Morning journal and courier., 1881-11-12
Something About Tasmania.
Its Rich Mines, the Curves of its Rail-
 roads and Beauty of its Girls.


 Its Rich Mines, the Curves of its Rail- roads and Beauty of its Girls. Melbourne Letter to the London Tirnes1 Among the emigration fields open to the redundant population of the mother country certainly not the least interesting is Tas- l mania Nearly as large as Ireland or Ceylon, and with better climate and more produc- tive soil than either, it's population is yet not much over 100, 900 souls-men, women and children-all told. The health resort of the surrounding colonies, and even of far of India itself. 1t yet has not advanced in any, thing like the same measure as it's neiehbors l wish to call the attention of your readers to the rapid progress the island Is now making mainly on the strength of it's mineral re- sources. The Mount Bischoff Tin Mine one
 of the richest, if not the very richest. tin
 mine in the world-described as a mountain of metal quarried rather than ninet-bas
 now been worked seven or eight years, and is
 paying such enormous dividends that min
 ing fever has set in, and the consequent
 floating of new companies is the infatuation
 of the hour. The precious metals have also
 been discovered in various parts of the isl
 and, and several gold mines have been worked with great profit to the owners
 Until carefully explored, however, by Vic
 torians, the Tasmanians themselves were ic-
 norant of the variegated treasures around
 them and beneath their feet
 It was in the year 1872 that large deposits
 of tin ore were first discovered at Mount
 Bischoff, on tue northern side of the island,
 opposite to Victoria From the outset the
 mine in its product of tin proved to be what
 the Burra Burra of South Australia was first
 as copper mine, viz, 0 deposit so vast as
 to render superhuous the ordinarily tardy
 and expensive operations of mining
 mining fever set in, and successively were
 discovered, not merely many more tin de-
 poslts, but also gold, silver, bismuth, anti
 nony, iron, and coal apparently inexhausti-
 ble. From the year 1866 to June 30, 1879.
 the returns of gold were AS, 753 ounces from the alluvial and 72, 186 ounces from the quartz People begin to talk of Tasmanian
 millionaires the floating of companies has become sort Of profession, and many spec nlative and enterprising spirits have already left Victoria to try their luck on the gold and tin fields of North Tasmania. The cry i5 for population, and employers say, 'sWhat are he emigration clauses" worth of which we read so much about in the Tunes unless some reasonable share of any exodus from the mother country shall be poured into these colonies, instead of to the United States
 iurely not unreasonable question: Every British emigrant landing at New York be- comes an alien to the country he has quilted, and yet not at once citizen of the laud of bis adoption. Every British emigrant land ing here is at once at homo among his coun- trymen, and if sober and steady may not Il also intelligent may attain, as not few op-
 natives have already attained, honorable and responsible positions in the administration of the affairs of the country.
 Of all the railroads I have ever trusted my life to-and I have crossed from New York to San Francisco-I take the line which con- uects Launceston and Hobart, the northern and southern sides of the island, as the most
 boldly defiant of engineers misgivings touch
 ing the sharpness of curves. When, half 9xpectant of beng hurled by centrifugal force down some of the Tasmanian gullies
 we, with more or less rapid, snake-like mo- ion, wind our way round the steep sides of heavily wooded hills, and look down into ap- parently bottomless deeps and are occasion ally whisked round such bends that we can look out of the window and every now and then see the locomotive as if about to come back to us, the experience may be regarded as exciting rather than pleasant. Neverthe- less, the Tasmanians are able to boast their exemption hitherto from serious accident, md, therefore, they rather pride themselves
 han otherwise in possessing railway which seems to go round corners, and which, eccen- tric as it is can so confound the wisdom of the scientific. The run across the island in seven hours brings us to Hobart, the capital (for some aesthetic reason the inhabitants have abandoned the old name of Hobart Cown), and here we find-nOn 0bstante the alleged general slowness-that the Hobarti- ans are little behind the rest of the world in the comfort of their hotels, and not at all be- hind them in their charges.
 Various causes have contributed to retard the growth of Tasmania in population and other elements of material progress The principal one may be the convict origin of this community, and the dependence of so many of it's free, as well as it's emancipated, inhabitants, for so many years, on the large imperial expenditure which took place while the transportation system was in force. The spirit of enterprise thus dulled could not be expected to suddenly acquire strength when the system was brought to an end in the year 1853. But further affecting the progress of Tasmania was the discovery of gold in Vic- toria and New South Wales two years before the abolition of transportation. The imme- Hate effect of this was to draw from the in land almost all the able bodied men who could get away to the gold fields. Farms were aban doned; shops shut up, private houses left un- and the cases were common in which very old men and women and tice to tend the hocks and herds which had been abandoned by the shepherds and stock men. Although the island is famous for the beauty and more especially for the brilliant complexion of it's girls, it was one of the fa- cetin of the day that, as all the bachelors had cleared out of Tasmania, there was nothing for it but for the girls to follow, and many of them did so. Even Victoria never dream ed of laying an import duty on Tasmanian bellies for the purpose of protecting our own damsels' marriageable interests. As time rolled on things adjusted themselves. As all could not make their fortunes at the gold fields, tie refux of Tasmanian youth to their own fine country soon restored society to something of its former condition. It is now in its turn attracting population from the surrounding colonies, and 1t will continue to do so.s