AUSTRALIAN VIEW OF DUNEDIN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7, 22 November 1861, Page 5 (Supplement)

AUSTRALIAN VIEW OF DUNEDIN.

(From the special Correspondent -of the Sydney Morning Herald.)

October 9.—Much that is alike, and much that is markedly different, are to be observed between Duneuin of the present day and Melbourne nine years ago. The same producing cause has occasioned a similar feverish excitement. Like in Melbourne, the town is overflowing with fresh arrivals, the hotels are overcrowded, every available place is converted into a boarding-house or restaurant ; the stores and other places of business have more to do than they can manage, the landing and wharfage accommodation is inadequate to the constantly increasing demand on it. Fabulous prices are asked for sites of land and frail paltry tenements, and the whole scene is one picture of irregularity, confusion, and discord. But, as I have said, there are ■markedly distinctive features. There are not the wild profusion, the reckless dissipation, the utter abandonment to all kinds of excesses that foxsrl-crd'so prominent a portion of the picture of the early days of the Victorian gold-fields. No doubt this is partly to be attributed to the fact that success is not nearly so general or so great as it was in Victoria, but something I. think is due to the hardly gained experience of many laborious years, which have taught miners the uncertain nature of the pursuit they follow, and how bitterly they may have to regret the sacrifice of the results of brief success, followed by long years of misfortune and " bad luck," Another distinctive feature is the absence of new chumism.. To do them justice, the miners of Victoria and New South Wales have " cheek " and assurance to carrj' them anywhere, and they land here free from any embarrassment, rather with the air of old residents come to take possession of the place than strangers seeking a new home. The ordeal of Australian colonization appears to fit one for roughing it anywhere. And, lastly, Danedin and Melbourne of old are widely different in their adaptability for improvement and progress. Dunedin, though picturesque, is a wretchedly laid out town. Built amongst a number of hills, the business portion of the town has hitherto been confined to a limited space at the base of the principal hills, and serious physical difficulties operate to limit its extension. Land has always been difficult to obtain in Dune din suitable for business purposes, and even before the recent movements rents and freeholds ruled very high.