A SCOTCH OPINION OF OTAGO.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 266, 27 October 1862, Page 5

A SCOTCH OPINION OF OTAGO.

(From the Glasgoio Herald.)

We have no mean of judging the progress which the New Zealand colonies would have made had they been left fo fight then? way unsupported, as the Pilgrim Fathers did, but certainly they have grown wonderfully in wealth and popnlation under the fostering care and protection of the mother country. The colonists in the Northern Island have had many difficulties to contend against in their dealings with the natives, and in the laborious and expensive process of clearing and breaking up the land, and yet they have steadily prospered from year to year. In Otago, however, the material progress of the colony has been rapid a 8 well as regular, and the discovery of rich gold adds about sixty miles from its capital, Dunedin, has added immensely to the wealth, population, ami importance of this flourishing settlement. Situated in the Middle Island, where the Natives are comparatively few in number and where the land spreads out into open fertile plains, the settlers of Otag-o know Jittle about the toil and expense of land clearinc, or the danger of living in the immediate neighbourhood of uncivilised and warlike native tribes. From the first settlement of the colony up to the present time its progress has been vigorous and uninterrupted; ami this result cannot fail to be peculiarly interesting to Scotchmen, as the colony was originally founded by a number of our enterprising fellow-countrymen. In 1849 the imports into the province of Otago were exactly L 5932 iv value, while in 1861 they had increased to L 559,733, or nearly a hundred times more. The exports for the same year amounted in value to the modest sum of L2IU, and last year they had swelled out to the large sura of L 844.410, or something like three thousand eight hundred and fifty fold. These surprising statistics are doubtless, in a great m^a^ure, due to the gold fields discovered last year, but the colony was rapidly progressing every year before the gold-finding was heard of.

These figures arc taken from the Qtago Times of 17th March hist, and they are fully confirmed by the interesting paper on Otapo and its gold fields which wili be found in another part of this day's paper, for which we are indebted to an intelligent gentleman lately returned from the colony. Our correspondent assures us that Otago is the place par excellence for smail capitalists, domestic servants, an<l industrious working men, It also appaars to be sorely in want of wives; for no less than 12,000 bachelors are watching and waiting for helpmates, with little hope of finding them for years to come. Wiwt a lively country Otago must be for pretty girls to land in i There is little wonder that domestic servants are up in the market, for it takes high wages to tempt young women to stave off weddings, especially when they expect to figure at these cerernoni&s in the character of brides. Our correspondent also informs us that the soil of Otago is of the most fertile description, bearing all kinds of English crop 9 most luxuriantly j while the climate is almost a continual summer all the year round. Life and property are perfectly secure, and religious ordinances and political privileges appear to be within the reach of eve.y working man. T\be goldfields are also turning out to be very prolific, and the precious "dust" seems to be spread over a large surface with considerable regularity, for every miner comes infor a share, and the biggest share in general falls to the most persevering and industrious. Up till the 15th March last gold dnst to the value of nearly one million and a half had been obtained, and a great influx of diggers was the natural consequence; bnt tnere appears to be room and work enough for all. Such are a few of the facts and prospects which the paper sets before us regurding Otago, and we have every confidence in the truth ot the picture which our correspondent has drawn, and a strong faith in the future of this interesting colony. We have been thus specific regarding Otago; but in short any of the New Zealand or Australian colonies present ah admirable field for the industry of the enri grant. ',■ . ■• '. .• ■ ~., ■■"-■• ..