1 2 TEE EMIGRA TION Q VESTION. 



perhaps has seldom had the opportunity of " interview- 

 ing " a stranger, and a Britisher to boot. When such an 

 opportunity does arise, he cannot be blamed for making 

 the most of it. 



There are two very fatal errors into which emigrants 

 frequently fall. One is the hasty, precipitate investment 

 of their capital. A arrives in the colony with the in- 

 tention of settling on land. He hears of a tract likely to 

 suit, and, after a brief and superficial investigation, sinks 

 his small capital in purchasing and stocking a farm. At 

 the time of the purchase the advantages are all put before 

 him in the clearest light; the drawbacks only unfold 

 themselves one by one later on. Often many circum- 

 stances which in his ignorance he classes as advantages, 

 will eventually, as he acquires experience, prove unmiti- 

 gated disadvantages. Then he tries to sell, and finds he 

 cannot do so without ruinous sacrifice. A loses heart, 

 becomes a disbeliever in the colonies, and fails. 



B arrives in the colony of his choice with an amount of 

 capital which, with energy, industry, and frugality, might 

 enable him eventually to acquire a comfortable indepen- 

 dence, if not wealth, and to bring up a family in the New 

 World with every prospect of success. But B is unfor- 

 tunately indoctrinated with that melancholy idea of 

 " keeping up appearances " so fatal to many of his class. 

 Instead of taking off his coat and working with his own 

 hands, he endeavours to act the gentleman farmer. He 

 does not like to see men around him, his inferiors in birth 

 and education, living like gentlemen whilst he works on 

 his land. He forgets that these very men who are now 

 able to live in luxury worked their own way up, and he 



