The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-28 00:00:00

THE AUSTRALIAN GOLD COLONIES,

The papers received bk the last mail contain
again an abundance of facts and figures froni the
gold colonies. Generally speaking, it may be said
that a sort of inconvenient and uncomfortable pros-
perity prevails at the diggings and in the towns,
that quantities of merchandise and crowds of emi-
grants are pouring into all the ports, and that
nevertheless provisions, clothing, furniture, luxu-
ries, and labour are by no means either so cheap
or in such plenty as those who are firmly and com-
fortably established might wish. There is a glut
of merchandise, but it is rather in the ports and on
the wharves than in the Sydney, Melbourne, and
Geelong stores ; and, as for the smaller towns in-
land, which grow up between the coming in and
going out of a couple of mails, they are still in
want of all those manifold materials and appliances
which denote, as well as create, the prosperity of
a civilised community. The circulating medium,
which abounds has not yet had time to create for
itself facilities of circulation ; time and distance
have not, up to the present time, been annihilated
in Australia, but, on the contrary, distances which
to us appear hardly worth mentioning represent in
New South Wales and Victoria the loss of many
days in journeying, the labour of many animals, if
any weight, however small, is to be removed, and,
as a matter of course, the sacrifice of a large amount
of money. We shall have occasion to recur to each
one of these darker features of Australian life,
after reviewing the results of the golden harvest in
the four weeks from the 20th of June to the 20th
of July.
On the 21st of June the western escort arrived
at Sydney with 1,446 ounces of gold from Bathurst,
Sofala, Tambaroora, Meroo, and Mudgee, and with
2,8631. in cash. This latter sum, represents certain
quantities of gold bought up by dealers, and may
therefore fairly be quoted among the proceeds of
the goldfields. On the 23d of June the Ovens
escort came in with 5,000 ounces. On the Bth of
July 2,443 ounces were received, and on the 9th
1,003 ounces and 1701. in cash. The Sydney gold
escort, which left the Ovens on the 9th of July, had
3,500 ounces in gold and 3,0001. in specie. The
total of the exports of gold from New South Wales
up to the 3d of July is quoted at 1,362,099 ounces.
As the Sydney advices come incidentally with the
Victoria mail, they are naturally defective, and no
full accounts of the receipts of gold are given after
the first days of July ; but the figures we have
quoted, and the other news from the Sydney gold-
fields, show how incorrect were the anticipations of
those who predicted that one or two seasons' work
would exhaust the auriferous plains of New South
Wales.

For instance, we learn from the paper befora us
that the Tambaroora diggings have again assumed
a prominent position. Samuel's flat has been opened
once more, and proves richer than ever, several
parties obtaining from 2 ounces to 8 ounces per
day. A few instances of success are likewise men-
tioned from the Dirthole. The intelligence from
the Ovens is most encouraging, and so, indeed are
the amounts mentioned in escort returns.
On the 2d of July the goldbrokers at Melbourne
published their quarterly statement of the amounts
of gold brought by escort to Melbourne and Gee-
long. The following are the totals of that interest-
ing document :

1852.

