The Press. — London, England, 1857-05-16 00:00:00

486 a new country without friends, home, or resources, and plunged thent into a contest with difficulties and dangers to which their hardest struggles in Europe were an agree able stimulant. The real history of a middle class colonist's life would be instructive. We should then learn for the first time what " colonial experience " really means. In this sketch of New Zealand we are bound to say that so far as the physical description of the country Mr. Hursthouse has, ou the whole, acted with greater impartiality than we expected. Witness his opinion upon the climate : Feminine superlatives, such as " nicest," " fittest," "loveliest," "sweetest," have been so lavished on it as to have obscured its true character, and its real unquestion• able merits. In the sense in which we use such terms as fine serene climate, there are many climates equal to that of New Zealand. Nay, if we limit the comparison to any one special month or season, we may perhaps find climates which, partially, are even finer. I have never experienced any month in New Zealand equal in settled splendour, and sunny serenity, to the Indian summer of America. I should fancy there is no entire season in New Zealand equal to the luxurious softness and young bri'liancy of an Italian spring; and perhaps no whole month equal to a fine old English June. There is too much cloudy windy weather in New Zealand to entitle us to say that it has a sunny, serene climate ; and the southern coasts are subject to storms of cold rain and furious wind (" Southerly liursters "), which are probably equal in their way to any in the world. Nevertheless, the climate of New Zealand is substan• tially a good climate ; and has been not so much over praised as badly praised. More frost, less wind and rain, would make it perfection ; but, as it is, all this may truly be said of it :—That it is a climate favourable alike to the preservation of robust health and to the improvement of weak health ; a climate most congenial to all pastoral and agricultural pursuits; one in which every English domestic animal thrives and fattens; and in which every English grain, grass, fruit and flower attains full development and perfection. Again, in drawing a comparison between the climates of England and New Zealand, he writes : Two considerations must be borne in mind:—the first, that all which is bad and disagreeable in the one is felt; whereas, owing to the appliances and contrivances of high civilisation, half which is bad and disagreeable in the other is not felt: the second, that we are speaking of the New Zealand climate in its "rude-primeval state," not in its " art improved " state. No art can make a bad climate good ; but art can make any climate better. The cultiva tion of a new country materially improves its climate. I).inip and dripping forests, exhaling pestilent vapours from rank and rotten vegetation, fall before the axe ; and light and air get in and sunshine, ripening goodly plants. Fea and marsh and swamp, the bittern's dank domains, fertile only in miasma, are drained ; and the plough con• verts them into wholesome plains of fruit and grass and grain. From this we may reasonably gather that " damp and dripping forests, exhaling pesti " lential vapours," &c., do more or less exist in the islands, and that though the climate be now comparatively good, it will require settle ment and cultivation before it becomes posi. tively healthy. There is no doubt that New Zealand is as wet as Australia is dry. New Zealand abounds in rivers, brooks, lakes, and springs ; rain falls incessantly ; and one point argued so strongly in its favour, viz., the beauty of the landscape from the perpetual verdure, is proof palpable of heavy rains and heavier dews throughout the year. Possessed of a light. porous soil, and without fens, this perpetual moisture is not, on the whole, so in jurious in New Zealand as it would be over the stiff clays of some of our counties. Then for seasons, the spring and summer of New Zealand are very like the disagreeable spring and the tolerable summer of England ; while for a type of its winter, we may select that agreeable month—a wet and windy March. But, apart from its doubtful climate, New Zealand certainly offers peculiar advantages to the emigrant. It has a light but prolific soil, and though without the vast grazing plains of Australia, ityet possesses that variety of hill and valley, high tableland, and noble plain, more or less wooded and well watered, so essential to a country which will, in all probability, for years to come, depend for its future prosperity, not so much upon its mineral wealth as on the full eevelopment of its pastoral and agri cultural resources. Yet, in the face of these favourable circumstances, the Australian dig. gings prove ruinous rivals to the mere advan tages of soil which New Zealand at present alone can offer to the emigrant. The innate love of speculation carries a man, despite his THE PRESS. butter sense, to Bendigo or Ballarat,to dis cover, when he has lost his last sixpence, that gold•digging is but an indifferent investment, and that he might have done infinitely better with his money if he had bought a few hun dred acres of land in New Zealand, and settled down to a less arduous and more profitable occupation. Such is the history of ninety per cent. of the gold-diggers. But this ten dency to the diggings in the face of all experience and fact, proving the average of gold-finding to be under• Bs. a day, is most injurious to our other colonies, for it induces want of popu lation, and consequent want of capital and labour, and it is this that so hopelessly " tails off" Ne w Zealand in the race of nations rapidly developing itself in the South Pacific. It is dangerous, perhaps, to hazard a predic tion us to the future of New Zealand. There may be more truth in Mr. Macaulay's New Zealander than is dreamt of in our philosophy ; but one thing appears probable, that unless some great discovery of gold, copper, or coal does take place, these islands, formed by nature for the cradle and the home of a great naval power and commercial nation, will either be absorbed into the rising empires upon each side, or, if left independent, never emerge from their present political insignifi cance. The want of population, if it con tinue, may ultimately ruin the colony. Mr. Hursthouse feels this acutely, and he writes:— Without a British emigrant population, New Zealand can rise to be no more than Tahiti, the Sandwich Islands, the liejees, or any other semi•sarage island group of the South Pacific. With her parish handful of 50,000 inhabitants she may be likened to the puny infant stumbling over straws—give