Evening star., 1901-05-18

very comfortable homes It's hotels charge
81 day, and are good. On one edge of the
town is a lake of six hundred acres. and
another feature is the horse cars which
jolt you to pieces as they take you about it,
Ballarat is surrounded by a rich pas
toral and agricultural region. 1t is sew
enty-ffve miles from Melbourne by rail-
and on the main road from Melbourne to
Adelaide.
How They Coin Gold in Australia.
Speaking of the gold production Of Aus
tralia, l went through the mint in Mel
bourne, where for thirty years they have
been turning the dust and bullion into
sovereigns. Already more than fS2, 600, 900
have been coined, an amount equal to more
than 400, 100000 gold dollars. The mint
differs from our mints in that it coins only
gold, no silver or copper being handled.
The gold comes here from different parts
of Australia and after coming is shipped
chiefly to London. A few $40 gold pieces
are made for the Indian rajahs, but the
greater part of the metal goes into soVer-
eigns and half sovereigns, worth So and
$3.50 each.
1t was with the director | went through
the money mill. We first watched the gold
as it came in. Much of it was in the shape
of the little dull yellow grains which have
been washed out of the streams. and much
in the bullion bricks from the smelters.
As it was handed over the counter the
clerks weighed it, using scales so fine that
they will accurately weigh a lump of gold
as big as your head or one small as the
point of a pin. After weighing a memo
randum of the amount is given to the de-
positor. The gold is assayed and later on
he gets just what it is worth
Melting Gold.
Leaving this room went on to see
how the smelling was done. The gold is
melted in crucbles or pots of fire clay
and plumbago, a material which will stand
an intense heat. Each pot has capacity.
l should think. of perhaps half a gallon of
liquid gold. 1t is fitted into a little fur
mace not unlike the forge of a country
blacksmith, save that it is in a long narrow
ledge on one side of the melting room
There were perhaps a score of such fur
naces, and nearly all were filled with gold
coke. and a strong draught made such a
heat that the gold bubbled like boiling wa
ter. / was dazzled when / looked into the
pots. The liquid was green rather than
yellow. l saw it poured out into moldS and
the stream was current of emeralds on
a bed of light yello% more beautiful than
anything of the kind l have ever seen.
Later on, when the moldS We're opened
tho green had disappeared and the metal
had become a bright golden yellow.
Golden Hoops.
1 next watched them roll out the bars
into the hoops from which the gold coins
are cut. Each bar was worth 81 800. or
$500 1t was a ruler of gold TWENTY-FIVE
inches long, two inches wide and not quite
half an inch thick. A lot of such bars
were wheeled on trucks out of the melting
room into the rolling room. Here they
were pressed between great steel rollers
which made them longer and thinner At
the start each was twenty-five inches long; :;
at the finish each had become fourteen feet
long. 1t had grown as thin as sovereign
and the pressing had polished 1t that
it shone like new breastpin. The gold
grows hot as II II rolled. The men en-