NECESSARY QUALIFICATIONS. 5 



these qualities, and to make him a manly fellow, with 

 heart enough for a colonist. The mere fact of being a 

 good rider will not be of much service to him. Almost 

 any Englishman with a little practice can stick to his 

 horse in a gallop across a prairie. But if he is a good 

 judge, and thoroughly understands the treatment and 

 food of the animal in health and disease, can nail on a 

 shoe, administer physic, saddle, harness, hobble, and 

 handle a horse in every way if he is horsey enough to 

 do all this, the knowledge will stand him in good stead in 

 some colonies. Provided always and here is the risk 

 that he keeps his taste in horseflesh in its proper place, 

 and does not allow it to divert him from his business, 

 whatever it may be. 



As for the shooting, I am reluctantly compelled to 

 admit that being a good shot is no more a qualification 

 for being a good colonist than for being a good grocer, 

 and in one case as much as the other is a terrible temp- 

 tation to a man to neglect his work in the shooting season. 

 Candour obliges me to confess that fresh deer-tracks led 

 to the loss of the greater part of my grain crop one 

 " fall ; " and to the untimely flight of a flock of black 

 ducks I attribute the loss of a valuable cow. I dare say 

 a hundred years ago it was as essential for a colonist to be 

 a good rifle shot as for an Irish "gintleman " to be a good 

 pistol shot ; but at the present day life and property are 

 as safe in any of her Majesty's colonies as they are in 

 England much safer than in Ireland. I may except, 

 perhaps, the Gold Coast, a colony I could not conscien- 

 tiously recommend, save to a reforming minister or two 

 and a few elder brothers. 



