ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALANi>, Chai-. XII. 
England as well as from the sister colonies ; and bring 
with them letters of introduction as well as personal 
recommendations which introduce them at an early 
period to the familiar friendship of the best society in 
the colony. And it is not, perhaps, till long after- 
wards that some disreputable history or disgraceful 
circumstance of their former life is discovered, which 
explains their exile from the old world. They have 
come with all the outward appearance of gentlemen ; 
they are backed by education, talents, capacity, vigour, 
knowledge of the world, amiable manners, and the 
true spirit of a good colonizer. And when the startled 
society learns the blemish which must dismiss their 
new friend from its ranks, its indignation is often 
mingled with regret that so valuable a colonist in 
other respects should be inevitably unfitted for their 
companionship. He is a man who has betrayed the 
society into a sincere admission of him as their equal, 
though he knows himself to have been irreparably de- 
graded from a similar station in the country from 
whence he came. He thus proves guilty at once of a 
breach of honour, and can be called by no milder term 
than a swindler of their friendship, even though he do 
not repeat the offence which should have been con- 
fessed in order to be forgiven, or, if too grave, hidden 
in conscious retirement. Those who give recommen- 
dations to this class of persons are as nmch to blame 
as the parent who sends his wild son to become a 
grumbler and a sot. The exposure of their protege is 
certainly greater and more vivid than it would be in a 
larger society ; and the injury inflicted on the young 
community is more serious than that arising from the 
presence of a known and unheeded idler. But when 
a colony is considered by the Imperial Government as a 
good place to send its least worthy dependants, it is not 
