THE STATE OF THINGS IN NEW ZEALAND.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2052, 21 September 1880, Page 2

THE STATE OF THINGS IN NEW ZEALAND.

A correspondent has handed to the “ Leeds Merrury ” a letter received from his brother, dated Christchurch, April 23rd. The writer, after referring to the voyage out to New Zealand, says : “It cost me £IOO to come out here. I had better given it to a charitable institution. At this time I have no work. I have already had three masters. With the last I worked thirty-two hours in a week, working a little, and then going homo. There is no permanency out here. Ninety-five per cent, of buildings are wood, with' brick chimneys. They are let by contract. Twelve months since a bricklayer could get 50s for a chimney, but now the same is done for 20s or 255, and when there is one to Ist there are twenty for it. I believe the colony has been good for money making, but it is depiessed, and poor people are starving. There have been meetings of the unemployed in every city of the colony. The Government have sent hundreds to a plain in the North Island road-making. They have to take a small tent with them, and sleep on the ground. Yesterday D and I walked to a place called Kaiapoi to a woollen mill. It is about fifteen miles from our house. On our way we called at a small house by the roadside, and asked for a drink. An old man brought us some milk, and he asked several questions. One was—How long we had been out. We told him. He said, ‘I have been here thirty years, and it is the worst time I have ever seen. You have come out at the wrong time.’ We t ow old hands that have been sixteen years at one place that have not a day’s work to do. I never saw one-tenth the number of unemployed at home at the worst of times. Perhaps you will ask, * Why not go in for farm work ? ’ Well, you might hire on credit (say twelve month?). There is no money here. There is paper, and that has gone as far as it will allow. Well, I must refer to our journey. We called at another farm, about two miles from the mill, and got some milk, and wo ate our bread. Wo could have had dinner with them, but we did not want to stop, do we proceeded on our journey. We got to the mill about 130. Wa saw a young man who came from Parnley. He said the company had reduced his wages from 60s to 335. We saw another, who was reduced from £2 to 30j. We then came to a young man who came from Pawson’a Mill, Parnley. Ha said ho was to have good wages, as he was a mule spinner. He said he had been deceived, his wages were only 80s per week, and that he could do better at home. We next came to the weavers. They had reduced them 2s per cut or end, so they could do as well at homo. The knotters had 15s per week. As you will see to talk is one thing and to act is another. The farmers complain they cannot live, labor ia so dear. There are large land companies, but they cannot sell their land on that account, and free emigration being closed, they must do something to induce people to come out. Messrs, Poster and Grant, the delegates from the Lincolnshire farmers, have been almost all over the Government land to see if it is worth coming to farm. They object to give their opinion of it until they reach home. Perhaps by the time you get this you will have seen their report. The farmers here are worse off than at Home. There is no corn market ; nothing but merchants and importers. They buy the grain at their own price ; the merchants advance money on crops, and in some cases gather them. When the farmer wants some seed to sow, by applying to the merchant he can have as much as required by returning two sacks at harvest for every one that is sown. Lind is much dearer to rent ; double the distance from town to land at Home. Land, good and cheap, cannot be got. If good, it is dear; if poor, cheap. If I wanted to buy land to build, say the same distance from town that you are, it would cost more here. There are farm blocks to sell very often. Some never have a bid. I know a man who owns 350 acres. It is no good to him. He has it to fence, it is a long distanee from road or rails, and, I am told, oats are so cheap they would not poy for reaping. A friend of mine told me of a farmer who had fifty acres of freehold laud. Ho has been trying to live on it, but he has been compelled to leave it after three years’ trial. The crops were left to rot, as they would not pay to gather. It must bo a good crop that will pay, labor is so dear. Threshing, also, ia very dear, and then to get it to a railway is a task. Now, I can toll you the kind of farmer that can live: one who has been out a long time, and got the land given, and near the town. He would rather give £5 per acre to rent near the town than have country land given. This has been the best year the colony has had for grain. If a farmer in England can grow, say nine or ten loads of wheat per acre, and 25cwt of straw, ho will be better off at Homo, as the straw is of no value here. The other day I was out in the country, about fourteen miles from Christchurch. I saw a large haystack—about 30 tons of it. The farmer would give it to anyone to fetch it away ; he will have it to burn. I would say, all who can live at Home, stay, by all means.”