The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 192, 12 March 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1868.

QUEENSLAND V. THE "WEST C©AST seems to be the prevalent opinion amongst miners and business people generally on the "West Coast, and any doubts that may arise appear to be removed by the reception of what are called " private letters," received from miners or people in the new El Dorrtdo. Perhaps a few words from an old acquaintance with the locality may be of more avail in inducing miners and business people to consider irhere they are " rushing to," and an intimate acquaintance with "digger life" in its various phase?, from the (early days of Victoria, through every roan, including those of GHppsland, Port Curtis, ft somewhat lengthened espsrience of Maryborough, Queensland, and ihe "West Coast, allows us to

give. Queensland is a new country, and as the greater portion of it is what comes under the denomination of a " new country " —that is an unexplored country —it possesses a charm for miners, scarcely understandable for any body who has not been used to the vicissitudes of diggers' life. But then Queensland is a trophical climate, and as the diggings are situated on the other side of the tropic of Capricorn, it behoves diggers to take hoed where they are " rushing to." The climate of Queensland possesses many of the characteristics of an Indian climate; it is hot and sluggish, and it is almost impossible for any person who has been used to the wear and tear of a colder climats to stand its influence. Even old Victorian miners who have been used to the heat and aridness of Mount Ararat, find it impossible to withstand its influence, while even an old Barrier Range miner, writing to the S. A. Register, describes it as being as bad as anything he had ever experienced. Mosquitoes and other insect plagues abound, while swamp fever and malaria rages to an extent almost incomprehensible to an inhabitant of New Zealand or Victoria. The difference between the climate of New Zealand, Victoria, and Queensland, is understood when we state that New Zealand is a humid temperate climate; Victoria, a dry semi-tropical climate ; and Queensland, a tropical humid climate. T.ie same description of climate is to be found in the southern portions of North America, in the Slates of Carolina and Maryland to wit, when it is well-known that pestile; ce and malaria rages to a fearful and terrible degree. That Queensland would become, if a large population was settled there, the hotbed of diseases of this nature, there cannot be the slightest doubt ; for miners who have been used to the temperate climate of New Zealand, or the dry climate of Australia, is bound to be stricken down with fever before they are acclimatised, and this must beget pestilence and the consequence will bethatthe Queensland diggings will become the " fever-house " as it were of the Southern Hemisphere. Whereever a population settles near a mangrove swamp, there : .s almost a certainty of opid mies following in its wake. "We are awara that the yield of gold will have much to do with the settling of the Queensland district, but as nothing definite has been received in the shape of reliab'e news, we would advice miners to wait ere they abandoned a tolerable certainty on the West Coast to an uncertainty in Queensland.