YOURNAL.

VOL. I.-No. 22.]

PRICE 2D. STAMPED 3D.

Rejected Emigrants.....

CONTENTS.

ཊྛཊྛ

The Land Route to California-continued........

Stock-Farming in New Zealand..

170

The Society for the Promotion of Colonization..

171

Miscellaneous:

Rules for Emigrant Associations of Agriculturists

171

Emigrants' Questions answered.

172

Price of Land in Canada-Dislike of Exercise-Archdeacon Sinclair on Parish Colonization-National Mutual Aid Society. Advertisements

172, 173

Letters from Abroad:

A Labourer-a Settler's wife at Otago.

175

176

REJECTED EMIGRANTS. AUSTRALIA, Natal, and the Cape are the only Colonies at present able to afford a fund for destitute or needy Emigrants; hence, we must more frequently refer to them than we otherwise should. There is no independent party at present in this country to look after the appropriation of the land emigration funds. Public opinion has but very lately been directed to the existence and administration of these funds. Without sharp supervision the money will be either wasted or jobbed away. For the Colonial Office to do one-tenth part of what it pretends to do would require the arms, as well as the eyes, of Briareus.

If they would only allow the Colonies to manage their own business, the Colonial Office might manage the home business of emigration extremely well, when they felt they were made responsible to public opinion.

From a set of questions put by Mr. Francis Scott, and answered by Mr. Hawes, the other night in the House of Commons, we learn two facts of no small importance. First, that two emigration ships, lately taken up by Government, were so long in filling that the agents were obliged to sweep the neighbouring counties of Wilts and Dorset to make up sufficient living freights. And next, that, of the fund for passages to Australia, only fifty thousand pounds remain. If we only took a superficial view of the subject, knowing the great distress that still exists among the labouring classes-if we were not behind the scenes-we should be quite astounded at this announcement.

But, as at present arranged, the artificial obstacles to a free passage, even when the necessary funds are overflowing, are most absurd and perplexing. We know nothing like it except the difficulties of getting married in France under the Restoration, when, in addition to all the formalities of the Code, the scruples and requirements of the priest had to be satisfied to such an extent that, between law and religion, it was impossible for either a Commis Voyageur or an Actor to get married at all.

First, the emigrant must be an agricultural labourer, or an agricultural artizan; then he must not be a ruined farmer or a reduced bailiff; then he must not be an Irishman; then he must produce a certificate of baptism; documents to show that he is the legitimate son of his father; then his phiz must please the inspecting officer, and his health must satisfy the surgeon. Altogether there is quite enough required to bemuddle the brains of a chawbacon, drive a Welshmaan mad, and make a Sheffield gardener or reduced farmer fly into the arms of the Physical Force Men.

The other day, an assisted emigrant was delayed three weeks by a search for his baptismal certificate. It is much more important that a man should be well taught on board ship, and in the Colony, than be left to run to ruin here for want of evidence of an important rite, but still one that took place during his infancy. It would be better, as no ship ought to go to sea without a clergyman, that baptism, where doubtful, should be performed on board, after due preparation, than that an eligible emigrant should be delayed.

But this was not to be compared in hardship to the case of a man, whose brother's letter from Australia appears in p. 157 of the Journal.

Patrick Dore was as fine-looking an Irish farmer as you could hope to see in a day's march in the county of Limerick, about fifty years of age, six feet high, hale, hearty, and active, with five sons, all strapping young fellows. He lived under a good landlord, but had met with a succession of misfortunes which decided him on emigrating. He wished to join his brother in Port Philip, and would have formed a model of an emigrant party. His landlord assisted him to a considerable extent, and made repeated applications, first for a free, and then for an assisted, passage for the father and five sons. The application was refused, although the full amount of an assisted passage was tendered; and, in order not

five wives. These men would have been a living treasure to the Colony, and Patrick might have seen fifty grandchildren and great-grandchildren comfortably provided for before his death. But official rules prevailed; and now we hear of emigrant ships being filled with the pauper sweepings of parishes. This is too bad.

Let us take another instance. A millwright, understanding milling, with a large family of sons and daughters, all brought up to useful mechanical or domestic employments, found ruin before him. He wished to go to Australia, where he was competent to take the management of a farm, and his sons would have been valuable servants, of a superior class, and as handicraftsmen, while the daughters would have settled comfortably. The cost of a sea and land passage to the interior of America would have exceeded the amount of an assisted passage to Australia. He was exceedingly anxious to settle in a British Colony, and the climate of Australia was suited to him; but he was an Irishman, and too good for the Emigration Commissioners. They prefer, or are compelled to prefer, Dorset paupers, although England has had twelve thousand out of the eighteen thousand free and assisted passages forwarded to Australia on the Land Fund this last year.

Lord Grey desires to concentrate Colonial population, lest they should barbarise. We can assure him it is quite possible to grow extremely rude without travelling far from Downing Street. But let us ask those of the Colonial officials whose duty it is to read the papers, to look over the following letter from this Irish miller, and consider whether such men should be driven to de-nationalise themselves. An editor's nerves ought to be as case-hardened as an earl's and a minister's; but we confess this manly and touching appeal made from one willing to work, yet able to think, to write, and to teach, although not a capitalist, made us glow with shame, pity, and indignation.

Swords, County Dublin, January 23rd, 1849. GENTLEMEN,-I have to return you sincere thanks for having answered my letter, under the signature of "Ego." I am exceedingly sorry, however, to find by your answer that a passage for myself and family to Australia is impossible. This will oblige us to turn our thoughts to America; a country that we have ever looked on with dislike. But what can we do? Here the prospect darkens every day, and I am able to foresee nothing in the fuof my age is a bad subject for transplanting. I entirely agree with you in this; but being healthy and stout, and always inured to active industrious necessity, I have strong hopes, were I in such a climate as Australia, that I habits, and, furthermore, being a teetotaller from choice, and an economist from would live to see my children in a fair way to comfort and prosperity. To behold this, gentlemen, would be the consummation of my wishes-to fix them on a field with a fair prospect before them, where their merits would be appreciated, and their industry rewarded, would make my days happy in the land, and enable me to depart in peace without one sigh of regret. But here, where poverty chills every hope, my last moments would be dreadfully embittered by knowing that my children never could fling from around their necks the pressing chain of servility and dependence.

ture but wretchedness and destitution. You also seem to think that a man

All we want, gentlemen, is a fair market for our labour. Here the market is overstocked; labour has no just reward; but, as myself and my family never liked the braggadocio manners of the Americans, we would all prefer Australia, if we could by any possibility get out thither. But, gentlemen, your answer to "Ego" leaves us no hope in that quarter, and, as we are determined on quitting this unhappy country, will you be kind enough to say in your next Journal what part of America would suit us best? I feel I am' circulating your Journal as extensively as I can among my friends and acgiving you a vast deal of trouble; and the only atonement I can make is by quaintances, assuring you, at the same time, that, let me be located where I may, you will hear from me often.