1853,

April
May
June

61,172 ... 170,427
99,006 ... 116,812
119,272 ... 122,695

Totals... 279,450 ... 409,934
Thus the second quarter of 1853 shows an in-
crease of 130,484 ounces over the corresponding
quarter of 1852. The increase on the year amounts
to 485,675 ounces. The total amount of gold
shipped from Victoria in the six months of the
present year reaches the very respectable figure of
1,234,078, or 51 tons 8 cwt. 141 b. 10 ounces—at-
-755. per ounce, 4,627,788/. Strange to say, the
Victoria exports in the course of this half-year
amounts to almost the same sum as the total of
the New South Wales exports since the first dis-
covery of gold. That total was mentioned on the
18th of June as amounting to 1,332,741 ounces,
which represent a capital of 4,664,5931.
The gold received at Melbourne in the week end-
ing the 2d of July is quoted at 37,833 ounces, and
the gold received at Geelong at 35,618 ounces. In
the week ending the 9th of July 57,135 ounces
came to Melbourne, and 39,969 ounces to Geelong.
On the 16th of June Melbourne figures with
35,695, and Geelong with 31,368 ounces.
In the course of the week ending the 2d of July
the addition (by immigration) to the population of
Victoria was 699. In the week enclitic, the 9th of
July there were 778, and in the week ending the
16th of July 1,108 immigrants.
The Victoria papers generally are barren of spe.
cific news of the doings and fortunes of individua
miners or parties of miners. " There is not,'
says Mr. Patterson, the highly-intelligent gold•
broker, of Geelong, "the same zeal and enthusiasm
in prosecuting research as in the first days of gold-
finding." The fact is, the diggers are at present
more inclined to hard labour, and less prone to
rush out "prospecting," than they were formerly,
when every man believed that a hundredweight
nugget must, as a matter of course, be found at the
bottom of every hole he condescended to dig. The
miners have learnt, and are still learning, that
gold-digging is, after all, not so very different from
other labour. Luck goes a great way, but strong
bones and the mind to use them go further. There
are, indeed, plenty of idle fellows among the dig-
gers, but, instead of rushing from gully to flat,
'and from flat to creek, as they used to do, they,
have now taken to " shepherding"—a novel appli-
cation of an old word. They mark off some claims,
and wait for the results obtained by some one less
sparing of labour. If his efforts are attended with
.success, the " shepherds" take to pick kindly and
sulk a hole. If not, they walk off, congratulating
themselves on so much labour saved.
The diggers' great grievance, the license duty, is
still drawing forth angry denunciations. In the
interval which elapsed between the going out of the
last mail and the mail now come to hand, the anger
and disgust of the mining population have been ma-
fested in an organised opposition to the "unjust
and tyrannical tax." Indignation meetings of
armed miners have been held at all the large
diggings. The Bendigo miners set the example.
2,500 of them assembled, " armed to the teeth,"
and passed a series of resolutions, which they embo-
died in a petition to the Governor. They say that
they are too poor to pay the license fee of 30s. per
month ; that, in consequence of the few officials
appointed to issue licenses, the diggers, storekeepers,
and other residents must sacrifice much valuable
time at every monthly issue ; that the tax bears
cruelly hard upon invalids who cannot work, and
on "new chums" who are ignorant of the art and
mystery of gold-digging ; that the land monopoly
prevents successful diggers from investing their
Lard earnings in land ; that the persons authorised
to collect the license fee go about armed ; that many
of them are disreputable characters, and that they
insult and cruelly ill-treat all who neglect taking
out a license. After this detailed statement of their
grievances, the diggers propose a license fee of 10s.
per month, a reduction of the penalty to be paid by
those who neglect taking out a license, and a rea-
sonable time to be allowed to new arrivals, before
the come under the operation of the tax. The
speeches which preceded the framing of this petition
were by no means complimentary to the Governor
and the colonial authorities ; and one of the speak-
ers, a German, bearing the ominous name of- GOO-
bie, offered the committee the " swords and pistols"
of his brother Germans for the vindication of 'the
diggers rights. Similar meetings were held at Mac
Ivor and Castlemaine, at which latter place the'
naost inflammatory speeches were delivered and re-
ceivedvr with enthusiasm. The Bendigo petition
2s. adopted by the miners of Mac Ivor and Castle-

•
So th,relva_tening is the attitude assumed by the
diggers
thhoeparopose not to pay the license-tax, and
to expel
bourne the
?vernment officials, that the Mel-
justly, thougheppoa usually, and probably very
to the Colonial Government, has
thought it necessary
argument of the rto defend the license fee. The
tery, the ticket is cheap
at 30s. the month, and
pended on escorts gold revenue has been ex-
, roads and
very reason that thedmigo,rneery collected hasßuntoftorbetehne
so expended do the %complain of the unjust
oppression of the. tax, 'as
The escort
shown by the
service is most
files of papers before us.
dilatory and uncertain, and
bsoee'innsufficient that a
oveesrtablished, and
private escort company has
sment troops.
is flourishing at the side of the (3
anbd at the
The police in the towns, on the roadn
diggings, are inefficient from want of Imam'ers
police and
careless because underpaid. The only
which the diggers can rely are their own revolvers
and bowieknives. Because the gold revenue has
not been expended on the making and repairing of
roads and bridges, therefore are the diggers, even
with large nominal earnings, justified in describing
themselves as "poor," for the difficulty and uncer-
tainty of transport raises the prices of all neces-
saries and luxuries of life. Complaints are fre-
quent in the Melbourne papers that the very roads
have been dug in holes for gold, and that no mea-
sures have been taken to fill up those holes. The
'steam dredge which the Government had caused
to be constructed to clear the harbour of Geelong
broke down on the first attempt to work it. At
the Geelong jetty vessels are constantly detained
for days, And even weeks, waiting for a berth. Su

