THE GULF OF CARPENTARIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 553, 5 July 1862, Page 2

THE GULF OF CARPENTARIA.

A preliminary meeting of persons interested in the forma'ion of a new settlement on the Albert Hirer, Gulf of Carpentaria, was held yesterday afternoon, at the Albion Hotel, Bourke-street. There were about thirty-five persons present, and Mr. Thomas ReiLly was requested to take the chair. • Mr. Hall, who had convened the meeting, explained that the object was to form an association for the mutual benefit of each of the subscribers, by a well arranged system of co-operation : . and he read from a pamphlet, written by himself, the advantages enumerated in detail, which would f[<)\v from the formation of such an association as was proposed. He observed it was a well known fact, that in one case where three or four hundred men had joined together to colonize a new country, in seven years thereafter there had been seventy-thousand inhabitants. His idea was to give every man an interest in the soil, and to take possession of this country, as they could do until the decision of the Imperial Government was known, and an apwould be m» le iv that quarter by the next mail. Each person was to liare half-an-aore of town land, or 320 acres of country land. Those who took up larire tracts of waste land for pastoral uurpases were to have a pre-emptive right over 5,000 acres. He proposed to put the value of such land at 10s. an acre, payable by equal instalments over a period of ten yeare. A conversational discussion arose, in which several persons took part, and it "did not appear that the projectors of the scheme had first ascertained how the project would be received by the Queensland' Government, under whose control the Home authorities had placed this land by annexing it to that colony. Mr. Hood, M.L.A., suggested that the'projectors had no guarantee that this very land would not come under the squatting regulations of the Queensland Government. He believed that a, new colony on the Albert River would be successful, but he thought the meeting had at present before ii only, a very meagre amount of information, and he would therefore move #ie following resolution, — " That a sub-committee be formed, for the purpose of obtaining further information on the subject of colonization on the Albert River, and to draw' up resolutions, to be submitted to a public meeting to be called on a future day ; and to correspond with the Imperial Government, also with the Queensland 1 Government, as to whether a colonising association would be recognized by them, and on what terms." ■ Mr. Robert Harris seconded the motion, which wns carried unanimously, and the following were appointed as the committee : — Messrs. John Hood, M.L.A., Robert Harris, Jas Bauer, G. C. Smith, and Thos. Reilly. Hon. Sec, Mr. Hall.'— A rgwt, June 14.