 | Twelve months in Wellington / by John Wood (1843)
Chapter 18
Advice to Emigrants |
| Contents: narrative | chapters: 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
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Those who have capital, we would council not to buy colonial land while they are in England. Let them keep their property till they have seen the country. There are hundreds in all the colonies anxious to sell for ready money ; it will always command bargains. Whatever discount or drawback the Company may take off your land purchase (should you buy of them), in part payment of your passage out, is dearly earned compared to the advantages which, by this step, you forego. A Company's land-order is a clog to freedom of action; it binds you to a locality which you are soon compelled to admit is not the most advantageous. |
You cannot, however, dispose of it, for others are in the same position ; and you do not like to think the parchment, for which you paid so highly, like a piece of waste paper; and yet what else has it been for the last tour years to those who hold it. But, possessing no land, you can visit the other settlements and make your own choice.
We incline to think, from personal observation, that had the same amount of capital and enterprise been directed to Auckland which has flowed into Wellington, the seat of Government would ere now have shown more signs of prosperity than are to be observed in the country around Port Nicholson. Others may think differently ; and we would again repeat, to whichever end of the island you go, go untrammelled.
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