VANCOUVER'S Island.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVII, Issue 1715, 11 April 1862, Page 5

VANCOUVER'S Island.

A letter from Victoria, Columbia, gives a flourishing account of the mineral wealth of Vancouver's Island : — " I have told you before of the almost fabulous richness of the mines of British Columbia, recent accounts place this beyond a doubt. Many men are making 100 dollars per day, and not a few have picked up 100 ounces in the same space of time. Nuni bers who left Victoria penniless are now worth from 100 to 10,000 dollars, the result of oue summer's labour. Those who had not luck enough to get good claims of their own, ob tamed plenty of employment at from 10 to 20 dollars per day. Want is unknown, provisions are plentiful, and hardships are among the things of the past. According to all accounts, the gold must have been taken out by spade fuls. Think of 100 dollars to the pan— not a fancy, but a reality. Miners think that richer diggings are yet to be found, and that the true seat of the gold is not yet discovered. AH the metal is coarse, and in small nuggets— say from ten to twenty dollar pieces. The largest lump yet found weighs 7lbs ; and this, strange to say was found en Thomson's River — old and neglected ground. Miners are now coming down in large numbers, each with his little sack of gold '; but the majority of those with ' piles ' proceed to San Francisco — a loss at present unavoidable, from the want of mint and the scarcity of the circulating medium. The Otter within the last fortnight, has brought down not less than 500,000 dollars, and there is plenty more to come. Wells Fagan & Co., alone will have shipped this year not less than a million and a half of dollars." — Mr. A. G. Dallas, to whom the letter was addressed, says :— " From my own personal knowledge of the country, I believe that British Columbia will surpass both Australia and California in the richness of its goldfields. At present the labourers are few, and the gold does not figure in the exports from Victoria, but goes to swell those of California. Provisions are as plentiful as gold, and cheaper than in any other country I know. The finest potatoes that ever I saw were selling last winter in Victoria at 20 cents, or lOd. per 100 Ib. Flour and other necessaries were equally cheap and abundant. Groceries also were as cheap as in England, there being no duties. The only expensive articles were manufactured goods, the produce of labour. For the possessor of the latter, in the shape of a stout heart and strong arms both male and female, there is no better country in the world, with its fine climate and every other good gift of Providence, including seas and rivers abounding with fish, forests, rich farming lands at 4s. 2d. per acre, cornfields, and minerals. In the event of war, these line colonies, at all times difficult of access to the poor man, can only be reached or even communicated with either by the circuitous route round Cape Horn or via China. To American Steamers from Panama to Victoria we are at present indebted for the transmission of letters or passengers. What is wanted is a line of English steamers from Panama to Victoria. This cannot, in the first instance, be accomplished without the aid of the mother countty. This aid, granted but for a short period, would I am satisfied, so add to the population and so develope the resources of Vancouver's Island and British Columbia, that in a few years, they would be able to carry on for themselves what they now solicit the mother country to establish."