The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-30 00:00:00

THE MINERAL RICHES OF NEW SOUTH

WALES.

( Prom, the Economist.)

Among the curious items of information contained in
the " Further Papers relative to the Recent Discovery
of Gold in Australia," just published as a blue book, are
some statements of the Rev. W. B. Clarke, commissioned
by the Government of New South Wales to make geol
surveys. So far as we can trace his researches on
Sydney,
in map, they have all been south and west from
in that part of New South Wales which borders on Vic-
toria, a mountainous district, the sources of numberless
creeks and rivers, aid the highest part of the country,
- the water running from it in every, t
direction. In that
district the ardent geologist almost everywhere finds in-
dications of gold. •On looking at the map compiled by
Mr. Arrowsmith from his researches and the researches
of other gentlemen, the whole district seems studded
With gold fields. We cannot enumerate all the creeks
—many with native and unpronounceable names— where
he found gold. "The whole of the region," he says,
" about the Bendoc and Delegete rivers is auriferous."
" Gold is distributed, though in variable quantities, and
of small commercial importance (at present), over a re-
gion which may be said to embrace an area of 16,000
square miles." In a later report—dated Nov. 24, 1852,
—than is to be found in the blue book, Mr. Clarke
says :—" The more I see of the great backbone of this
continent the more I am impressed with the high pro-
bability of the extension of the gold fields far beyond the
present limits of search. I report also, on more direct
knowledge, that as regards the Peel and Hanging Rock
fields, the opinion I have already expressed has been
strengthened by more recent examination of the dis-
trict." The more information he gets, the stronger be-
comes his convictions that the south-eastern portion 'of
Australia is one large field of gold. "It may require,"
as he says, " a multiplied population of practical skill
and energetic habits" to develope the mineral riches of
Australia ; but if they exist to the extent he supposes,
they may excite industry, and bestow on it ample re-
wards, of an immense population for ages. It is plain,
too, unless some richer fields should be discovered, that
as the population multiplies, it will become commercially
advantageous, particularly when gold digging shall not
be subject to a special tax, to work many of the creeks
and galleys and holes that now will not pay.
Mr. Stutchbury, the geological surveyor, is satisfied
that native mercury exists. He has found specimens of
it, and he believes that it possibly may be found in quan-
tity. He has had shown to him various gems—topazes
garnets, rubies, sapphires, &c., though not of such a
large size as to make them of any value. . Copper is
found in abundance in various places. There are many
other mineral riches, then, in Australia, besides the gold,
which only need hands to collect them.
There was a time when the rude colonists very much
despised the services of the natives, and sometimes, on
slight pretexts, made away with tham. The gold dis-
coveries seem to have hastened the period when their
services can be made valuable, and the blue book de-
scribes the natives as finding employment in every one
of the colonies to which it refers. The commissioner for
the Darling district of New South Wales reports in-
stances on the M'lntyre river of the blacks having been
employed for one, two, or even three years as shepherds ;
and Mr. Young, of Tingan, near Calandoon, has all his
flocks tended by blacks. A Mr. Dines, in the same
neighbourhood, has not a white man in his employment.
Messrs. Norris and Co. have 12 blacks in charge of
sheep. Three or four years ago the tribes frequenting
the M'lntyre were the most savage and bloodthirsty of
the district. "I am happy to say," adds the commis-
sioner, " that the scarcity of labour, consequent upon
the drainage to the gold fields, is creating throughout
the district a demand for the services of the abori-
gines which may be productive of very beneficial
results, leading to their more confidential and per-
manent employment." The commissioner of the New
England district reports :—" In many cases the ser-
vices of the natives have been in considerable repute
as shepherds, grooms, and even as house servants. Their
services, from the high price of white-labour in conse-
quence of the recent discovery of gold, have been ex-
tremely valuable, and in some cases they have received
wages at the rate of 201. per annum." The commis-
sioner of the M'Leay district states there has been a
considerable increase in the past year, both in the num-
ber of whites employing and of natives employed, in
consequence of the drain to the gold mines of European
labour. The commissioner for the district of Clarence
river reports that the great dearth of labour, occasioned
by the efflux of the working classes to the westward in
search of gold, has latterly forced the settlers to obtain
aid from the natives. The sheep washing of last season
was entirely performed by them. One gentleman in-
trusts about 10,000 sheep to their sole management.
Although some instances are mentioned of depredations
by the blacks, there are more than we have quoted in
these extracts of the aborigines having for months to-
gether tended the flocks of the colonists, and been amply
rewarded for their fidelity and care.
All the above extracts refer to New South Wales,
but the reports from Victoria are not different. The
commissioner of the Wimmera district says that all
natives able and willing to work are sure to find em-
ployment. Some engage in permanent employment,
and they get wages that in ordinary years would be
looked upon as fair for European labour. The Maneero
and Omeo tribes, another commissioner reports, still
wander over the districts, encamping at the several flock
stations where they can obtain food. A. very few of
them are occasionally employed as stockmen. " All the
aborigines of Gipps land," says Mr. Commissioner
