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Ne'er Do Well
"Ne'er-do-well" is a derogatory term for a good-for-nothing person; or a rogue, vagrant or vagabond without means of support. Colonial context The term ne'er-do-well was used in the nineteenth-century Australasian colonies to denote young British and Irish men seen as undesirable. These men were typically thought to be the younger sons of wealthy families who had somehow failed to fulfil their potential, so they were sent to the colonies to 'improve' themselves. Sometimes called 'remittance men' because they relied on payments from their families, other colonists held that these men typically spent this money on drinking and gambling, and feared they would be a threat to the natural order of society. From the mid-nineteenth century the term started to appear in migrant accounts, travel journals and reformist tracts. In 1851 George Hepburn wrote a diary throughout his voyage to Dunedin. He described the 'would be gentlemen' on board who drank constantly as 'scamps who acted th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rogue (vagrant)
Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, temporary work, or social security (where available). Historically, vagrancy in Western societies was associated with petty crime, begging and lawlessness, and punishable by law with forced labor, military service, imprisonment, or confinement to dedicated labor houses. Both ''vagrant'' and ''vagabond'' ultimately derive from the Latin word '' vagari'', meaning "to wander". The term ''vagabond'' is derived from Latin ''vagabundus''. In Middle English, ''vagabond'' originally denoted a person without a home or employment. Historical views Vagrants have been historically characterised as outsiders in settled, ordered communities: embodiments of otherness, objects of scorn or mistrust, or worthy recipients of help and charity. Some ancient sources ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vagrancy (people)
Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, waste picker, scavenging, petty theft, temporary work, or welfare, social security (where available). Historically, vagrancy in Western societies was associated with petty crime, begging and lawlessness, and punishable by law with forced labor, military service, imprisonment, or confinement to dedicated labor houses. Both ''vagrant'' and ''vagabond'' ultimately derive from the Latin word ''Wikt:vagari, vagari'', meaning "to wander". The term ''vagabond'' is derived from Latin ''vagabundus''. In Middle English, ''vagabond'' originally denoted a person without a home or employment. Historical views Vagrants have been historically characterised as outsiders in settled, ordered communities: embodiments of Other (philosophy), otherness, objects of scorn or mistrust, or worthy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australasia
Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologically, where the term covers several slightly different, but related regions. Derivation and definitions Charles de Brosses coined the term (as French ''Australasie'') in ''Histoire des navigations aux terres australes'' (1756). He derived it from the Latin for "south of Asia" and differentiated the area from Polynesia (to the east) and the southeast Pacific (Magellanica). In the late 19th century, the term Australasia was used in reference to the "Australasian colonies". In this sense it related specifically to the British colonies south of Asia: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia, Victoria (i.e., the Australian colonies) and New Zealand. Australasia found continued geopolitical attention in the earl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Remittance Man
In British history, a remittance man was an emigrant, often from Britain to a British colony, supported by regular payments from home on the expectation that he stay away. In this sense, remittance means the opposite of what it does now, i.e. money that migrants send to their home countries. Definitions "Remittance man" is defined in ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' as "a term once widely used, especially in the West before WWI, for an immigrant living in Canada on funds remitted by his family in England, usually to ensure that he would not return home and become a source of embarrassment." The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' adds: "spec[ifically] one considered undesirable at home; also in extended use". "Remittance man" is first attested in 1874, as a colonial term. One of the citations is of T. S. Eliot's 1958 play ''The Elder Statesman'', where the son of the title figure resists his father's attempts to find him a job: "Some sort of place where everyone would sneer at the fello ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Hepburn (politician)
