As to the cry about poverty of the people, I have not met a hard up man during my travels here, while those who employ labour declare it is almost unobtainable. If the busi ness people complain of diminished trade, they certainly deserve it, and it is only their sins that are recoiling upon their own heads, any regrets must be that the innocent suffer with the guilty. Promoting mining companies that had no chance of paying, or where the scheme proposed was impracticable of realisa tion, merely as they say, "to bring money into the district," only turns out disastrously in the long run. A _ pretty correct solution of the difficulty is con tained in an old mining phrase, which says, "anything that will net wash up well, is best left alone." The tourist season has commenced prosperously. Queenstown has already been honoured with a number of distin guished visitors, both New Zealand and Victorian, and who unanimously express themselves delighted with the magnificent mountain and lake scenery in this portion of Otago. I have not heard of any of them penetrating as far as Martin's Bay yet, but to enterprising travellers (and the journey is by no means difficult at this season of the year) a trip across the great dividing range, amidst glaciers, waterfalls, and here and there brilliant and shining picturesque little lakes, ap pearing as if they had been scooped out in the hollows among the mountain tops, is delightful. Then the descent on the opposite side to Lake M'Kerrow, cul- j minating in the solitary grandeur of the wild mountain and forest scenery of the West Coast, and there looking down upon this grand and vast solitude, is a sight almost worth living for to behold. The generally expressed opinion of tour ists is that, were the natural beauties of this portion of the Province only more generally known in Australia, the number of visitors every summer would be some thing enormous. 