The English Agricultural Labourer in New Zealand.

A Correspondent of the Daily News, writing from Otago, in New Zealand, says:—

Foremost of the British Colonies to profit by the movement among the English agricultural labourers, begun by Mr. Joseph Arch, in 1872, was New Zealand. This colony no sooner saw the opportunity for replenishing its labour market which that agitation furnished, than it came forward with liberal offers of a free passage, worth some fifteen pounds, to able-bodied-men, to a labour field where, instead of twelve shillings a week and from ten to twelve hours of work each day, the labourer would get four times as much for 25 per cent, less toil. The result has been that in less than two years from the commencement of the "Revolt of the Field" over fifty thousand labourers were on their way to New Zealand, at a cost of more than a million pounds sterling to the Colonial Government. Letters from pioneer emigrants soon began to appear in page 34 print, and extraordinary as the inducements of the New Zealanders seemed, it soon became obvious that they had been rather under than over stated. Such were the labour exigencies of the southern colonies, that experienced agriculturalists, shepherds, ploughmen, herdsmen, and such like, became masters of the position, and the work of Mr. Arch was practically at an end. Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales were also in the market with full purses, and the English agricultural labourer had a wide choice of new fields of labour.

Having, however, as your correspondent, accompanied Mr. Arch in his journey through Canada in 1873, and having found myself compelled to report somewhat unfavourably of the position of that colony at that time as an emigration field for the agricultural labourer, I was desirous to see for myself what this new field really offered to the emigrant agriculturist. What are the facts as seen by an English eye? How do the labourers fare in their far-off homes? These are questions in which all are interested, whatever be the views they entertain as to the hopes which draw such multitudes towards the Southern Cross. In the autumn, I therefore left England for New Zealand, with a view to obtain satisfactory evidence on these points, and after a fine voyage of some eight weeks, including a several days' stoppage at Melbourne, I found myself in New Zealand. The Otago province had absorbed a large proportion of English immigrants, and thither I first directed my steps. At the extreme southern boundary of the south island is the new town of Invercargill, which is reached by a railroad from the Bluff, one of the Otago seaports. I found in this rising place a spacious building set apart for the use of immigrants, and on inquiring of the manager as to the ordinary success of the various shiploads of labourers who found their way to his refuge, I learned that nothing could be more complete. Every efficient labourer and every decent girl obtained employment at once, and the wages were invariably in excess of those stated by the Government prospectus. Such was the demand on every hand for labour, that builders, farmers, and others were at their wit's end to know how to obtain the requisite help. And as I looked all around me and saw a fine town emerging from a whilom wilderness, and innumerable acres of fertile land await- page 35 ing the labour of the tiller, I had no difficulty in believing the report. It is difficult to realise the varied industries called into existence by a new township. Hunting up information, I button-holed a decent man in charge of a horse and cart. It was his own, and he found his work in carrying parcels, luggage, &c., to and from the railway. "And what do you nett by the process?" I asked of the good-natured fellow. "Oh, about a pound a day, sir," was his reply. Another, with the appearance of a mechanic, I managed to lay hold of who had been out about five years. "Was he satisfied?" "Rather!" was his reply; and in conversation I elicited the fact that he was on his way to independence. "For instance," said he, with a pleasant frankness, unlike what one usually looks for from men of his class at home, "I have just completed a five weeks' job, and, after paying all expenses, my clear profits amount to £23, which I have put in the bank." His ambition was to get a quarter of an acre town lot of land to build himself a house upon; and in all probability in the course of a few years he will have his house and garden and be to all intents and purposes a successful well-to-do man. This young town of Invercargill is laid out somewhat ambitiously, and I have no doubt its manhood will fulfill the promise of its youth. "With the view of meeting what appears to be the chief difficulty of the new comers—the want of house accommodation—a large amount of land in the immediate neighbourhood of the town is divided into quarter of an acre sections, and workmen are encouraged by the aid of building societies to erect houses of their own. Their high wages enable them to meet the monthly payments with ease, and as a matter of fact, as in the case of my artisan friend before referred to, many are availing themselves of the opportunity, and thus cultivating habits of thrift which will almost certainly result in social ease and prosperity. It is amusing to notice the strong Conservatism which is generated by success. The defunct protectionism of England bids fair to be reproduced in the Colonies. The most repulsive form which it assumes is an intense antagonism to Chinese immigration. The Australian continent is just now in a state of violent excitement on the subject. English and Scotch settlers see in the patient and thrifty Chinese toilers formidable competitors, and are exerting every page 36 possible influence to drive the Chinese out of the labour market. Scarcely less lamentable is the growing desire to discourage English manufactures by high protective duties. Another significant fact is the outcry raised by men who were only yesterday penniless refugees on the Australian continent against the democratic tendencies of their Governments. Prosperous ignoramuses grow almost fierce in denouncing the monstrosity of giving a vote to a poor emigrant "without any stake in the country." I have conversed with scores of them, and their political discourse is worthy of an old-fashioned Tory. I hardly know of a better illustration of what the "English labourer in New Zealand" may become than what came under my eye to-day. On board our steamer was an elderly New Zealand farmer. Some thirty years ago he was at work on a Yorkshire farm at 15s. per week. His employer wanted to reduce his wages to 12s. Being evidently a man of spirit and energy, he resisted the reduction, and elected to try his fortunes in New Zealand. His position to-day is that of a considerable landed proprietor, owning a fine and well-stocked farm, able to take his wife on a visit to England, and while there to make an offer of £7,000 for his old employer's farm. Had he accepted the 12s. his position to-day would probably have been that of a worn-out labourer in the parish workhouse while his wife was in the women's ward. As I sit opposite to him in our fine saloon and see him cheerfully accepted as the social equal of all around, I feel that Mr. Arch's eloquence would be nothing to the silent force of of such a history could it be but laid bare before the working men of England.

