With this description of
labour the colonial market is largely overstocked; and it is
distressing to notice the number of young men incapable of
severe manual labour, who, with delicate health, and probably still
more delicately filled purses, swarm the towns in search of employment,
and are exposed to heavy expenses which they can earn nothing to meet.
Such men have rarely been successful at the diggings; the demand for
them in their accustomed pursuits is very limited in proportion to
their numbers; they gradually sink into extreme poverty - too often into
reckless or criminal habits - till they disappear from the streets to
make way for others similarly unfortunate.
A little while since I met with the histories of two individuals
belonging to two very different classes of emigrants; and they are so
applicable to this subject, that I cannot forbear repeating them.
The first account is that of a gentleman who went to Melbourne some
eight months ago, carrying with him a stock of elegant acquirements and
accomplishments, but little capital. He is now in a starving condition,
almost with-out the hope of extrication, and is imploring from
his friends the means to return to England, if he live long enough to
receive them. The colours in which he paints the colonies are
deplorable in the extreme.
The other account is that of a compositor who emigrated much about the.
same time. He writes to his former office-mates that he got immediate
and constant employment at the rate of 7 pounds per week, and naturally
thinks that there is no place under the sun like Melbourne. Both
emigrants are right. There is no better place under the sun than
Melbourne for those who can do precisely what the Melbourne people
want; and which they must and will have at any price; but there is no
worse colony to which those can go who have not the capabilities
required by the Melbourne people. They are useless and in the way,
their accomplishments are disregarded, their misfortunes receive no
pity; and, whilst a good carpenter or bricklayer would make a fortune,
a modern Raphael might starve.
But even those possessed of every qualification for making first-class
colonists, will at first meet with much to surprise and annoy them, and
will need all the energy they possess, to enable them to overcome the
many disagreeables which encounter them as soon as they arrive.
Let us, for example, suppose the case of an emigrant, with no
particular profession or business, but having a strong constitution,
good common sense, and a determination to bear up against every
hardship, so that in the end it leads him to independence.
