NEW ZEALAND: PAST AND PRESENT.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2980, 13 January 1881, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND: PAST AND PRESENT.

By the Rev. j.'.sies Buller

As the author of "Forty Years in New Zealand " Mr Buller has a fair claim to be heard on matters connected with a colony in which he has spent so large a portion of his life, and within the compass of a handyBized volume he has put together a vast amount of valuable information regarding its original inhabitants, the Government, laws, public institutions, and the general resources of " the Bintain of the South," together with some excellent hints to intending emigrants, a class, by the way, to whom we think the volume will be found of considerable service. In the chapter on emigration the author points out that whilst New Zealand offers many advantages to the emigrant and to the overcrowded population of Great Britain—and emigration to our colonies seems the natural relief from exexcessive competition and the painful Struggles for life which prevail in the old country—there are numbers of people who, with all their efforts, fail to do well, and their prospects for the future are anything but bright. At home many people fail in spite of requisite qualities ; but, in the colonies, if they fail, it is for the want of then:. The colonies, like their mother country, have their tips and downs, their ebb and flow of commercial tides. In the course of these transitions many a man suffers through no fault of his own ; yet, in the long run, the man who is fitted to succeed does succeed. Those persons who are ruled by sentiment alone, and who imagine that by changing their latitude and longitude they will change the conditions of life, will be miserably disappointed. To anyone who yields to the romantic notion that he will go and pick up a fortune, misled by seeing colonists visit England with abundance of wealth, who, twenty years ago, it may be, went out with little or nothing more than their personal abilities, Mr Buller says " Don't." Fortunes may be made, but they aro not to be " picked up." Not only those who shrink from work, but several other classes of men, should hesitate before they emigrate. Clerks, shopmen, and the like, have little chance of employment as such. As a rule, the author remarks, their oondition in New Zealand is pitiable. There is another hopeless class of young men who find their way to the colonies. They are the " ne'er-do-wells." Brought up in the habits of idleness, luxury, and vanity which mark the young " gent," but not the gentleman, their fathers can find no way of suitably providing for them at home, and so they are packed off to the colonies. Compelled by stern necessity, these unfortunate young men may bo found as billiard-markers, boot-cleaners, or cooks' assistants, or in some still mor« humiliating condition. It is a grave mistake, Mr Buller remarks , for fathers to expose their sons, who are wholly unfitted for a life of honourable industry, to the temptations of colonial exigency. The classes that the author would recommend to emigrate, with the moral certainty of great benefit to themselves, are agriculturists. The farm labourer will meet with immediate employment and high wages; the ploughman, the shepherd, the teamster will earn at once from £50 to £55 per annum, with his board and lodging, included meat three times n dey. Mr B. recommends all who intend emigrating, on reaching their destination, to accept whatever offers, and not to be very anxious as to the Irate of payment. Get the foot on the first round of the ladder and everything will soon adjust itself to the colonial scale. A strong determination to succeed carries with it the warranty of success. It may be uphill work at first, but never yield to despondency. Time will come when, with God's blessing, they will rejoice and be glad in their New Zealand home. Mr B uller writes well and forcibly, and he has a certain picturesque manner of expressing his views which renders this work very pleasant reading. To the emigrant it will be most acceptable, containing, as it does, very valuable and reliable information respecting one of England's most important colonies. An excellent map and numerous illustrations considerably enhance the value of this attractive and readable volume.— European Mail.