At the same time that we find fault with the uncertain, irregular management of free and assisted Emigration, we are not in the least inclined to come to the conclusions of the Colonization Society.

The management of Emigration requires more publicity. Public opinion must be brought to bear on it; and, in Ireland, it must be remodelled altogether.

In England, the provincial newspapers, which already so efficiently do much that Government boards do in other countries, would, we feel sure, publish periodically the progress of emigra

tion in each district, if it were only made the duty of the Agents to furnish it. At present, it's all hole and corner work.

The Colonization Society are very anxious to get this distribution of free assisted passages as part of their patronage. This would never do. An irresponsible body, distributing the Colonial Land Fund, would be a very unprofitable anomaly.

Mr. Francis Scott's private opinions are probably in favour of a large and liberal policy with respect to Australia; but, although Mr. Scott has the merits of talent, industry, energy, patience, and courtesy to high and low, being, as he is, a gentleman, and not one of the upstarts of the City or aristocrats of the tallow cask and wool pack, he is not a free agent. He is bound to the Boyd party; and the aim of this party is to get cheap shepherds at any price. They are prepared to receive paupers-converts-cannibals; "Jew, Turk, or Atheist," but not a Papist.

They wish to cultivate on the soil of Australia bigotry and bondsmen-anything except independent Yeomanry. Therefore we say again, review-reform, if necessary-our Emigration System, but let us have no amateur officials distributing cheap patronage. A Squatter's agent is not the man to select emigrants. We don't think the shiploads would improve, selected on the principles of Mr. Arthur Mill's Political Economy. Publicly paid responsible officers will do all that is needed. Cheap services are sometimes dear.

STOCK FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND.

THE New Zealand Company commenced its operations about nine years ago, adopting the "concentrating" principle; that is, they formed two or three settlements on the sea coast, and gradually extended their surveys around them, including good and bad, available and unavailable land; selling the valuable and the worthless at the same price; and I believe, generally speaking, not making a further survey until the lands included in the preceding ones were disposed of. Some hundreds of unfortunates purchased their sections in England, went out with their wives, families, and servants, and-could not get possession. Great numbers have only lately got actual possession of the land they paid for years ago; some have not been able to acquire a legal title to it to this day. This circumstance, the apologists of the Company say, has prevented the "Wakefield system from having a fair trial. Be it as it may, the fault was certainly their own; but the result has been, I do not hesitate to say, a fortunate one for the colony. Many of the deluded ones, who would, if matters had gone right, have taken to growing corn on a 50 or 100-acre section, which they could not sell at a profit to themselves, competing with imported flour, were driven into the bush, and, like sensible men, took to growing sheep and cattle instead, which the previous experience of a few Australians, who had squatted in the Middle Island, had proved to be most lucrative. In the Northern Island, too, particularly in the Wairarapa valley, the same plan was tried, and with the same remunerative result. But, as the Company adhered strictly to their concentrating system, the settlers were obliged to enter into terms with the natives for their runs, and the Company were in a likely way to get neither rent nor purchasemoney for the future.

The first movement in the way of a better policy was at length attempted. They resolved to grant grazing licences themselves; and the purchase of the whole east side of the Middle Island has now put it in their power to accommodate all comers; for almost the entire surface is, according to their own Journal, available for grazing purposes. This would seem, then, to open a wider field for profitable investment of capital in New Zealand than heretofore, with the security of the Company instead of the caprice of the natives for your tenure. But no such thing. I made inquiries at New Zealand House, and was assured that they had made arrangements with their local agents to grant licences for the occupation of unsurveyed lands. Satisfied with this assurance, I made my arrangements for, and should have started, had I not accidentally become acquainted with a gentleman who had been many years resident in that country, and who told me that, although the Company would grant licences, they would not grant leases, nor allow you, however much you might have improved your holding, the privilege of buying the land yourself when it was wanted for sale; nor yet had they provided to insure you a valuation for your buildings and other improvements if they turned you out. The secretary fully confirmed my friend's statements, and would moreover hold out no hopes that the arrangements should be reconsidered. However, he introduced me to two of the Directors, to whom I explained my objections, and who both agreed that some alteration was necessary, and requested me to draw up, in the shape of a memorial to the board, such terms as I thought would satisfy the squatters, and give sufficient security to parties in the same situation as myself. This I complied with, and the memorial was signed by all the country clergymen, magistrates, farmers and others, in the neighbourhood, whom I could find time to call on and explain the matter to. Annexed is a copy of the memorial-or the substance of it at least-as nearly as my memory and a few notes serve me :

"Since it has already been decided that grazing licences shall be granted, and since such an insurmountable objection on the part of the Company seems to exist to the granting of leases unconditionally, I would suggest the following outline of a plan which may perhaps enable the Company to meet the views of intending colonists, without incurring the inconveniences which you apprehend as likely to arise from an unconditional surrender of large runs at a nominal rent for a long series of years.

"The whole substance of the desired concession may be summed up in a few words. Since you have already determined to grant grazing licences, do not, when you want those lands for sale, turn us out without giving us the first chance of buying them ourselves, and enjoying the fruits of the improvements we have made upon them. As you sell your lands at a fixed price, and not by auction, you could gain nothing, and we should be great losers: and the new comers have surely not a better claim to the land than we have, who have built upon and otherwise improved it. If you do reserve to yourselves this power, you will prevent steady, respectable men, especially married men with families, from entering on this occupation, which will then necessarily fall into the hands of the reckless, and perhaps lawless, and thus produce the very semi-savage state of frontier society which you seek to guard against by concentrating the population.

