ENCOURAGEMENT TO NEW ZEALAND SETTLERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 138, 7 January 1854, Page 4

ENCOURAGEMENT TO NEW ZEALAND SETTLERS.

The Sydney Correspondent of the Wellington Independent, in his summary of intelligence from that colony, says — " I may remark that, in a commercial sense, this colony, and Sydney especially, are in a very prosperous and satisfactory condition. Our trade expands every day ; and we have no reason to apprehend that collapse which the exceptional circumstances of Melbourne suggest as probable in that place. Here is ample encouragement to New Zealand settlers, in the present and prospective requirements of both colonies. For the next few years we shall be your best customers for grain and potatoes. We raise nothing like a sufficiency of wheat; and our population increases every week. Those who are wise among you will apply their best energies to the raising of supplies ; let them be thoroughly persuaded that a corn-field is worth twenty gold-fields ; and that it is better to sell produce at high prices than to have to give high prices for it. Now is the opportunity for New Zealand to take a real start in that career of prosperity which awaits her."

The Opening of the Murray.— The most important- feature of the last news from Adelaide is the return of Captain Carldell's expedition from a steam voyage of 1800 miles up the river Murray. The fact is now established, that the Murray is navigable, at least for six or seven months in the year, to this immense distance from the sea, and through a tract of country which might be converted into fruitful corn fields, to supply the necessaries of life to the increasing multitudes settling down upon th'e'shores of the Australian continent. It is 7 not easy to estimate correctly the importance of the enterprise, which has terminated so successfully, and with such great prospective be- . unfits for all the colonies. To South Australia -herself, the accomplishment of this fact is worth „'„ than the acquisition of new territory. It

is calculated that, beyond the boundary of South Australia, 1,000,000 sheep are depasturing over the country to which steam communication will be established, and that the yearly value of the wool thus added to that colony's exports will lie £200,000. The country, too, is capable of a large augmentation of stock. Nor will this intei'nal navigation be less important to the sister colony, in bringing to her doors the commerce of the rich central gold fields. The river steamers, even according to present data, will reach within 55 miles of the famous Bendigo, within 40 miles of the new Goulburn diggings, and within 100 miles of the Ovens, so that the richly-laden gold-finder of Victoria may take his precious metal to the Adelaide market by one of the most romantic and pleasant voyages in the world. "We shall look forward to a wonderful progress in the traffic of the Murray, and to still more wonderful changes on that river's banks. — S. Empike.