The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-02-01 00:00:00

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF MELBOURNE

We (The Times) make the following extracts from an
Australian letter which has been sent us for publication.
The writer, evidently a man of good education and accus-
tomed to the ease and luxury of English town life, went
out to Melbourne in autumn last with his wife, and evi-
dently without any positive idea of what he was to do
when he got to the antipodes. He arrived at Melbourne
late on the night of the 11th of November. His letter,
which is written on the 12th, Rot altogether 12 hours after
his landing, must be taken as containing the opinions of a
man whose feelings are acute and whose experience is
small :

4.‘1 am sorry to say the place is in such a state that it
isimpossible for me to take my wife on shore even—at
least, it is no place for her ; and from what I have seen
to-day, I have made up my mind to go to Sydney, and, if
I cannot get on as I wish there, I shall push on for New
Zealand. * * * The state of things here is indescrib-
able. One-half of the people are living in tents all round
the town. The scene at the banks to-day was extraordi-
nary, men in blue woollen frocks and corduroys, with a
fagged and wretched appearance, getting their small bags
of gold (a few ounces generally speaking) changed into
cash. One fellow rubbed his face as we stood hy, and,
as he had been previously putting his hand into the gold-
dust, one side of his face appeared perfectly gilt.
" The diggers give such different accounts of the state
of things at the diggings that it is hard to arrive at the
truth ; but this is about it—viz., that about one out of 30
succeed ; the rest fail. The only men I should recom-
mend to come out (as matters are now) to Melbourne
are either young, strong, hardy fellows, eight in a body,
with a tent capable of containing the whole party, fully
prepared (with clothing and boots, and nothing else in
the shape of luggage) to encamp at once on landing, and
move on to the diggings at once ; or else men who have
been in a counting-house, and are not overburdened with
conscience. A smart fellow, just a bit of a merchant,
with a stock of billiard-tables, cards, dice, and Colt's (or
Deane and Adam's) revolver pistols, ready-made men's
and women's clothes, boots and shoes, and biscuits, would
make 200 per cent. and over that on every one of his
things. Possibly the expected arrival of corn may bring
down bread, but the other things will be in demand as
long as the diggings continue fruitful ; and now one in
every 30, as I have before said, make a splendid fortune.
I saw the P—'s. He has £3OO per annum in a savings-
bank here, and it is with the utmost difficulty they manage
to live. They have a very small house, consisting of one
hole fur a sitting-room, ditto for a bed-room, and a thing
they style a kitchen, for which they pay £3 per week.
His wife does all the work herself. Her servant, whom
she brought out, left her, and married a lucky digger,
who got £SOO of nuggets and dust, and now makes
£1 10s. per week by doing carriers' work between Mel-
bourne and the diggings. The common sailors in the
little steam-tugs here get £lB per month, and the boys
£l6. The common policemen get 10s. per day and their
house, or rather lodgings. The mounted police, the ranks
of which are filled with gentlemen's sons, as are also the
mounted gold escort, get 10s. per day, food and lodging,
and three suits of uniform a year. Water is sold for
drinking at ss. per gallon ; the four pound loaf of bread
costs 2s. 6d. ; eggs are sd. a piece ; mutton and beef 6d.
and 7d. a pound ; and porters and men to do any drudgery
are not to be had except at prices ridiculously exorbitant.
Beer is 6d. per small tumbler ; potatoes, 10d. per pound ;
cabbages, 15s. per dozen ; a boat to go about half a mile,
£3 ; and ls. a piece for washing for every article. Wo-
men's dress stuffs are cheap, for the market was over-
stocked. Men's clothing, made and unmade, sells at an
awful price.
" Land anywhere within two miles of the town is at
£2,000 per acre, and £5O to £BO per acre within 20 or 30
miles. So you see land is dear, near town enormous, the
necessaries of life enormous, and house-rent the dearest
of all. I was asked £4 per week for two rooms unfur-
nished, and £8 per week for a four-roomed house partly
furnished. Nothing like a horse can be bought under
£lOO. In short, to describe this place properly, it is a
regular hell upon earth. If you are out after nine p.m.
you are Sure to be robbed. A man was hanged here for
shooting another fellow last week, and human life is not
cared for ; and, so far has the gold excitement taken hold
of every mind, that they did not care whether the Great
Britain arrived or not. Five of our crew have run away.
The passage to Sydney costs £l2 12s. each, but we can-
not stay here. It is, as I said before, a very hell upon
earth ; but money, money, money is flying like slates.
I was offered £26 each for my pistols, which cost me nine
guineas in Liverpool, and I had that price offered by a
gunsmith."