W. E. Swanton

“ Rank is not much regarded, and wealth, while undoubtedly conferring upon its holder great powers of purchase, confers in the eyes of New Zealanders no right and no power to despise or insult those who do not possess it. Social equality, in short, is something of a reality, and genuine merit has a genuine chance. Another marked trait in the colonial character is sociability. On land and on sea, on the road and in the railway carriage strangers manifest towards one another a cordiality conspicuously absent, as a rule, from the behaviour of unintroduced persons in the Mother Country. ”

“ A dairy factory, now that the cream separators have been so perfected, is no very formidable undertaking for a man in a good district and with a small capital; he can keep cows of his own and arrange with his neighbours to have their milk sent in every day at so much per gallon, as is the custom in the cheese factories in England. If a factory were started solely with the idea of exporting the butter, and competent, skilful men and women were employed, it should in a very short time make a good market for itself in London or other large cities. ”

“ Let us hope, for his own sake and for the sake of the Colonies of the Antipodes, that the man who can invent a perfect remedy will soon appear. His fortune will be made, again and again, by the rewards of Governments and the gifts of a grateful people, and his name will be handed down from generation to generation, as that of one of the greatest benefactors Australasia has ever known. ”

“ Clouds of locusts, covering the sky from one horizon to the other at certain seasons of the year, spread themselves over the doomed land, and dropping like rain in myriads upon the fields and pastures and cultivated tracts, utterly consume everything with which they come in contact. ”

“ In Auckland, the northernmost province, the summer is rather hot, but the atmosphere is always tempered by the sea breezes. Owing to the long and narrow shape of the islands, neither heat nor cold can ever be excessive in any part. Thus in Otago, the southernmost province, the cold is not so great as might be expected from its latitude. The moderating effect of the surrounding ocean upon the climate is thus fully enjoyed by the inhabitants of New Zealand, an advantage which they possess over the Australian colonists, who have to endure the unmitigated harshness of their continental siroccos. ”

“ The smaller farmer, however, takes a good deal more pains with his horses, and handles them more before mounting, which makes them far more reliable afterwards.
The horse muster and breaking on a station is considered one of the most attractive sports of the year, as it is always attended with the greatest excitement. Galloping over rough country at top speed after wild horses, and using a stock whip, requires good riders and sure-footed animals, as a false move means a bad accident. Then there is immense fun, to say nothing of danger, to be found in a stockyard amongst a mob of young horses. ”

“ The man who engages in farming in New Zealand meets from time to time with various difficulties, but few of these would ever prove insurmountable were it not for his own ill-advised action at the start. The course which is so often pursued with disastrous results by the "new chum," and too frequently also by the man who ought to know better, is to commence by investing the whole or by far the greater portion of his capital in the purchase of land, and then to fondly imagine that his fortune is made. ”

“ Cattle may pay well where a man has made his name in regard to his breed, and can always ask a certain price and get it; for instance, a gentleman in Christchurch asks ten guineas for his Ayrshire heifers, and always gets it; but for the ordinary farmer, cattle grazing or dealing is rather a risky line to take up. Of course with increased population and export we shall soon be able to work off this dullness in the cattle trade. Australia at present produces sufficient beef of her own, but England will be in a few years our great market. ”

“ The position of a cadet is a peculiar, though a common one. He is generally a young man or youth from England, whose parents or guardians have sent him out for his health or bad conduct, and have placed him on a farm or station after paying the owner a premium of from £75 to £100. This places him in some respects in the position of a labourer on the farm without the privilege of receiving wages. He lives with the owner or manager, a circumstance, however, which, in New Zealand does not imply much special advantage, as the men on the farm fare as well as the "Boss." ”

“ The fresh arrival in New Zealand has need to discriminate. Different people are apt to look at things in different lights. Some would be inclined to resent what they would regard as the impertinent familiarity of a total stranger, others, looking at the behaviour towards themselves of the same individual from another standpoint, might be carried away by his apparent open-heartedness and flattering attentions, and be led into divulging their affairs and confiding their interests to a person whose intentions were the reverse of honourable. ”

“ New Zealand, moreover, is free from all those plagues which the possession of a vast, uninhabitable and desert interior entails upon the Australians, as it did upon the Egyptians of old and still does upon their successors of to-day. The dry, arid wastes of immense extent lying behind the colonies of Australia, form what I may call the Sahara of the Southern Hemisphere, and from these deserts all manner of evil things come forth. ”

“ In these days, when the prosperity of a country is so largely reckoned by the extent of its trade, the facilities afforded for commerce by its geographical situation and natural formation are of the utmost importance. To the unique advantages which she possesses in these respects the future greatness of New Zealand will be largely due. We rightly attribute a great deal of England's vast naval and mercantile superiority over all other nations to the fact that she is an island ”

