Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/242

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THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN AUSTRALASIA.

A miner's camp in the mountains.

by the yield of gold, and secondly by attracting attention and emigration to New Zealand. Like the colonies of Australia, New Zealand offers inducements to emigrants, and is very desirous of promoting emigration from the overcrowded countries of the Old World. An agent-general is maintained in London, and a vast amount of printed matter setting forth the advantages of the colony to actual settlers is issued annually from his office. Emigrants with families are carried to New Zealand at a reduced rate of fare, and at one time they were transported almost free of charge, so anxious was the Colonial Government to increase its population. The colony now has nearly if not quite six hundred thousand inhabitants, which is certainly a good showing when we remember that the settlement had its beginning in 1840, when its first governor came out from England."

Our friends remained at Grahamstown over Sunday, and observed a state of affairs which was an improvement over that of American mining towns in general on the first day of the week. All work was suspended, and the whole population turned out in its best clothes. There are churches of nearly every denomination at Grahamstown, and all