A correspondent of the Daily Press writes that the Chinese population remains about the same; the Ocean took away to Hongkong 143 satisfied and dissatisfied; and the Atholl brought down 170. We don't ex-Pest many arrivals during the dry season, tend to encourage the immigration, and are the South Australian Government in-at present occupied on a Bill with that intention. A bonus of three or four acres of land is to be given to every Chinaman who cares to raise his own living along our creeks, but in return for this he will probably be asked on landing to pay a tax for miners' rights and other licenses equal to about £2 head. We know nothing positive, however, yet about the Bill. The majority of the Chinese are now confined to the bed of the McKinling river, which yields average gold while the water is low. In the wet season the coolies can make 'a living in any place among the ranges by cradling the banks and sidings near the quartz reefs. Last week a Chinaman picked up a four ounce nugget on the Four Mile Creek. A T™many are starved out on the goldfields and have made their way to Palmerston, where the Government give them employment at nominal wages or subsistence money. Those who have not the money to pay their passages back to Hongkong avail themselves of this means of subsistence till the wet weather returns.
The bulk of our trade is now being diverted to Hongkong, and a large quantity of gold is forwarded by each boat to that Settlement. Many of our well-to-do inhabitants now look on a voyage to Hongkong and back as a little pleasure trip.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.