Twelve Years' Wanderings in the British Colonies, from 1835 to 1847

Chapter I

Origin of the settlement — Climate — Produce — Inhabitants and soil ...... 47—62

Chapter II

Early trade of New Zealand — Whaling and Whalers — Causes of the failure of colonization on an extensive scale — Number of white population ..... 63 — 86

Chapter III

Prospects of New Zealand— Its advaniages and disadvantages for immigration — Market price of food, &c. . • 87 — VI CONTENTS. NEW SOUTH WALES. CHAFsER I. New South Wales — Its discovery — Colonization — Progress — Population — Increase of stock, sheep, cattle and horses — Imports and exports — Revenue — Shipping .... 97 — 123

CHAPTER II.

Sydney — Its population — Religion — Corporation — Environs — Public Houses — Buildings and gardens — Police-office . . 124 — 147

CHAPTER III.

Towns of New South Wales — Mode of government — Land system — Squatting ..... 148—200

Chapter IV

Labour in New South Wales, convict and free — Produce — Climate — State of society— Banking system . . . 201 — 257 CHAFsER V. Punishment of convicts in New South Wales and the Penal settlements — Aborigines — Conclusion and remarks . . 258 — 292 AUSTRALIA FELIX; OR, PORT PHILLIP.

Chapter IV

The press— Causes of the ill success of many of the original emigrants to Port Phillip — Prospects of the colony and its natural capabilities ...... 411—431 TWELVE YEARS' WANDERINGS IN THE BRITISH COLONIES. GENERAL REMARKS ON EMIGRATION. At no period has emigration ever occupied a greater share of public attention, than it is likely to do during the year 1848. Acknowledged in the past Session of Parliament as a measure of great importance towards the amelioration of the position of the lower classes, particularly amongst the Irish, it is almost certain to be largely promoted by ministerial measures during the Session of 1848. Yet, although for years past, thousands on thousands have annually left the shores of Great Britain and Ireland, to seek a home in distant climes, it is a fact, but too well established, that the greater portion of those who have thus left their native soil, have done so without being in the least acquainted with the real condition and prospects of the land which they have chosen for their future home, in order to better their condition.

From time to time a rage or mania has prevailed for emigration to different places, as circumstances or the VOL. I. B writings of individuals— too frequently interested — have attracted attention to them. One year Canada, another the Western States of America, then South Australia, New South Wales, New Zealand, each in rotation ; again, Canada and the States have been, and are now, the chief points. " Anywhere is better than home," is too frequently the saying of the intending emigrant, who often cares little for, and knows less of, the country to which he is bound, being at the time too well satisfied at escaping from the harassing competition in every profession, trade and calling, experienced at home. The die once cast, it is almost impossible to recal it, so if the climate, habits or prospects of the place do not suit the immigrant, change is generally out of the question ; and a course thus adopted in ignorance, is mourned in expe rience, and expiated by continued struggles through life, or an early death from the effects of the climate.

Of these facts, thousands of well authenticated instances exist ; and not one seat of immigration, either under the dominion of the United States, or the jurisdiction of the British Crown, but could furnish too many examples of persons who if they had taken time for consideration, and decided with prudence on their proper place of destination, through its adaptability to their own position and means, might have become prosperous and happy members of the society amongst which they cast their lot, instead of being a burthen to the community and a bar to its pros perity. It is with the desire of affording general information with regard to the manners, habits, customs, and prospects of the many seats of immigration, together with particulars of the climate, rates of wages, and value of property in each, that the author offers the following observations.

The knowledge communicated and the facts explained, are not collected from the information of others, but are the results of personal experience, the author having travelled and dwelt in almost every British colony under the Crown, as well as in various parts of the United States of America . Almost every similar work that has been published, separately treats of one country or colony, to which the knowledge of the writer is confined. Of that alone he necessarily treats, that alone he holds forth as the most advisable and judicious place for the emigrant to proceed to. There, it generally happens, his lot is cast ; perhaps his family is settled ; there, all he possesses being invested in his new home, the prospects of the place are identical with his own ; labour is capital in a new or thinly peopled country, and that, for his own benefit, he seeks to draw to his abode.

