May 23, 1859.] NEW ZEALAND. 339" 



my friend the Rev. J. M. Clarke to be highly auriferous, and in 

 other respects also metalliferous. One of these gold tracts, 

 Adelong, has indeed already been reached within 16 miles by 

 one of the steamers. When we consider that this internal water 

 carriage is already very serviceable for a vast distance to the 

 colony of South Australia, in which the Murray debouches ; that 

 higher up the same stream is contiguous to the rich gold-bearing 

 and rapidly rising tracts of the northern parts of Victoria ; and that, 

 out of the 1800 miles now proved to be navigable, 1300 lie within 

 the territory of New South Wales, we must rejoice in the reflection 

 that British industry and science have brought into activity a line 

 of intercourse and traffic which must for ever unite in mutual in- 

 terest the three largest of our Australian colonies. 



Again requesting you to consult the well-considered and effective 

 Eeport of the Committee, appointed by the Legislative Assembly of 

 New South Wales, for the large and statesmanlike views which it 

 embodies, I also specially commend to your notice the clear de- 

 scriptions given in it by various colonists of the physical condition 

 of the interior, the peculiarities and changes of the rivers, and the 

 very ingenious and effective method employed by Captain Cadell of 

 clearing away those masses of drift timber which formerly impeded 

 navigation. Considerable additional expenditure will, indeed, be 

 required to complete this grand operation of extracting the " snags ;'* 

 but, looking to the spirit with which the Murray has been cleared 

 for 700 miles, there can be little doubt of the ultimate result, and 

 that in a few years, to use the words of the Committee, " the cheap 

 transmission of the comforts and conveniences heretofore unattain- 

 able will give a fixed and civilized character to the society of vast 

 pastoral districts, which has up to the present time been com- 

 paratively rude and nomadic." 



New Zealand. — Among the good results of the scientific voyage 

 round the world of the Austrian frigate Novara, under the command 

 of Commodore W' illenstorf, we have now before us a report of Dr. 

 Hochstetter, the geologist of the party, on the coal of New Zealand. 

 Although this coal is of tertiary age, as seen in the districts of 

 Papakura and Drury, in the province of Auckland, it is stated to 

 be abundant, and of such good quality as to be of great importance 

 both for steam navigation and manufacturing purposes.* 



As all the geological details will be laid before the Imperial and 



* See ' New Zealand Gazette,* January 1859, for the Report of Dr. Hochstetter commu- 

 nicjited by the Governor, Thomas Gore Browne, and transmitted to the Royal Geographical 

 Society by Sir E. B. Lytton. 



