EMIGRATION TO THE BRITISH COLONIES. (From the Companion to the British Almanack, 1849.) [Continued.]

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 316, 9 June 1849, Page 4 (Supplement)

EMIGRATION TO THE BRITISH COLONIES. (From the Companion to the British Almanack, 1849.) [Continued.]

Here is the deliberate opinion of the Legislative Council of New South Watyp : " That the colony possesses within itself ample and superabundant resources for the Importation of labour is undeniable These, however, have been ktpt in abeyance, fettered, and in a great mea-ure destroyed, either by 'he peculiar policy of the home government, or by the acts of the imperial legi'lature. For a series of yeurs the giowth of the colony was uniform, progressive, and un. inteiiupted. From 1833 to 1840, the sum lealized by the sale of waste lands was upwards of a million ; and, by the expenditure of this amount, 80,000 souls were introduced. Under this system the population became more than doubled in a period of eight years. In 1839, it was the policy of the imperial government to raise the upiet minimum price of land from ss. to 12s and subseqnently to £l an acre. This act may be regarded as one of the chief causes of the disasters with j which the colony hai since been visited, and of its I piesent depressed condition. From .£300,00.) a year [in 1836], the land revenue fell to £8 000 ; immigauon ceased," and with it the purchases of lands. " No single example, it is to be believed, can be quoted, m which) since the establishment of the liigh upset price, any capitalise has purchased land for pastoral purposes." Thus, to cheapness of passage must be added cheapness of land, anil the liberal facilities for its purchaie by the humbler classes, in estimating the advantages ot the North American as compared with those of the Australian colonies. But there are some other ami very important considerations yet to be taken into account. It is not every one who can hear the rigours of a Canadian winter ; and of those who can, there are not many who would wish to bear them as a matter of choice. The thermometer (Farenheit'd) occasionally stands at 60 degrees below freezing point; and the average winter temper iture is very low, while the winter itself is long, including full seven months of the year. In spring the roads are nearly impassable, and one can hardly go out of doors. In summer the heat again is as intense as the winter is cold, often exceeding 100 degrees in the shade. Musquitoes then abound. In al! the more woody parts, misti and chilly winds pieva'l, and materially impair the natural salubiity of the climate. The Cauadian winter, however, is generally very fine and bracing ; and the latter part of spring and of autumn are each characterised by peculiar beauties. The climate is considered fnvourable to the growth of hardy fruits. Wheat, the staple grain, is obtained at the rate of from twentyfive to thirty-five bushels per acre. Oats are indifferent; barley little grown; potatoes much inferior to those of our own country. Upper or Western Canada it the mo9t suitable emigration field for our countrymen. The population is chiefly English ; the winter and summer are milder than in Eastern Canada ; and the whole triangular peninsula of Canada West, situate between the three great lakes of Ontario, Erie and Huron, which forms a rich elevated plain, is said to contain twenty millions of acres of as line land as any in the world. The recent depression of commercial affairs in En /land has somewhat affected our transatlantic brethren. At present, therefore, New Brunswick it, perhaps, the most eligible of the North American colonies for the labouring classes. Mr. Perley, ths government emigration agent at St. John's, stated in December last, that 1000 good and healthy labourers with their families, equal to 5000 souls, might find employment at fair wages, in the course ot the present year, in that colony. Let us now turn to the capabilities and advantages of the Australian colonies ; and which are as yet (unlike the emigration fields of the United States and of our own Noith American colonies) little known among the people of Great Brit-in, though destined, we doubt not, to fill a conspicuous place among the great families of the world ; and to be of especial importance to our own t r ade and commerce, and to our country generally, by relieving i^ of some of that population which is a burden at home, and nny become »n assiitance abroad. Australia is more than twice the s'ze of the continent of Europe; the latter at present rontainiaome 227,000,000 of people, the former about ha f a million. So much for its size and territorial capacity, comprising a rang« of coast stretching through thirty degrees of latitude. Eaitern Australia presents a climate with all the intermediate grades between tb»t of the tropics and the south of England; a climate unequalled perhaps for salubrity in the world. There is a remarkable peculiarity involved here. The isothermal line, a line supposed to be drawn round the globe midway as regards the equal decree of beat between the two hemispheres, runs generally to the northward of the equatorial line, but, ai it approaches Australia, it crosses the line at Singapore, and only emerges again into the southern hemisphere in the South Pacific Ocean eastward of New Zealand j and thus Australia possesses a temperature equal to what other countries possess seven decrees nearer the line. The practical consequences are extremely important. " In the course of a visit," said Dr. Lang, before the Lords Committee of last Session, " which I paid to the United States in the year 1840, I travelled as far to the southward as to the city of Charleston in South Carolina, in 32 degrees north' latitude ; and as one of our principal settlements in New South Walei, that of Hunter's