Induced by cheering representations, others incon siderately follow in his steps.. They find too late that they have chosen a country unsuited to them ; they have landed in a distant clime with ideas foreign to it, with prejudices or opinions which take time to eradicate ; so that if they originally possess means, these vanish before they become perfectly conscious of the realities passing around them. The habits and prejudices of old settled countries, are, most generally, sad bars to success in new ones; to be successful as an immigrant or colonist, caution, some expe rience, energy, perseverance and industry are absolutely necessary. The comforts of "home" must, at least for a B time, be given up ; and all classes of persons, to secure ultimate success as colonists or settlers, should be fully prepared to endure privation and fatigue of no slight description ; it may be their lot to find their bed at the foot of some giant tenant of a vast forest, or within the walls of a hut, through which the chill blasts of winter penetrate, as well as the summer sun's scorching rays.

At present, there is scarce a colony under the British Crown, which does not swarm with half-pay, or retired, officers of the army, or navy ; they are to be found amidst the forests of New Brunswick, and Upper Canada, and at the Antipodes in Australia, and New Zealand. From a strange idea that seems to have pervaded the policy of the British Colonial Office for years past, almost all the Governors of colonies are appointed from amongst the military and naval services; consequently, it is not surprising to see the junior branches of these services, monopolising a very great proportion of the government situations of any value in our colonies. From their habits of discipline and the ideas imbibed in their profession, it would be hard to find a class of men less fitted to fill the Legislative and Executive departments of a new and rising colony.

Their education renders them essentially unfit to direct or control the free enterprising spirit which actuates the pioneers of civilization : — military subordination is not compatible with free colonization. Nor yet is this class of persons better fitted to become settlers ; find them where you will, they are anything but successful in this capacity. In Australia particularly, although there are hundreds on hundreds of persons who have been officers in the army or navy, yet, it is a question if a dozen instances of consider able success, as settlers, can be adduced from amongst them. This is not only owing to their original habits and manners in the army ; but is in a great measure the conse quence of the ignorance with which they enter upon the new life they have embraced : neglecting, in the first in stance, before embarking upon their career, to study well, and procure every information with regard to the natural and social peculiarities of the country they have adopted.

Among the great seats of immigration, the Crown Colonies in Australia, the British possessions in North America, and the United States, are the chief. Of these, the most advisable for an emigrant, or, at least, those most in favour, are, Canada, New Brunswick, the southern and western States of America, the Cape of Good Hope, or Southern Africa, Van Dieman's Land, Swan River, South Australia, Port Phillip, or Australia Felix, New South Wales, and New Zealand. Amongst these, there is a large field for choice, for they comprise almost every description of climate and soil. South America, moreover, presents a vast extent, to many parts of which colonization might be well directed, if property and life were more secure, governments more powerful, and political revolutions less frequent there. In Chili, many thousand emigrants, natives of Great Britain or Ireland, have found a prosperous and happy home amongst the valleys at the foot of the Andes, and the result has been the improvement of their adopted land, and a vast extension of its trade through the Port of Valparaiso, now the great entrepdt on the western shores of South America.

But, liable to sudden political revolutions and to desolating earthquakes, South America does not approach many of the British colonies in advantages pre sented to the emigrant. The author will endeavour, to the best of his ability, to set forth the advantages and disadvantages of each of those great seats of immigration, their true social position, prospects, and climate, so that all intending emigrants may be the better able to come to a decision as to which is the best place for them to settle in and most suited to their means and requirements. Emigration, when conducted with prudence, is a public blessing; while it relieves the home country of superabundant members of the producing classes, it also creates a market for the produce of our looms and manu factories. It promotes the prosperity of thousands who, if they continued in their fatherland, would, from excessive competition, be merely able to eke out a miserable ex istence — ending their days, perhaps, in the receipt of public or private charity.

Such a fate as this, is, as a rule, impossible in any one of the countries before named. With no rates or taxes levied on the articles necessary for subsistence ; with land cheap because plentiful, and the produce of that land, in the shape of animal food and agricultural produce, vastly lower in price than at home ; industry cannot fail in procuring not only present means of ample support, but, with perseverance, ultimate prosperity ; so that instead of ending his life in a workhouse, the labouring emigrant in most places, in his old age, has the happiness of seeing around him his offspring prosperous and contented, freeholders of the soil on which they dwell in substantial comfort and independence. The struggle for existence of the lower and middle classes, at home, annually becomes more difficult as popu lation increases and wealth consolidates in the hands of those already rich.

