Now that the spring is here there is a scarcity of hands to do the work. But the old hands in the poorhouse it seems, have taken out a lease for life and will not be persuaded even by the prospect of wages, to quit the house. The weather was indeed too fine in April and the drainage works contributed to the fact that every spring in the town and suburbs dried up. It is now time for emigration and a great number of respectable farmers with their families and luggage pass through the town on their way to Westport. The colony has undergone a sudden change.
Gold is found in abundance.
Good wages are given and meat is very cheap. It is a splendid country with plenty of work for all kinds of labour and good pay. A partial fall of rain relieves the draught and news arrives that orders have been issued for the release of the Irish State prisoners, Smith, O'Brien, John Mitchell and their companions subject to the conditions that they are not to set foot in the United Kingdom again. We have witnessed the successful test made a few days since by our talented townsman, John Atkinson on a piece of granite over three-fourths of which that gentleman has reduced to copper and tin. The area occupied by the strata from which the specimens tested have been taken covers miles of Mayo.