On the whole I must say that my first impressions of New Zealand as an emigration field for Englishmen are highly favourable. The climate is so near akin to their own that no difficulty of acclimatization is ever felt. Good wholesome food is cheap and abundant. School accommodation is second to none in the world. The demand for labour is such that nothing but their own folly can prevent any mechanics, field workers, or other industrious men from rising in the social scale. The craving for land ownership can be easily satisfied, and all fear of the workhouse may be forever laid aside. In a word, New Zealand—and almost the same might be said of the page 37 Australian continent—offers so splendid an alternative to the hard-pressed toiler, trader, or mechanic of England, that all excuse for "capital and labour" conflicts is gone. If any further rural agitation is heard of, it will be of the masters' wrongs, and the "Arch" of such a movement could not do better than urge his followers to imitate their labourers, and start for this land of Goshen. I am now on my way to Dunedin, of which I hear praises on every hand.

A correspondent of the Daily News writes from Wellington, New Zealand:—

We steamed into Port Chalmers, Otago, on the morning of the day before Christmas day, and a more enchanting piece of scenery I never witnessed. The excessive moisture of Otago imparts a freshness and luxuriance to vegetation which reminds an Englishman of home. Nor is there much to disturb the illusion when he mingles with the inhabitants. Everything looks like home—the bustle, the business enterprise, the air of prosperity, the noble churches, the healthy look of the people,—and the rain. As everyone knows, Dunedin, the capital of Otago, and about seven miles from the port by rail, is emphatically a Scotch town. The "Macs" are everywhere in force—hence, I suppose the wonderous prosperity of the place. I never visited a town with more signs of progress and general comfort. Labour seemed everywhere in demand, and the poor did not seem to be with them at all. When unskilled labour commands higher wages than thous-ands of Englishmen of high culture can get, poverty is out of the question. Among the most interesting institutions of the town was a workman's club—a large, well-situated building, with reading rooms, billiard tables, a library, sittings rooms, and a restaurant, where all kinds of cheap food could be obtained. In one of the suburbs a large immigrant's home has been erected, where, free of charge, the fortunate possessors of strong arms and weatherproof constitutions go straight from the emigrant ships, and live well till they obtain employment. Happy toilers! Here is realised their dream of prosperity—"eighthours' work, eight hours' sleep, eight hours' play, and eight shillings a page 38 day." Skilled labour commands a much higher price. Good masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, and mechanics generally get from twelve to fifteen shillings per day. In almost any paper you take up you will find advertisements for men, offering these wages. For instance, in one now lying open before me I find the following:—"Notice.—Wanted, 60 good pick and shovel men; wages 9s. per day.—Apply, &c." The day of course meant eight hours only. £150 for four months' work! and such work as tens of thousands of men in England are quite capable of doing who are now threatened with a reduction of 3d. or 4d. per day from their half-crown. Nor is this the whole of the case. Workwomen are at a still higher premium. I found outside the door of a "Labour Exchange" in Dunedin the following list of wants:—"Five Dairy Girls, ages £35 and £40 a year; seven Hotel Girls, £40 and £52; 27 Experienced Servants, £30 to £60." On enquiry at this "Exchange" I learnt that over 19,000 persons had found employment through its agency during the last five years. The pay of a woman for a day's work at a house is 4s. and food. Large-familied men are specially to be congratulated. I came upon one who brought out some half-score of boys and girls about a year ago. I knew him well in England, and what a hard struggle it was to keep the wolf from the door. I had long urged upon him the desirableness of taking his family—

"Where children are blessings, and he who hath most Hath aid to his fortune and riches to boast."

But it was a "far cry" to New Zealand, and it was not till the autumn of 1877 that the centrifugal forces gained the day. His experience had gone far beyond my most sanguine anticipations. Before he had been three months in the colony the collective earnings of himself and family exceeded £8 per week. I hope this fact will come with all the force of a new gospel to many an over-familied man in England. I am sure it would if I could put into words the exuberance of self-satisfaction with which the youngsters announced their independence of their parents' pocket. One of the lads puts a sovereign into his mother's hands every Saturday as his contribution towards the domestic expenditure. A girl not yet eighteen years old has ten pounds already in the savings' bank and "dresses like a lady." It only needs adding as a finish to the picture page 39 that I saw hanging up at a butcher's door sundry fore-quarters of lamb, weighing about eight pounds, with the price ticketed on, "2s. 6d. each." The school accommodation, as is generally known is in every way satisfactory in all our Colonies. The universal rule appears to be this—every householder pays a pound a year towards the educational department, and his children, be they many or few, become free of the school. Any deficiency of income is a charge upon the State. I know something of rural England, and of the terrible exigencies of existence there in former years; and as I contrast the happy, contented, well-fed, and well-dressed appearance of the New Zealand settlers' children, with the squalid, dejected and ragged urchins with whom I was familiar, I feel thankful that such a door of hope has been flung open, and only wonder that where ten families now emigrate hitherwards, there are not at least a hundred. On board a coast steamer the other day I met a man who some twenty years ago was a struggling country wheelwright in England. He came to New Zealand, and today he owns over a thousand acres of fertile land, and is rich enough to take a voyage to the old country and buy there an expensive marble monument for a lost child.

