The Hawaiian gazette., 1869-02-24

couver Island Is q military and commercial
position : aggressive in regard to the
United States, and defensive, regarding
British Columbia. In the winter time,
when the miners come down from Oariboo,
Victoria assumes the appearance of city
Of miners but in the summer season it is
like any other English colonial town. As
soon as you have crossed the bar Of Frazer
River, it seems as though you were intro
duced to q widely different world The
discovery Of gold dust in the streams, and,
above ALL of the rich quartz of Cariboo,
has been the means by which attention
was called to that country, and which
caused it at once to be invaded by num-
bers of California miners. On the banks
of the Frazer River, everything is Cali
fornian: manners, costume, and language,
which is sort of slang that mas now
the privilege of being spoken by the fash
ionable snobs of London, in preference
even to race-course slang. There, as in
California, can be noticed the strange con-
trast between the beauty of the machines
and the degraded state of men; between
misery and extravagance. There you see
people sleeping on the hard ground, clad
in the most filthy manner, who can not
find q better way of amusing themselves
than by playing ten-pins with bottles of
champagne, in order to have the pleasure
of seeing the precious liquor running to
waste in the dry sand. The love of gold
imparts to those men heroic intrepidity,
but, unhappily, too often smothers all gen.
erous feelings.
But there are striking differences be-
tween California and British Columbia.
In the former, agricultural pursuits have
kept pace with the mining interests, while
in the latter, everybody being employed in
the work of the mines, and all the pro-
visions coming from Oregon or California,
the gold extracted "a part of which re-
mains with the retailers), finds its way to
the hands of the American merchants, so
that the United States may be called the
commercial home of that English Colony.
There is in the book of Lord Milton
and DR.. Cheadle an omission tina. is not to
be overlooked. They call their journey
the northwest passage by land, but they
forget to tell US the reason why railroad,
or a common road, joining British Colum-
bia to Canada, through the possessions of
the Hudson Bay Company, is so much
needed that the prosperity. nay, the very
political future of the British Colonies in
the Pacific will be compromised and en-
dangered, if nothing is done respecting
the construction of an overland route. 1t
is very important question for the Eng
fish Colonies of North America, and
question which. being to-day Of mere
commercial and agricultural bearing, will
assume more serious aspect in the con-
fict which is preparing between England
and the United States for, from Fuca
Straits, in the Pacific, to the mouth of the
st. Lawrence, in the Atlantic, the United
States frontier is bounded by the British
Possessions. We shall, therefore, attempt
to give to the aforesaid book the conclu-
sions wanting, and for the sake of a clear
exposition, shall examine, separately, all
matters pertaining to British Columbia,
Canada, and the Territory of the Hudson
Bay Company.
The sources of gold, if one may be al
lowed so to speak, have not yet been
found. The deposits Of gold-sand Of con-
siderable worth are very scarce, and the
area in which they lay very limited, so
that, sooner or later, when the gold-sand is
exhausted, the mining countries will be
successful or unsuccessful in accordance
with the cheap or high price paid for man
ual labor. But Cariboo is, of all places in
the world, the one where the compensa-
ton for labor is the highest, md the pop
ulation is, therefore, mainly composed of
miners and merchants. 1t takes five
months to reach it from Europe, round
Cape Horn, and it costs $500 by the way
Of Panama In the one case, the passage
is too long; in the other, too expensive,
and the colonist is deferred from any idea
Of settlement. If no road or communion
ton by land is open for the immigrants;
If British Columbia does not discontinue
taking its provisions from Oregon and Cal
ifornia if the price of the necessaries of
life does not diminish when the richness
of the "placeros" decreases, then will
Colony, having before it the brightest pros
poets, dwindle away, and fall as rapidly as
it has risen. "How is it." say the British |
Columbians, that England lets the Unit
ed States take the lead everywhere ?"
The United States have already made
three roads, uniting California to the Mis-
sissippi; there are on each road coaches,
by the Central Government, for
the accommodation of travellers special |