New Zealand Spectator AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, June 14, 1851.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 612, 14 June 1851, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, June 14, 1851.

The information brought by the Challenger, which left Sydney ten days after the William Alfred, confirms the reports alluded to in our former number, of the existence of gold in that colony in such large quantities as probably to occasion a considerable influx of population from the neighbourin’ colonies and from other countries. Already numbers were flocking to the “diggings,” the spirit of speculation had been awakened, flour had risen to £3O per ton in Sydney with every probability of its still rising; 10s. per bushel, according to the Sydwy Herald, had been offered for wheat from Van Diemen’s Land and refused. If g°W should be found in such quantities and spread over such an extent of country as 1° stimulate and gratify the avarice and cupidity of mankind in any degree similar however subordinate, to that already witnessed in California, similar results may - expected to follow, and the tide of spontaneous emigration which has hitherto set lll towards those shores in one continuous aad unbroken stream from so many countries, will no doubt be partly directe towards its new rival. The prospect of the wonderworking changes which will be effected by this discovery seem to have beea viewed by some parties, particularly the pastoral interests in that colony, with disnaa)That it will be attended with most imp or^n *' results both to New South Wales and to the neighbouring colonies is so obvious, t> a it seems repeating a mere truism to assc r it. One of its most important consequonc will be the direct encouragement ford to the agricultural interest. The crop of wheat in the Australian colonies, accor , ing to the Herald, are inadequate to the prospective demands, while the*® , every probability that the amount of llll gration to them will be greatly incicu

Previous to this discovery it was known that immigration to New Zealand (chiefly to the Canterbury settlement) would amount to some thousands, and there can be little doubt the knowledge of the discovery of o-old in New South Wales will tend to increase the numbers of intending colonists to this country, from its enlarging the market for the consumption of our agricultural produce. We hope that the opportunity will not be lost on those settlers who are engaged in farming pursuits, with such prospects before them, every possible. exertion

should be made to extend the cultivation of wheat and other produce, and that not among the settlers only, but also among the [Native population. Many of the causes (which operated to render the consignments Ifrom this colony to California unprofitable, I The long voyage, the enormous duties, the heavy freights and other charges, will not Jexi-t in this case. And though prices may ■not fluctuate between such extremes in Sydgney, if these golden visions are realized, ■they will be such as amply to .remunerate ■the producer. But many may be inclined gto think we are indulging in too sanguine Jexpectations, that whereas New Zealand has (never yet grown enough wheat for her own ■consumption, with an influx of European (immigration, with fresh mouths to fill, there twill be still less prospect of exporting to ■other colonies from these islands. Our obiject is, in the first place, as journalists, to (spread the news of the discovery, and then [to turn it to good account, by shewing that She who goes forth to sow may sow in hope lof an abundant return. This news arrives jjust as all the difficulties connected with the gland question in these settlements are about Ito be finally removed by the arrangements |of the Governor-in-Chief, and the settlers ■put in possession of their lands. Jn comIparing the Thames with the Pactolus and ■those other rivers whose watei s are fabled ijby the poets to flow over golden sands, the Ipoet Denham breaks forth in the following Snoble lines—■

Though with those streams he no resemblance hold, Whose foam is amber, and their gravel gold; His genuine and less guilty wealth t’explore, Search not his bottom, but survey his shore. We hope the settlers of .New Zealand may be able to make a similar boast in pointing to the sources of their prosperity ; —that these may not be derived so much from the precarious returns of mining as from their commercial energy and the steady and patient industry of those engaged in pastoral and agricultural pursuits, by which the productions of their labour may be exchanged for the gold of other countries, so that with honest pride they may ‘ survey their shores,’ when directing the attention of strangers to the true elements of their wealth and prosperity, and comparing their progress [with that of other countries.