River, to the northward of Sydney, is in the corresponding degree of latitude in the southern hemisphere, I was naturally led to institute a comparison between the climates of the two countries I found, therefore, that the cold in winter is so intense, even in Charleston, that churches and o'her public buildings required to be warmed by artificial heat for five or six months every year. But the Australian winter is so mild, that nothing of the kind is requiredeven at Hobart Town, eleven degrees furthei south than Hunter's River. The orapge I found could not be grown at Charleston, but in grows magnificently at Hunter's River in Australia, and indeed several degrees further south. The cotton plant in South Carolina is an annual, being destroyed eve'y winter by the frost, and requiring to be reproduced from the sesd every spring; but in Australia it is a perennial, not requiring renewal annually, just a» it is m the BriziU, in the East Indies, and in Egypt. This extraordinaiy mild ness of the Australian winter ensures us a perpetual spring. The grass grows all the year round ; no arti ficial food of any kind is required for any description of farm stock ; and sheep and cattle can consequently be reared in far greater uumben, and with n far smaller proportion of human labour in tending them, than in other countries less favourably situated." Speaking also of another part, the plaint on the banks of the Clarence river, he says, "an almoit complete realization of Fenelon's conception with reference to Calypso's isle is exhibited in the climate of the Clarence ; as, without any degree of hyperbole, a perpetual spring maybe said to prevail during the entire year. . . . On the whole, a four years' lesiclence in the district has confirmed me in the opinion, tint no [country ever came from the hands of its Creator more eminently qualified to be the abode of a thriving and . numerous population than, the one of which I have

been speaking. 1 ' Theie are glowing words, but ihe known lacts warrant their use. Then, with regard to the fecundity of stock. In New South Wales alone, with a population of 200,000 persons, there are already one-fourth as many sheep, and one-seventh as many cattle, as the whole of agricultural France, with its immense population possesses. The export of wool in 1816 amounted to liesuly sixteen and a half raiU'ons of pounds. In fact, tlie increase of sheep has been so much beyond the means of the proprietors to deal with in the best way, that immense numbers have been killed and boiled down for the sake of the tallow ; it is said, eight or nine hundred thousand in the course of a single yi-ar. What a fact to be plnced by the side of those other facts — the starving Irish, and the largely suffering English poor. The agricultural produce of Australia is, of course, with such a climate, rich and varioui. In glancing over the reports furnished from the colonies by the different districts, we read of wheat, oats, anil harley, in close juxta-position with maize and tobacco, ot potatoes and onions side by side with oranges, grapes, pine apples, melons, citrons, and lemons. In fad, "■rain, vegetables, frui's, ami flowers, from almost all countries, find a home here, where they may fl.iurM) in all .their native luxuriance. Many of our finest green-houie plants are indigenous in Australia, and preserve the leaves there the win'er through. The vine is receiving especial attention. A great number of vnrieties have been obtained from Spain. Italy, &c, and it is intended to send over a body of Germans to undertake the wine manufacture in the best way. Sir Thomas Mitchell, well known for his explorations of the interior of Australia, says he planted cuttings on about one or two acres, and in sixteen months he had a vintage which gave him four pipes of wine. The Rhine, Claret, and Constantia grapes are those chiefly cultivated at present. The Constantia gives a sparkling dry wine of the colour of amber, instead of the usual sweet wine. The other sorts produce a kind of hock. The labourers a»e at present the chief consumers, and pay only ss. a gallon for it. Nearly three hundred acres of land were under vine cultivation about the beginning of the present year. The grapes in the neighbourhood of Perth are said to be of magnificent growth. The Zante currant is also flourishing. Another valuable article for exportation is th« sandal wood, which is ient to Singapore, wlteie it is sold, and part of it carried on to China in Chinese junks, Indigo will probably become an important article of export. Sir Thomas Mitchell layi, "I entered a plain, through which we travelled the best part of the day, covered thickly with wild indigo, so high that I had to ride upon my horse to see where I was going." The mines of Australia promise to be ot incalculable value. One gentleman examined before I the House of Lords last session, laid before the committee 20 different kinds of copper ore ; one of which included 86 per cent, of copper. South Australian copper ore sells for about £2$ per ton on the average, whilst the produce of our home mines in Devon and Cornwall do not generally exceed £8 ; some eight hundred personi from these last-named counties went in the course ot 1847 to Australia, to share in the prosperity there opening on their calling. Good lead has also been found, with ninety ounces of silver to the ton in it. Iron in abundance is beginning to b?. dis- j covered; and, also, what promises to be an almost! inexhauitible field of coal. Already, at Newcastle (fitting name 1), excellent co*l can be obtained at 7s per ton. Lastly, in the Darling range, Dr. Van Summer has fou-id mercurial ores. The chief of the mines in operation is that known as the Burra Burra in South Australia; from which, in 1847, were obtiined 4,351 tons of copper ore, valued at £94,263. The original £5 snares