Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-10-29
MELBOURNE.
The Early Days of n Magnificent and Mar
Vicious Town.

The Early Days of n Magnificent and Mar
Vicious Town.
Three decades are sn immense period
in the history of such a city as Mel
bourne; and it is far from improbable
that the market value of ..town lots"
has Increased in something like cubic
ratio within the last thirty years. Most
marvellous of all, perhaps. is it to reflect
that not only the site of Melbourne and
its suburbs, but an immense tract of
the surrounding country, was once
within an ace of being sold, clock,
stock and barrel.'' for, metaphorically
speaking. an old song. l allude to The
famous Merry Creek treaty. At the
assembled the Yarra and Saltwater
duced certain aboriginal chiefs named
Jaga Jaga, Cooloolock, Bungaree, Yam
Yam and Movuhip, to execute formal
deed of assignment, conveying to him
and his heirs forever an area of between
100000 and 7OO,0 900 acres of land,
which would have comprised the sites
of the cities of Melbourne, Geelong
and Collingwood, the towns of Emer
aid Hill and st. Hilda, and the bor-
OUCH of Sandridge, the consideration
given for this tremendous cession be NC
20 pars of blankets, so knives, u
tomahawSs. 10 looking-glasses, II
pairs scissors, so handerchiefs, II
red shirt flannel jackets, 4 81 is of
cot es and fifty pounds of flour. Well,
business is businesS. Did not William
Penn have his treaty with the Indians.
and how manv thousands of pounds ster-
ling has MT the British taxpayer had
to paw TO the descendants of the Penn
family as compensation TO the loss of
their territorial rights in Pennsylvania?
1.-The worth of anl thing is just so much
as it will Lring. and bush land about
the Yarra district was probably not
worth much in 1885. 1t is true that
j I'm Batman might have thrown in
few bottles IF rum for luck. Governor
Bourke, how-ver, was hard-hearted
enough to declare the whole ARA ge-
ment with Jaga Jaga and his friends to
be null and void, although a solatium
of some $1,000 was afrerward granted
to Batman and his par ners.
But it was the gold-fever year-1S51
that made Melbourne marvellous.
CHANGED the other day in the inn parlor
at a little township In Victoria. called
Wangaratta. to light on rude Ntno-
graph depicting the arrival of the first
gold escort from the diggings at the
Government building in William street,
in 1852. The gold has been brought
down in huge chests, three of which
form load. to dray drawn by long
string of bullocks. There is an escort
of troopers. armed to the teeth. for in
the early mining days attempts on the
part of bushrangers to stick up" or
rob the gold escorts were frequent.
Young as were the days of mining in
1851, you see in the picture John China
man, already about and as busy as
bee. The letterpress at the bottom of
it tells you that the people looking frorn
the windows of the blue-stoue building
in William street are the clerks and
craftsmen employed in the office
of the Surveyor-General, and that
on the day following the arrival of the
gold escort these gentlemen all threw
up their appointments under Govern
nent and were off to the diggings. The
crews of ships at Williamstown and
Port Melbourne used to act in precisely
the same manner. They would desert
en- masse. Those were the DAYS of al
luvial deposits. of big nuggets looking