A SKETCH OF BRITISH COLUMBIA IN 1868.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 102, 10 September 1868, Page 3

A SKETCH OF BRITISH COLUMBIA IN 1868.

(by an occasional cobbespondent of thb "lyttelton times.) {.Concluded from our last.) Tbe animal resources of the colony are numerous and good. Among them may be mentioned tbe black and grizly bear. These fel'ows are found chiefly in the mountains, and generally give much trouble before they are killed. Their hides always sell well. Inland, and on the coast, deer of all sorts are plentiful. The most valuable specimen is the elk, but it is a mutter of bard work and risk to get near them. They keep so much to the dense woods aud rough ridges that they are hard to utalk, and when they are killed it is not often that the hunter is able to bring out of the bush more than the hide, head, and antlers. The flesh is particularly good. The other varieties of deer are good shooting, and their hides are worth money. On the coast, the sea-otter is often met with. His skin is very valuable. Seals and beavers amply repay a man for his labour in catching them. Martins, minks, silver foxes, racoons, and ermine, and other fur-bearing animals are trapped in large numbers, and their skins always meet with a ready sale. In 1862 £50,000 worth of furs were exported, and more than tbat in 1864. The Hudson Bay Company regularly load several of their own vessels with this cargo every year. I had some fine sport among the elk and deer, using a Henry rifle, the most handy tool under the sun. Wild fowl of all descriptions abound in plenty, as well as grouse and snipe. Grouse

shooting is much gone into on account of the high price of butchers' provisions. It sounds rather startling wben you are told that the cheapest living in British Columbia consists of venison and salmon; yet such is the case. The fish obtained are of great variety, and in immense numbers. Salmon of many sorts are caught easily, nearly all tbe ye+r round, running sometimes as high as 60 lbs; and trout are found in almost all lakes, streams, and even ponds. Cod and herring abound in vast quantities, " and doubtless, with the introduction of capital, a large business in curing fish would be established. Considerable quantities are shipped to San Francisco fresh, being sent down by the steamers, packed securely in ice. One sort, the halibut (which is a splendid fish, sometimes weighing 150lbs or 170lhs) fetches as much a 9 from 35 cents to 50 cents, (2s) per Ib in that market, and is easily obtainable in Victoria at 5 cents. The Indians are the principal fishermen, but the greater and be3t quantity of the salmon comes down from the Frazer. The Indians, or Siwashes, are strong-built able-bodied men. Their numbers are decreasing rapidly, either from the process of civilization or the introduction of whisky, of which they are excessively fond, and of which a most vile description is sold to them by unprincipled men. They live in rancheras close to the town. These rancheras are rather like tbe pahs of New Zealand, only they are not fortified, or so neatly built. The Siwashes are of a most indolent disposition, and, as a rule, of a vagrant nature. The women, or klootchmen, are tall fine people, hut as fond of whisky and doing nothing as the men. The old blanket bas gone out of fashion, and they dress in the *' loudest" style imaginable. Tbe Natives are a most treacherous class, and will rob or murder any white man without the smallest compunction. Their native language is not generally used, but Chinook (a sort of jargon introduced by the obi Hudson Bay Company's employes) bears some resemblance to it, and is used as a general bingunge. It is quaint and decidedly expressive. All domestic house and hotel labour, as in San Francisco, is performed by Chinamen, who readily get from 30 to 35 dollars a month. No female labour is employed. Viewed as a whole, British Columbia, at present, does not hold out any inducement whatever for new comers; in fact it can scarcely support all those already there. It may eventually improve, but I cannot see what is to make it a prosperous country. The climate is too much against it, and the form of government at first, and the monopoly of the Hudson Bay Company, have greatly paralysed all irs energies. For the past few months great exertions have been made to confederate the colony with C-inada. Vast results are anticipated from such a step, which is favourably entertained by the Canadian Government. Among expected benefits must be mentioned, first of all, the proposed railroad between Quebec and tbe Rocky Mountains via Lake Superior. This is n scheme promising great things. The line would pass through some of the most splendid territory in the world — infinitely better than the country traversed by the Grand Pacific trunk line, so soon to join California and the Mississippi together, and by some sanguine friends of Confederation it is confidently expected that British Columbia would become the importMnt terminus of the Pacific. An unprejudiced mind might doubt tbis. more especially as such a result must be the work of a number of years, before which time San Francisco will undoubtedly have rendered its position as the seaport of the 'Pacifi;-, almost, if not quite, invulnerable. The Canadian Government offer to assume the debt of the colony, and it is of course expected that the most expensive pirt of the present government machinery will be dispensed with. *• ome portion of the British Columbian population are still agitating for annexation to the stars and stripes. Cousin Jonathan wou'd doubtless be glad to obtain the country, which would be a much better investment for him than St. Thomas, and infinitely superior to that "pig in a poke "he bought last year— Russian America. This last-named country is not proving a success Last August there was a small stampede towards it from San Francisco, and a fe* Americans went also from Victoria, but tlu-y nearly all returned after remaining there for some months, during which time they never saw the sun nor did any business, and Sitka now appears to be left in the hands of a few American soldiers. A company bas been formed by some go-ahead San Franciscans, who have purchased the Russian- A merican Telegraph Company's vessels and stock. They are established as a fur company, and will no doubt make all the dollars that are to be made in that country, for they have the monopoly, and, as a fur-producing country, Alaska is second to none. In conclusion, let me add one word of advice to your readers, and that is, on no account to leave Australia or New Zealand for California or British Columbia. Nothing is open for them in either place. When 1 last saw San Francisco, it was estimated that over 9000 men were lying out of work. Misery and vi;e were rampant. Yet hundreds more were pouring in daily, and why? Simply because a strong opposition line of steamers bas been put ou against the Pacific S.S. Co., from New York via Panama. For several months the fares have been reduced, and now a passage costs only 20 or 25 dollars, steerage, and a saloon passage can be obtained for from 40 to 80 dollars. Out of this the companies have to pay 25 dollars for the fare by the train across the Isthmus of Panama; so, really, they are carrying passengers a voyage of three weeks for less tban tbe bare cost of two hours and-a-half run in a railway train. In April last, it was expected that tbe fares would be still further reduced. Every steamer was bringing over from New York, hundreds of the very worst class of the genus " loafer" of that place. Things are desperately bad there, so they rush at tbe cheap fares across to California, where tbey find things worse. Wages are

higher, but no work to be obtained, and the necessaries of life are, of course, far higher than in the Eastern States. The Pacific Railway Company employ thousands of Chinamen on their works, thereby doing away with the necessity of employing expensive and independent white labour. Looking at all tbese facts, and, having for ten months carefully, and in a thoroughly unprejudiced manner, examined personally the Eastern States of the Pacific from the Golden Gate to British Columbia, I must unhesitatingly assert that Australia and New Zealand hold forth better inducements than either of tbese countries in every way. If those who may now be making up tbeir minds to leave for California could only have had my experience and seen the passengers from Australia who have landed there, and the disappointments they liave met with, I think many of them would be found wavering, and the ships from Sydney would leave for San Francisco with fewer passengers and more coals.