We steamed into Port Lyttleton on the day after Christmas Day, and from thence I visited the pride of all good Churchmen—the ecclesiastical city of Christ church. A railway—carried by a tunnel, costing half a million sterling, through the huge mountains which encircle the bay—runs from the port some sixty miles into the province, and some seven or eight miles along this line is Christchureh Station. I have seen nothing so thoroughly English as the farms and homesteads all along the route. English grass, English hedges, English faces, and English order everywhere. The first thing that met me on leaving the station, was a troop of eight hundred school children just off for a holiday. I stood and watched them pass by, and I did not see one ill-clad or ill-fed looking child among them. The town or city is not at all picturesque, as the whole neighbourhood is as flat as Lincolnshire. Immensely profitable, however, is the unpicturesque region, and fortunate settlers, who few years ago, became owners of two four or six hundred acre sections of the land at a nominal price, are to-day proprietors of valuable page 40 farms. As many as eighty bushels of wheat to the acre have been grown, and the only drawback to the prosperity of the place is the dearth of labour, and its consequent high cost. With wheat at only 4s. per bushel, farmers grumble sadly at having to pay 10s. per day of eight hours to their labourers. "Necessity is the mother of invention," and a new "self-binding harvester" has appeared for their relief. By means of one of these ingenious machines, a farmer can cut down and harvest about 15 acres per day. With the growing wealth of the district, there is, however, a growing power of employing even dear labour, and hence the facility with which large consignments of English emigrants are distributed. I saw in a paper to-day, the reply of a German official to an urgent application for immigrants from Taranaki. He writes: "We have none to spare from other places; all are clamouring for more immigrants." This is very significant, and should set at rest the idle reports of interested parties as to the numbers of men out of work in New Zealand. I have taken some pains to trace out the origin of such reports, and I find them to emanate from colonial failures, men who never ought to have come. Too often the old country has acted towards her colonies as if she had read a notice on their seaboard, "Rubbish shot here." Many of the immigrants cannot work. Instead of wondering that so many evil reports reach homo respecting colonial life, the mystery is that there are no more.

Leaving Port Lyttleton by a small coast steamer, we reached Wellington in about twenty-four hours, passing through much highly romantic scenery. Standing out in the bay, a few miles from shore, I noticed a large sailing vessel, and soon found it was the Hermione, an emigrant vessel belonging to Shaw, Savill & Co., in quarantine through fever on board. The quay at Wellington indicated the importance of the place as a leading outlet of the North Island. Intense bustle prevailed, and acres of landing space were filled with all descriptions of merchandise. I soon had painful experience of Wellington's excessive windiness. It was almost unendurable. A steam-driven tram-car, however, is ever accessible, and few people walk the streets during the heavier gales. There is little worthy of note in the town, and one wonders what page 41 were its claims to be made the seat of government. On enquiry as to the prospects of English emigrants there, I found it no exception to the rule. Work seemed everywhere in excess of workers, and no man, able and willing to use muscles or skill, need remain idle. I ought, perhaps, to qualify this uniform testimony as to the demand for labour with the fact that this period of my visit, being of course the early summer, is necessarily the busiest time of the whole year. I think it highly probable that during the winter the excess may sometimes be on the other side, but, unlike Canada, winter in New Zealand has no terrors for the unemployed, and what is much more important, it has no terrors for the employers. Building can go on all the year long, and the actual number of men thrown out of employ must be far less in proportion than during an English winter. An obstacle to the progress of the town, is the large proportion of native population. It is all very fine to theorise about the noble savage, and I had read a strange lot of nonsense in England about the fine New Zealanders. Alas! for the nobility and grandeur. A dirty, squalid, unimprovable, and intolerably ugly generation are they, and the sooner they are all translated to the happy hunting grounds above or below, the better will it be for universal humanity. On the South Island they are nearly extinct, and hence a Dunedin and a Christchurch, but here in the North Island they bar the way to improvement. I learnt that a number of the English emigrants on board the Hermione, before referred to, were bound for Taranaki, and would go by a steamer the following day. I therefore resolved to accompany them as far as my next port, Nelson. I am glad to be able to testify that the appearance of these emigrants—mostly agriculturists from the West of England—was highly creditable to their nationality, and, although I heard complaints of their treatment on board in the matter of food, &c., I must say their looks betokened anything but semi-starvation.