[Editor: This untitled editorial, regarding the employment prospects of English immigrants to Adelaide, was published in The South Australian (Adelaide, SA), 19 August 1850.]
[We have often urged]
We have often urged on our English friends the folly of young men coming to Adelaide with the hope of obtaining situations in town; yet every vessel brings out its quota of these useless emigrants.
Perhaps the publication of a single fact may serve to show how large is the supply compared with the demand for clerks or shopmen.
Last week a vacancy of this kind occurred in the establishment of Messrs. Samson, Wicksteed and Co., the salary being £80 a year. This became known, and so numerous were the applications that those gentlemen, having made choice of a suitable person, had recourse to a printed circular declining the proposals of the others.
Let those who think of emigrating, and are not prepared for the real hard work of the bush, reflect on this — nearly a hundred persons, in the course of one or two days, catching eagerly at an offer of a situation at about thirty shillings a week.
Source:
The South Australian (Adelaide, SA), 19 August 1850, p. 3
Also published in:
Colonial Times (Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land), 10 September 1850, p. 2, column 6 (under the section titled “Go farther and fare worse”)
Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Van Diemen’s Land), 18 September 1850, p. 611
Editor’s notes:
Co. = an abbreviation of “Company”
Messrs. = an abbreviation of “messieurs” (French), being the plural of “monsieur”; used in English as the plural of “Mister” (which is abbreviated as “Mr.”); the title is used in English prior to the names of two or more men (often used regarding a company, e.g. “the firm of Messrs. Bagot, Shakes, & Lewis”, “the firm of Messrs. Hogue, Davidson, & Co.”)
situation = a position of employment, a job, a post, employment in a particular situation
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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