I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your tenders (opened on the 4th ultimo), for new runs of Crown Lands in the district of Port Curtis, named in the margin, and I beg to inform you, that the same now await the report of the Commissioner of the district, in accordance with the Regulations of the 1st January, 1848. I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, Your most obedient servant, GEO. BARNEY. Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands. Messrs. R. & F. BLACKMAN, Maryborough, Wide Bay. This copy of the letter from Colonel Barney to the Messrs. Blackman regarding the tenders of their runs shows that they were early in the Port Curtis district, and occupied a run called Warrah, still held by Mr. F. A. Blackman in 1897. The whole of the Wide Bay district had become settled with stations, and the necessity for an outlet for produce and receipt of supplies led to the port of Gladstone being opened. Among the first to establish a business there was Richard E. Palmer, who built a wharf and a large wool shed, so that the wool from Rannes and other stations lately formed could be shipped away. He then took up Targieni station, near Mount Larcombe, and lived there for many years. Among the early settlers in the district about Gladstone were the Bells of Stowe, father and sons, Mrs. Graham on the Calliope; and Charles Clarke, James Landsborough, John Forsyth. Edwin Bloomfield held Miriam Vale; Robinson and Wood had taken up Caliungal; William Elliott passed Gracemere with sheep, and took up Tilpal in 1857. Ramsay and Gaden held Canoona run when the gold rush took place in 1858. Mr. A. J. Callan, for some years member of the Legislative Assembly for Fitzroy, took up Columbra run. All the surrounding country became parcelled out among the early arrivals, and settlement began to spread itself into far-away districts to the north and north-west. Civilisation was pronounced enough when ladies followed their husbands on many of the new stations. Raglan was famous for its hospitality as early as 1860, when Mrs. James Landsborough presided, and her numerous family grew up there. [Footnote C: Mr. Young ended his days peacefully in Sandgate in 1899, at an advanced age.]