Chap. XII. DESCRIPTION OF "GENTLEMEN" COLONISTS. 303 
' years since the beginning of 1840, than in British 
* North America in the first thirty years of the pre- 
' sent century. It is notorious that the greatest 
' change has taken place in the public feeling on this 
' point, and that a colonial career is now looked upon 
' as one of the careers open to a gentleman. This 
* change in the character of colonization — this great 
* change in the estimation in which it is held — is of 
' greater moment than the mere provision of means 
' for conducting emigration without cost to the pub- 
' lie. It makes colonization, indeed, an extension of 
' civilized society, instead of that mere emigration 
' which aimed at little more than shovelling out your 
* paupers to where they might die without shocking 
* their betters with the sight or sound of their last 
* agony." 
One of these " men of birth and refinement," the son 
of a wealthy English peer, who had worked as hard 
as any yeoman in the settlement, was pressed by some- 
body, M'^hen on a visit to England, to give information 
about the mode of life of the " gentlemen " colonists. 
Being of a taciturn disposition, he answered, " Oh, I 
" don't know : why, we dress for dinner, and don't 
" drink." 
Only one of our " gentlemen " had been led by the 
Government puffing and auction-sales of " the site of 
" the capital of New Zealand" to desert his fellow-co- 
lonists, and to exchange the industrious life of a settler 
in Cook's Strait for that of a mere dealer in land at 
Auckland. This was Mr. Dudley Sinclair. I should 
have objected to mentioning the fact with his name, if 
he had not frequently and publicly boasted of it him- 
self, after residing for some time among the hungry 
land-sharks, land-jobbers, and officials, who composed 
the population of the *' metropolis." 
