The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-10-31 00:00:00

AUSTRALIAN GOLD.

It appears that the gold of the territory in the
northern portion of Aust.&lia is not nearly so pure as
that which is found in other parts of that continent.
The South Australian Advertiser has the following
remarks respecting the quantity of gold obtained from
different claims in the northern territory, which was
sent to the Victorian Mint:—" The English and
Scottish Bank has received from the Royal 'Victorian
Mint an account of the results a the melting down
for coinage of the parcels of the precious metal ,
recently sent to that institution by the bank. The ,
total amount weighed into the Mint was 2,795•060 z.,
and the weight after melting was 2,711,0,z. It is
somewhat startling to find that out of this latter
quantity as much as 266200 z., or nearly a tenth, was
fine silver. The stuff from the Union claim showed
the largest proportion of silver. The amount weighed
in was 771450 z. ; after melting there remained
735•730 z., from which 106 604. of tine silver were
taken. The smallest percentage of silver was in the
Alexandra parcel, only 6oz. coming from 240, the
quantity remaining after melting from 245'10. It is
worth nothing that the alluvial gold obtained about
the Union contained even a greater proportion of
silver than did the metal taken from the reef. One
parcel of 32150 z. gave 595, a. silver, and another of
12710 z. yielded 2.350 z. of the less valuable metal.
Westcott's had a proportion of about 1 in 16, Sandy
Creek about the same, and the Telegraph rather more
than 1 in 10. The fineness of the gold ranges from
Wino's, 172 carats, to Alexandra, 223. The former
wasted in melting from 90740 z. to 84-04 A., but then
the proportion of silver was only about 1 in 20. The
percentage of silver and the quality of the gold itself
differ not only in different goldfields, but in different
workings very short distances from each other. The
admixture of such large proportions of silver is a new
feature in Australian auriferous mining, and renders
care in dealing necessary to both buyers and sellers."

privates of the 34th Regiment killed at the (second)
Battle of Cawnpore on the 28th November, 1857 ;
that day on which the Gwalior contingent, seduced
into rebellion by Tantia Topee, made itself so un-
pleasant to General Windham, the " Cawnpore Run-
ners," and other regiments of that officer's command.
• third is "to the memory of E. G. Chalwin, 2nd
Light Cavalry, and his wife Louisa, who both perished
during the siege of Cawnpore in July, 1857. These
are they which came out of great tribulation." A
fourth commemorates Captain Gordon and Lieut.
Hensley, of the 82nd Foot, also victims of the Gwalior
contingent. In the right of the nave there is a tablet
" sacred to the niemory of Phiiip Hayes Jackson,
who, with Jane, his wife, and her brother, Ralf Blyth
Croker, were massacred by rebels at Cawnpore on
27th June." Another is to Lieutenant Angelo. of
16th Grenadiers Bengal Native Infantry, who also
fell in the boat maseacre ; aud a third is to the
memory of the gallant Stuart Beatson, who was
Havelock's adjutant-general, and who, dying as he
was of cholera, did his work at Pandoo Nuddee and
Cawnpore in a ellexilie. In the right transept are
tablets in memory of the officers of the Connaught
Rangers, and of the officers and men of the 32nd Corn-
wall Regiment, "who fell in defence of Lucknow and
Cawnpore and subsequent campaign "-14 officers and
448 "women and me"." And here, too, iv perhaps the
! most affecting memorial of any—at ablet "in memory
of Mrs. Moore, Mrs. Wainwright, Miss Wainwright,
Mrs. Hill, 43 soldiers' wives and 55 children murdered
in Cawnpore in June, 1857."

