Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1852-10-13
AUSTRALIA.

Sixty-four years ago, wniie tne american
Convention were framing the Constitution we
thrive under, the first English settlers arrived
in Australia. A large majority OF the party
were convcts, the scum and outcast OF st. Giles.
A town rapidly grew where Sydney now stands.
Accessions flowed in from the old country
The usual sources of developments, trade and
culture, were busiy energetic-and in few
months the foundations of great emprcin the
South seas were laid where they rest so firmly
to day. But there was one curious incident in
this first page of the history, obscure in itself
but worth something as a prophecy OF the pres
ent, which may as well be remembered. In the
Spring of 1888, a fellow, whose mining skill
had probably been acquired by practice on the
dungeon walls of Newgate, threw the infant
COLONY into convulsive, by announcing the exis-
tence of extensive gold mines short distance
back in the country. AS an evidence OF his truth,
he produced specimen of the metal, which he
offered to the shopkeeper in exchange for goods.
Small as the sample was, it was large enough
to excite the avarice of the crowd. Everybody
sought to extort from the lucky wight clue to
the exact locality. His secret was in the great
demand. And at last it was discovered. Some
shrewd Yankee of a fellow penetrated the thing
and the sample was found to consist of light
the coat of post-captain in II. b. Majesty's
service So unpromising was the first gold
mining adventures at Botany Bay. And yet
the impostor, whipped and imprisoned as he
was for his counterfeit of Natures coinage, was
doubtless foreseer of the gold wealth of to-
dav and suffered as those giant minds always
suffer. who tell US of things beyond tine limited
bounds of the present. There should be
al 10 fha In, tha
square in Sydney.
Sixty-four years. and how prodgious the
change The ship-load has become a million,
towns have grown up and demanded place on
the map County after County is under fruit
full cultivation, travelling the wealthiest of the
English shires. There are other sea ports than
Sydney There are steamships entering them,
and sailing vessels whitening the waters
Commerce extends to all the Pacific Islands,
and reaches out its arms towards China and
Indiana. The packets sail steadily to Hobart
Town in Tasmania, or Van Deman's Land to
the Swan River settlements, and the New Zea-
land thus bringing together the scattered en-
lies from home at the Anlipodes. The moth
er country pours in necessarily its most valu-
able industrial population. Vessels whose Ca
pacity is eighty thousand tons will sail from
single month of September They will be fill
Australia. All the gold between the seeker
and the centre are not worth one cargo of
strong armed, ong-hearted men.
Indeed people of sharp sense ought to have
small patience with this maddening metal. 1t
is the chief drawback to Australia's prosperity.
All the labor spent upon it is so much labor
wasted. But for the fact that it draws to the
new continent the material from which empires
are made, it would be utterly destructive of
Prosperity. Every ounce brought to the surface
dimiLishes, by its precise value all the previous
excavations. The quantity and worth of gold
move in inverse ratio. Increase the former and
you lessen the atter-and in spite of Mr.. Lee
on Faucher, we half suspect that the elevated
prices just now complained of all the world
over, are largely owing to excessive increase of
the circulation medium. But the disease is
probably momentary. The gold fever must
eventually yield to this remedial action of
time. And then, with thronging and busy
population, broad continent to act from, and
the commerce Of three oceans within reach, to
what heights of splendor may not the quon-
dam convict colony attain 1t is, of course,
vain to speculate about probabilities away off
at the other end of century-but is reasona-
BILE to predict that the career of Australia will
in all essential points, resemble that of certain
thirteen colonies; and that independence of the
mother country will be among the elements of
its future greatness. The probabilities are that
when the star of America is at the medium,
Australia, and not England, will be its compe-
titor for the wealth of the world