, to soften the hearts of his parents, and induce them to furnish him with the means of removing his family from the grave of so many bright visions. As yet he had been unsuccessful, but he did not despair of attaining his object; what afflicted him most, was the situation of his young family and tender wife, left with scarce the means of procuring the poorest food during his long absence, amongst hundreds equally as badly off in that distant land.

Circumstances at the period enabled the author to procure for the unfortunate emigrant such a place as he was in search of, and to afford him a little pecuniary assistance.

Intrinsically, New Zealand is not fitted at present for the establishment of an extensive colony, from the limited quantity of good, open, accessible land it possesses, as well as from its distance from any markets for its produce. But if it had possessed in superabundance good land, and been in the immediate vicinity of markets that would take all its produce, yet the disputes between the Company and the Government, together with the bad feeling

unfortunately existing between the Aborigines and the colonists, joined to the many other facts already set forth, were more than sufficient to reduce it to the predicament it is now in.

At the close of 1846, it was calculated that there were about twenty-six or twenty-seven thousand whites scattered over the surface of New Zealand. Of these, most, if not all, reside on the sea-coast, or in its neighbourhood. The greater numbers dwell in the towns Nelson, Wellington, New Plymouth, Auckland, Korarorika, Russell (Captain Hobson's bantling) and others of lesser note. None of these towns, however, contain a larger population than a couple of thousands, who dwell, it may be said, entirely in wooden houses, erected with slabs or sawn timber, the latter being, in many instances, neat and comfortable. A few houses, framed and imported from home, are also scattered about.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER III.

PROSPECTS OF NEW ZEALAND – ITS ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES FOR IMMIGRATION-MARKET PRICE OF FOOD, &c.

AT present, New Zealand, as a colony, as far as its connection with Government is concerned, is particularly favoured.

At the period of the grant of the charter to the Company, Lord John Russell was at the head of the Colonial Department; he is now Premier, and no doubt wishes to make every recompense to the colony, for the long misgovernment it suffered, through the delay in bringing the land claims of the Company to a settlement, whilst Lord Stanley and Mr. Gladstone were at the Colonial Board.

He also has, in the last Session, by a loan of upwards of two hundred thousand pounds, proved his desire to make some amends to the Company for the non-fulfilment, by Lord Stanley, of the conditions of its charter, and he hopes for the ultimate success of the New Zealand Company, as an experiment in the system of colonization.

The Company having been brought forth, legally constituted, under his eye when he ruled at the Colonial

Office, it is now no wonder that he should wish to see it spring forth strong, energetic, and prosperous.

At all times it is a hard task to raise into trade and credit a bankrupt, who is known to possess no funds; how much harder, therefore, and more difficult, to deal with an assemblage of such? To be successful, the effort must be gradual, and the lever that is to accomplish it must be placed on a solid foundation, time being requisite as the principal assistant.

Above all other colonies, New Zealand is protected and assisted by many parties in the House of Commons, connected with the Company or otherwise interested in its welfare. We have at no time, or in connection with no other colony, however valuable, had such interest displayed, and the time of the House so much occupied, as with New Zealand, particularly in 1846. The press, also, entertains, from some cause or other, a high opinion of these colonies, and they possess by far the most able colonial paper in the New Zealand Spectator, which is said to be under the influence, if not direction, of Mr. Buller.

From these causes it is not likely, therefore, at least as long as the present Government lasts, to suffer from inattention or the want of any support the executive can afford it. But these considerations are of little value, unless the natural advantages of the country are such as to present internal sources of success.

New Zealand does, and will for years, depend upon its flax, pork and timber, for its internal prosperity. Its towns might, and its agricultural population would be, very largely benefited by the establishment of an extensive system of whaling. Vessels fitted out in its ports

PRODUCE AND MARKETS.

and despatched to the fisheries could, on account of their vicinity, return at no distant lapse of time, and forward their oil, by regular trading vessels, home or to Sydney. This would require, however, the assistance of extensive British mercantile enterprize and capital.

There is some copper, but not of great richness, and plenty of iron in New Zealand; but, for years to come, these can be but of little use. From what sources then is the prosperity of New Zealand to come? It is removed at a great distance from any market, for even its agricultural produce. Sydney is the nearest place, of any extent, where a market might be found; yet, although a vessel can sail from Sydney to New Zealand in eight or ten days, it is entirely a different matter when the order of things is reversed, and you are sailing to Sydney instead of from it. Strong westerly winds prevail during the great part of the year in those latitudes, and against these a ship has to beat fifteen or sixteen hundred miles. The passage to Sydney often occupies as much as six or eight weeks, generally about a month.

Thus are the settlers, in respect of time, really at a great distance from the nearest large market. Moreover, when the produce reaches Sydney, it has to compete with the produce of the lands of New South Wales, in many instances cultivated by unpaid convict labour. The general price of every thing in the Sydney market is so low, that the cost of carriage there would be a very serious consideration.

Cattle or sheep cannot be produced to any extent for the reasons specified in another place: the country not

being suited to them: so that little can be expected from this source.

After a careful consideration of the resources of New Zealand, the writer is of opinion that, for years to come, it cannot be either an extensively settled or extremely prosperous country. Its situation, as commanding the trade of the South Seas, is its greatest recommendation; but that, for long years, must principally be confined to whaling. It cannot become, from its position, any great entrepot for goods, because the countries in those seas will not be sufficiently settled for ages to require such a market.

At present, it is merely calculated to support, on its most favoured lands, small numbers of colonists, who must be satisfied with the necessaries without the luxuries of life; and a limited number of shopkeepers and merchants, for the chances of trade with the natives and South-Seamen, if these can again be induced to resort to the harbours of these islands.