ot this mine are now worth about £120. Nor is all this wealth in any danger of bring deprived of a great pait of its value by the expense of transit. Water conveyance, the cheapest, will ultimately bear off to other c untries all that A. vs ti alia can spare at a moderate cost. Railways in course of time will intersect the chief habitable parts of the in tenor, and discharge their burdens into ths vessels on the coast, which is as admirable for its capacities as every other great natural feature of the continent. Thus New South Wales, from Moreton Bay to the mouth of the GleneU River, has a coast line of 1,500 miles, and along that line are found numerous roadsteads and harbours. Already villages and towns are springing thickly up at the piincipal of those, which are already known, and will soon stud the whole coast with the tokens of humau presence, industry, and civiliZition. One thing alone retards the more rapid progress of this glorious country, so bouutifully favoured by God, j and that is, the absence of the people who should use and enjoy it. Give us more labour! is still the cry that every ship brings over to the Colonial Office. For want of this, they destroy their sheep to make tallow, instead of preserving them for wool ; for want of this, agr .culture languishes where agiiculture might flourish in almost unrivalled wealth ; for want of this, they cdtinot work the mineral treaties beneath their feet. Can there be a better evidence desired, that this then is especially the country to which emigranU should go if they can ? But, as Sterne wisely Baid, I that to interest in the sufferings of captivity generally, it was bsst to show the iron entering into a single soul, so for an analogous, but happier purpose may we illus trate the prospects of intending emigrants, by an example or two. Mr. D. Maclaren, the head officer of the South Australian Company, paticuUrized, before the Lords' Committee, the following instances:— " Mr. Giles, our manager, mentioned one person who went out as a labourer with Mr. Davenport, in the year 1838 ; and when Mr. Giles wrote to me in February, 1847, he said this person had a farm, and had aC least 2 000 bushels of wheat upon it the pre ceding harvest. Another that had gone with the tame genileinan had At least 1,000 bushels of wheat grown on his own ground. I have here a letter from Mr. Giles of the 7th February, 1847, in which he says — ' Almost all the company's present tenants in the country were labourers when you left. Chandler, the Dunns, Phipers, and some of our oldest shepherds, are now worth a good deal of money. I should ssy George Dunns propeity (that is one I already named as having been * sheuueid), if sold at an auction tomorrow, would realize at least £1,000. He has three sections of land of his own. This has been made in eight years. 1 " Mr. Maclaren goes on to adduce other instances to a similar effect. Let us here add, that the same gentleman shows one of the many, and probably least favourable, modes of operation by which the labourer may thus raise himself. '• A hundred men are wanting by government at thit juncture to go upon the roads at 20s. per week. From these wages a saving person could lay by at least 10s. a week, and feed upon the bett bread and meat in the colony.*' Dr. Lang and Mr. Justice Therry gave similar testimony. Nowjlet as here put in one word of •' Justice to Ireland." It is certain, from the concurring testimony of many witnesses in Australia, and in harmony with what we know of the United States, that the Irish character is not naturally idle, and that it is the unnatural circumstances that surround it in its own country that make it appear so. Mr. Justice Therry, for instance, states that Irish labourers arc actually

preferred in some instance! ; and for what.* Why for "hard labour, for ploughing, and the ordinary agricultural labour." Perhaps of all the casei of emigrant success mentioned by the tritneisei before recent parliamentary committeei, none are more striking, or involve a deeper interest, than the instance described by Dr. Lang, in connection with the emigration of a body of workmen. We request especial attention to it, since it involves valuable experience for future legislation, and shows one of the modes in which labour may be carried out extensively, and defray itself the cost of its own passage. In 1830 Dr. Lang came to England to seek assistance from the government for an educational establishment at Sydney. A loan of j£3,500 was granted. Dr. Lang then further desired that he might expend £1,500 of the amount in taking back with him mechanics to erect the buildings, and from whose wagijs the £l,b')o wai to be returned in weekly instalments. His suit wai successful, and fiftymmilics went out. "We must tell the rest in the Doctor's own words. " Their introduction into the colony took place during the administration of Sir Richard Bourke, and it was considered quite an event in the history of the colony. They were the first freemen of the workin « classes that had ever arrived in any number in the country. They set to work vigorously and conscientiously, contributing a portion from their wages every week, as tlu-y were able. The wages of mechanical labour at that time were abaut £2 a week for carpenters and stonemasons. Provisions were very cheap at the time, and the mechanics continued to labour till almost the whole of them cleared off their debt, and established themselves in comfort in their adopted country. Some of them are now among the wealthiest men in the country ; they have almost all done well." He adds, "that they had no capital whatever; they would even have been unable to undertake the voyage for wane of clothes, or to make a decent appearance in the colony, but for the money they borrowed from, friends, which they afterwards repaid." (To be continued.)

