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Dunstan Times, Issue 419, 29 April 1870, Page 2

Most of om readers must by tM a time have re ad Mr. E,. P. Whitworth's (the special correspondent of ihaDaily Times) report of the new Settlement of Martin’s Bay. As this proceeds from the pen of a gentleman of considerable colonial experience who had the hardihood to make the journey overland, for the most part alone, trom Lake M‘Kerrow to Lake Wakatip, the report has the advantage < f reliability attached to it, and considering the circumstances, that Mr. Whitworth’s journey was for a considerable portion made alone and dti. ring bad weather, his description o the country is not likely to be colored, and we shall not be at all surprised to learn that Mr. Whitworth’s estimate is far below the real state of what things really are. That veteran

prospector, William Fox, despatched on Th i rsday last at the expense of the people ot Queenstown, will in all probability, if gold exists in anything like payable quantities, not be long in finding it, and frmn what wo can learn, Mr, Fox, from his previous knowledge of the country between the heads of the Shotover and Wakatip, is very sanguine of finding gold between the latter and Martin’s Bay. The success of the new Settlement of which there can scarcely be any doubt censidering that all the elements of colonization exist there in profusion, waiting only to be taken advantage of by the enterprising settler, must largely benefit the Province. The traffic from sea to sea will be consider able, and what is much to be valued is, that most of our gold producing districts will be upon the main high road, we shall have other than local wants to supply, and situate as will be the Dunstan about mid-way between the two terminal sea ports it is almost impossible to conjecture what advantages might not accrue to us by being in so central a position. VV ith the completion of the track between Lake M‘Kerrow and the Wakatip there will be a considerable influx of minors from the western shores of Canterbury and Nelson ; late accounts justify us in saying that, there is a very general desire on the part of miners in those places to give Otago a trial, many to return to the site of their old haunts or attracted by the cheap living, salubrity of the climate and demand for labor are inclined to give tliis Province for the first time a trial. The Government have decided wisely in pushing on the interests of the new settlement as speedily as jossible, they are not only paving the way for an increased population, which as a natural consequence will follow their act, but they are extending our commercial relations in a direction equally beneficial to all interests.