The same principle, in another form, prevents the improvement of lands in England, i.e., where the occupier has neither lease nor tenant-right, and has

not,-as under most of our old landed proprietors,―a kind of prescriptive security arising from hereditary family connection between landlord and tenant. I understood Mr. Harrington to say that you disliked the whole system of stock farming.

1. "Because it disperses the population and induces a wild and barbarous mode of life." But you have already given the power to prevent this dispersion out of your hands; and, with such temptation to stock-farming as the barbarism is not at all a necessary consequence of pastoral life; witness ScotMiddle Island holds out, you could not prevent it if you had not. Besides, land, where the sheep runs are as large, and many of them far larger than they are ever likely to be in New Zealand. But then the farmers are not prevented by the insecurity of their tenure from gathering all the comforts of civilized family life around them.

2. "The squatting system has in America been the fertile source of crime, murder, &c." So it has been; but since the squatter has had the first chance of buying his own farm granted, with tenant right in case of its being sold from him, such crimes are never or very rarely heard of: and such will be the case in New Zealand, unless similar regulations are adopted.

3. "The squatter might select such a location as we might afterwards think desirable for the site of a town." If your agents, on viewing the run, think the situation particularly well adapted for that purpose, they can but refuse to grant a lease; or, if they do grant one, insert such clauses as shall render the land hereafter available for that purpose; though I doubt even whether it would be prudent policy to do so; for in a new country a town is sure to spring up fully as soon as the necessity for it arises, and to fix itself just where it is most wanted. Men's own private interests bring about this naturally, and to prevent the possibility of a man's thus improving his estate in spe would greatly discourage pioneering, which after all is generally better carried out by private individuals on the look out for their own interests than by a Government or Company's agent engaged to secure his master's. It is unnecessary, and would occupy too much time, to enumerate all the advantages of the system to the settlers and to the colony. One most important result would of necessity follow: it would create a more respectable body of squatters than the “tenancy-at-will" system-married farmers with their families, unsuccessful merchants and professional men, private gentlemen and officers-men of high education but moderate capital, who would not settle down at once on a fifty or a hundred-acre section, but who could not afford at the commencement to purchase five hundred, yet who would live in hopes, under the proposed regulations, of being in a few years able to do so; but who still, if denied these inducements, would feel compelled to forego the pleasure and advantages of the society of the present superior set of colonists in New Zealand, and turn towards the Southern Australian colonies, where still greater facilities are held out to them.

People do not take to a pastoral life simply because they like it best, but because, in a new colony (where the land is suitable for the purpose) it also pays them best; and when the country becomes more thickly settled, and the price and supply of labour enables men of capital to make as good a profit out of corn-growing, they will take to that also, "concentrating," without artificial coercion, precisely where concentration is most desirable, that is, where it pays them best to congregate; but until then it can pay only on a very small scale and close to the settlements; and if men, by the restrictions on stock-farming, are forced into agriculture in the beginning, it must be many years before the colony will yield from that source profitable exports of any amount to meet its outgoings; and the capital which would have been employed in New Zealand will go to Australia.

The Company lost the confidence of the first settlers at the outset of their career, and the circumstances obtained too wide a publicity not to be remembered by every intending emigrant. They have now an opportunity of regaining that confidence, while promoting alike the interests of the settlers and their own: the two are, indeed, in the long run, necessarily inseparable. -Sheffield Times.

PRICE OF LAND IN CANADA.-We extract the following from a Canadian advertisement, as the best price current of land cleared and uncleared. 254 acres, 165 cleared; large frame house, frame barn and out-houses, orchard, &c., situated on the bank of the Grand River, four miles from Brantwood, and two from Paris. Price 77. 10s. per acre. 145 acres, 135 cleared; very good log buildings, six miles from Brantford, and within one mile of the plank road to London; well fenced, and in good cultivation. Price 5l. 10s. per acre. 185 acres, 160 cleared, on the White Man's Creek, about six miles from Brantford; frame house, and barn. The farm is well cleared, and in a good vicinity. Price 12007. 350 acres, 270 cleared, frame and log house (containing six rooms and stone cellar), two log houses, large frame barn, with mill shed attached, &c., &c. Within three miles of Brantford, with a large frontage on the plank road to London, price 2000l., and terms accommodating. 100 acres, cleared; frame house, barn, &c., six miles from Brantford, 6257. 100 acres, 60 cleared; with good log buildings, situated in the west part of Burford. An excellent lot of hard-wood land, well cleared and fenced; in a good neighbourhood,-350l., half cash. 100 acres, 54 cleared; frame house, frame barn, and sheds, and a large bearing orchard,-situated on the Old Oxford Road, 17 miles from Brantford, good land. 51. per acre. 3 acres, with a good frame house and barn, and a large orchard, situated in Dumfries, about half way between Brantford and St. George, and about five miles from Paris. This is a desirable little property, and would suit a doctor or other professional person wishing to reside in the country. Price 1257. 280 acres, 30 cleared; no buildings; frontage on the river Thames, in North Dorchester. 6 dollars per acre. 100 acres, 35 cleared; log house, frame barn, orchard, &c., situated in Bayham, about six miles west of Richmond. 2007. cash.

DISLIKE OF EXERCISE.— In America, particularly, no man who can help it ever walks any distance, and very few ride on horseback. You see young men driving about in carriages and wagons everywhere, both in town and country, and nothing surprises them more than the proposal of a long walk, either for purposes of sport or exercise. In summer, the weather is too hot and relaxing; in winter, the cold is too great, and the snow is on the ground, which makes walking, except on beaten roads, disagreeable; and in spring the country is all cut up with rain and melting snow, so that the latter part of the autumn is the only season of the year which really suits for active exercise on foot. Between American and English women, the difference in apparent health, vigour, and embonpoint, is as remarkable as among the men. This, indeed, is universally admitted; and most American patriots consider the difference as in favour of the American style of beauty; but surely those who do so lose sight of the true principles of taste. Health is the foundation of beauty.

THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF COLONIZATION. WE have received the Report of this Society, which occupies nearly twenty pages; all the useful information might have been presented in eight. A few of the figures, so lavishly used in some of the speeches and pamphlets of the Society, would be both useful and attractive. We mentioned this once before, with respect to the Brighton Branch, and we repeat it here for the benefit of those members of the committee who really are in earnest in the character they have assumed.

Con

The Society have received in subscription 2351. 9s., and in donations 6967. 12s. How much of this has gone in salaries, printing, and travelling expenses, and how much toward actual Colonization, does not appear. sidering the sums of money that are annually subscribed for preventing cruelty to animals, providing brandy and water and hot baths for adventurous skaters, and other shams by which secretaries get salaries, and committees cheap importance, it seems, at first sight, odd that such a name as the Colonization Society has not proved more productive to the treasury.

Looking at the greatness of the undertaking, and the smallness of the receipts, the affair is a decided failure. It could not be otherwise. In the first place, the name is a transparent sham. The Association has never taken one step towards colonizing any country, except Australia; and, with respect to that country, their great aim has been to supply the squatters with cheap servants at the expense of this country. In the second place, the parties who undertook the active part were extremely ill fitted for the task. The chairman is an aimable and able man, but his speeches, while displaying great labour and research, are much more calculated to promote a revolution than an emigration. If the country were in the frightful condition that he depicts-daily receding in social prosperity, and threatened by a constantly increasing army of panpers-it is not such cheese-paring measures as have been promoted by this little clique that would have any effect in staying the mendicant deluge. It would be the old story of Mother Partington's broom against the Atlantic. The materials of which public meetings are generally composed see this weak point:-at the Hanover Rooms, the statistics of hopeless poverty were received in dead silence, while an unanimous burst of cheering saluted the obstinate interloper, who dwelt on the necessity of making Australian Colonization popular, by throwing open the land to the purchase of the frugal and industrious at a moderate price, and in convenient lots. At Leeds, where the Society had to meet the hard-headed Chartists of the North, the honourable chairman laid himself open most unguardedly to their attacks; "for, if," they argued very fairly, "the country is in the state you depict, it is not the exportation of a thousand or two that will help us; we must have an abolition of entails; a redistribution of land; a cutting down of all salaries and pensions to 17. a week," &c., &c. We agree with neither party; but certainly the Chartist conclusions were correctly drawn from Mr. Scott's premises. Another active member of the committee, who has gilded his silly superciliousness by a liberal subscription, told a public meeting that he wished to see emigration promoted, because, in Canada, he had the pain of finding some friend blacking his own boots, and milking his own cow! Of course, this misfortune did not deeply affect the audience before whom it was stammered forth.

The Society has had three secretaries; an honorary secretary, a very clever novel-writer, active and benevolent, but profoundly ignorant of all that appertains to popular emigration, as he insists on proving, by hatching from time to time a new scheme of Utopian Colonization, in which Tuft hunter' may be read in every line. The present paid secretary has been in Australia, and imbibed all the prejudices and all the religious bigotry of the tallow cask aristocracy. His favourite scheme is to supply the squatters with cheap shepherds, by inducing the workhouses of England to send out at their own expense able-bodied paupers.

There are some well-meaning men connected with the affair; but, as a whole, we repeat it, a sham, in which the Boyd interest (the selfish section of the pastoral interest), in the background, pulls the strings. In order to do any good, it must be reorganized on more popular liberal principles; if this is not done, something more sound and honest will supersede it. There are several statements in the report to which exception may be taken.

The Association claims the merit of having invented "assisted passages:" this is not the case. Mrs. Chisholm, who, with insignificant assistance, has done a thousand times more than the clique of Peers and Parvenus, first converted the Government Colonization Commissioners to the assisted system; which is good in certain cases, but unfair and inexpedient as a general rule, and, if adopted and left as the Association modestly suggests for them to work out, would lead to an infinity of jobbing. Nothing reflects more on the society than that they have not openly availed themselves of Mrs. Chisholm's services, trusted and esteemed as that lady is by the whole population of New South Wales, from the rank of labourer to the colonial secretary (Mr. Merewether) *.

But they could not have those services on their present plan; because, in the Society which Mrs. Chisholm suggested, in her evidence before the Lords in 1847, it would have been part of the scheme to throw open agricultural farms to the frugal labourers as an investment for their savings; but this, she observes, "would not be a very popular subject, because the pastoral interest to a certain extent (namely, the Boyd party) is opposed to it."

There is another objection to Mrs. Chisholm. Although her exertions to distribute emigrants in the interior, to protect helpless girls, and promote the civilization which wives and children promote, have been confined to no class; although they have been acknowledged by Protestant clergymen, a Protestant bishop, and a Protestant governor, she is a Roman Catholic, and bigotry is part of the stock-in-trade of the Colonization Society.

There are, however, some passages in the Report that are satisfactory. The one has reference to the Emigrants' School Fund, one of the really sound practical schemes which the Society, and the honorary secretary, Mr. Kingston, can claim as their own. It was much needed, and, if vigorously carried out, will do an infinity of good, especially if means are taken to disperse and provide for the schoolmasters after their arrival.

The report also, in very "holiday lady terms," expresses "a hope that the necessity of the reduction of the minimum price of land in Australia will, at length, obtain general recognition." This hint is so far good; but, if the Association is really in earnest, and prepared to advocate the reduction of lots as well as price, one being useless without the other, they must take some active steps; they must speak out at public meetings; they must

See Appendix to Report of Lords' Committee on Colonization, for Mr. Merewether's official letter.

originate petitions and give that impersonation of reckless obstinacy that sits at the Colonial office no peace until he yields up his crotchet to the cause of healthy colonization. But in this, as in other points, we doubt the sincerity of the Association, having at their first public meeting, and often since, urged them to do something. We cannot be satisfied with mere talk. So where they say what we so strongly urged in our "Voice from Australia" long before this Amphibious Society was hatched-"The increase of respectable female emigration to the Australian Colonies requires to be specially promoted"-we ask, what they have done towards it? Those

who are in earnest must set to work, and do something, if they want the The time for talkee, talkee, is gone by; action is now required. The branch committees seemed founded general public to assist them. without order or plan; surely some of the great names might have found 100l. for travelling expenses. Thus we have a Lymington Branch, and none at Liverpool; one at Bath, and none at Bristol. Manchester untouched, Sheffield untouched; at Leeds a defeat. Never was less done under a grander name. It reminds us of railroads planned in the mania, a hundred miles in length, and compromised by a bill for five miles.

