countless loafers, or even combining the two, than of doing well, or even doing fairly well. I have met men, not by pairs, but by dozens, who have left Australia and New Zealand to come here, with ideas of this place corresponding to the glowing colours in which it had been painted by English, Australian, and other papers. And the sole object of these men's lives here is to save, save, save, live any way, but scrape money together as soon as possible, and then fly back again.
Don't imagine from this, sir, that I am in any way personally discontented with the place, far from it. It is not in my nature even to choose (what I fancy is) the nicest place to live> in, as the place I will work in. I have queer ideas on this subject, and as they only affect myself they will hardly interest anyone else. But it is quite sufficient to generalize and say, when a man has to work and makes up his mind to do so, if his work is not what he would desire it to be, then any place is good enough for the work. His work is purely for mercenary purposes, his wishes are to earn sufficient to stop the necessity of doing such work. In this case it matters little where his field of operation is. In fact, it may be some consolation, when he leaves the place, to feel that his exertions, besides having borne the fruit he wanted directly, have also indirectly improved some hole that more than most places needed improvements. To such a man I would say, If you can command a good salary go to South Africa. If you have sufficient determination, you can stick thoroughly to your work for a time, and there is little to tempt you to get rid of your earnings. Such a man of course I am presuming is not a fool, and will neither drink nor gamble. These two pursuits he certainly (if he wishes) can follow here.
But most men like to have some time apart from their toil to themselves: don't let them come here. This is no place for any man to come out to settle in, nor would any reasonable man choose to rear a family here. Some poor wretches of course have to do so. Now, however, I am treading on forbidden ground; and, as I daresay I have no right to give any of my ideas about places to live in, or lives to live in places, since my own life appears to most men such a failure I will close this.
