EMIGRATION TO NEW ZEALAND.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 125, 24 October 1874, Page 3

EMIGRATION TO NEW ZEALAND.

A correspondent of the Times writes: — During the last fifteen years the prosperity of New Zealand has of course varied, and ifc has gone through one period of very groat depression lasting from 1807 to 870, during which all trade and industry was in a very stagnant condition, and during part of which time I have known it comparatively difficult for working men to get continuous employment, wages for ordinary hands in the country not being more than 15s to 20s per week, and found in board and lodging With that exception there has been no time in my opinion during which a good laboring man, carpenter or blacksmith, could not have been honestly recommended to go out with a certainty of obtaining good wages and a fair prospect of bettering his condition. During the last three years the colony has been in a most flourishing condition, mainly owing to the high price of its principal export, wool, and no doubt also to the large Government expenditure on public works, such as railways, &c—so that, notwithstanding the large shipments of emigrants which have arrived in the colony during the last two years, labor has been exceedingly scarce and wages high. During the last summer and up to the lime of my leaving in our winter, wages for ordinary hands in the country were £1 to 25s per week and found; shepherds, £52 to £TO per annum, with board and lodging; carpenters, 10s to 12s per day, rinding themselves; and other wages in proportion. Old colonial bands, such as splitters, sawyers, &c, can always earn more; but I think with the above wages, which I can vouch for, auy man who can work has a fair chance of making his way up the social ladder if he would only resist the temptation of drink, which is the bane of the working man in New Zealand. He must, however, bear in mind that, although he will get good wages and plenty to eat, including as much meat as he likes to eat, he will have rough work and rough accommodation : sometimes having to drink out of pannikins, and eat off tin plates instead of crockery, and to live in a roughly-built slab hut. To give advice to those of a higher class as to emigration is much more difficult; as a rule, I should strongly advise those who have lormed their habits of life and have anything to lose, or have any decent prospects at home, to be at least most, cautious in doing so. A man with small capital and a large family, who has never been accustomed to work, and goes out to a colony thinking he is going to make a fortune farming, is usually most wofully mistaken. He is obliged to invest his money at once, and, in doing so, he has no experience to guide him in the choice of locality, soil, and most profitable method of procedure, and he will generally find that he loses instead of gains money. If after two or three years he has not lost all his money, he will perhaps, have gained sufficient experience to remake it, and then will, perhaps, do well in the end. lam sorry to say that in New Zealand I have known many who have started with some capital lose it. On the other hand, some of our richest men are those who have come out to the colony with nothing , but, in the latter case, they have been good, steady, practical men, and men of that soit are sure to make their way,