Perhaps, "society for providing for pauper pensioners and ladies' maids' relations," or for "distributing paper forms and patronage, at the expense of Colonial funds," would be a better title.

After waiting, and hoping for near twelve months, to see Mr. Scott and the men really in earnest, separating themselves from the chaff, and putting themselves at the head of a popular movement for popular colonization and colonial reform, our patience is exhausted by a succession of talking and writing shams; and we are determined to lay on the lash whenever occasion offers, until the Society be either reformed or dissolved.

RULES FOR EMIGRANT ASSOCIATIONS OF AGRICULTURISTS*. Ir is suggested that Associations may be formed in the following manner :"Any person wishing to form an association of members, of a certain amount of capital, for any particular spot or colony, and to put it into working, can do it by advertising that such is desired to be formed; and that any person wishing to proceed to such a part apply to Mr.- secretary pro tem., for information respecting it, and, to save himself trouble, should refer, at the same time, as a guide, to these rules, and, where to be obtained. The expenses attending the advertising, &c., to be paid by each member, in equal portions, when the Association is formed, and which cannot amount to more than a few shillings each person, as the secretary, having an interest in it, would not make any charge for his trouble, and which could be but trifling; and as he would not receive any communication that was not post paid, nor answer any without a sheet of writing paper in their letter, folded up in the form of such, and bearing the writer's full address on it, for an answer to be returned. Should the writer not inclose a postage stamp, of course he would have double postage to pay.

"These rules are drawn out by one who believes that a well-regulated Association must give the best chance for a successful emigration to small agricultural capitalists, and that it would greatly smooth a path which, under any circumstances, must be a very rough one; and by giving the emigrant assistant a greater interest in the undertaking than that of simply receiving wages, by holding out to him prospects that may ultimately make him comfortably independent, is not only the best means of insuring valuable assistance, but a continuation of such, and more so, provided those taken out are married men with families; and should any member, after the Association has terminated, make periodical awards of uncleared land, or build huts, or clear portions on those awards of land already made, commencing after the completion of so many years' services, there would be no lack of labour in any colony, and would insure a respectable and useful class of labourers; for what small emigrant capitalists want to become, namely, independent, and to make their families hereafter so, that they ought to do for those, suitable to their station, through whose assistance they are to be made so; and the writer believes, had this principle been carried out at the outset, small capitalists would have been more successful, and the reports now sent home from our colonies, calling urgently for good and skilful labourers, would not have been the one great thing wanted, and for which even high wages seem not the stimulus. And what do settlers in many parts now do to induce and secure native assistance far in the interior, where emigrant assistance is not to be had? Why, independently of their wages, allow them the run of so many head of sheep and cattle among their flocks and herds, as an inducement to labour for them, and to secure their services and that of their families; and it is with all emigrant labourers as it is with the natives, give them an ultimate benefit, and there will be useful labourers to emigrate, and plenty of them.

"The small emigrant agricultural capitalist must not expect to make a fortune, only a comfortable independence for himself and family, and that after years of toil, some expense, and many hardships."

A ma

The following contains the sense of the more important rules. Each member to possess not less than a certain sum; all to be of the same religion; the Association to consist of not less, and not more, than a certain number. Proceedings to be commenced when thirty members have agreed. Each member's lot to consist of so many acres. Two or more members to be sent out to select land at the expense of the Association. Assistants for first operations be engaged and paid in land or money for their labour. naging board to be elected in a manner described, to take the command, and order certain portions of the estate purchased to be cleared, and huts built for accommodation of the whole Company, themselves assisting, when it arrives; land to be sown for the use of the community, until such time as each member can take possession of his lot. Board to allot work to each individual, and fix hours of labour and meal times. Every member to pay a fine for neglect of work, sickness to be no excuse.

The preliminary clearings, fencings, and building work having been effected, the lots to be balloted for, and divided. If the funds will allow, the services of a clergyman and his wife, a school-master and surgeon, to be retained. The only objection we see to these rules, if they can be enforced in a foreign country or colony, is in the complicated mode of balloting. This system must not be made a rule, because, if some card boxes the author refers to were mislaid, or destroyed, captious parties might throw the society into confusion. The sailors have a very simple way of lottery, but it would be better not to fix to details, but only the way of chance.

* By Primus. G. Vickers, Holywell Street.

EMIGRANTS' QUESTIONS. Inquiries of any importance are expected to be verified by name and address, not for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

Communications for the Editors must be addressed " Care of MESSRS. G.

WOODFALL AND SON, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London."

In answer to several letters, parties requiring this Journal can obtain it best through the nearest Bookseller; or, in remote country districts, by inclosing Red Postage Stamps to the Publishers, MESSRS. ORR, Amen Corner, Paternoster Row.

The Fifth Monthly part of the EMIGRANT'S JOURNAL is just published, with an Index of Contents from the commencement.

Pedagogus.-Cannot advise you without capital to resign an appointment for the uncertainty of Australia. W. H. Kingston, Esq., Honorary Secretary of Emigrants' School Fund, 7, Trinity Chambers, Charing Cross. Nova.

13, Green Lane, Derby, Feb. 15, 1849. GENTLEMEN,-Having been in British North America a few years, engaged as a lumberer, and am conversant with the timber trade in all its branches, both in the falling of it in the woods; also in the cutting of it, either by mills or hand, i. e., sawing, &c.; also am well acquainted with the life of a backwoodsman, with all its vicissitudes, having worked hard in a lumbering camp for a length of time. I consider myself a good axe man, and what, in North America, is called a handy man. I am both willing and able to work if I can find a fair remuneration for my labour in any climate more genial than the one I have left. Please to say if you think New Zealand would be a good place for me; also, how you would advise me to act, not having the means at hand for defraying a passage to the above place. I have a good knowledge of brick-making, and am 28 years of age. [The Kauri, or Norfolk Island pine, is found in the northern district of New Zealand, and is the only wood of exportable value. Unless in the new settlements, at Otoga, where timber is scarce, there is no capital to employ lumberers, see p. 141. But you are a fit man to lead a party of emigrants; and, if your character will stand investigation, it would be worth their while to pay your passage. Brick-making is a good trade in all the South Sea Colonies.]