her a population of five hundred thousand, and then the value of every present colonist's acro would be increased fiftyfold, and her step would be Diana's—give her a popu lation of five millions, and she might display an annual export of twenty millions sterling, sweep the Pacific, take toll of Australia's gold beetles, harry Chins, alarm Russia, defy the Times, and demand Prince Alfred Ernest Albert fur King. Agair, he argues strongly for the local land and emigration agents, in their statements and arrangements, keeping in view the object " to tempt to the colony British families ;" for the system which accomplished that object, he tells us, would " put more pounds in the " pockets of the 50,000 colonists of New " Zealand than any half a dozen systems " which did not aim to accomplish it would " put pence." Of course it would, and here lies the secret of nearly every book written by a colonist upon the colonies. Pelf, not philan thropy, is the motive of the writer. " Tempt," in these days of Camerons and Pauli, is an awkward word when applied to professions for the public, and after so frank a confession we are apt to accept a writer's praise of a colony only with doubt, and take his statements with hesitation. But os we have spoken of the ad vantages of New Zealand, we may ob serve that she has others besides a good soil, plenty of water, and u tolerable climate. Her wild animals are confined to the pig and cat, and she boasts of not one single destructive creature or venomous reptile. It is curious to remark, in accordance with that inevitable law of natural reaction, how with the absence of all Jerre nature is coupled an entire want of game. Islands so abounding in water and undercover and mag nificent feeding grounds, to claim not even a kangaroo is a zoological mistake. The country should be well stocked with game. Mr. Hursthouse advocates the richer emi grants, so soon as they can be induced to diverge from Victoria to New Zealand, taking out with them a few pheasants and partridges, red deer and rabbits, and a slate cistern or two full of salmon. This is not good advice; an emigrant should hamper himself with nothing half so troublesome nor expensive. Let him take as little baggage as he can conveniently carry, all of the best quality, and bo content with the remainder of his capital, not in red deer or salmon, but in cash. The old-estab lished colonist, returning to his sheep-farm, is the only man who can venture upon so dan gerous an experiment as taking out live stock. With game, fruit and flowers are also want ing to New Zealand : she possesses neither oue nor the other. But then British Flora and SATURDAY, Pomona are quickly naturalised, and thrive well in all the settled districts. Mr. Hursthouse enters into a detailed ex• amination of the position and prospects of the different settlements on the coasts of New Zealand, but we do not gather from his book any preference for Canterbury o ver Nelson nor for Auckland over ‘Vellington. Ile has illustrated his work with many beautiful coloured engravings of charming little boxes in the bush—we all know how pretty they look upon paper—but he fails to give us any hard facts upon the actual progress of the colony. However, he concludes his work with some excellent practical advice to emi grants upon the important question, who should and who should not hav e the mother country. Upon every point connected with the voyage he also eaters at some length, and his observations are generally those of a. seasoned traveller. Upon the whole, his book is the most comprehensive we have seen upon. the subject. It is quite a handbook to New Zealand life, and, though written too much with a view " to tempt," may be accepted as a tolerably fair description of the advantages and resources of New Zealand. In his preliminary historical sketch, Mr. Hursthouse enters at some length and some what disparagingly upon the colonial policy of the Earl of Derby in P•t4l-2 (then Lord Stanley), and upon the noble lord's treatment of the New Zealand Company. Mr. Hursthouse does not put the twilit fairly. The real question at issue was the spoliation of the natives for the benefit of the Company, who by unfair and unequal contracts tvith the native chiefs endeavoured to secure enormous territorial possessions to themselves. It was this rapacity Lord Derby was deter mined to control ; and the noble earl laid down the broad, intelligible principle that, this country having recognised the indepen dence of New Zealand, our settlers should ac quire their possessions only by legitimate ces sion, and neither by an inequitable construction of our engagements nor by a falser system of barter, more properly plunder. The wisdom of that policy which convinced the natives of the faith of our country, and of the justice or its laws, is shown to this day in the regard and respect of the native New Zealander, and in our tranquil possession of legitimately acquired lands. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.-3Lty 11. nonxs. Nightshade. A Novel. By W. Johnson, M.A. R. Bentley. Lives it, the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England. Vol. IV. J. Murray. Egypt and the Great Suez Canal. By J. Barthelemy Saint Hilaire. R. Bentley. Edinburgh Dissected. Groombridge and Suns. The Biographical History of Philosophy. By George Henry Lewes. J. W. Parker and Son. The Poetical Works of John Edward Beade. New Edition. Four vols. Longman and Co. The Statue Shrine A Greek Legend. Hall and Virtue. Under the Lime Trees. By Caroline Ricketts. L. Booih. Barchester Towers. By Anthony Trollope. Three vole. _ Longman and Co. Phanstasmata ; or, Illusions and Fanaticism. Two vols. Newt)). Below the Surface. A Story of English Country Li.e. Three vole. Smith and Elder. The Memoirs of the Duke of Saint Simon. By Hide St. John. Two vole. Chapman and Hall. PAMPHLETS. Such is Life. S. Eyre—l'iilles, Historical and Portico!. Lungtnans—The Financial Statement, 15:57. J. Ridgway. THE PUBLIC•OFFICES DESIGNS. ME following noblemen and gentlemen have been selected to act as judges upon the des;gns for public offices now being exhibited in Westminster-ball: — The Duke of Buccleuch, as a member of the House of Peers. Mr. Stirling, of Keir, as a membn of the House of Commons. Viscount Eversley, late the Speaker. Earl Stanhope, president of the Society of Anti quaries of London. Mr. David Roberts, member of the Royal Aca(lemy. Mr. Burn, member of the Institute of British Architects. Mr. Brunel, member of the Institute of Civil Engineers. AMONGST the passengers in the Fulton from NOW York, was the prisoner Carpentier, the princip defendant in the prosecution for extensive frauds on the Northern Railroad of France.