A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator', 8 January 1870—A cor- respondent of the Times draws a picture of the advantages offered by Tasmania to the emi- grant, which does not, we confess, strike us very strongly. A ploughman, he says, can get a passage at a low rate, but he does not say what rate, and on arrival can obtain 10s. or 12s. a week, with a ration of 12 lb. of meat, 10 lb. of flour, 2 lb. of sugar, and f lb. of tea, or from 3s. 6d. to 5s. a day, without rations. If he wishes for land, Government will sell it him at fl an acre, or let it him at 2s. an acre, with option to purchase at the said fl, and the land will grow anything from wheat to rasp- berry hedges seven feet high. That is all very well; but the emigrant to America or Natal can get fifty acres for nothing, and a far higher rate of money wages, though we admit Tas- mania has one advantage most other fields for emigration lack—a climate which makes it a luxury to feel yourself alive. There is no luxury so permanent as climate, and no climate quite so exquisite as that of Tasmania, where the orange and the apple grow side by side.
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