GIPPS LAND.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1522, 20 June 1873, Page 4

GIPPS LAND.

[CORRESPONDENT OF ARGUS.]

Gold workings are being carried on in numberless places scattered about the ranges of North Gipps Land, which is evidently a country rich in mineral wealth. There is a copper mine there that has been worked, which, as far as I could judge from hearsay, promised to be a great success. Bad management and insufficient .capital ruined this, as they have ruined many other legitimate enterprises. But the great drawback to the development of the riches which lie hidden in these hills is the want of p.roper communication. All the machinery which has developed the riches of Walhalla and other places thereabouts has been taken up at an expense which nothing but the certainty of success could justify, and in the face of difficulties which people must tee in order to understand. The construction, therefore, of a railway to Gipps Land is a matter of urgent importance. People are apt to imagine that this part of the colony produces nothing beyond cattle and a little dairy stuff. This may be true of a certain portion, but even of this it may be said that its capabilities are unknown until they have been tested under favorable conditions. For aught we know a hundred Walhallas might be discovered if only access to the country was sufficiently easy to encourage capitalists to invest their money in prospecting operations, to the advantage not only of the immediate neighborhood, but of the entire colony. A railway crossing the Latrobe at or about the. Moe would run over a level country to Sale, within easy distance of the hills, on the one hand, and a large portion of. the settled country, on the other. Most of the main line of road to Gipps Land lies through a sort of no-man's country ; it is not included within the bounds of any shire, nor is it' likely to be for many years to come. The road through this, if made at all — and all will admit that this part of the country, which, has contributed krgely to the public revenue, is entitled to be put in communication with the metropolis — must necessarily be formed by the Government. It construction would be the labor of years, during which this part of the. Colony would remain almost stationary.