Sobraon
Plymouth
25 September 1881
My dear Chris
Your letter from Albany caused me so much annoyance I did not write to you from home to wait you at Port Said. This will be given to you when you reach home when the foolish notion you seemed to have picked up will have fled from your mind. I hope your letter was written on the 2nd August less than two months after your first entry into the P & O Service. You say in this letter that this was no new idea. If so why did you enter the service you are in?
In whatever way of life you are depend upon you must work hard and put up with many disagreeable, and a life in New Zealand or anywhere else in the colonies is not one of the most rosy. Stay where you are and push your way to a higher position and the work you complain about will be less irksome as time goes on.
You may depend upon I will not help you in any way if you abandon your sea life. I have a large enough burden on my shoulders without you adding to it now that you are able to do for yourself.
Mama had instructions from me to insist upon you doing for yourself if you leave the service you are in.
I trust your better reason will show you the folly you meditate. So long as you do right be assured of your Father’s help and affection.
Jas A Elmslie