STATE OF CALIFORNIA. {From the Polynesian, November 4.)

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 278, 27 January 1849, Page 7

STATE OF CALIFORNIA. {From the Polynesian, November 4.)

The question frequeutly asked by those who contemplaie going to California is, what is the m iral <.tate of the country? The following letter, wriite i by an intelligent observing: gentleman, who ha- travelled o cr a £reat pa-t of Califoinia, and vi iicd the mine,, gives a good idea of the st^te of the country. We letommend it to the perusal of those who conteroplute lemoving to California. The moral condition of ihe country was bid cno igh before the gold discover.es— it is now m a sta eof perfect chaos, and what it will he is known only to Omniscience — though the slightest touch of sng it i y will enable any onn to sec that geld mines are des t ined to make matters worae rather than better. The whole attention of the population for the last six mo iths has been occupied with gold. There are no schools, nor any prospect of any for the present. The inhabitants are unsettled — many families will winter in the mines — a wretched place it will bs for quarters at ih it season ; and it will be a long time before anyth.ng like a settled state of society is known here. Men will on'y engage in agriculture and the mechanic il arts when they find these more profitable on the whole than gold digging— and gold digging at the present yields a pretty sure income of 10 to 20 dollars per day, with the chance of making from 100 to 500 dollara in the sjnv> time, as is not un'requently done. At least six thousand people are already engaged in digging, and the number il daily increasing, but the extent or the gold region is increasing equa'ly fast. Active operations now extend over a tract of country 2JO miles in Irngth, and varying from 10 to 40 miles in width, lying midway between the base and the summit of the range of the Sierra Nevada or Snowy Mountains. At a moderate computation, 60 or 70,000 dollars ate pocketed daily, and from two to four million dollars have been probably dtawn frum th s bank since it commenced specie piyments six months ago. My own business of surveying, like all others, as knocked on the head last spring, and I was h'ft to s ,ck my thumbs for a livel hood, or go wih the multitude So in sheer self-defence, I tves obliged to turn " digger" myself. A small pinch of the virgin metal I send you by way of a s imple of my digging. You will see that it is in water-worn lumps like pebbles, nltnoji every piece of it giving evidence that it has lost its original size and form Irom long attrition thnu h the j agency of water. It occurs in every variety of magnitude, from alruott invis.ble dust and little flattened scales like flax-sred up to lv npi of the size I send you, and in many puts of the mines to pieces at Imge at pigeons' and pulleU' eggs, though the larger piecrs are uiually more or less intermixed with quaitz, which was ibe original gusge or veinstone through which the gold was interspersed. I found digging gold by no means the enchanting e<n; 1 >yment many might dr«ain il to be ; but a matterof fact, back selling, weaiisome work— most neailj lesembliog, ft r all ihe woild ihe heavy toil of a multitude of Paddies excavating a canal or mill-race, 'ihclimate of the gold region from April to October is dry with a cloudiest atmosphere and cool nights, the middle of the day being warm, especially at tlie diggings nenrctt the pa u. While at the mines 1 was of course

obliged to tuzn mountaineer, sleep under the blue canopy or part of the time in a teut, and tike care of my domestic concerns as I best could. Life in the mountains with plenty lo eit, and a good appetite;, produced by hard work for sauce, is not so repulsive a thine; as one only accustomed to in-door existence might suppoie. For variety'g sake it will do for a time, bat for my p»rt, gold digging is a busineis I do not fancy, although it pays pretty well, and you are sure of getting your pay in hand directly the work w done.— Still, I would rather bs at my old bm'invas with one-third the profits of this. I have been abspnl Irom die mines now five or six week?, to avoid the more « : c'<ly season, ihough I left JVIr.D I *** on the ground. He designed to winter among the gold. I expect lo retura re^t week to spend a month perhaps, for want of anything to do here. I have surveying enough on hand, but d ainmen cannot he hired less than five del - [ lais a day, which wouid make thebu>,ine«i unpiofitab c to me, u less I (harged enormously for the work. But enough of god. * * There is much sickness, chit-fly in Uip vicinity of the Turlea marches at Sutter's, and in the va'leys of the Sacramento and San Jo uj 'lira Rivers, into which the sti earns empty on the upper waters of which the gold is found. Prom the papers aud th • friends who have come ovei, I learn lhat the gold lever is making q'iHe a siir in King Kami h imeha's little realm. Scores are already here, and more, lam told, are coming. Some who recently went up the Saciamento R\er came back a few v\eeks afterwards well stored wilh ferei, and ague, if not with gold. Many who come will make money, doubtless, but sonae will make themselves sick, and, perhaps make themselves poorer than ever — if they do not make shipwreck of good morals, and die. like some already, as the fool dieth, in revelling and drunkenness. If any man is doing a tolerable business at the islands, let him stick to it.) He will, tea chnncts to one, be better off in the end. If he can get more gold here, he will hive to fork over mors pold here for (he means of subsistence. In the mines I luve seen su.ar, cott'ee, batter, hams, potatoes, and other ai teles selling at 1 dolhr a pound ; molasses, 6 dollars per gallon ; flour 30 to 40 cents per pound; beef, 25 cents, oiiea twice that ; common woollen blnnke.s fell for 5 ) or 100 dollars— among the Indians higher still ; other articles of clothing three or four times theii ordinary prices. Goods of all sorts are high. Real e^ta em San Pranciseo has risen greatly. A. lot which a year ago c»st 400 dollars, and a year before that 15 dolhrs, was sold a few daj% iigo for 10,000 dollan, though only fifty yauls equate, ami entiiely unoc-upied. — What this stite ot things is coming to, who can tell ? With such chaotic materials how shall oider arise out of confusion ? To look foiward to the state of the country a few years hencs,. is enough to make one tremble, unless the Lord in his wise providence shall, through the agency of his visible church, cuuse the seeds of righteousness, and of all that is lovely and of good report, lo be planted here before the thorns and briers of evil shall have attained to choking strength and maturity. Churches and schools are wanted. A sjumen's chaplian or a home migsionary should be located at San Francisco at, once. But I must dose.