PROSPECTUS FOR CEYLON COLONISTS IN NEW ZEALAND.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1053, 11 January 1883, Page 3

PROSPECTUS FOR CEYLON COLONISTS IN NEW ZEALAND.

I The following letter written by a | visitor in New Zealand, to a resident m Ceylon, appears in the Ceyloa Observer of July 22m\ last : ', I sailed for Australia, as you may remember, in January last, and speat ten days in New South Wales. Since then I have been all over New Zealand, and am now on my way back to England, feeling greatly disappointed with a colony which is so overrated. A good many Ceylon men were talking about New Zealand when I left Colombo. Dissuade them from coming. Unless a man is possessed of very large capital (at least £15,000) he will not succeed in making the ordinary rate ot interest, 7 per cent. For the man of £6OOO capital there is a bare living to be made, and he must be prepared to do the, dirty work which his hired man would scorn to do. There are few runs paying over 8 per cent, and one splendid farm, worth £16,u00, gave its owner (!ie showed me his books) a free living of the simplest food, an J 3| per cent on his capitah Most of the settlers seem living on mortgage, and borrowing prevails to an extent unparalleled in the history of Ceylon !

" As a rule a farmer must do all the drudgery while his servant does all the higher work ; the farmer's wife must become some'hing between a rnaid-of-all-work and a milkmaid ! I found so many ruined farmers that I quickly gave up all idea of farming. Commerce I found wis conducted on principles which staggered me, and showed me that morality and honesty were not often to be met with. The case seems to be this. The colony is supported by Government borrowing, regardless of consequences. The people follow the example of their colony and borrow all they can. The banks facilitate matters by giving every assistance to a system of false trade, and there seems to be actually competition .to secure good borrowing clients. There must be a violent painful reaction some day. Most of the small mercantile firms Beem to be standing on thin ice. The country itself is overrated in everything except the climate, which is faultless (a little too wet in Auckland and Southland perhaps). It is the climate which gives the crops. The soil is generally poor, rich land being the exception. Poverty Bay, the Waimate Plains, and Timaru are splendid, but the extent is limited. In the. first and last, land improved by fencing is worth £2O an acre," and not much less at the Plains. In no country which I have seen does the soil change from good to bad more rapidly than in New Zealand. It is the first thing tint strikes one looking at the read or railway cuttings. Labor is dear and bad. A ploughman gets 20s or 30s a week and his food, and good men are scarce. The lower classes of settlers are insolent and overfed ; they consider it a favor to work for you and take care to do as little as possible. I believe a coolie would beat most of them at wcrk.

" ' The colonial-born people are in a deplorable state of morality. The lowest scum of the Home population was brought out by the Government, and the offspring is what one might expect, the wits bemg sharpened by the prevailing low chicanery—liars, thieves, continually committing most brutal violent assaults. The ' larrikin' is the lowest type of humanity I have ever seon.'" A century hence New Zealand will be a great country ; at present it is not. Domestic servants are scarce, and bad beyond description. When laborers and artisans are lower paid, when credit is shortened, when commercial morality is the rule, then New Zealand will rise steadily to great prosperity. I don't like the country at present at all. It is quite different from what the numerous books describe it to be. and, in leaving the country, disappointed, I am only doing what many others do. In any case, it is no country for the rafn who has been accustomed to the luxury of a planter's life—unless he has sufficient money to invest and live near some of the towns idle ! Can I say more ? ' I am afraid New Zealand does not oiler much of a market for your tea; the demand would be limited, unless it could be sold for say 2s 6d retail. In Australia there is a much batter market. Messrs H. S. Bird and Co., wholesale grocers, Circular-quay, Sydney, and the Asiatic Tea Company, would be glad to do business in teas and coffee direct. I enclose a circular of the latter company. Coffee is in demand in both colonies.

" I met a Captain Brown, Lake Takapuna, Auckland, who is a great entomologist. He would be gkd totakc ft

moderate ?.-> ary in Ceylon to study the insect pests, and I believe might be of good service to the Colony in investigating the 'grub pest.' It would be well worth Lhe expense wciv Government to secure'his services for 'wo or three years. Ho understands the subject thoroughly. <: I am tired of tossing about the world looking mainly for occupation, and often regret having left Ceylon. 1 may return to it yet, if I see nothing to do at Home. 1 regret the delay this New Zealand trip has cost me, but it has done my health much good ; so the m uey has not been entirely thrown away. To have settled in New Zealand would only mean fresh disappointment.

" There are some Ce3 r lon men in New Zealand, of whom I met four or five. The Asiatic Tea Company (Sydney) advised tea being packed in lib packets. They had a 1 nrge sale for cheap teas at Is 2d to Is 9d a lb."