W. H.-There is no plan by which you can buy 100 acres of land, and obtain a free passage, except through the Australian Agricultural Company. Government will not now permit it. Port Philip is one of the best districts for wheat; but it would not answer to take a flour mill, unless you have it by you, and then the freight and warehousing would cost something.

D. J.-Rent of 50 acres suitable for agriculture within fifty miles of Melbourne or Geeling? It used to be from 1s. to 5s. for wild land, but cleared would be 10s. on a road. We have no recent accounts, as people never confine themselves to grain-growing as here.

A Banker's Clerk "tired of the monotony of the desk," and with 1507. and a wife. [Your wife would be quite as safe in any town of Australia as in London; but your plan would never do unless you could get a situation in a merchant's office or store; and that is speculation. Although you can live there much better on a hundred a year than here, you are mistaken in thinking you could labour. The voyage would exhaust nearly all your funds. We are told, but we do not guarantee it, that Natal is a good place for a man of small means, as you can rent land, and buy stock cheap there.] I. A. S., a Rejected Emigrant.

11, Church Street, Portman Market.

MR. EDITOR, I have taken the first opertunity of asking you for your advice uppon the subject of emigration, being a subscriber from the first to your Journal.

I have put some faith to what you have said on the subject, and i think, if you realey mean well to the working classes, that you will on this appeal to you. I shall lay my case before you, and all i whant is truth; in the first place i have no home, no mother or farther, sister, or brother; i am sorry that i have to leave my country; i have bean to the Government Office for them to send me out to Australiar, but the objection they have is because i have not bean in actual employment for a farmer; that is true, i have not, but i have bean tow years on Mr. f O Connor land plan as a labrour in every branch that a man can name, such as edge stocking and forest to diging in all its branches, now i have bean from a labrour up to a farmer; I mearley mention this to show that i am abble to do what i have said, but down at the government office the excuse is that my appearance and address disqualified me, that to me Sir, is a compleat mockery to a man that is willing to work and cannot get it; that becaus a man is not in rags he is to be disqualified, and at the same time i could not get 6 shillings for all i have on. I should like to know from you if you no of any man that is going out to America that could take me, as i would undertake to work for one 12 month or mor if i found that i could in time become my own master, that is to get a small quantity of land so that i should be above whant. I have tried to goe out to north texan as one of the Pioneers. I could not goe with them through my not beaing abble to pay 10 note, or else that is what i should like to do, or to any country whear it is healthy, that is on a fair understanding; in conclution i have only to say that i am single, age 27, eight 5f2, and if you can put me in the way how to proceed, i shall feel ever gratefull to you as i am sorry to say that i am starving, you will excuse the ungramatical maner that this is wrote in, for it is a job that i am not in the abbit of doing, i shall thank you for an answer, your moust Obedient Servent, J. A. S.

[We hope some of our wealthier correspondents will help this poor man. We can only give him one piece of advice; that is, to try again. Men have been rejected so eight times, and yet succeeded. The rules of the Commissioners are, as we have said, under "Topics of the Day," incomprehensible to us.]

R. S. we have to thank, for a genuine "Letter from Abroad," some time since. We cannot answer as to drapers' assistants. No opening for agricultural implement maker for a century. Blacksmith and cart wheel maker are the best trades; but, having a brother there, be guided by him.

C. L. Reading. Will find a notice of the rules in another place. We recommend a man with 4007. or 500l. to join two or three in preference to a large party of strangers. Shall lecture at Reading soon on the subject of emigration and association.

Willie W.-As to the Cape, Natal is more promising, but we will inquire about a baker's prospects. A wife of course-with 2507.

LETTERS FROM ABROAD.

Our friends cannot serve us more than by forwarding for publication original letters from emigrants in any part of the world. FROM WILLIAM BADHAM, LATE OF HAMPTON BISHOP, HEREFOrdshire. Port Philip, Australia, June 6th, 1848.

DEAR PARENTS AND FRIENDS,-I now take the opportunity of writing a few lines to you, hoping it will find you in good health, as it leaves me at present, and to inform you of my safe arrival in the colony. After a passage of sixteen weeks from Plymouth, the vessel arrived in harbour on the 6th of May, with her colours flying at her three masts' head, when a steamer came round the ship and went back again to shore. Soon afterwards a boat came alongside with fresh beef, bread, and potatoes, which were served out to us in time for dinner. The beef was very tender and sweet, not so fat as what we had at Plymouth, but quite as good in quality. The potatoes were very good, as was the bread.

About 12 o'clock the employers were allowed to come on board, and in the course of the evening, without going on shore, nearly all the single women, 52 in number, were engaged. A great number of the men, and married people, were also engaged on board the vessel, at fair wages, on the following morning. I and one of my companions were engaged by Major C. Newman, in the Yarra, about fifteen miles from town. Some masters engaged as many as six or eight men, and two or three women. Many could not get people at all, as all were hired, and many more wanted. Girls that had never been at service was engaged at from 16l. to 201. per annum. Good servants from 201. to 30%. per annum. Married couples about 457. to 50l. per year. These wages all include rations, or board. Married people with two or three children were engaged as soon as any, as provisions for the children are thought nothing of here, for as soon as they can run they are found useful to tend the pigs home, or drive the ducks to water, or some other useful job. Major Newman wanted one or two girls, but they were all hired before he came on board. If Jane was here, she might get 251. or 301. per year. I have engaged for the first twelve months for 247. per annum, including my board and lodging; but the Major has promised, if I can suit myself better, he will not hinder me from going.

