第24章 CHAPTER VI(2)

You may ask,What is the opening here for young men of good birth and breeding,who have nothing but health and strength and energy for their capital?I would answer,Nothing very brilliant,still,they may be pretty sure of getting a shepherd's billet somewhere up-country,if they are known to be trustworthy.If they sustain this character,they will soon make friends,and find no great difficulty,after the lapse of a year or two,in getting an overseer's place,with from 100to 200pounds a year,and their board and lodging.They will find plenty of good investments for the small sums which they may be able to lay by,and if they are bona-fide smart men,some situation is quite sure to turn up by and by in which they may better themselves.In fact,they are quite sure to do well in time;but time is necessary here,as well as in other places.True,less time may do here,and true also that there are more openings;but it may be questioned whether good,safe,ready-witted men will not fetch nearly as high a price in England as in any part of the world.So that if a young and friendless lad lands here and makes his way and does well,the chances are that he would have done well also had he remained at home.If he has money the case is entirely changed;he can invest it far more profitably here than in England.Any merchant will give him 10per cent.for it.Money is not to be had for less,go where you will for it;and if obtained from a merchant,his 2.5per cent.commission,repeated at intervals of six months,makes a nominal 10per cent.into 15.I mention this to show you that,if it pays people to give this exorbitant rate of interest (and the current rate MUST be one that will pay the borrower),the means of increasing capital in this settlement are great.For young men,however,sons of gentlemen and gentlemen themselves,sheep or cattle are the most obvious and best investment.They can buy and put out upon terms,as I have already described.They can also buy land,and let it with a purchasing clause,by which they can make first-rate interest.Thus,twenty acres cost 40pounds;this they can let for five years,at 5s.an acre,the lessee being allowed to purchase the land at 5pounds an acre in five years'time,which,the chances are,he will be both able and willing to do.

Beyond sheep,cattle,and land,there are few if any investments here for gentlemen who come out with little practical experience in any business or profession,but others would turn up with time.

What I have written above refers to good men.There are many such who find the conventionalities of English life distasteful to them,who want to breathe a freer atmosphere,and yet have no unsteadiness of character or purpose to prevent them from doing well--men whose health and strength and good sense are more fully developed than delicately organised--who find head-work irksome and distressing,but who would be ready to do a good hard day's work at some physically laborious employment.If they are in earnest,they are certain to do well;if not,they had better be idle at home than here.Idle men in this country are pretty sure to take to drinking.Whether men are rich or poor,there seems to be far greater tendency towards drink here than at home;and sheep farmers,as soon as they get things pretty straight and can afford to leave off working themselves,are apt to turn drunkards,unless they have a taste for intellectual employments.They find time hang heavy on their hands,and,unknown almost to themselves,fall into the practice of drinking,till it becomes a habit.I am no teetotaller,and do not want to moralise unnecessarily;still it is impossible,after a few months'residence in the settlement,not to be struck with the facts I have written above.

I should be loth to advise any gentleman to come out here unless he have either money and an average share of good sense,or else a large amount of proper self-respect and strength of purpose.If a young man goes out to friends,on an arrangement definitely settled before he leaves England,he is at any rate certain of employment and of a home upon his landing here;but if he lands friendless,or simply the bearer of a few letters of introduction,obtained from second or third hand--because his cousin knew somebody who had a friend who had married a lady whose nephew was somewhere in New Zealand--he has no very enviable look-out upon his arrival.

A short time after I got up to the Rangitata,I had occasion to go down again to Christ Church,and stayed there one day.On my return,with a companion,we were delayed two days at the Rakaia:a very heavy fresh had come down,so as to render the river impassable even in the punt.

The punt can only work upon one stream;but in a heavy fresh the streams are very numerous,and almost all of them impassable for a horse without swimming him,which,in such a river as the Rakaia,is very dangerous work.Sometimes,perhaps half a dozen times in a year,the river is what is called bank and bank;that is to say,one mass of water from one side to the other.It is frightfully rapid,and as thick as pea soup.

The river-bed is not far short of a mile in breadth,so you may judge of the immense volume of water that comes down it at these times.It is seldom more than three days impassable in the punt.On the third day they commenced crossing in the punt,behind which we swam out horses;since then the clouds had hung unceasingly upon the mountain ranges,and though much of what had fallen would,on the back ranges,be in all probability snow,we could not doubt but that the Rangitata would afford us some trouble,nor were we even certain about the Ashburton,a river which,though partly glacier-fed,is generally easily crossed anywhere.