A NEW CHUM ON NEW ZEALAND.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 218, 14 September 1880, Page 4

A NEW CHUM ON NEW ZEALAND.

The following letter appears in the " West Surrey Times " :— Sir,— lf you think the following extracts from a relative in New Zealand worthy of a place in your paper, I shall be pleased by your making use of them. Perhaps they wili be the more interesting to some of your Guildford readers, as coming from a young colonist who was educated at the Guildford Castle Sphool by Dr Fernandez, and nod well known by many of the inhabitants of the town. He says : — I shall endeavor to place things before you as they really are. "You must not expect to find thin "a land flowing with milk and honey." It ia essentially a working man's country, and anyone corning here must be prepared to put his shoulder to the wheel. Most of the conditions here are so different, that any previous experience is nearly, if not quite, useless. The real advantage here is that if you are industrious and a working man's country. Credit is easily obtainable. Farming is fairly profitable, but, bb in the old country, it requires a good deal of capita). New Zealand does not offer cheap land as an inducement, at least compared with several of tbe other colonies. Land of good quality, in a fairly accessible position is worth, in its rough state from £3 to £10 per acre. Good bush land however, can be gofc in Buy quantity at £1 per acre, and to any one who is prepared for tbe hard work and discomfort of a bush farm for a few years it off-Ts tbe best inducement?. Wa^fs are, as far as I can judee, just about double here what they are with you. Most of the actual necessities of of life — such as flour, meat, potatoes, &f%, &c,-— are cheaper, while of course all imported goods are much dearer The climate is New Zealand's strong point, and is admitted to be nearly, if not quite, tbe finest in tbe word. . We at present number some 430,000, and bave only been in possession of the country a little over 30 years ; and I think we have every reason to be proud of our material progress, our hundreds of miles of railways, and thousands of miles of roads ; our docks, wharves, hospitals, and other public building, and the millions of acres that we have brought under cultivation; also of the amount of our imports and exports, our possessions in stock of all descriptions, our complete and successful system of education, and the enlightened policy of our government. I am very proud of New Zealand and her doings, and have great faith in her future. Nothing would tempt me to go back to England to live, I am bo satisfied with my prospects here, and the advantage that a new country offers over an old one. You need not be •afraid of not being able to make a HviDg berp. All can do that who are prepared to earn it. I employ a good bit of labour one way and another, but only for rough work, such bb bacon curing, bullock-driving, &c. We do not house our cattle in the winter, and so it does not cost much to raise them. My working bullocks I never feed, even in the middle of winter — just turn them out when their work is done. Farther south in New Zealand they have to make, Borne preparations for the winter in tbe shape of a little bay or a few turnips. The price . of, wool here is ruled by your prices at home, and it is well competed for, as our merchants

prefer to tend wool home, to paying costs. of drafts for cbbd, and are quite, content with a very small margin of profit. A good many of the wool growers send (heir clip direct home, getting advances on it from the bank ; but for flocks under 100 it pays best to sell here. The price realised fori washed wool from this district has been for the past five years from lid to Is; 31 per Ib. JFat cattle sell on an| average from 20s to 30s per lOOlbs, but! occasionally, owing to a severe winter and other causes, it rises as high as 45s or 60a. Mine is a strange kind of life, a mostj decided mixture— a little of all sorts,, book-keeping or serving an hour, kill iog.pigs, salting, and bullock driving the next. My trade is principally native — in fact I am in the part of New Zealand known as " The King country;" quite a pioneer, there not being another white man to the scutb of me for eighty miles, it (the land) being held by the Hau-Hau or King natives, who ore my beet customers. Things here are, just at present, not very brisk, owing to a comparative stoppage of public works, but will, I believe, soon revive, as we have just reaped a magnificent harvest, wheat, in Jota of icatances, turning out over 50 bushels \ er acre, without manure. New Zealand, aa your perhaps ka:w, has for some time produced f'.ie largest average of wheat per acre of the whole world and this year it is the best harveet that, we have ever had.— Yours, &c, , J. W. Ellis.