There is a grand opportunity for a millionaire in the
con- dition of Newfoundland. This ancient Colony, with its area of 10,000 square miles, and population of 200,000, always poor, is, for the moment, totally ruined. A "financial crisis" has suspended the banks ; wages cannot be paid ; huge stores of cod-fish are rotting ; and it is said there is not £60,000 in specie in the whole island. The Government pays its officials by orders on the stores, and it is feared that the re- moter districts will actually starve. Help has been asked from the British Treasury, and will be granted ; but not till the Colony agrees to suspend the self-government which has ruined it, or to join the Canadian Dominion. What is wanted is the immediate despatch of £250,000 in gold, £50,000 to he spent in wise doles or petty loans, and £200,000 in founding a State Bank to make advances to traders and fishers. The Colony thus set on its legs could give the millionaire 2 per cent., and would record his name for ever in its annals. We do not suppose anybody will give the money, and yet a syndicate might do worse, for there is every reason to believe that if the island were scientifically "prospected," valuable minerals would be found over a large portion of it
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