faulty is the aecommlY'Ettion, that brims have been '
landed one at a time "to expedite" business. A
few cranes would save time and labour ; " but
the suggestion," says the Argus, " is so reasonable j
that we have no hopes of witnessing their erection
from that very cause." The Melbourne wharves !
are in the same disgraceful state of neglect, as is
amply shown by a number of letters to the editor
of the Argus. " Do," says one of these correspon-
dents-- •

" Do wake up the sleepy people and get them to work.
When I see day by day loads of goods on lighters and
other vessels waiting to be unloaded, and poor victims
paving the piper for this delay, it is enough to make one
mad, and the very stones cry out for vengeance on these
idlers."

The inefficiency of the police force is again most
clearly proved on the occasion of the attack upon
the gold escort. The local papers give a resume of
the chief outrages that have been committed by
bushrangers and robbers within the last two years.
They enumerate the piratical attack upon the Nel-
son, the taking possession of the St. Kilda and
Brighton road by a party of robbers, who held that
nad a whole afternoon; the waylaying and attempt
to murder a Mr. Ritter a mile from Melbourne, on
the public road, and at nine o'clock in the morning.
The paper from which we quote goes on to say
We had a man tied to a tree in the wild bush, and
making strange noises' for days and nights together ; a
man hung to death by the wrists, with a wooden gag in
his mouth, pipe stuck in it, too, in derision ; a
mantaken and a
oautofhis own tent by murderers, in broad day-
light, from the company of his friends, shot, and recover-
ing so far as to stumble blindly through the bush. We
have the case of the man 'stuck up' on the very night of
his arrival, and slashed with a knife across the face, be-
cause he had not plunder enough to satisfy the mis,
creants that attacked him ; the poor child stifled with
chloroform, and thrown insensible to die upon a dung-
heap ; the robbery of the box of bank notes, and the at-
tempted circulation of its contents."
All these outrages, and the last great crime—the
the attack upon the escort—are laid at the door of
Lord Grey and England. Convict transportation
has done it all ! But the mining population, who
are heavily taxed to swell the colonial revenue, and
for no other purpose whatever that they can see,
may justly ask whether a few thousands judiciously
spent upon the police would not have prevented
the worst half of all these crimes. The audacity of
the Victoria bushrangers is the result of impunity.
We cannot conclude our list of the griefs of the
Victoria diggers without again adverting to the
mismanagement of the colonial post-office. Postal
matters are quite as bad as they were when the last
mail left. *!,"
At the Bendigo diggings complaints are loud that
letters cannot be had from the General Post-office
at Melbourne. Lists of unclaimed letters are duly
published in the newspapers, and in this manner
the diggers are at least informed that some one has
written a letter to them. But obtain those letters
they cannot, unless they go to Melbourne and carry
the point by obstinate perseverance and bullying.
The Post-office takes no notice of a written request
to forward letters to such and such a direction. It
would appear that the establishment is not, like the
police, hampered by a want of hands. It boasts of
63 postmasters, secretaries, and clerks. They are
all well paid, say the local papers, but business has
been allowed to accumulate until it overwhelmed
and choked the department.
Though grossly mismanaged, still some facts con-
nected with the Melbourne Post-office are highly
interesting, as affording evidence of the progress of
the colony. It appears, from published returns,
that the revenuefor thefirst six months of 1851, in-
cluding ld. on newspapers, was only 3,1771., while
for the first six months of 1853 it amounted to
10,0191., showing a surplus of 6,8411. In 1851
229,670 letters and 206,674 newspapers went
through the Melbourne Post-office ; in 1852 the
number of letters amounted to 898,601, and of
newspapers to 638,728.
The Victoria newspapers must be in a flourishing
condition. On all sides we meet with complaints
of the impossibility of getting a paper, even for
four times its original price. The Melbourne Ar-
gus, which is published at 3d. per number, sells at
the diggings at ls.—" if it can be had." There is
no price current of London papers, evidently be-
cause, owing to the mismanagement of the colo-
nial post-office, London papers are not to be met