It is easy enough now to follow the ootsteps of Mrs.
Moore, dangerous as was that journey of hers from the
entrenchment to the corner cf No. 2 Barrack which
she was wont to make when her husband went on duty
there to strengthen the hands of Mowbray Thomson.
There is no trace now, and the very memory of its
whereabouts is lost, of the bamboo hut in a sheltered
corner which the garrison of this exposed post built for
the brave gentlewoman. But No. 2 Barrack, except
that it is finished and tenanted, stands now very much
as it did when Glanville first, and when he fell then
Mowbray Tohmson, defended with a succes which
seems so wonderful when we look at the place defended
and its situation. The garrison was not always the
same. "My sixteen men," writes Thomson, " con-
sisted in the first instance of Ensign Henderson of
the 56th Native Infantry, five or six of the Madras
Fusiliers; two platelayers and some men of the 84th.
The first instalment was soon disabled. The Madras
Fusiliers were all shot at their poste. Several
of the 84th also fell, but in consequence of the
importance of th^ isisition, as soon as a loss in
my little corps was reported, 'ajitain Moore sent
us over a reinfor .ement from the entrenchment.
Sometimes a soldier, sometimes a civilian came. The
orders given us were not to surrender with our lives,
and we did our best to obey them." And in a line
with No. 2 Barrack is No. 4 Barrack, held with equal
staunchness by a party of Civil Engineers, who had
been emplcyed on the Elia Indian Railroad, and who
had for their commander Captain Jenkins. Seven of
the engineers perished in the defence of this post.

The scene of the massacre lies some distance higher
up the river. As we cross the Ganges Canal, the
native city lying on our left, there rises up before us
the rich mass of foliage that forms the outer screen of
the beautiful memorial gardens. The hue of the
greenery would be sombre but for the blossoms which
relieve it, emblem of the divine hope which miti-
gated the gloom of despair for our countrywomen
who perished so cruelly in this balefully historic spot.
Of the Beebteghur, the term by which among
the natives is known the bungalow where the
massacre was perpetrated, not one st me now
remains on another, but neither its memory
nor its name will be lost for all time. Natives
are strolling in the shady flower bordered walks
of the Memorial-gardens, the prohibition which long
debarred their entrance having been wisely removed.
In the centre of the garden rises, fringed with cypresses
: a low mound, the summit of which is crowned by a
circular screed, or border, of light beautiful open
work architecture. The circular space enclosed is
sunk, and from the centre of this sunk space
there rises a pedestal on which stands the marble
presentment of an angel. There is no need to ex-
Plain what episode in the tragic store this nsonu-
ment commemorates ; the inscription round the
, capital of the pedestal tells its tale succinctly
indeed, Mit the words burn. "Sacred," it runs
" to the perpetual memory of the great company
of Christian people, chiefly women and children who
near this spot were cruelly massacred by the followers
of the rebel Nana Doondoo l'unth of Bithoor ; and
cast, the dying with the dead, into the well below on
the 15th day of July, 1857." A few paces to the
north-west of the monumen% is the spot where stood
the bungalow in which the massacre was done; and
now, where the sight they saw maddened our country-
men seventeen years ago to a frenzy of revenge, there
bloom roses and. violets. And a step further on, in a
thicket of arbor vit(e trees and cypresses, is the" memo-
rial churchyard," with its many nameless mounds, for
here were buried not a few who died during the long
occupation of Cawnpore, and in the combats around
it. Here there is a monument to Thornhill, the
judge of Futtehghur, Mary his wife, and their two
childrcp, who perished in the massacre. Thornhill was
one of the males brought out from the bungalows
and shot earlier in the afternoon than the women's
time came. Another monument bears this inscrip-
tion :—" Sacred to the memory of the women and
children of the 32nd, this monument is raised by
twenty men of the same regiment, who were passing
through Cavnmons' Nov. 21, 1857." An officer who
formerly belonged to the company lays a stone to the
memory of the women and children of the let Com-
pany fast Bengal Native Infantry, and among the
tombstones are those of gallant Douglas Campbell
the 78th, Woodford of the 2nd battalion Rifle Brigade,
and Young of the 4th Bengal Native Infantry.
It is impossible to condense even the merest allusion
to half the associations with which the name of Cawn-
pore will ever be linked in the minds of the people of
our nation within the limits of a single article. Indeed
a whole article might be devoted to Bithoor, the resi-
dence of the Nana, where his palace, not one stone re-
maining on another, is !cm a tobacco garden. Neil's
fort, erected as a tete du post, is now a tannery. . . .