Page 5 Advertisements Column 1

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 107, 28 October 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

BRITISH COLUMBIA AND VANCOUVER'S ISLAND FROM DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW. Letters from Victoria, Vancouver's Island. — The following is an extract from a letter received by a gentleman in Edinburgh from a friend in Victoria, under date June 22 : — " The opening up of new tracts of country by roads has given a great start to agricultural pursuits in the upper country ; and there is nothing that I know of that is more certain to make an industrious family thoroughly independent in a very few years than farming. Land without a tree, covered with fine grass up to your knees, to the extent of 160 acres, is to be had, and plenty of it, for 'the taking. With wheat, or rather flour (for grist mills are going up), at ls to ls 6d per lb., or <£14 sterling per sack ; barley, L2O per qr. ; oats, the same ; hay, L3O to LSO per ton ; pota-

toes and other vetetables, ls per lb. ; butter, 10s to 12s per lb. ; eggs, 2s per doz — what can pay better? Cattle are not over dear ; cows can be bought at Ll2 to Lls each. Horses Lls to L3O each. What do you think of this, with a climate finer than that of Canada in the district of country I allude to — viz: between 50 deg. and 52 deg. north latitude? If you want to be a laird, and in five years a rich one too, come out here. If you could land with LIOOO, — even LSOO-*^-could start in a quiet way — there is nothing in the world better, I am certain. " — Scotsman. The Other Picture-— Victoria contains a bona fide population of about 6,000 souls, but it may be computed at nearly twice that number in winter when the miners are present. Last winter's snow remained on the ground only three or four days, with an almost total absence pf frost, which is poorly compensated for by the incessant rains which frequently lead to a suspension of all out-door employment. Compared with Canada, Vancouver is a barren rook. As for British Columbia, it rivals the great Sahara for arid sterility. 1 am not in a position to givejany informa tion concerning the mines. The newspapers always make a great fuss on the arrival of each steamer. The amount of gold brought down is announced in large characters, below which we glean the stereotyped information that the Hard, Curry, Canadian, Black Jack Tunnel, and Barker claims are paying largely, but not a word about the hundreds of claims that are not. Then follows a glowjng description of the excellent condition of the roads, and the large extent of soil about being placed under cultivation, all of which must be taken cum grano salis. Every one is much amused at the gullibility of the . London Times in inserting a letter from a person of the name of Donald Frazer, containing the most absurd statements. Donald, in the meantime, is rusticating somewhere in California, having too much regard for the integrity of his bones to remain in Victoria, where so many of his English Victims are prowling about in "distress." In conclusion, I would earnestly dissuade any one from emigrating to this colony, no matter what his attainments axe.^-Montreal Gazette, July 27.

M E^iiene Delacroix, the celebrated painter,°who. had been ill for about two months With chest disease, expired on the morning of tiie August 14. He was in his 66th year, having been born at Charenton St Maurice'; near Pai is, April 36, 1798.