BRITISH COLUMBIA. (From the Home News, April 18.)
Our new colony of British Columbia is, according to the last accounts, in a most satisfactory condition. The difficulties which the influx of miners had caused were passing away, as the great body of them, dreading the winter and the high price of provisions, had returned to San Francisco. Government was strong enough to keep order among those who remained. In the spring the rush would, of course, begin again, but by that time a reinforcement of troops would have arrived, the administrative and judicial arrangements of the colony would be more complete, and the unquiet spirits more easily dealt with. With respect to the mineral wealth of the country the accounts are most captivating. It is reported on good authority that the whole course of the Fraser River up to its source in the Rocky Mountains contains rich deposits of gold, and that the tributary streams are no less abundant in metallic wealth. The gold covers an extent of territory, if these reports be true, which will make British Columbia the most important gold-producing region in the world. The country is one which must certainly before long take a high place in the world. The Americans have founded two states — California and Oregon — on the Pacific coast, and these are growing with a rapidity unexampled even in their annals. They are pushing steadily across the continent ; the new cities of 10 years since are now far within the limits of civilisation. Chicago has become a venerable metropolis to the citizens of St. Paul, Dubuque, and Superior. The transit across the isthmus is being regularly organised, and there is reason to hope that the troubles which desolate Central America will pass away, so that a rapid and cheap communication between the two oceans may be permanently established. All these things point
to the speedy prosperity of the British territory on the western coast, containing as it does some of the finest harbours in the world, with a fertile soil, a healthy climate, winters less severe than was anticipated, and, above all, mineral wealth to which there &eems no bound.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Witness, Issue 399, 23 July 1859, Page 6
Word Count
357BRITISH COLUMBIA. (From the Home News, April 18.) Otago Witness, Issue 399, 23 July 1859, Page 6
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