FARMERS' HOMES IN NEW ZEALAND.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume xv, Issue 229, 27 September 1880, Page 4

FARMERS' HOMES IN NEW ZEALAND.

The Lincolnshire Delegates have drawn a pleasing picture of the substantial comforts and enjoyment which ban he attained by farmers in this colony. These delegates speak as ; visitors who see thiiigs with freshness, comparing the condition of our settlers wjth the Btate of 'things' in the Home,, country. They Bay: — "An, , intending settler will naturally want to know the social etftte of -the country to which he 'is ffoing. It is in this respect that New Zealand Beams to have the greatest advantage over most new countries, i If a man's sole desire is to get good land, . Brid plenty of it, at a small- rate, it would be idle to argue that New Zealand is the best piece. The whole country, compared with the broad and fertij^ prairies of Canada, would be b drr,p in the ocp«n • »nd though the people of New Zealand cannot understand how b man can be fount! who will voluntarily endure two Canadian winders, the Canadians themselves, as a matter of fact, look forward with more pleßsure than dread to their long season' of intense, but clear, dry, bracing; frost. But tbo great boast of New Zealand ie, tbafc it is a place where an Englishman may mnke an English bomej and produce everything he requires to make' his life comfortable. And, certainly, if a man will Irok through the country, especially the most settled parts of it, he will find that the boast is not an idle one. There are meny English homes ecßttered up and down the- country, as comfortable as a man need wish to have. Of course the homes, like everything else, vary with the position end the money, and taste of ihe owners ; the further back a man goes, the more he will have to rough it at first, but unlesß he gets very far away amon? the mountains, civilisation will not be long in creeping up to him In another respect, too, the country is not so. deficient as many, who have apt had the opportunity of seeing, might imagine. Sohools of every sort abound ; there are large' reserves of land in most plaeee for tbeir~siipport, and education of every kind can be had, almost close at hand, fropa the village scbqol L u,p to the university, and from plain reading, writing, and T arithmetic to the 'plogies. A farmer in any agricultural part of the country would most, probably not be many miles from a church of some Bortj it might not be his own particular fancy, but peopleiearn there not to be over fastidious /in their choice of doctrine. If he be away up the, country on a sheep run* he still might, perhaps be near a church, or. if not, a parson would .probably pay a visit to hip neighborhood about once a month. The doctor;; too, would .probably; not, be far off; his feW would" most likely be . pretty high, but in that fine climate a man of ordinary health, living almosjb out of doors, ought not to have to pay : many. Owing to the- long Barrow shape of the Island; there;, is scarcely any place in which a journey tor some one of the larger towns is a very serious matter, if there be any peedto.uiider-' take if. A Yankee coach ia not the most comfortable of vehicles, and New Zealand trains do cot travel like 'the, 'Flying Scotchman ;' but if necessity; has driven a man out of one England, he must not expert to find another; moulded (o his hands, lie must try by; industry and perseverance to reproduce! or improve upon it. „ . ' ; XJFE AND PROPERTY. . "Above all, New Zealand is a coun-:

try of law and order ; "life knd~propjßrty are safe there* and, Btrabge to sayl, in all oar wanderings through if, we found scarcely , a house even in the loneliest spots where the doors or window^were fastened at night. This, no doubt, is partly owing to the fact that! all wages, even small sums of 10a or 15s, are paid by t cheque, 1 and no large cum of money is, in consequence, ever kept in a. bouse, but we have eeen a dining room with valuable plate ,on j the sideboard, where the door, opening on to Itbe verandaK,was tot even shut at night. This speaks volumes for the comfort of, living in the country, and it does seem strange that men can be found in numbers to abjure their Queen and country ' for ever,' (we refer to the oath of allegiance to the United States which every settler there must take, before he can exercise any civic rights) when there are countries under British rule of boundless extent and of every variety of climate and soil, where they will have the same flig to proteot them and be able to live under the same principles of freedom, law, and order, which have always been, and we hope will continue to be, dear to every Englishman.'*