I and my companions engaged to go into the bush about fifteen miles out of Melbourne. We packed up our things and put them on the steam-boat, which was waiting alongside, and started with our master to Melbourne, where we landed with joy. We were taken to an inn where our master put up at, our luggage being brought from the steamer on a dray which he hired for the purpose. We were here refreshed with beefsteaks and beer, which we much enjoyed, but partook of with care, lest the beer should make us silly. The master met with a neighbour in town with a bullock team, which conveyed us on our way to his station. The same night we arrived at the house of this neighbour, and were treated with the greatest kindness. We laid our beds on the floor of the house and slept there until daybreak, when we were awoke by the singing of the birds in the bush. Thursday morning we breakfasted at this man's house, and after we walked out to view the scenery, which was truly delightful. About ten o'clock the master's son arrived with the bullock team to take our things on to their house, which was about two miles further on, and this man is about the nearest neighbour they have. He emigrated from England abont eight years since, and now rents about 500 acres of pasture land, for which he pays 51. per year, which is not 3d. per acre. He is a carpenter by trade, and occasionally works at his trade. He sometimes drives his bullock team into town himself, with timber and other things, and keeps milking cows and sheep, and his house has the appearance of peace and plenty.

The general appearance of the country is truly delightful, and here is no complaint of want of work, or plenty of food, and work is well paid for here. There are few weekly hireings in the country, and the work people have all their provisions found them. The men have to find their own bedding; but that is of no consequence, as the new mattress and bed clothing supplied them on board ship answers every purpose. It is now nearly the middle of winter, and beautiful fine sunny days, but we have had a little frost at night, what they here call sharp, but not sharp enough for ice to be seen. The parrots are as numerous as sparrows are at home, and so very tame that you may walk up to them within five or six yards, before they will aim to fly away. The cockatoos are not so numerous as the parrots. We have a species of the robin here, a much handsomer bird than the one at home. Here are

several other species of birds, too numerous to mention. The river Yarra Yarra is close adjoining the garden; it is very good water, and plenty of fish in it, but it is not navigable higher up than Melbourne.

I wish to persuade you to come out here, as I am sure it would be the best thing you could do. Likewise Jane I should wish to come, as she might get from 251. to 30l. per year. The voyage is a mere nothing. I liked it so well that I should like to engage with some gentleman to go a voyage or two if I could get a good berth. Great part of the sailors are run away from the ship we came in, as they can get such high wages in the colony and the captain will have to send round to Sydney to get sailors to take the vessel home, as they have a cargo of tallow and wool for London. The accounts I heard of Australia when I was in England I could scarcely believe, but now I have found them to be quite correct. Provisions are very cheap, beef is 10s. per cwt. You may buy a good leg of mutton for 6d. or 8d. each. The only article that is dear here is butter, which is sometimes up to 2s. per pound. My master keeps about 300 head of cattle, but does not trouble to dairy any more than what is sufficient for their own use, where they might make several pounds' worth every week if they chose. People here can live a life of ease and happiness, without the thought or trouble they have in England.

My companion gets 261. per year, besides rations, as he can undertake sewing. We are now digging potatoes, and grubbing trees, which at present is our chief work. I expect to take charge of a flock of sheep in a fortnight, about 1100 in the flock. The master has a great many, likewise a great number of horses, but I have never seen half of them myself. Sometimes they do not see the herd of cattle for two or three months together. The cattle and horses are all branded, that they may know their own stock. There were some married people on board our vessel upwards of 60 years of age, who had large families with them, but some of them had to pay their own passage under the government regulations, which was about 97. to 147. each person, but that is soon made up in this colony, as here is plenty of employment, and all kinds is well paid for. A person coming here cannot do wrong by bringing plenty of tools of any description, as they are sometimes dear. Work-people have not to find their own tools here as in England-the employers providing them: excepting tradesmen, such as carpenters, masons, &c., who find their own tools. One of the carpenters, a single man, who came out in our ship, engaged for 401. per year and his rations. Many of the houses in the bush are rudely constructed, being usually but one story high, and having no upstairs. The roofs are generally covered with shingles, and the walls and divisions formed of slabs or of wattle and dab. The house that master lives in is built of brick, all the accommodation being on the ground floor. It has a white verandah on both sides, having two fronts, looking to the east and west. They have no pride, although they are worth a good deal of money, and the Major will sometimes come out and work with us for an hour or so at a time. His wife and daughters do the work of the house, and have for some time past, as servants are so scarce; but I expect the Major will, if he can, engage some girls when the next ship comes in, and two or three more men. Clothing is something dearer here than in England. Boots and shoes and straw hats are dearer. Straw hat makers may do exceedingly well by coming here, as they are much worn here. For persons coming here the most suitable clothing is what is serviceable. If any of you make up your minds to come out, as I hope you all will, you can bring plenty of sound garden seeds if you have them by you without buying, in fact, anything in the shape of tools or seeds of any description. Likewise a few feather pillows would be of use on the voyage, and of much value to you after you get here. A good piece of bacon, some oatmeal, a little all-spice and pepper would be found an excellent relish with the rations served out on board. As many apples as you can conveniently bring are also very relishable on the voyage.

Some persons that came in our vessel brought with them a bushel or two of hawthorn berries, to plant in the colony, and my master talks about sending to England for a bushel or two of crabs for rearing young stocks from, as it would not matter about their getting rotten, as the few apples I brought with me would have kept until I got here, if I had not eaten them on the passage. At first starting, some of our people could'nt eat all that was served out to them, but the sea voyage soon gave them a capital appetite.

We had only three deaths on the voyage out of so many people, and that was three infants. A few boxes of cheap and easily made pilacotia or other pills, are very serviceable to a person coming to sea; but, however, there is a surgeon always on board, who sees to what may be wanted.

The country all around from Melbourne to where I live is well covered with trees, the same as I stated we saw on entering the harbour, and for many miles beyond; but in some parts of the colony there are beautiful plains of hundreds of acres, and scarcely a tree growing upon them. About this neighbourhood it is rather thickly wooded, but is not so thick but persons may ride about among it without inconvenience. The chief drink in the bush for ordinary purposes is tea, but they do not buy it by the ounce or quarter as you do, but have 10 or 12 lbs. or a chest at a time. We know the days by the Sundays, and guess the time when at our work by the sun, and count right for Sunday.