The California Gold Mines. — Letters from California state that farther discoveries had been made in the gold regions, which yield cren a more abundant supply than the previo is digging!. According to the latest accounts the gathering amounted on the average to about 100,000 dollars daily, and was constantly increasing without apparently an exhaustion or any limit to the supply. There was a great amount of distress among the diggers from the want of the common necessaries of lite, and attended with very heavy sickness and mortality. Men loaded with gold apprared like haggard vagabands, clothed in filthy garments of the meanest kind. To show the value at which liquors are estimated, it is stated that one man, who had two barrels of brandy, sold them at the mines by the small wine glass at rates which realised him 14,000 dollars in gold. Everything, and particularly articles of food and raiment, were at most unheard of prices } for gold was so plentiful in the posiession of every one, that it seemed to have lost its value. Daily additions are being made to the numbers employed in digging. No portion of the fast flood of emigration from the United States had arrived. A paity of Mormons had collected; large quantities of gold in the neighbourhood of the Salt Lake; while on a journey one of them lost a mule with 1280 dollars' worth ot gold on its hack. The animal being frightened, ran off in the midst of a vast plain, and was irretrievably lost. A person lately returned from the "divings," states that cattle were plentiful in the country, vegetables generally scarce, and very little fruit. There was a considerable quantity of flour at Sutler's Fort, and large quantities were pouring in. He also says that he h«s read no account that at all exaggerates either the quantity or the quality of the gold. He further states that gold is found iD dry ravines as well as those covered mlh water. Persons who collect with any kind of system, amass three times the quantity of dust and ore as those who go digging anywhere do. A party of some 20 or 30 were exploring a dry ravine that led to a mountain supposed to be rich with the precious ore ; when near its base, they came suddenly upon a spot which ghtteied with gold dust and Ore, caused by the washings Aom the mountains. In an instant every man threw himself upon the ground where lay the scntteied trenture, and sprawling out his arms and legs, claimed a right to that portion of the earth. The title was regarded by each as good, and the average yield in a shoit tme was upwards of 300 dollars. Accounts received from Mazatlan inform us that vessels ha<l arrived there from California with gold, some of which had been assayed, and found to average 21 carats. Jt is stated in the New York paper* that the Government had recently received very late advices irom the gold region of such a glowing* and glittering cluracter fs even to jusiify lhe withholding the particuars from the public, Ths New York shipping lists exhibit a large number of vessels up for California, and number? were suling daily, full of passengers and goods. Messes. Rowlmd and A^penwall, of New York, are having a vessel constructed in three sections so as to be transported on shipboard to California.— w Times, 2ith January, Steam Nayigation. — Improvement in thb Screw Propeller.— We are told that Sir Thomas Mitchell, before he left London, had made successful experiments on a method of propelling through water by a screw, wh'ch avoids the lateral resistance offered to all existing application of the instrument, and left behind him instructions for a patent, which is now complete. Sir Thomas exp( cts great things from this construction ; no less, we understand, than a performance of five hundred miles a-day for large steamers. Tha results are incalculable if this prove go. The sea will be no more an obstacle than the dry land. The wave will nlrnost beat the rail. Thirty days from Sydney, for instance, will bring that most remote of our colon'es, comparatively speaking, nearly home. We shall soon (hear more of Sir Thomas]Mitchell's instrument, " if it can put a giidle round about the earth, "at any rate of conjuring.— Atlien&Utn, Dec. 2. Skrmon Extraordinart. — On Sunday evening next, a sermon will be preached at Hampton- in-Arden Church, and on the morning of the same day at St. Martin's Church, and in the evening at St. Thomsn'i Church, Birmingham, " On the merciful and kind treatment to all dumb animals, but more especially that of the hone," by the appointment of the Governors of the Free Grammar School of King Edward VI. in Birmingham, as trustees under the will of the late Thomas Ingram, Esq., of Ticknell, near Bewdley, who, by his will, directed " that on Monday previous to the preaching of such sermon, notice thereof should be inserted in the Birmingham Gazette, requesting the masters of families to direct their servants having the care of their horses to attend divine service on that day. '—Dec. 9. The Queen has presented to two brothers, Thomas and Francis Bullock, working men at Cheadle Staffordshire, a sum of £\O, to enable them to publish a work which i hey have jointly written, and which they have entitled " Popular Education; an antidote to juvenile delinquency, and a great security of national virtue."