THE POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 108, 30 October 1863, Page 6

THE POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.

The Bishop of British Columbia, who, as the Rev. G. Hills, was long identified with St. Nicholas's Church, Great Yarmouth, delivered an address to his old parishioners on the 17th, in the course of which he said that, in 1858, when the colony was organised, high expectations were entertained with respect to its future, and fee was able, from his •own observation, to confirm those anticipations. British Columbia was destined, at no distant date, to occupy a remarkable position*among the dependencies of Great Britain. British" Columbia occupied somewhat the same position upon the western coast of North America as England did upon the western coast of Europe, and the colonists felt as to climate completely at home. There was a western aspect in both cases, and the influence of the Gulf stream was also felt, England owed her peculiar climate, in a great measure, to the Gulf stream a current of warm water setting out of the Gulf of Mexico, striking across to Britain, elevating the isothermal line, and preventing England from being like Spitzbergen or Iceland in the matter of climate. A similar influence operated upon the coast of Vancouver and Columbia and the Aleutian islands, just below Behring's Straits ; thus the camphor tree, which grew only in Japan, was cast upon those islands, the inhabitants of which depended for their wood upon what set in through the current. Columbia was destined to be a commercial country of great importance, as it was the only British territory upon the whole of the western coast of North and South America, and trade was increasing in the Pacific. He crossed the Isthmus of Panama the other day, and found that no less than four regular lines of steamers now touched there to meet the increasing traffic. Population, too, was continually spreading over the western sid of the America continent. Every ten days a steamer passed round, and brought a great number of passengers from New York to San Francisco. There were also arrivals by another route, while numbers were continually passing over the great plains of America to the western side. The American war had increased this movement, for it had so unsettled the population, rgpecialiy in the Border States, that many had given up their property and had started away for the western side. At this very time 100,000 people were in movement, engaged in one great exodus, with their waggons, their families, and their households, and were passing over to the western side, bidding adieu for ever to the eastern side. The war in the eastern states of America had operated also upon the inhabitants of California, and led them to regard that country as their future home. He preached one day in the Protestant Cathedral of San Francisco to a large and enlightened congregation, and from what he learned in that great city — which, although only fifteen years old, contained a population of 100,000 — he came to the conclusion that California was approaching that position as a nation which would enable her inhabitants ere long— -and perhaps very speedily, in consequence of the War — to cast off their connection with the east, and found a western power in the Pacific. San Francisco was now beginning to be supplied from British territory, in consequence of the increased quantity of British shipping attracted to Vancouver. We might see now, then, the commencement of that distribution of British commerce which would take place from Victoria, destined to be the Queen of the Pacific, receiving the shipping of the world, and distributing British produce and manufactures through the vast regions which were being opened up to the American continent. To show how matters were growing in this respect, he might state that, last year, one of our largest shipowners (Mr Lindsay) sent round four large steamers to ply between the western coast of America and China and Japan, countries now opened to our trade and commerce. Another matter of importance was the prospect of a line of railway right across the British territory, from one ocean to the other. The Canadas, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were well known to Englishmen ; but there was an immense country between Canada and Columbia which was less familiar to them. During the last few months, the old Hudson Bay Company, which had the fee-simple of this vast region had remodelled itself, enlarged its capital, and adopted plans for the purpose of opening up a district twice the size of France. A telegraph was being formed, which would connect the Atlantic and the Pacific. A waggon road for emigrants would soon also be commenced, and the Duke of Newcastle stated in a speech in the House of Lords, a few weeks since, that, if the railway which was in. contemplation to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific, could be carried out, it would work a greater revolution in the commerce of the world than was effected by the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope. In addition to all these circumstances, there was gold, and we know how potent the influence of gold was in drawing a population to a country, and how I it had pleased God to make Use of that means for building up great populations. We saw how Australia had been formed into a nation, and how California h d drawn over a vast population from the eastern states of America. Now men were being attracted in a similar manner to British Columbia, and perhaps nothing else but gold would have opened up the country so soon. As was the case, however, with most hew countries, British Columbia was a very rough land, requiring hard-handed

men to enter upon the. work before them. He had often been struck on witnessing the hardships which men would undergo for the sake of gold, j which, "after aji, they never realised. ! When young men had called upon; him in Victoria with letters •of introduction, he had frequently given them advice which had rather astonished ■ them. He had recommended them before they started for the mines to go and work upon the roads for two months, that they might harder, their hands and find out what sort of life they would have to lead. The gold of British Columbia required men of good nerve and enterprise to work it. Steady people of this kind would do well, but no soft handed idlers were wanted. The first discovery of 'gold took place in 1850, in the lower part of the Fraser River, at a place caled Yale, just above New Westminster. People rushed in from California, and a good many made their fortunes out of the dust, but it was nothing at all to what was afterwards discovered- It was in Cariboo where the greatest amount of mining was being carried on; and in a letter which he received the other day from British Columbia he was told that a vast number of miners were at work there, and that the unlucky ones were getting as wages for labor, L 2 per day. He would leave the meeting, then, to guess what the lucky ones got. After recording instances of successful digging, the right Rev. prelate said there was no doubt but that there was a wide spread production of gold ; and therefore it was certain, judging from the history of other countries, that the resources of British Columbia must attract on this account a considerable population. Miners must be fed, and how was this to be done ? At present they were fed upon the packhorse plan, and goods were carried so up to Cariboo. Flour cost last year at Cariboo 6s per lb, and even now it costs 5s per lb. Last year some few farmers, who had settled, were coining money out of the farming mine, which proved a more certain affair than the gold. One Oregon farmer started from his farm last year with 50 horses laden with bacon. Each horse carried 250 lbs, and he sold his produce at a profit of LlOoO. He mentioned this to show that if a m n found it to his advantage to be able to supply the miners with the produce of his farm, what enormous profits would be made by farmers, if they were to go and settle upon the lands of the colony. Another resource of the colony was the abundance offish it possessed. Sulmon were in such plenty that they lay thick upon each other in shoals; fine big fish, such as "night be seen in the shops of London. On travelling up the rivers in a canoe they had often struck against the boat, and sometimes his men had knocked one in the head and dragged it in. One of our ships, the Satellite, let down the net for a draught, off San Juan, and took 600 salmon at once, while on another occasion the crew of the same ship took over 600. He had noticed, too, as many as 50 salmon all leaping and jumping out of the water at one time. Again, herring were very abundant, although at present there was a want of enterprise, and only small fish along the shore were taken.

(From the European Times-)