M'Crae, "have been employed in the immediate neigh-
bourhood of Alberton, on the property known as Orr's
Special Survey. They worked steadily in field work as
many hours as the whites. Two of them and one white
man beat a party of three whites at a reaping match." It
is the commissioner's opinion that if the employer gives
a fair remuneration, keeps faith with the natives, and
works with them, their labour may be made as available
as that of the whites. From South Australia the Go-
vernor writes, " that upwards of 20,000 sheep are in
charge of shepherds who are aborigines, and who have
thus in some degree supplied the place of European
shepherds, who have migrated to the geld fields." The
commissioner from Koriko writes that the squatters on
the Murray have received great and important services
from the natives during the late scarcity of labour, and
on several occasions natives have been left in the sole
charge of the squatters' property. These facts are of
great importance in reference to the future supply of
wool. About the usual, if not a larger, quantity will
come forward. The aborigines are not numerous, but
the employment of them is a new and somewhat unex-
pected supply of labour ; and it is a gratifying result of
the gold discoveries that they contribute, by exciting in-
dustry, to humanise the stockholders and civilise the
aborigines.
We are happy to learn from the Empire, a Sydney
paper, that New South Wales, as yet the most important
of the colonies, is altogether in a prevalence of peace and
order, and the ample remuneration it offers to labourers.
That journal of December 28, says :
" It is to be recollected that, notwithstanding the vast
extent and the widely scattered positions of the gold
fields of New South Wales, out of a population of 200,000,
it is estimated that not more than 8,000 to 10,000 per-
sons are employed in mining at any one time. This will
account for the fact that neither the pastoral, the agri-
cultural, nor the mechanical employments have stood
still, or been less productive, as in Victoria. The in-
creased and continually lincreasing demand for labour
here does not arise from the desertion of ordinary pur-
suits for gold digging so much as from progress and ex-
pansion in all the several departments of industry. This
surely indicates a far more healthy state of things than if
we had a hundred thousand persons rushing in upon us
all at once merely to dig gold—an occurrence that no
sane person can wish to see. Such a train, with an ob-
ject so selfish, so vagrant, and so entirely unconnected
with the development of the productive powers of the
colony, might bring with it moral and physical disorder,
but could never promote prosperity. It appears from
various countrycorrespondence that the harvest is every-
where highly abundant, the only want being that of
hands to reap it. The crowded state of Sydney, indi-
cated by the great advance of rents throughout the city
and suburbs, renders the inducement strong to maintain
every article of consumption at very high prices. ,The
effect of the harvest has, therefore, not been what might
have been expected. The present price of best flour,
251. per ton, does not manifest much tendency to further
decrease. In truth, to reduce the
articles of food to a
perfectly fair average price, and to keep them there, the
necessity
as will be great for a steadily augmented cultiva-
tion,well as of foreign supplies. There is, therefore,
requisite, for the welfareof the colony, a continued
stream of labouring immigration."
A stream of immigration is continually pouring in, and
if it be not entirely and solely of labourers whose toils are
to enrich those who are already in the colony it is of a
class which, genera
with i ndustrlly spea.king, unites intelligence' and
independence y, and which will contribute
much more to prosperity than a stream of Lascars, or, an
other mere intelligent workers. Into Victoria there hays
been, and continues apparently, too
great a rush of people
public meeting that
and we read in the blue book of great
adopted resolutions to raise a considerable fund and pro-
lionseless emigrants.
vide temporary accommodation for
assisted the under-
This was in October. The Government
provide,
for 2,000
taking, and the result, no doubt, woolb
as was proposed, temporary accommodation
emgrant,
persons. Since then, however, the number .
to Melbourne must have largely increased; and Vieria
promises for the present to be overdone
. with gold-Zele-
ers. Numerous hands would arrive
find theabouittasP
peril
of
tea
Such the harvest, and some of them might
to save the crops as to try for gold. circuillroata
beget an opinion that the present condition of the colony
will be altogether better than has been anticipated at
home, and they illuminate its future prospects.
As to South Australia, the discoveries of gold at
Echunga have turned out as yet of little importance'
" They are nothing," according to Mr. Babba ge' the
Government assayer's statement, " but a limited surface
digging, not likely to be remunerative, unless the work-
ing of them were confined to a few individuals." South
Australia, however, by establishing an assay-office, has
drawn to itself no inconsiderable quantity of the gold
found in the other provinces. The local Government
has resolved to issue tokens, or ingots ,stamped and
assayed, which are already legal tenders at the banks,
and which will be a substitute for more finished coin.
Their value is to be fixed at the legal rate, according to
the Bullion Act of the colony, of 31. lls. On the whole,
it is quite plain that the gold is giving a mighty impulse
to society in the colonies, extending industry, increasing
Z its rewards, promoting ingenuity, and rapidly carrying
forward civilisation there, as well as in England and all
over the world. In all history, perhaps, so strikingly
marked and rapidly developed an epoch and means of
social improvement--including the .first discovery of
America, and the invention of printing—is not to be
found as the recent discoveries of long-hidden gold in
the lands on the Pacific Ocean.