The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 84, 14 August 1852, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times.

August 14, li'"'?-

The arrival of persons who hay actually dug at the diggings, and have been enriched by their lahours, and have come fo spend their earnings amongst us, is a new /act. It is the first symptom of the tide having turned in our favour. The pv^pects ot this Settlement have from the commencement suffered a good deal of / iuctuation.

When the colonists first arrival, the principal thing thought of by the majority, was the cultivation of the soil; but from inexperience in colonial possibilities, large sums were wasted in ditching and banking properties, which could not be immediately brought into use, and in fencing sections of land, the whole of which will, probably, not be cultivated for the next five years. In a few months, however, several gentlemen from Australia arrived. Passing by the diggers of ditches and owners of sections, they strapped their 'possum rugs to their saddles, roamed over the prairies, waded the rivers, penetrated to the mountains —bathed in lake Coleridge. Under the influence of their precept and example, the Settlement abandoned itself to dream of fortunes made by wool, and to the discussion of pasturage regulations. At this time the prospects of the Colony were at their height, with an admirable set of labourers on the soil, and the promise of such abundance of food, as to enable the Settlement within a short time, to rely on its own resources. With boundless sources of wealth in the rich pasturage country of the interior, and a steady flow of healthy emigration from England—with an equally useful supply of experienced sheep farmers and stockmen from Australia, and the reasonable expectation of an. ample supply of the surplus stock of the neighbouring colonies—it did really seem as if the Settlement was destined to achieve the most rapid development which the history of colonization had recorded. But events were even then occurring in our neighbourhood which no human foresight could have anticipated, and which, in a few months, entirely changed the aspect of affairs. Gold had been found in Australia— gold in such abundance as to throw the wealth of California into the shade. For a long time the inhabitants of the settlement withstood the temptation to go in search after it. Their natural stability of character, the uncertainty and gambling character of the occupation of gold digging, together with the clear prospect before them of comfortable houses and thrivinsfarms in New Zealand, —all these facts deterred the people from hurridly or rashly wishing to desert the settlement which they left England to form. But, again and again as ships arrived in the Colony, the wonderful tale was repeated upon authority which could not be doubted, that the earth had opened its womb in those old quartz hills of Australia, and was bringing forth gold in limitless abundance. The sailing of the "Canterbury" from this port in January last, may be looked upon as the period when a change came over the fortunes of the settlement. Since then the arrival of stock has been casual and precarious, whilst the drain upon the labour of the settlement has been continuous and steady. For some months the tide has been ebbing from our shores, but now there is a prospect of a change. AH accounts agree that, those who go to Australia to procure gold, will not live there, but prefer investing their earnings in other places. A gold finding country must be,, and all accounts . agree that Port Plillip i s a t this moment, an abominable country to live in ; nor can we .doubt that in the course of a few months

many persons will return to invest their earnings at Canterbury.

We have always held that it is absurd to endeavour to keep labour in one place by false representations. Those who have any settled occupation here, especially those who are engaged in the cultivation of the land, would be unwise to resign a certainty for the risk of a miner's life : but there are a multitude of young men in this place who have no very definite occupation, and who would be much better employed at the diggings in recruiting their means. The great uncertainty of success is the only drawback ; but rather than pursue a career of comparative inoccupation here, it would be far wiser that they should be prospecting and working at the Diggings, and taking their chance with the multitudinous throngs congregated there.