The prosperity of the mass of the population is very seldom advanced in any country which encourages the growth of enormous wealth amongst a few individuals. The struggle between capital and labour then becomes unequal ; and no matter whether cotton lords, iron lords, railway lords, merchant princes, or the aristocracy of land are in the ascendant, the result is still the same : the further centralization of wealth amongst those already in possession of it. Free trade in corn may at present, and even for the future, lead to cheap bread, which will enable the producer to exist on a lower scale of pay, but cannot materially reduce the price of animal food, and those other articles of general use which the masses have brought themselves to consider absolute necessaries. Consequently, as the price of meat increases, it gradually becomes out of the power of the mechanic or labourer to obtain it ; his scale of diet is thus compressed, former wants are becoming luxuries, and as population and competition increase, all that will be attainable will be the cheapest articles of human food sufficient to prolong the thread of life, and enable him for weary years to bear his manual toil.

Who then, with those facts before them, would or should hesitate to seek in emigration better hopes and prospects, and a country where the proprietary of soil is not confined to certain classes, or the food of man, bestowed by a benevolent Providence, consumed only by the rich ? But even in the remedy suggested, there are evils, when not carried out with prudence and foresight. An over-extensive system of emigration to any one place may produce the very evils from which the voyager is flying ; disease and death at sea from over-crowded, badly ventilated ships, are also too often the fate of the emigrant, and too much caution cannot be exercised in guarding against such contingencies. Resolved on with care, and a knowledge of your adopted land, a determination to emigrate should be carried out with system and discretion, and to that end the writer will endeavour to direct the reader.

It is not every description of persons that would profit by emigration. There are classes and individuals who had much better remain at home, if they can obtain a living there. In many of the colonies, young medical and other professional men are to be found in great excess, and con sequently disappointment, misfortune and want are their lot, until absolute necessity compel them to become "drawers of water and hewers of wood" in the true meaning of the words. The writer has in numberless instances met men, who could eloquently quote law authorities and descant on medicine, employed in " felling and burning off," or watching sheep and driving bullocks ; law, medicine, or classics, have but few patrons in new countries. Clerks, or men who have received a middling education, and have been employed in the counting-houses of merchants or shop-keepers at home, are very much too apt to surrender the comforts and advantages they enjoy, to take the chance of high salaries, and what is sanguinely thought, certain success, in the colonies.

As a general ride, clerks, with the sober, steady, matter-of-rote ideas they imbibe at the desk, are not a class of men at all suited, either to advance them selves, or promote the interests of new colonies. Besides, the demand for their services is always so much less than the supply is capable of meeting, that the rate of remuneration is always low when employment can be obtained. The principal reason that renders employment for men of education, as assistants or clerks, so limited, admits of easy explanation. There does not exist in any colony, those extensive mercantile concerns, manufacturing establishments, or large shops that require such numerous assistants as at home. A merchant or a shop-keeper in a colony, is generally able to transact his own business, or find within his immediate family the means of doing so, as far as accounts are concerned ; and if he should require assistants, he is but too likely to seek them amongst those born in the colony, or from those who have resided in it some time, as from local knowledge they are much more likely to suit him.

In all old communities where aggregate wealth is considerable, the professional or educated man or clerk without capital is likely to find a market and demand for what is to him his capital, viz. : his profession or education ; but in a new colony there is but little chance for him. Professional men, no doubt, in some instances, succeed extremely well in the colonies ; but these form the exception, and not the rule ; connexion, capital, great talents and enterprizing character, may raise them to comparative wealth and respectability, but the field is limited, competition extreme. Clerks also, no doubt, in some few instances, from fortuitous circumstances, have succeeded in getting large salaries, but this is indeed seldom. More frequently, although remuneration for labour may be in a particular colony extremely high, yet the clerk does not benefit by it : he is but too often rated below even the labourer, and not paid so well.

The writer has been in colonies, at periods, when a clerk could be obtained for thirty shillings a week, while six shillings a day was paid to common labouring men or thirty-six shillings a week. It may be said: why should not the clerk then turn to labour ? but this is not of such easy accomplishment. Will the man, perhaps, with a delicate and refined wife and family, willingly surrender old habits, the accustomed mode of obtaining his livelihood, or consent to submit to menial toil, " work," in its true sense, delving or ploughing the earth, unless starvation compel him? Will the educated man find happiness and contentment amongst such an ignorant body of companions as labourers in the colonies usually are — had he not better remain at home if he have any kind of a prospect of obtaining a livelihood for himself and his family?

Let him, if he will, bring his children up to industry and enterprise, and when of a suitable age ship them off, on their own hands, for the colonies or Western America; they may accomplish what he could not. It should be always kept in view by those intending to emigrate, that on bidding adieu to the shores of Britain, they must leave behind them for years to come, those comforts and luxuries they may have been accustomed to. Privation, as far as regards " comforts" must be submitted to by all, even the wealthiest emigrants ; money can not procure what they have left behind in emigrating. On the other hand, with industry, the fee-simple of the soil on which they live may be theirs, and all the neces saries of life are to be had immeasurably cheaper than at home in any colony or general seat of immigration ; no poor-house stares the decayed person in the face ; plentiful food can in most colonies always be obtained for labour.

