GIPP'S LAND, VICTORIA V. COROMANDEL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 224, 1 August 1864, Page 5

GIPP'S LAND, VICTORIA V. COROMANDEL.

To the Editor of the New Zealand Heuald. i~:K,—From the time of Governor Gipps and up to the present, Gipps" Land has been the richest pastoral'.and in A ictoria—the southern portion of its inhabitants being wealthy graziers and shippers of cattle—audit was not until the last five years that the real wealth of this place was known—as regards its niinemW, &e. When the Western and Northern digging's became unprofitable to the miners, the Government (not of New Zealand) of Victoria sent out a ]ii objecting party, headed by Mr. Howitt, the gentleman wiiu brought in the remains of the unfortunate explorers, Burke and Wills, into the unsettled portion of Gipps Land. They equipped them with provisions, pack horses, kc., for a term of, I think, ■ix mouths, the cost being a very trivial item with respect to the success attendant on their mission, 'ihev pivspected first on the Taiubo River, and there obtained the colour, but not payable, thence to the Nicholson and its tributaries, with like success; and after a consider,ible amount of trouble in cutting paths round the face of the mountains for their iior>es to convey up their rations, tools, &c., they succeeded in heading the Mitchell River. Here th-.-y found a payable field for a fev.- thousand miners, with a good sprinkling of butchers, storekeepers, publicans, and others, the latter of whom were stockriders, settlers, and their sons, bullock-drivers on tho Port Albert Roads. Now, Mr. Editor, this said country is very similar to Coroinandel, being an unlevel and mountainous country, of sandstone and slate formation. And what is Gipps Land now 'i tho h' tne oi' thousands, both north and south. Townships are to be seen now where, a few years ago, a white man had never trod. Wheat-fields and liouriiiiils have now taken possession of the favourite and secluded haunts of the kang'iroo. National schools, crowded with young- Australians, may be seen where a n:au was lost in the bu.sh ; or, on the former site ft an old shepherd's hut or stockyard. This is all gained by supplying and sending out a few practical miner.-, iora tern; of six or twelve months. Coromandel holds out greater inducements than the above field did on their first commencement of prospecting, they had no quartz reefs at work then as we have here, no, but they had that which this government are short of, enterprise, and ere long they will see the error of not holding fast to tho class of men who now adorn the shores of a would be, if allowed, good country. I am, Sir, Yours, &c., llenky Ai.i.en. Wyndham-street, July 30.