Taieri-plain, which is six miles broad, and from eighteen to twenty long. There is a large bush or forest in the middle of it, and it is surrounded by immense hills, on the tops of which grow flax and fern, that would take you up to the neck. The soil is all excellent; you could scrape the earth with your hands and plant potatoes in any part of the country. There are plenty of wild pigs; in some places, in particular, they are very numerous; they hunt them with dogs and large knives. Some of them kill twenty-eight stone weight, and are as high as a donkey; they have very thick skins. The pig-hunters wear boar-skin shoes when they go a pig-hunting. The pigs are excellent eating, not very fat, but sweet; we have had the meat two of three times, it is sold from 3d. to 31d. per lb. We have great varieties or birds here; there are pigeons, wood hens, paradise ducks, in great varieties; so William has nothing else to do but take down his gun and go to the door, and shoot a pair of pigeons; he has killed twenty-four in two hours; they make capital soup, and we scarcely ever want them. We will soon have a feather-bed. There are a great many kinds of wood in this country, some of which are very beautiful. The leaves never fade, they are ever-green; although this is the middle of winter, the trees and hills appear as green and fresh as though they were blossoming in early spring. I don't see any that resemble our wood at home; they are all different; they have all grown from nature, not one of them has been planted by human hands. There are some bushes so thickly grown together, that it is impossible for a man to get through; so they just take something with them to cut the way before them. We live about ten miles from Dunedin, which is the town. There are a good many inhabitants in it; all the streets are named and marked off, and they are busy cutting roads, so that, in a short time, it may be all inhabited. Our house is at the foot of the Saddle-hill, facing Taieriplain; it is a very commodious little dwelling. I believe there is not a more comfortable one in the colony; it is made without a nail, and without a stone; there is no lock to the door, which is made of bark; we have a bark table, it looks very pretty, just like mahogany. We can go anywhere and leave our house with the greatest safety-we only tie the door with a piece of flax to keep the cat at home, and then take our walk wherever we choose. I would not change this house for any one in Scotland. I know you can scarcely go to the door at home, but you must lock the door and hide the key, or take it with you; we need not do no such thing here; as yet, there is nothing but peace and safety. We have no need of bakers, every one bakes for himself. I think I could beat G. at making loaves, for he was sometimes not very particular about his bread. We call our loaves dampers. I will give you a short sketch how we make the damper; first, we make the dough any size we wish, then let it stand two hours at the fire to rise, then take a spade, and scrape out the bottom of the fire, then lay in the damper and cover it over with the ashes, and again with the red embers, let it lie for about two hours, take it out and beat it well with a towel to clean it of ashes, when we have an excellent loaf. I prefer it far before the bread the bakers make in Scotland.

The natives are very harmless, inoffensive, creatures; we get a call from them very often; their chief comes to see us at times as he is passing; there is no difference in him from his subjects; Tiraki is his name. Another chief comes and stays with us all night sometimes, they call him Ewaddo. He and I go and get rappoo, that is the native name for firewood; he takes a tune on the trump; different natives can play, they say it is capi, that is, good. They don't wear clothes like the white men, but a mat which they make for themselves from the flax; some of the mats are very beautiful, they tie them round their necks, and allow them to hang loose around them; they wear no caps, nothing but their thick head of black hair just like a divot; they wear shoes made of the flax, which they call, paralas; they are very humorous creatures, and very anxious to learn English, which they pick up quickly. I can talk a little of their language, but not much.

A great many of the gentlemen come out here; it is not as at home, even the meanest of the gentry in Scotland cannot go anywhere but they must have their servant walking behind, carrying their portmanteau; they act very different here, every one carries his blanket and a little provision along with him they think nothing of a night in the bush; when it gets dusk they just wrap their blanket round them, and lie down among the brakens*, and sleep quite snug till day. If a person was doing this in Scotland, he would be the worse of it, and it might be the means of his death, but one is never any the worse of sleeping in the open air here. You must now be tired with my long scrawl. William sends his kind love to you, and we both hope you

will not neglect to write, and we will do the same to you. If you would be so kind as send a newspaper at a time, it would always let us know how things are getting on in Scotland. I inclose a small piece of New Zealand flax, just to let you see what like it is; the natives wear shoes of it, they sew with it, they make baskets, bags, and mats of it, they also use it for strings for tying things; some of it grows as high as fourteen feet; it resembles the water-segg† at home.

on

often when I begin to shepherd the flock.

I should like Jane to call upon Mr. Hewer, and tell them I found the place to my liking, with plenty of employment and good pay. I have no more to say at present; so I hope this will find you all in health and happiness, from your affectionate son and brother, WILLIAM BADHAM.

N.B. This is the first letter I have written to you since we left Plymouth: I have not had a convenient opportunity of doing so before. So farewell, hoping that we may soon meet again. Put your trust in God. Write as soon as you receive this, and let me know if you are coming out. Direct for me at Major Newman's on the Yarra Yarra River, near Melbourne.-Hereford Times.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM A SETTLER'S WIFE AT OTAGO.

Dunedin, Saddle-hill Sheep-Station, 20th July, 1848. MY DEAR BROTHER,-I take my pen to let you know that William and I are quite well and happy in our new home, and agreeing with this country. This is the second time I have written to you since we landed, I hope you are well and getting on in your business, and that mother is well and keeping up her spirits. This is a very splendid country and very healthy; there is scarcely any trouble known to have been here; I think it much healthier than Scotland. It is a very mountainous country; Saddle-hill is very high, it is between two and three miles to the top, and lies between the sea and

"Vicarage, Kensington, 14th February, 1849. "SIR,-I am obliged to you for the copy you have sent me of your able paper on the advantages likely to arise from Juvenile Pauper Colonization in Australia. Your extensive knowledge of the Colonies has enabled you to furnish data from which every reader may be enabled to form a sound opinion on the subject.

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Subsequently to the time when I first communicated my plan to the late Poor Law Commissioners, two schemes for nearly the same purpose were proposed, one by Lord Ashley, for promoting the Emigration of Children selected from the Ragged Schools of the Metropolis; the other, by the Marylebone Vestry, for apprenticing in the Colonies young persons taken from parish workhouses. But, in both schemes, an essential provision is omitted the Colonial School of Industry, in which the young emigrants shall receive a sound religious education, together with such secular instruction as shall fit them to be useful colonists. "Believe me to be yours faithfully, "To Samuel Sidney, Esq. "JOHN SINCLAIR."