Tradesmen and mechanics are not unfrequently much astray in choosing a country to settle in, or in fact in emigrating at all. The demand for them in the colonies or new countries, such as the backwoods of Canada or the Western States, is always limited; in fact, many trades are not at all required amongst newly formed communities. Those principally in requisition are, carpenters, joiners, wheelwrights, masons, bricklayers, blacksmiths, shoemakers and tailors. Yet shoemakers and tailors have always to compete with imported slop goods, which much lessens the demand for their services. Compositors, upholsterers, painters, glaziers, engineers, coopers, cabinet-makers, plasterers, millers, cut lers, and numerous other trades, gradually follow in the steps of the first named. They are only wanted where collective communities are formed : a plasterer, upholsterer or pain ter's services, are not required very often in a log hut or bush wooden-house.

Tradesmen possess facilities of emigration that are entirely out of the reach of the labouring classes, and are consequently too often to be found in the colonies in disproportion to the wants of the community. Previous to the year 1840, such was the demand that existed for mechanics and journeymen of all kinds of trade, in the Australian colonies, that extremely high wages were paid in consequence, and the most flattering accounts were forwarded to Great Britain and Ireland, to induce such persons to emigrate. At that period, carpenters, joiners, and masons, were receiving in Sydney ten to twelve shillings a day. In Port Phillip it was still higher ; carpenters were there, in many instances, receiving one pound per day ; and it was no wonder they represented eagerly to their friends at home the El Dorado they had found.

Adelaide also paid equally high for tradesmen's labour. The consequence may easily be foreseen. The bounty system which gave free passage to these colonies was then being carried out to a large extent ; and although a government regulation precluded free passages being afforded to more than a certain proportion of trades and crafts, yet this qualification was easily evaded, and an immense proportion of this class, in comparison with agricultural labourers or shepherds, introduced. They left England nominally as shepherds or labourers, but on arrival in the colonies, soon appeared in their true capacity. This was in addition to many who had legiti mately gone out, paying their own passage, and such became the supply, that in 1843, the author saw hundreds of tradesmen and mechanics employed on the streets of Sydney and Melbourne, (the former the capital of New South Wales, the latter of Australia Felix), at one shilling per day wages.

Thousands at the same period, including persons of every trade and craft, even carpenters and masons (who were in most general employment), petitioned the legislature, to assist them in removing from colonies where they could not obtain work, and to which they had been seduced by false statements, contained in pamphlets and books, many of which were published with the sanction of the authorities at home, and extracts from them actually made use of by Emigration Agents, to induce them to leave their homes. But four years have elapsed since the author has seen the approaches to Government House at Sydney so thronged with an excited mass of disappointed, unemployed immi grants of the above class, venting their reproaches on the Government who had aided in alluring them to a place where they could obtain no work, that the military had to be held in readiness to disperse, if necessary, with the bayonet, those very individuals on whom so much trouble and money had been spent to bring them to the colonies.

These examples should act as a warning and check on every mechanic or journeyman, and induce him to decide well before he emigrates to any colony or new country. Imagine the change that many individuals of this class were at that period subjected to, in the fertile and productive settlement of Port Phillip ! Such was the demand for labour in the year 1 840, that employers had to beg of carpenters, in many cases, to come and work for them at sixteen shillings to one pound per day ; whilst in 1843, carpenters and other tradesmen had to beg employment on the streets at one shilling per day, and at that rate even it could only be obtained, if they were able to show that a large family of children depended on them for support ! These are facts that cannot be controverted. In 1843 and the beginning of 1844, nearly three thousand persons, chiefly tradesmen and mechanics, actually left Sydney alone for the West Coast of South America, principally for Valparaiso and Lima.

Greater part of those persons had been introduced into New South Wales, by funds derived from the Crown Lands, so their labour being lost, by departure for other countries, the colony derived no actual benefit from the expenditure of so large a sum of money drawn from their pockets as the introduction of such a number of persons must have required. Yet that very Port Phillip and Sydney, from whence so many tradesmen and mechanics had to depart through want of employment, or any prospect of it, in 1843 and 1844, are now clamouring loudly for mechanics and labourers of all kinds, holding forth long lists of persons required, and the rates of wages attainable by such ; this, too, in the very places where, three years since, one shilling a day on the public streets was procured with difficulty.

