Colonial Despatches

I have the honor to report my return to Victoria yesterday from the tour on the Mainland of the Colony which I acquainted you in my Despatch No 7 of 3rd September it was my intention to make.

2. I visited all the important settlements, and Iannex annex Copies of Addresses that were presented to me at New Westminster, Yale, Lytton, William's Creek, Quesnelmouth, and Clinton, with the replies which I made on these occasions.

3. I was received everywhere with demonstrations of cordial loyalty to the Queen, and of personal deference and consideration to myself as Her Majesty's Representative.

4. The impressions which I derived from my tour were more favorable as regards the present condition and future prospects of the Colony than I had been led to anticipate. The spirit of excitement and speculation which pervaded the Community a few years ago has subsided, and with it has departed a large portion of the unsettled population which always flows into new goldCountries Countries. A diminution in the supplies required by them and furnished by the forwarding traders has been regarded as a depression of trade. But in fact the Community should be regarded as much better without the scum of the population which has floated off. Those who have remained to settle steadily to occupation are almost without exception prosperous.Business Business of all kinds is being built upon more stable foundations than hitherto, and I think that indications may be plainly seen of the growth of increasing progress.

5. Mining operations are being conducted at Cariboo with steady industry and scientific appliances. New works are giving fair promise; and there is reason to think that the yield of gold in that neighbourhood is farfrom from exhausted; although the prodigious returns are no longer obtained which were at first afforded by William's Creek, said to have been probably the richest spot known in any gold-fields.

6. Agriculture is obviously attracting more attention than at first, and is being prosecuted to a greater extent with much success. There is scarcely a limit to the productiveness of the soilin in a large section of the Country, if only the supply of water is sufficient, which can be, and is in many cases obtained by irrigation. And it is notable that I did not meet with a single instance among the many people with whom I conversed, where disappointment was expressed at the results of cultivation which had been undertaken; while the applications for land are more numerous; and eventhe the cases of disputed claims which have been brought under my notice indicate the value which is attached to its possession.

7. Stock farming is growing in importance, and no finer Cattle or Sheep are to be found in any neighbouring Country than those which the climate and pasturage of this Colony can produce. Your Lordship will observe the significanceof of the fact that attention is now being directed to obtaining a market for produce which is raised among ourselves, instead of all our supplies being drawn from abroad. Probably next year there will be little or no beef imported in Victoria. The Upper Country of the Mainland being already supplied as cheaply with meat and Breadstuffs as any other portion of the Colony.

8. Your Lordship will remark frequent favorable references in the Addresses which I received, to the proposed Union of the Colony with the Dominion of Canada. It will shortly be my duty to report fully on this subject in my reply to Your Lordship's Despatch No 84 of the 14th August. But it is right now to remark that the expressions contained in the Addresses cannot betaken taken as representing the unanimous opinions even of the white population residing on the Mainland; and still less as embodying the public sentiment of Vancouver Island which contains more than half of the total number of the united Colony.