with in Victoria. With respect to the Melbourne
papers, we find that the worshipful the Mayor of
Melbourne complained from the bench that he ,
could not get his copy of a daily paper, and if he I
scolded the newsboys about it, they told him, if he
" did not like it, he might lump it." The Argus
announces that, finding it impossible to secure a
sufficient supply of paper, the proprietors must de-
cline to add any further names to their subscription
list, and that their " standing advertisements" can
only be inserted twice a-week.
On the 6th of July the first electric telegraph was
exhibited at Melbourne, and the newspapers urge
the immediate introduction of this wonderful
agency. They calculate that the profits upon a line
to Geelong and the Heads would amount to many
thousands a year. "But," ask they, "are the
electric telegraphs to be Government works ?"
so, what fresh delays and complications, what dis-
appointments and cases of gross mismanagement,
are in store to try the patience of the men of pro-
press of Victoria !
The progress of the gold colonies has hitherto
been owing almost solely to individual enterprise
and personal energy. The few joint-istock com-
panies that were formed on the spot for the carry-
ing out of useful and profitable schemes are, with
the exception of the insurance companies, but just
struggling, into existence. Their growth is slow,
and they languish less from want of confidence than
from want of public interest. Public business is
altogether neglected, put aside, or slurred over,
for, though each individual colonist must, in the
end, feel and suffer from the consequences of the
carelessness and idleness of the public servants,
and, though complaints, grumblings, and even
curses, loud and deep, are neither few nor far be-
tween, each man is too much occupied with the ad-
vancement of his own fortunes to waste his time
and energy in the correction of evils which affect
him only inasmuch as they affect the whole of the
community. But whatever individuals can do for
and by themselves for their own advantage, in the
first place, and incidentally for the advantage
and convenience of others, that is readily and
quickly done by the stirring and restless colonists
of Australia. Hence arise the strangest con-
trasts—a jumbling of comforts and discomforts,
lukuries and the want of conveniences the most
common in old-established and civilised countries,
splendour in log-hut, epicurism cheek-by-jowl with
starvation, the height of civilisation confounded
with the lowest depths of barbarism. The colonies
have no roads to the diggings ; but along the line
of swamps, dirtholes, quartz boulders, and felled
trees, which mark the track to the goldfields, indi-
vidual enterprise has established hotels which the
papers describe as splendid, and replete with every
convenience. Among the list we mark the " Glen
Lyon Inn," the " Pick-and-Shovel Inn," on the
M'lvor road ; the " Goldseekers' Inn," on the
Ovens road, near the Fifteen Miles Creek ; the
" Sunbury Inn," at Jackson's Creek ; and the
Royal Mail Hotel," at Buaingong. An enterpris-
ing hotel-keeper, evidently with. an eye to the pa-
tronage of
the learned professions, advertises the
" Oxfordliniversityllotel" at Castlemain Diggings,
and at Bendigo there, is a " stylish" coffee-house
called " the A.rgus,, and a" Crystal Palace Hotel. '
it is true that the town of Melbourne has not, as
yet, been able to afford the cost of a pavement for
its streets, and that the Melbournians, like Dick-
ens's dogs in a London fog, wade " undistinguish-
able in -Mire ;" but the miry pools, called streets,
are on either sides lined with shops displaying the
richest brocades, the most elaborate carvings, the
costliest lace, and all the manifold appliances wlich
even in England are confined to the persons and
houses of the upper classes. Golddiggers' wives, if
fortune wills it so, can afford to have London-made
pianos, Turkey carpets, rosewood furniture, and
silk curtains ; but they must huddle all the splen-
dours into tents, sheds, or four-roomed houses.
They may wear dresses which a Lady Mayoress
might covet, but they cannot have a; servant to cook
their dinner. The complaints of the damaged
nature of the staple commodity flung upon the
housemaid market are waxing louder and louder.
" The ladies," as a Geelong magistrate said from
his seat on -the bench, have it all their own way."
An iduifration of what Punch would call " servant-

galism" in Melbourne is furnished by the folloWing
scene which occurred in a police court. The case,
as the papers assure us, is by no moans an unusual