lement will be much extended in that
direction.

Queensland, more fortunate in the character of the country, has, on
her part, successfully established six new settlements, to wit,
Mackay, at the Pioneer River; Bowen, Port Denison; Townsville,
Cleveland Bay; Cardwell, Rockingham Bay; Somerset, Cape York; and
Burke Town, at the Albert River; and there can be little doubt but
that the country of the Gulf shores and the northern territory of
South Australia must be 'stocked', if not settled, from the same
source. Already have our hardy pioneers driven their stock out as
far as the Flinders, Albert, Leichhardt, and Nicholson Rivers, the
Flinders and Cloncurry having been stocked along their length for
some time past. On the South and West, the heads of the Warrego, the
Nive, Barcoo, and Thompson have also been occupied, some of the
stations being between four and five hundred miles from the seaboard,
whilst the surveyors of the Roads Department have extended their
surveys as far as the two last-named rivers, for the purpose of
determining the best and shortest lines of communication. The
Government, with wise liberality, has facilitated the access from the
seaboard to the interior, by the expenditure of large sums in
constructing and improving passes through the Coast Range on four
different points, and by the construction of works on the worst
portions of the roads, have largely reduced the difficulties of
transport for the out-settlers. Bowen, a town which had no existence
six years ago, has been connected with Brisbane by the telegraph
wire, and ere another twelve months have elapsed the electric flash
will have placed Melbourne, in Victoria, and Burke Town, on the Gulf
of Carpentaria, "on speaking terms," the country between the latter
place and Cleveland Bay having been examined and determined on for a
telegraph line by the experienced explorer Walker for that purpose.

Of the six new settlements that have been called into existence, two,
Bowen and Townsville, have been incorporated, and are now, together
with Mackay, straining in the race to secure the trade of the western
interior. Cardwell has experienced a check, in consequence of an
undue haste in the adoption of a line of road over its Coast Range,
which is too difficult to be generally adopted, and will probably be
abandoned for a better since discovered; but its noble harbour is too
good, and the extent of back country it commands too extensive in
area,