FIELD FOR CAPITAL AND LABOUR. 197 



of desirable immigrants, and could find employment 

 immediately at wages of 21. 10s. to 3/. 10s. per month. 



I believe that many educated young men have come 

 to this country under the impression that to get a puesto 

 with a small interest in a flock of sheep is an easy matter, 

 and at the same tune a somewhat brilliant opportunity. 

 I think it only a duty to young gentlemen who may 

 think of settling in these countries to correct any such 

 impression. To serve as a peon or flock-tender in a 

 solitary hut without other means than what he may 

 derive from his quarter interest is not the life for a young 

 gentleman with brains or aspirations after social position. 

 To live alone, to be his own cook and everything else, to 

 have no surrounding I will not say ' comforts,' but 

 common necessaries of his position a stretcher his bed, 

 a deal table or no table at all, and a bench, stool, or chair 

 his furniture ; to have to pick up a few thistle stalks, or 

 take the dung from the sheep corral for his fuel, and cook 

 his bit of meat on a fire made of these in the middle of 

 his hut, is not a mode of life calculated to elevate, and 

 almost inevitably leads to the reverse ; especially so if 

 neighbouring flock-tenders are men who can neither read 

 nor write, and are addicted to spirit-drinking. On the 

 other hand, a young gentleman who has means sufficient 

 to purchase a flock or half a flock of good sheep, and to 

 surround himself with some of the comforts of civilised 

 life, located with other young men of his own social 

 standing, can do well for himself, and it will be his own 

 fault if he does not hold his moral and social position. 



I have stated in this work that sheep-farming has 

 entered or is about to enter on a new phase, and this will 

 present opportunities for young gentlemen with a know- 

 ledge of the management of this class of stock and its 

 accompaniments. Possessing a fair practical knowledge 

 of these matters learned on British or German or other 



