Hut--Cadets--Openings for Emigrants without Capital--For those who bring Money--Drunkenness--Introductions--The Rakaia--Valley leading to the Rangitata--Snow-grass and Spaniard--Solitude--Rain and Flood--Cat--Irishman--Discomforts of Hut--Gradual Improvement--Value of Cat.
I am now going to put up a V hut on the country that I took up on the Rangitata,meaning to hibernate there in order to see what the place is like.I shall also build a more permanent hut there,for I must have someone with me,and we may as well be doing something as nothing.Ihave hopes of being able to purchase some good country in the immediate vicinity.There is a piece on which I have my eye,and which adjoins that I have already.There can be,I imagine,no doubt that this is excellent sheep country;still,I should like to see it in winter.
June,1860.--The V hut is a fait accompli,if so small an undertaking can be spoken of in so dignified a manner.It consists of a small roof set upon the ground;it is a hut,all roof and no walls.I was very clumsy,and so,in good truth,was my man.Still,at last,by dint of perseverance,we have made it wind and water tight.It was a job that should have taken us about a couple of days to have done in first-rate style;as it was,I am not going to tell you how long it DID take.Imust certainly send the man to the right-about,but the difficulty is to get another,for the aforesaid hut is five-and-twenty miles (at the very least)from any human habitation,so that you may imagine men do not abound.I had two cadets with me,and must explain that a cadet means a young fellow who has lately come out,and who wants to see a little of up-country life.He is neither paid nor pays.He receives his food and lodging gratis,but works (or is supposed to work)in order to learn.