. We, too, have made our entry into the
new world; we, too, have crossed the threshold of colonial life; and
thus to-day, at the outset of our new life, our minds have opened to
receive the first true lesson of the colonist.

CHAPTER II.

AUCKLAND.

Passing up Queen Street, after landing on the wharf, a party of us
notice--or fancy we notice--a rather singular feature in the Aucklanders
we meet. The men are grave and serious in deportment, and nearly all are
profusely bearded; but one of us draws attention to the fact that all
have strangely aquiline noses. Hebrews they are not--we know, they are
of the same nationality as ourselves--so we seek explanation from a
whimsical fellow-voyager, himself an old Aucklander.

"Ah!" says he, "that's a peculiarity of the climate. You'll have long
noses, too, after a year or so. There's an Auckland proverb, that a
new-chum never does any good until his nose has grown. You've got to
learn the truth of that pretty soon."

Following up these remarks, he proceeded to add--

"It's like the proverbial cutting of the wisdom-teeth. After inhaling
this magnificent air of ours for a year or two, your nose will grow
bigger to receive it; and about the same time you will have spent the
money you brought with you, gone in for hard work, learnt common-sense,
and become 'colonized.'"

The reader will understand that a new-chum is, throughout the colonies,
regarded as food for mirth. He is treated with good-humoured contempt
and kindly patronage. He is looked upon as a legitimate butt, and a sort
of grown-up and incapable infant. His doings are watched with interest,
to see what new eccentricities he will develop; and shouts of laughter
are raised at every fresh tale of some new-chum's inexperienced attempts
and failures. Half the stories that circulate in conversation have a
new-chum as the comic man of the piece; and if any unheard of
undertaking is noised about, "Oh, he's a new-chum!" is considered
sufficient explanation.

However, the new-chum is not supposed to be altogether a fool, since he
will sooner or later develop into the full-blown colonist, and since
sometimes it happens that one of his order will show colonists "a thing
or two." He is one of the recognized characters of colonial society, and
as he affords much material that seems infinitely ludicrous to the older
colonist, so his faults and failings meet with lenient condonation.

Even the law seems to feel that th