George Hepburn (28 February 1803 – 9 December 1883) was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from Otago, New Zealand. Born in Scotland he emigrated to New Zealand in 1850. He first entered politics by serving on the Provincial Council of Otago from 1855 to 1865 before he was elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives as member for Roslyn in 1866. Early life George Hepburn was born on 28 February 1803 to Janet or Jessie (née Sinclair) and William Hepburn in Leslie, Fife, Scotland. His siblings were Andrew (29 June 1801 – 17 September 1873), Catherine Suttie (28 January 1805 – 1867 and Janet Reekie (28 November 1807 – ). After completing his schooling he became a merchant in Kirkcaldy. In his private time he was involved in Sabbath School teaching. He was ordained an elder of the Church of Scotland and along with his minister Dr John Alexander and nearly all his congregation joined the Free Church when it was established in May 1843. Emigration to New Zealand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dunedin
Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The city has a rich Scottish, Chinese and Māori heritage. With an estimated population of as of , Dunedin is both New Zealand's seventh-most populous metro and urban area. For historic, cultural and geographic reasons the city has long been considered one of New Zealand's four main centres. The urban area of Dunedin lies on the central-eastern coast of Otago, surrounding the head of Otago Harbour, and the harbour and hills around Dunedin are the remnants of an extinct volcano. The city suburbs extend out into the surrounding valleys and hills, onto the isthmus of the Otago Peninsula, and along the shores of the Otago Harbour and the Pacific Ocean. Archaeological evidence points to lengthy occupation of the area by Māori prior to the ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Flinders Hursthouse
Charles Flinders Hursthouse (7 January 1817 – 22 November 1876) was an English-born settler in New Zealand in the early 1840s. He wrote a number of books and pamphlets encouraging emigration to New Zealand, and gave lectures in England on the same subject on behalf of the New Zealand Company. In an 1869 pamphlet he advocated for the federation of the five eastern Australian colonies and New Zealand to form an Australasian republic. Early life and family Born on 7 January 1817 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England, and baptised on 7 December 1819 at Tydd St Mary, Lincolnshire, Hursthouse was the son of Charles and Mary (née Jecks) Hursthouse. Charles Hursthouse Snr was a third cousin of the explorer, Matthew Flinders, and an executor of his will, and Charles Jnr later adopted Flinders' surname as his middle name. When he was about 19 years old, Hursthouse was sent by his family to Canada and the United States to investigate the prospects for emigrating there. He found the winters ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daniel Pollen
Daniel Pollen (2 June 181318 May 1896) was a New Zealand politician who became the ninth premier of New Zealand, serving from 6 July 1875 to 15 February 1876. Early life The son of Hugh Pollen, a dock master, Pollen was born in Ringsend, Dublin. Little is known about the early part of his life, but it is supposed that he grew up in Ireland and in the United States of America.Alexander H. McLintock, ''An encyclopaedia of New Zealand'', vol. 2 (1966), p. 814 However, his father was dock master of the Grand Canal Company at Ringsend in 1812, still held that office in 1832, and died in 1837 to be succeeded as dock master by Thomas Pollen. On some accounts, Pollen's father helped to build the United States Capitol. A doctor, Pollen claimed to hold the MD degree, although where he graduated is not recorded.L. K. Gluckman, Ann Gluckman, Mike Wagg, ''Touching on Deaths: a medical history of early Auckland'' (2000), p. 83: "DANIEL POLLEN (1813-1896) Pollen was born in Dublin although it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beachcombing
Beachcombing is an activity that consists of an individual "combing" (or searching) the beach and the intertidal zone, looking for things of value, interest or utility. A beachcomber is a person who participates in the activity of beachcombing. Despite these general definitions, beachcombing and beachcomber are words with multiple, but related, meanings that have evolved over time. Historical usage The first appearance of the word "beachcombers" in print was in Richard Henry Dana Jr.'s ''Two Years Before the Mast'' (1840) and later referenced in Herman Melville's '' Omoo'' (1847). It described a population of Europeans who lived in South Pacific islands, "combing" the beach and nearby water for flotsam, jetsam, or anything else they could use or trade. When a beachcomber became totally dependent upon coastal fishing for his sustenance, or abandoned his original culture and set of values ("went native"), then the term "beachcomber" was synonymous with a criminal, a drifter, or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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