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KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



ing "■ something " about the garden— the 

 names, and qualities of flowers, &c. They 

 also are becoming gradual converts to 

 the opinion, that there is something love- 

 able — even among the " lower order of ani- 

 mals." This is well. 



Be it our unceasing, as it is our most 

 pleasant duty, to foster the belief. Every 

 successive week will we labor hard but 

 kindly, to prove that the world is good, and 

 that there is plenty of time for us all to 

 become good — better — best. 



Our time here is short. Let us then show, 

 whilst we live, that we are indeed the noblest 

 of all God's works. 



The insane thirst for Gold that still 

 continues, like a torrent, to bear down all 

 before it — is a subject for painful comment. 



We receive the Liverpool Papers regu- 

 larly ; and therein we note, week after week, 

 how very many ships are daily departing, 

 full of " adventurers, 1 ' from this country. 

 Our own " Times " newspaper, too, gives 

 daily evidence of the insanity of our fellow 

 men. So far as regards Mechanics — Shoe- 

 makers, Bricklayers, Carpenters, and such as 

 are versed in the " useful arts," the move is 

 in the right direction. Such trades can get 

 full employment. They carry their fortune 

 and means of livelihood with them. They land 

 on a foreign shore, and can begin work next 

 day. All hardworking laborers, too, will find 

 their services immediately recognised and 

 rewarded. 



Nor do we see any valid reason to object 

 to the many recent exports of young females 

 — strong, able-bodied, and willing to work. 

 Here they are starving, literally starving. 

 Their hard-earned pittances for sewing and 

 stitching, are insufficient for the claims of 

 common hunger. Death, or the streets, is 

 their only alternative. Both are too horrible 

 to contemplate ; yet is the former more en- 

 durable than the latter. We witness sights 

 now and then, that would draw tears — almost 

 from a stone. Yet is there no kind hand of 

 pity ready to help ; no good Samaritan who 

 will rescue from the fangs of Satan, objects 

 that would repent and lead a virtuous life, if 

 the opportunity were afforded them.* Let 

 such, if the helping hand should appear, 

 take refuge in a foreign land. If they can 



* "We have before glanced (see page 97), at 

 the worse than apathetic indifference that prevails 

 among women towards the suffering members of 

 their own sex. They would permit them to die, 

 before relieving them — believing that, in so doing, 

 " they did God service." How little can such 

 people know of their own hearts! Good for 

 them is it, that they never were led into temp- 

 tation! They have thus (fortunately) escaped 

 " the feeling" of what they inflict on others. — 

 Ed. K. J. 



use their needle, and are industrious, there 

 is in Australia good hope for the miserable. 

 Here, body and soul must perish. Emigra- 

 tion, therefore, under such circumstances, is 

 desirable. 



The word " Gold," seems to have infected 

 the whole race of man. So closely is it 

 allied to imagined happiness, that when it is 

 spoken of, " happiness " is necessarily asso- 

 ciated with it — and yet how opposite the one 

 to the other ! Money as we view it, is only 

 good in so far as it provides us with the 

 means of life. All superfluities, or excesses, 

 are so many drawbacks to happiness. Quo 

 plus habet, eo plus cupit. The more we have, 

 the more we want. 



We see this, daily, in fashionable life ; and 

 in all those who ape the airs and follies of 

 fashionable life. One absurdity gives rise to 

 another. Jealousy begets jealousy ; envy 

 follows of course ; and all the better feelings 

 of the heart are necessarily sacrificed. This 

 ever has been the case, and ever will be so. 

 One half, at least, of the evils of life are 

 attributable to envy, and the insane wish to 

 do as others do — simply " because" they do 

 it. This leads us to the object of our present 

 remarks — viz., to show the absurdity of so 

 many of our young men quitting good situa- 

 tions to go abroad in search of Gold. 



We know it to be a fact — indeed everybody 

 knows it to be a fact, that very many 

 hundreds of clerks in merchants' counting- 

 houses, private and public banks, and other 

 mercantile establishments, have gone abroad 

 to " dig " gold, when they were receiving 

 here certainties of £150, £200, £250, and 

 £300 per annum, each ! They have gone out 

 equipped with cradles, spades, mattocks, 

 &c. — the uses of which they are ignorant of, 

 and the ability to use which they never did 

 and never will possess! When they land 

 abroad, they will feel just as we should do 

 here, if told there was gold to be found in 

 Battersea Fields — twenty or even ten feet 

 below the surface of the ground. There it 

 might be, for aught we could do to " dig " 

 for it. We do work in our own garden, 

 sometimes, at " digging." Three hours of 

 hard work — and we are not " cowards " — 

 makes our back ache ! If it be thus in com- 

 paratively-light soil, what must it be in ob- 

 stinate, hard, all - but - impenetrable earth, 

 abroad ? Our " navvys " might and would 

 tackle it successfully. It is just the place 

 for them; but our daintily-fed clerks re- 

 joicing in kid gloves, and calling six hours 

 a-day " hard work," will soon find that " all 

 is not gold that glitters." A greater mistake 

 was never made. And yet, these young 

 clerks continue tojgo in multitudes ! We 

 have a friend residing in Sydney. From him 

 we have learnt what we now record — viz. 

 the abject state of wretchedness to which all 



