Original Correspondence.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 200, 29 April 1848, Page 2

Original Correspondence.

To the Editor of the New Zealander. Sir,— The tone which your contemponry the Crosr has thought it proper to adopt, is sufficiently clea and distinct, and therefore needs no explanation ; but I thmk it due to the geatlemen who conduct that paper, to set down a few of the thoughts which occurred to me on rising from the perusal of last Saturday's leading article. The beginning of this article offends men of sense and good taste by its attempt to be witty, whereas the writer is not a %vit ; and all that is advanced upon this score passes off into frivolity and trifling. This style is the more objectionable when used, as in this case, against a person of dignity, and a ruler of the people. After reading the paper quoted from the Blue Book, of date June 18, 1846, relating to several officers of the Local GoVernment, and comparing that document with the Governor's subsequent conduct towards those generally respectable parties, I find it impossible to arrive at the same conclusion as that to which the Cross has come ; but on the contiary, it appeals, to me I that the Governor and his officers stand fair before the public in this matter ; and lam sorry to see the animus which the Cross has shewn in his strictures upon this comparatively unimportant point. Having carefully read Capt. Grey's narrative of his travels in N. W. Australia, it did not occur to me that the spirit of those volumes was " querrulous and carping." Such a thought never crossed my mind, and I think I came to the subject with unbiassed views, nor am I pledged to every thing contained therein ; but the Ministers of State and the reading public have long since given in their verdict on this production ; and I need riot say that it does not accord with the views of Cross writer. When he says that the character of Governor Grey' despatches compel him to form the most unfavourable estimate of the qualities of his mind, the unbiassed reader naturally asks, Why ? "What has he done or said to justify this heavy censure ? If this conclusion can be sustained, let it he so done without delay; hut meantime it may be well to remember, that if the Cross editor would load the public mind, he must not assert a great deal, and then go on and prove but little j the very converse is his course ; he must pronounce spa>ingly, and thow with amplitude, otherwise it may be concluded against the qualities of his mind. Upon the grave question of the Government taking away the land from the natives, all doubt is at an end The Governor wrote so cleaily and so strongly as at once to set this point beyond the least danger irom any quarter. And though his Excellency's conduct has been heavily censured here, and especially by the Cross how was it viewed at home ? By all parties Governor Grey is lauded. The press and the senate, the minis »

ters and the ex-ministers, political parties of every shade, Whig, Radical, and Tory, award to him then full expression of approbation. It may be allowed tint the debate shows great want of information on our Colonial affairs, andseveial of the speakers fell into sad errors as to matters oi fact upon which they might have had correct information ; but upon the thing which occupied their serious deliberation— the right way to govern New Zealand under piesent circumstances—their views were undivided. They deem the Governor worthy ot full confidence; and be it remembeied, they did not take a leap in the dark — the case was before them. I am, ho.vever, no apologist for the Governor-in-Chief, Irom whom I differ in judgment on some i npor ant mattets, especially with regard to his wringing from the poor scttleis every fai thing that can be got out of them for colonial lands, and some other points which appear to me of less or more consequence. Neither am I averse to the hce expression of public opinion upon all public questions ; but I do not tli. uk that the sour and abusive course sometimes ido| ted by the Southern Cross is the best way to alv.mcu the inieiests of New Zealand. Many highly honourable and enlightened minds are of this opinion, dii'l deeply regret the evil which they cannot but foresee as the natural result. What effect is this course likely to have upon the low and vicious portion of the colony i of whom it may be hoped that the number be but few— but whether few or many, their appetite should not be pandered to by men who value their own reputation. What efl'ect can such mal-contents have upon emigration ? Who will come heie that believes only a tytJie of what they read in this paper ? Depend upon it, Sir, an angry and abusive newspaper in a young colony is veiy liable to become, sooner or later, a colonial nuisance. Apul 21st, IS4B. A VOICE.

Since Emigration became what we may almost term a study, we believe there has been no more devoted advocate of its propaganda, than Mis. Caroline Chisholm. In furtherance of its ends she has headed its followers through the wild bush of Australia, winning bread for them from one settler, means of transport on their inland course, from another, and she has again and again, conducted them, stage by stage, until she has finally secured to each of her numerous detachments, a home. Neither her person nor her purse, have been spared in this her praiseworthy vocation, and since her return to England, her pen has been untiringly wielded in this great Colonial cause. Latterly the columns of Douglas Jerrold's Newspaper have aiForded her a channel wherein to make known her experience ; and to communicate to intending emigrants the prospects likely to attend them in a far distant land. It is true that her writings are addressed principally, if not wholly, to Australia, but as we deem them no less applicable to New Zealand, we intend, as oppoitunity permits, to publish a specimen of the fair writer's industrious zeal. We commence with —

