GENTLEMEN EMIGRANTS. y 



In the last century emigrants to the United States 

 were sold as slaves on arrival at New York to defray the 

 costs of their passages ; that is to say, they were indented 

 to purchasers for such a term of years as, at a stipulated 

 rate of wages, should clear their passage expenses. A 

 writer on emigration of that day said that the most un- 

 saleable articles in the market were "military officers 

 and scholars." It may be said with truth to-day that 

 military officers and scholars are the articles for which 

 there is least demand in the colonial labour market. 



There are thousands of men in the old country who 

 have not been brought up to work of any kind, and who 

 consequently are unable to contribute towards their own 

 support. Many men of this class naturally turn their 

 eyes to the colonies, and it is hard to have to tell them 

 that their prospects of success as chance emigrants are 

 not much greater abroad than they are at home. But I 

 think that any man with a practical experience of colonial 

 life will bear me out in the assertion that emigrants of 

 this stamp are almost invariably disappointed. They 

 arrive in the colony of their choice very often with little 

 or no capital, and no plans beyond vague ideas that land 

 is cheap, that farming is a thing that any fellow can 

 learn, and that " roughing it in the bush is a jolly sort of 

 life, you know." I have no hesitation in saying that 

 roughing it in the bush is a jolly sort of life to a man who 

 takes off his coat and works, who makes up his mind to 

 leave England and English ways behind him, and who 

 tries to adapt himself to the ways of colonial life and 

 colonial people. Many Englishmen fail in these parti- 

 culars. They try to take England along with them to 