These facts too plainly exhibit a total want of system in emigration as carried out at present, and without well matured plans, no extensive scale of national or private emigration can ever be successful ; the same scenes that took place in 1 843, in the Australian colonies, will constantly be recurring. What does a Port Phillip paper of March, 1847, say? and how strongly does the fact exhibit deplorable mis management in the previous Government of these colonies, and the conduct of emigration thither ? "A fortnight since, a settler named Allen, from the Western Port district, endeavoured to engage labour in Melbourne. The wages he offered were one guinea per week, three months constant employment, with flour, mutton, beef, and tea and sugar ad libitum, to supply the personal wants of the labourer.

He was unable to procure on these terms a single hand ; the objections, how ever ludicrous they were and may appear, are as follows : — One fellow refused to engage, because his oatmeal (which he preferred to flour) would not be boiled in new milk ; and another, because a portion of his rations would be fresh beef instead of mutton. Such examples are worth a thousand essays. We do not consider we can more appro priately conclude these remarks, than by subjoining a table of the current rates of wages in the colony." The Editor then proceeds to lay a statement before his readers, by which it would appear that journeymen of all kinds of trades, and mechanics, are in receipt of wages varying from six to nine shillings per day, with full employment, whilst shepherds, stockmen and labourers receive from £25 to £35 per annum, besides full support ; female servants are set down at £25 ; male servants £30 per annum ; men and their wives £45 ; and grooms £70, all with support.

What a contrast does this not offer to Canada and our North American possession, flooded with thousands of half-starved diseased Irish, seeking a place of refuge from their fatherland ! Upwards of 50,000 emigrants landed in Canada last year, previously to the end of July, a space of little more than four months, from the opening of the St. Lawrence, at the commencement of spring. Thus, the labour-market became over-burthened, and the remuneration of those who had been some time in these colonies was reduced con siderably. Yet Canada possesses peculiar facilities, owing to the cheapness of land and the small farm system, for absorbing all the labour that is thrown into it ; but, with all these, without system, immigration in these countries as well as in others, becomes at times an evil instead of a blessing.

One year too great a supply of labour in a particular place, the next none ; at one time any remuneration for work done, at another no work to be got, but what may be obtained by petition on the roads or streets, at the lowest possible scale of pay. All this exemplifies equally to the capitalist, tradesman, mechanic, or labourer, the necessity of inquiring carefully, and resolving with prudence before he decides on any par ticular place to emigrate to. The man of money will soon cease to be a capitalist, if he settles in a colony or country where he has to pay more for gathering his crops, or tending his flocks, or clearing his land, than the returns will justify ; continued trenching on the principal, will, before long, absorb it all. The tradesman and mechanic will, in all probability, have to deplore the hour when the comforts and employ ment of fatherland were left behind, if they bend their steps towards a colony, whither a mania for emigration has set in ; excessive competition may, and does at times exist in new as well as old countries, and they may there fore be for years perfectly unable to obtain that employ ment and remuneration they seek, or which they left at home.

The labourer even should exercise a sound discretion in his choice ; although in his case, any removal from home must benefit himself and his family, because in a new colony mere labour must be more valuable than in old countries, where the bare necessaries of life are all that this class can obtain. Yet, although it is easy to recommend inquiry, prudence, and information, before any person resolves to cast his lot for life in any particular land, and abandon home, the author is but too well aware of the difficulty that has existed in procuring ample and correct information with respect to any stated place. In all new countries and colonies, the local press, which must be the great source of information, is so certain to magnify everything connected with its own locality, that, as a general rule, but little dependence can be placed on what it advances, and particularly on the tabular statements of wages it from time to time publishes.

It may seem strange that a respectable journal should advance statements, open to contradiction on the spot, but to those who know the colonies well, it is an ascertained fact, that such is con tinually done, and persevered in with impunity. Where all are equally interested in pushing a new country or colony, few will be found to find fault with the pen that exaggerates, or paints in vivid colours, the position and prospects of their adopted land. Besides, individual cases may and do exist in many colonies, where tradesmen, mechanics, and others are in receipt of very high wages, but under particular circumstances. At the same time, in the same colony, there are frequently numbers of persons of the same trade or calling, who can absolutely procure vol. I. c no employment whatsoever ; there is no need of them ; yet the local papers of the place publish a table of wages, setting down all at the maximum price that perhaps, a few individuals are obtaining, when others are totally idle.