Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-07-21
/" GRIZzLY'S !" SOLILOQUIES.
TOM " MERRY TELLS ABOUT THINGS
IN AUSTRALIA.

IN AUSTRALIA.
Scribblings of Nature Learning
| How to Write"
"Tom" Merry, whose writings under
the nom de plume of Grizzly" are fa-
miliar to all Pacific coast readers, has re-
turned from Australia, and writes as fol-
| lows about that ancient land:
To take up the story where l laid it
| down, last week, | speak of Australia as
| the greatest producer of gold, silver and
other precious metals in the entire world
| The country embraced between Sandhurst
| and Ballarat is not over 97x40 miles, and
it is producing more gold to-day than all
the Pacific States combined But il is in
the province of Queensland that is to be
found the greatest gold mine in all the
world-the Mount Morgan. 1t has been
worked since 1884, and has no defined
ledge 1t is simply mountain of volcanic
scorie, containing gold so fine that 10 or
/
] gamation would take it up. Therefore it
is worked in the following way: The ore
is first crushed dry in stamp batteries, and
then the powder is whirled in concen-
traitors at the rate of l20 revolutions per
minute, which throws the heavy stuff to
the outside, and allows the lighter detritus
to pass out from the center to bin, whence
it is blown clear out of doors by fan
blower driven by steam. The heavy ore is
then put into chlorination furnace and
treated Just as we have been treating sui
phurets in the California mining towns for
the past thirty years. The gold comes out
of the furnace in a solution about the color
of amber sherry wine, and is at once put
through a filter of powdered charcoal,
about the size OF a molasses hogshead
This filter is closely watched, as it is fire.
| quently kept in use an entire week. 1t is
then burned and the gold comes out in the
form of bright and ringing metal,
Morgan, the man who owned the farm
in which this unparalleled mine is stu
ated, sold it to ''fossicker" "a prospector
IN America) for $4,000. The man who
bought it did not really know whether he
had got gold or platinum, but he knew it
was one or the other. If it were gold he
was ahead of all the earth; and if it were
platinum he could lose nothing Charley
Skerett paid eS0,000 for his one-tenth and
mortgaged the Royal Hotel property to do
50, for which he was soundly rated by his
friends. He paid off every shilling of the
mortgage before the dawn of January l,
| 1887, and has now an income from his
| dividends Just about six times as great as
| Of ha &c ho toI
| The Mount Morgan mine has paid in divi-
| dends over 100000 since it was opened,
and the market value of shares was $50
when | left Sydney two months ago. They
| have some laws in Australia that would be
regarded here as destructive to the per-
sonal liberty of the private citizen, and
| yet | believe their mining laws to be the
| best in the world. They hold that the
mineral lands belong to the crown, hence
they are leased and not sold Every
second and fourth Saturday night in the
month a blackboard is hung out from the
front of the District Inspectors office in
each district, giving the number of tons
quarried, the number of tons crushed and
! the number OF ounces of amalgam cleaned
up. This is copied from statement made
| by the manager of each mine, under oath
|
| pei man to divulge the secrets of his
business, but it certainly has the merit of
protecting small shareholders.
Under the Australian mining laws
there could have been no Floods, no Sha-
rons, no Mackays nor OBriens. The
money filched from the pockets of bar
keepers and servant girls in California by
the present system of assessing stock,
owned by several hundred people, ard
letting less than ten of them know what
became of the money so levied, could
never have obtained ground in the bloom
in colonies, you know. They wouldn't
have it that way, miboy. Several Ameri-
cans went down there to teach the colo
malls how to run mines on the Comstock
| plan; and those of them who are not in
Pentridge prison, are either herding sheep
at five pounds per month or else have
taken time by the forelock and fled the
country. ! know of mines in Ballarat and
Sandhurst that have paid dividends of as
low as sixpence per share, twice year.
| In Nevada or Idaho, this money would
have been stolen by the directors, in voting
themselves constructive salaries or letting
contracts to their brothers-in-law. All
this in Australia pleased me. But there
is one feature with which | could not be
pleased. / allude to the way in which
the extremes of society are represented
the very rich and the very poor. 1t was
the first time | had ever seen such a con-
dition of things in q country having a
commercial existence of less than fifty
years, more especially in gold-producing
country. In 1878 began the first central
ization of capital in California. Prior to
that time there were no very poor men,
and none very rich, either in that State or
our own. If l had not seen children
starved like wolves in the streets of Mel
bourne and Sydney, while their mothers
were confined for drunkenness in Pent-
ridge or Darlinghurst, l would not write
as / do.
Australia is unquestionably the Oldest
portion of the world. Humboldt started
out in his cosmos" to prove that Asia and
Africa were older than the Western Conti-
nent. He found himself one day on the
| IS loI DoI Il,