FARMERS' HOMES

Patea Mail, 14 September 1880, Page 3

FARMERS' HOMES

IN NEW ZEALAND. The' Lincolnshire Delegates have drawn a pleasing picture of the substantial comforts and enjoyments which can be attained by fanners in this colony. These delegates speak as visitors who see things with freshness, comparing the condition of our settlers with the state of things in the Homo country. They say :—“ An intending settlor will naturally want to know the social state of the country to which ho is going. It is in this respect that New Zealand seems to have the greatest advantage over most new countries. If a man’s sole desire is to get good land, and plenty of it, at a small rate, it would be idle to argue that Now Zealand is the best place. The whole country compared with the broad and fertile prairies of Canada would be a drop in the ocean ; and though the people of New Zealand cannot understand how a man can be found who will voluntarily endure two Canadian winters, the Canadians themselves, as a matter of fact, look forward with more pleasure than dread to their long season of intense, but clear, dry, bracing frost. But the great boast of New Zealand is, that it is a place where an Englishman may make an English home, and produce everything he requires to make his life comfortable. And, certainly, if a man will look through the country, especially the most settled parts of it, ho will find that the boast is not an idle one. There are many English homes scattered 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 and the money and taste of the owners ; the further back a man goes, the more he will have to rough it at first, but, unless he gets very fur away among the mountains, civilisation will not be long in creeping up to him. In another respect, too, the country is not, deficient as many, who have not had the opportunity of seeing, might imagine. Schools of every sort abound ; there are large reserves of land in most places for their support, and education of every kind can be had almost close at hand, from the village school up to the university, and from plain reading, writing, and arithmetic to the ’ologies. A farmer in any agricultural part of the country would most probably not bo many miles from a church of some sort; it might not be his own particular fancy, but people learn there not to be over fastidious in their choice of doctrine. If he be away up the country in a sheep run, he still might, perhaps, be near a church, or if not, a parson would probably pay a visit to bis ncighourhood about once a month. The doctor, too, would probably not be far off ; his fees would most likely be pretty high, but in that line climate a man of ordinary health, living almost out of doors, ought not to have to pay many. Owing to the long narrow shape of the islands there is scarcely any place in which a journey to some one of the larger towns is a very serious matter, if there be any need to undertake it. A Yankee coach is not the most comfortable of vehicles, and New Zealand trains do not travel like the ‘ Flying Scotchman but if necessity has driven a man out of one England, he must not expect to find another moulded to his hands. lie must try by industry and perseverance to reproduce or improve upon it. LIFE AM) I’KOI’KKTV. “ Above all; New Zealand is a country of law and order ; life and property are safe there, and, strange to say, in all our wanderings through it, we found scarcely a bouse; even in the loneliest spots, where tho doors or windows were fastened at night. This, no doubt, is partly owing to the fact that all wages, even small sums of 10s or 15s, arc paid by cheque, and no largo sum of money is, in consequence, ever kept in a house, but we have seen a dining room with valuable plate on the sideboard, where the door, opening on to the verandah, was not 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) Avhcn there are countries under British rule of boundless extent and of every variety of climate and soil, where they will have the same flag to protect them, and be able to live under the same piinciples of freedom,law and order, which have always been, and we hope will continue to be, dear to every Englishman.” COMPLIMENTARY. In conclusion, they return thanks for the treatment everywhere accorded them,

j expressing their regret that the}' can only do so general!}*. “The Government acted with great generosity in providing our passage to and from New Zealand, and in giving us passes over the railways and steamboats while we were there, and the

people themselves did not seem to know when they had done us enough kindness. The houso, the table, the horses, and the time of every man seemed placed at our disposal : and whatever may he the result of our visit on the future emigration to the Colohy, we can truly say that the settlers and pioneers who have gone before, took out with them, and retain to the full, the true old English spirit of hospitality.”