296 TlMEHRI. 
11 Who had as much imagination 
As a pint pot, who never could 
Fancy another situation 
From which to dart his contemplation, 
But that wherein he stood." 
In the first place, each party advocates that particular 
scheme which best furthers his own immediate interests, 
without regard to the general requirements of the colony 
in the future ; and with this obje6t, the difficulty of access 
to the gold-fields is ridiculously over-estimated and 
exaggerated. The navigation of our rivers— even those 
most impeded by rapids — by bateaux is an immeasurable 
superior mode of travel compared with the snail-like pro- 
gress of the bullock waggon in new countries, where 
even the rudiments of roads do not exist, as was the case 
in the early days of gold-digging in Australia, South 
Africa and elsewhere ; and this senseless outcry is calcu- 
lated to deter the very thing which the colony at the 
present time stands most imperatively in need of: 
the introduction of capital from outside. Compare the 
easy and uneventful six days' journey to the Potaro 
with the conditions of travel indicated in the follow- 
ing passages from a well-known writer who took upon 
himself a mission to describe the early gold-fields of 
Australia from personal observation. " We have been 
nearly a month on the way, and have only made forty 
miles out of the seventy-five to the diggings. Those 
who like us go up with carts carrying their stores 
with them fare like us. They are continually breaking 
down, getting stuck fast in deep sloughs and com- 
pelled to unload and re-load continually. There have 
been instances of people being five months in getting 
up to the diggings with loads." 
