THE GOLD SEEKING MANIA.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 780, 5 October 1853, Page 3

THE GOLD SEEKING MANIA.

[From die "Alta California,” June 3.] By public and private advices from the Atlantic States, we learn that the immigration overland to California this summer is large, thoughnot sq heavy

as that of previous seasons. It appears that hundreds and thousands of persons, from the Western States especially, undeterred by the hardships, privations, disappointments and sufferings of all kinds that have attended those who have preceded them to this country, are selling their homesteads and all they possess and preparing for the long and tedious march across the plains and mountains. Farmers, mechanics, traders and all are forsaking homes, competence and often waere they are sure of doing well, to seek precarious fortune in a distant land. We are glad to see a propel and healthful accession to our population the people who are coming are the very kind ot people we want whpn they come in proper numbers, with proper views and a clear appreciation of what they have to endure on the way and what they have to. encounter when they get here —but it is a just cause of regret to see families breaking up their homes and deserting all the comforts and luxuries that gold, however abundantly possessed, can procure, and coming here with iudeGnite views, an only actuated by a morbid thirst for money, winc x there is not more than one chance in a bundled o their ever getting, and which, if acquired, can never procure for them the enjoyments ox me which they sacrifice in seeking it. We presume that at least ninety per cent, of the whole number of people who have come to Californiahave done so with erroneous and exaggerated notions of the facility of getting gold, and with the intention ot returning to the Atlantic side, after the acquisition of sudden and enormous fortunes. It is surprising that the almost uniform disappointment ot these extravagant ideas during, a period of four years should not yet have modified and rendered more reasonable the views of adventurers. But it has not, and. we presume will not for as many years to come. Men will still yield to the alluring hope of winning fortunes in a day, and will continue to come here with wild and extravagant notions that can never be realized. So long as they do, so long will the State be afflicted with a large number of disappointed, disheartened, desponding people, who, finding it impossible to realize their brilliant hopes of gold, cannot or will devote themselves to such practical pursuits as are calculated to improve their own condition and develop the resources of the commonwealth. It is true that there is not now so large a proportion of the emigration who entertain such mistaken views of the country as formerly, but still there are too many such for the well being of society. For the sake of our citizens and our of other States, we hope eventually to see a more correct appreciation of the resources wants of California inculcated on the Atlantic side. Ihe indiscriminate and thoughtless system of immigration that has hitherto prevailed and still prevails, never has been and never can be advantageous to California or the immigrants; on the contrary it has been and will be a great evil to both. It is better that people should understand so important a fact before they have risked and lost their all upon a wild adventure, than afterwards. If intelligent industrious people, actuated by a reasonable and just enterprise, will come to California to remain, and to acquire fortune by the same systematic, well directed labor that ensures fortune anywhere, success will attend them, and they will contribute to the wealth, strength, and glory of the State. But if they come expecting to realize miraculous fortunes in a few' days or weeks, by a spasmodic effort or a blind adventure they will inevitably be disapp anted and ruined, and become a burthen to themselves, to-their friends, and to the State.