A COMPARISON OF COLONIES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4139, 26 June 1874, Page 3

A COMPARISON OF COLONIES.

Some time ago the Southern Cross published extracts from a letter received from an old Auckland colonist who had gone to America. Ho had gone through many States of the Union, and found the land as a rule much inferior to the general run of land in Australia and in the Province of Auckland. He has now removed from the States to British Columbia, and by the last American mail a letter was received by his friends from him, dated from Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. He is evidently not in favor of the country, and (says our contemporary) those who are always tattling of their intention to leave New Zealand to settle in America should give some heed to his warning in the concluding portion of his letter. When he wrote, ho was on the point of leaving for the new diggings which had been discovered in British Columbia. In order to show the accessibility of our goldfields, as compared with the goldfields there, hero is his description of his intended journey :—“ The now diggings are 700 miles north of Victoria. I am going to leave for them in two or three days. The

route is from Victoria up the coast to the mouth of the Stiekeen river, and from there travel up the river on the ice for fully 200 miles ; then, on the snow for about 100 miles to the diggings.” He then goes on to state “that times in the United States are about as bad as they can well be. All the public works are stopped, and there is a great deal of poverty in the country, and all the gigantic railroad schemes are knocked on the head for a short time. The railroad companies in the United States cannot borrow money in Europe at present, so they have to stop work. There has been too much swindling in railroad stock in America for the European capitalist to invest in it, and it is on account of their not investing that has caused the financial crisis.” The writer then proceeds to explain in detail how the construction of railroads in the United States is managed, and how the scheme to unite Canada with British Columbia by railroad has fallen through. His opinion of Canadian statesmen is that they have all the vice of the statesmen of the United States, without their energy and perseverance. Anyone thinking about leaving the Australasian Colonies to come to America will, I think, do better to remain where he is. There are free grants of land given to actual settlers in British Columbia of 160 acres each, but the land is generally very poor. There are some good patches in the river bottom, but they are few. These are not encouraging words from one who has gone over thousands of miles of territory in the United States and British America, and seen the places for himself.