“ We live very well in New Zealand. Food is plentiful, so is fresh air, and health and strength follow as a matter of course. Society is unconventional; hospitality is the general rule. It is true that in the towns certain people endeavour to fashion their lives after the customs of the tocracy of other countries, but their pretensions are not very successful. I must not be understood to imply, however, that New Zealand is a sort of bear garden, where roughness and rudeness are the rule. ”

“ The Government reserves to itself this power of granting licenses to dig over all the land in New Zealand; not only over what belongs to itself, but also over what belongs to private owners; thus the owner of a sheep farm who discovers gold upon his land is not allowed to dig for it and take possession of it without first coming to certain special arrangements with the Government. ”

“ Let him set out for the mines of the nearest gold company and ask for employment. He must take what wages he can get as a new hand. If an industrious worker he will very soon be in receipt of good earnings. He will probably get employment at the first mines, if not, let him go on to the next. Let him work as an employé therefore on different gold mines for at least twelve months, gaining experience, becoming acquainted with the details of mining, learning how to prospect for gold, and lending a discriminating ear to all that is said, and observing all that is done. ”

“ When they occur the diggers, who are intensely superstitious and great believers in luck, follow the fortunate miner everywhere he goes, and whenever he pegs out his claim there is a rush to secure the claims nearest his. Again, it sometimes happens that a man, totally unacquainted with the business, buys shares in a new Company, and a few days afterwards finds they have risen to a premium; but for any inexperienced man to go mining or speculating in the hope of meeting with such chances as these is simple folly. ”

“ Horses, as I have before mentioned, are in most cases far cheaper in New Zealand than in England. Where a farmer in the latter country would pay £40 to £60 for a draught horse, we, in New Zealand, would pay £20 to £30. This fact is chiefly owing to the ease with which they are reared and bred, and the cheapness of oats and other fodder in New Zealand. But, notwithstanding these seemingly low prices, horse breeding pays very well, and nearly all farmers, who are in a position to do so, go in for it to a certain extent and get remunerative prices when the foals come to maturity. ”

“ Mining and agriculture, in the broad sense of the word, have been and are the two great sources of wealth of the Australasian colonies, and New Zealand forms no exception to this rule. In point of importance, gold-mining, perhaps, at one time occupied the first place, but agriculture now holds that position. ”

“ The post of commissioner is no sinecure. He who holds it must be a man cast in a stern mould. Every new find is the signal for a series of desperate disputes, and the commissioner is called on to decide between the rival claims of a crowd of clamorous diggers upon evidence which is often apparently equally strong in support of several different sides.
Such gold fields, however, are now comparatively rare. ”

“ From the rapidity with which fortunes were made in the early days of the Colony the men of wealth, and consequently those who take a leading position in society, are frequently those who have commenced in what we are accustomed to call the humbler walks of life. For an example of this fact there was the sailor, who, landing in New Zealand, invested a few pounds of his wages in some land where Christchurch now stands, and returning, several years afterwards, found a handsome building in course of erection on his plot. ”

“ We can now send butter to England from New Zealand fresh and in good condition by means of the chilling process lately brought out, which, in the opinion of men in the trade, is superior to the freezing process. There is a great quantity of Danish butter brought to England and sold at a comparatively low price; but since we find that butter can be bought retail in New Zealand at fivepence to eightpence a pound, according to the time of year, there can be no reason why it should not be exported to England and sold at a lower price even than the Danish, to which it is equal, if not superior. ”

“ There is every facility for cloth manufacture, and the material, when manufactured, would most certainly be well patronized, both on account of its cheapness and the prevailing desire to support a local industry. New Zealand should, in this respect, import only the very fine fabrics which are made in special places on the Continent, and these only for a time.
There most certainly appears to be an excellent investment awaiting the capitalist in New Zealand in the direction of creating more cloth factories to meet the requirements of the people of the country. ”

“ The largest lake in New Zealand is Lake Taupo, in the centre of the North Island.
Turning to the South Island we find that some of the principal points in which it differs from the North Island are that it is more mountainous, though not given to earthquakes; minerals, as far as is known at present, are more abundant; the mountains are not generally covered with bush, though in some parts the sides are bushed to a certain height, above which the rocks show out; the mountains are less fertile, especially further south, on account of the colder climate; they are also higher ”

“ In England, this tendency has been shown to be one of the principal causes of low wages, bad dwellings, and scarcity of employment, and, on the occasion of a great strike, it has been the means of supplying the employers with an unlimited number of new hands in place of those who have struck work. The strike leaders have not failed to perceive the damaging effects of this circumstance upon their plans, and have consequently organized a crusade amongst the agricultural labourers and the dwellers in the country districts, to induce them to remain at home and stick to the village and the plough. ”

“ Rents, of course, differ widely, not only according to the quality of the land, but also according to the facility of market, railway freight being high.
The capitalist having rented a small or average-sized farm, of some 500 acres or upwards, according to his means, will find it pay him best to employ as little daily or weekly labour as possible, but to have his ploughing, harrowing, drilling, etc., done by contract. Thus he will avoid the necessity of keeping a number of horses, which, at certain times in the year, he has no work for. ”