A HOME IN THE BUSH. ADVICE TO EMIGRANTS. The majority of small capitalists who have made application to me regarding a passage to New South Wales, have been the sons of English yeomen. From one county thirteen have lately called upon me, or their parents and guardians on iheir behalf. A more desirable class of men could not be selected forari i»g colony, whether their fitnesi is consideied in a moia), religious, or political view. The success of such men is a subject of importance to the colony— they have been reared to country life — brought up under the eye if parents, and their rougher natures soften-d down ly the gentle influence of sistcis— they h ye been reared on the principle of paying twenty shillings to the pound, and are ignorant of those petty and dishonest tricks of buying what they know they cannot reasonably expect to be able to pay for. Acknowledging that I 'ed extremely anxious that such men should emigrate to the colonies, it behoves me moie ri.curaspectly to consider the best means of securing their success. A respec! able yeoman called upon me the other day with his son— he had come to town, as he said, to see about a ship, and the uidin point on wh eh he wanted a hint, was, how he could invest £300, he proposed to give his son, so that he might turn it to immediate advantage by some judicious speculation. He had decided on stai ting his son to the colony, " For," he remarked — " I see there is not a fair start for a youngster now— we are too close wedged, that's suie enough. I have read, I may say, all the books I could hear of about the colony — have no doubt that our John will do well, what was to hinder him? lie had been brought up to the farm-work all his d)}», was honest as the day, sober as a judge — for my p^rt, I do not expect anyone can tell me more than I know about the colony, for I have read every book that 1 could lsy mj hands upon for these three year , why I have spent £5 on books regarding New South Wales, to s»y nothing of what I have borrowed — still, I should like to know, if it was quite true that oysters were carried about in buckets, and sold ready opened at Gd. the quart measure — if peaches cuuld be had at 2s. the bushel — if a quarter of beef could be had at Id. per lb., and whether legs of mutton were sold at 6d. each ?" Having for my own family purchased the ar« ticirs named at even a lower ptice, I could have no hesitation in confirming this fact ; indeed I have sent a horse atid cart to a boiling-down establishment, and had the same filled with sheep's heads for one shilling; thoie I have frequently purchased on the very day on which the sheep were slaughtered, the liver, lights, and heart, attached to each : I have had three loads of such in the day, for no other purpose than to use them as manure for iruit trees. I have bought good rounds of beef at Id. thelb., potatoes at £3 10s the ton, and the best and the same quantity of wheaten flour for £8— all the necessaues of life are there cheap and abundant. But, to return to my friends :— ' Have you aot beautiful grapes at Id. the lb. ?" I was asked by the worthy yeoman. Now, in advising laborers to emigrate, I have thought it right to bring forward facts as an encouragement— but in thii and in similar cases, I look out for facts which may convey caution j and, instead of talking of abundance of fruit, cheap grapes, &c., I think it necessary to dwell on the toil of clearing land — the trenching, the fencing, the digging, that is necessary before a grape can grow. The style of book-making which now prevails regardng the colonies, is apt to fill the imagination with extiavagant ideas — a man reads, sleeps, and dreams of plenty, without considering, as he ought, that but for these pretty ard glowing descriptions of scenery, bookmaking would not pay. To some classes of readers, indeed, this style may be suitable — in admiring the more flowery parts of the work, they do not pass over unheeded the rougher paths of life depicted therein. The i book, then, that gives a man the clearest idea of the

difficulties which & settler will have to contend with, and the reward which hi» industry will meet with if he perseveres, is the best book for a man to read who wishes to emigrate. The good yeoman in question told me he could not account for his having been able to get so much money together—" It was always a struggle ; in fact, we were always doing without something we ■wanted— my wife is a teirible scraper for the boys, i.i-d, thank God, if we have worked early and late for f >rty yean, my children will have a better start than I had !'' To me there is something of a sanctified character in these frugil iavmgb — such money ou«ht to wear well, and it ahull be no fault of mine, if such sums do not yield a tempting leturn from the colonies One of the greatest difficulties in dealing with cases of this sort, is to impress upon the minds ot sucli men, the effect of separation from friends. Close shut up in a ship for four months, and then to land in a country where there ii no friend— no relation to cry " welcome I" is a new phase in a young man's life. The effect is a painful one— youns; minds under such circumstances are apt to yield to despondency, or seek in a gay crowd for that elasticity of spirit which made them happy at home. Having watched the human mind u nder such trials, when a crushing, damping feeling it apt to come over one, the greatest blessing to them then, is the occasion for some strong motive, or urgent necessity for exertion. A young man with «£ J 3OO in his pocket might not feel this necessity, nor would it be long before he would find fnends who knew he had money ; if he yielded to despondency months would waste, money I would waste, ere he would he able to bring hit mind to the necessary exeituni ; should he ietk excitement, imbibe a taite for the theatre, his money would soon be gone. But supposing he mighc avoid all these evils, and be us wise, and as prudent and energetic as could fee wished, there is still a serious difficulty in ths way ; he U a stranger in the colony— the low prices at which everything sells th^re, would make him consider rheap what might be really dear— £3oo, with colonial experience, is the foundation for a lure fortune for nny prudent man. Now, this is an article I never like to see siuail cnpitaluis buy — it rarely coits less than 30 per cent, to those who do. My plan gives them this valuahle article for nothing. It should be carefully considerl^, that a young man reared on his father's farm, and accustamed to be led and directed by an experienced farmer, selJom thinks for himself ; hi» mind—his judgment may be good, but it has never been exercised. Hitherto he has fully depended upon the guidance and discretion of a pai ent— consequently when first released from such a guardianship, however sound his judgment may be, he is a long time before he gains a confidence in his own opinion. This should never be iobt sight of; for such young meaifthey meet with a designing friend, a -e apt, from hab tto yield, and to be induced to make foolish purchases, indeed rarely gaining wisdom until the cost is frightfully dtar. My advice, therefore, to the paients has been in buch case, to keep the money for a ttuie, only giving their sons a respectable outfit ; and when they have made £50 by 'heir own judgment and industry, then to entiust them with their capital. Young men get fitlgetty under this advice, and say they th nk America the best— ihe father acknowledging that I have made things look very different, will perhaps say " I'll think about it"— calls again: I now find him as I like to find one who thinks about emigrating. Orapec, peaches, making wine, &c, have been driven from his imagination, and he comes to remark — "afcer ail, sometime* I used to think it could not be so eaiy to get on at some books made it ; we talked it over and our John seems bent on going, and now lhat the first disappoin ra.'Ht is over about the money, he seemi inol.ned to be advised by what you said." The advice given 1 shall defer until my oext number. C. CHISHOLM.