Timber, such as spars, with flax, and oil obtained on the coast, or in the way of trade from the South-Seamen for refreshments, would afford to the population the means of procuring those necessary articles of dress, &c, obtainable only from other countries. As population increases in New South Wales, it will become more difficult to compete in the markets of that colony; so that on any occasion, except such as a drought, to which that place is subject, little return could be expected from Sydney for any produce of an agricultural kind sent there.

To none that know these colonies well, does land in quantities seem of much value, because of the expense of clearing

ITS CLIMATE.

in the first instance; then, again, even if the land were cleared, of what use is it, unless labour can be procured at a moderate rate of remuneration, and a market be near for its produce? It is extremely improbable, therefore, that for some time to come, unless valuable mineral discoveries shall take place, land may be purchased to any extent, at the price of one pound an acre; consequently, little means can be expected from this source for the purpose of promoting emigration.

The advantages most emigrants, departing for New Zealand, expect to derive are very questionable. Trade is essentially the only pursuit by which a competence may be accumulated in the course of years. And colonial traffic requires experience and shrewdness, as traders there often fall across very sharp practitioners.

The climate is a great recommendation, on account of its temperature and salubrity. In this respect it bears some resemblance to England, reversing the seasons. Soil and climate united, where the former is good, are of such a description as to produce, in great perfection, all the grain, fruits and vegetables of Europe, and a few tropical ones with little labour.

The disadvantages of New Zealand for immigrants have been deeply felt by many already there: the inaccessible nature of the country in many parts; the almost insurmountable difficulty that exists in conveying produce or anything else across its deep valleys, streams, and rugged hills; and, moreover, the scarcity and dearness of beasts of burthen. There is neither a mining, a manufacturing, a trading, or even a seafaring population of any extent, to dispose of

produce to, in the towns. The greater portion of the population must depend on agriculture, and, producing only for themselves, they cannot make purchases from others. In the markets of the towns, the Aborigines are competitors with the whites in disposing of most of the articles produced, and they have greatly the advantage, having retained for themselves much of the best and most convenient land, for which they have had to pay nothing, and which does not require to be cleared. Their wants are few, and they pay no taxes. Thus has a settler in New Zealand to contend, first with carriage, which is no obstacle to the natives, as they most generally use their canoes; then with the interest of money invested in the land and the cost of its clearing; then with wages, which he has to pay white workmen, before he can come into the market with the Aboriginal native, who, having the land fur nothing, cultivates what and how much he wishes – acting in a manner as small farmers at home for the supply of the limited wants of the towns.

Custom-houses have been established in the various ports; so that on those articles a settler requires – tea, wine, sugar, spirits, clothes, &c, &c, duty has to be paid for the support of the Government of the country. This does not fall on the Aboriginal, unless he indulges in these things, which to him would be unnecessary luxuries.

The whites are seldom able to prevail on the Aborigines to engage with them as servants; they prefer freedom, and the cultivation of the soil on their own account. They rear large numbers of pigs, which are, and always have

MARKET PRICES.

been, the principal article of animal food made use of on these islands. Many of these animals are partially fed on fish, and their flesh frequently tastes strongly of it.

Above all, the labourer without capital can expect but little in New Zealand, because its productions are such as not to afford room to the master to pay him liberally. He may, indeed, procure a subsistence, because the necessaries of life are cheap, but he will find little more.

In 1844, hundreds of persons, many of whom had been reduced from the middle ranks of life, were to be seen walking about the towns of New Zealand, particularly the Company's settlements, actually offering their labour to any one who would support them, being unable to leave the colony for want of means.

Tradespeople are abundant, far beyond the wants of the place; a considerable portion of this class of immigrants having been originally induced to come out by the high rates of profits and wages said to prevail at that period.

In fine, as a place of settlement, New Zealand at present exhibits advantages almost for no one; and it would be well that time would be allowed to elapse, so that the fostering care of the Government might, by degrees, improve the condition of those already there, who have suffered so much, before further immigration should disturb, or the influx of labour interfere with, the employment of those who have, up to this period, found it so difficult to obtain it.

In concluding his account of this new colony, the author thinks it advisable to give the following list of market prices from Wellington, New Zealand, April 1, 1847-First flour £16 10s. to £17 per ton; bread per 2 lb. loaf

4d.; beef 8d. to 9d. per lb.; mutton 7d. to 8d. per lb., pork 4d. to 6d.; maize or Indian corn 5s. per bushel.

Bullocks, per head.. £7 10 0
Cows, per head.. £7 10 0 to £8 0 0
Heifers, per head.. £5 5 0 to £6 0 0
Prime ewes, per head. £0 16 0 to £ 1 2 0
Prime wethers, per head. £0 17 6 to £ 1 3 0
Horses, rough hacks, each. £24 0 0 to £30 0 0

These prices, it will be perceived, are at least from fifty to one hundred per cent more than at Sydney, Melbourne, or Hobart Town. Bread, while only 4d. the 41b. loaf at Launceston, in April 1847, was 8d. in New Zealand. Meat is also double the price of what it is in Sydney and Hobart Town, and more than three times the price it is in Melbourne, Australia Felix. Even New Zealand pork, the most plentiful article of animal food, was from 4d. to 6d. per lb., although it is anything but in good quality, owing to the fishy taste it universally has: the pigs chiefly subsisting on the finny tribe, by the rivers and sea-coast. There is, therefore, at present, not much prospect of New Zealand supplying Australia with agricultural produce as the advocates of the colony assert – the case seems rather to be vice versa.

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