The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1852-12-07 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

THE AUSTRALIAN DIGGINGS.--A letter, dated Sydney August 11, says :—" This leads me to a subject that is now engrossing the thoughts and feelings of almost all classes with a species of madness. I cannot but look on the discovery (gold mines) as a curse to the colony ; truly as the ' auri sacra fames'—' riches leading to poverty, and treasures sure to cause wide-spraad ruin.' It has already subverted all steady industrial pursuits. Sheep and cattle stations are of necessity neglected for want of labour. Shepherds hardly to be obtained at any price—all rushing to the gold-fields; and from the same cause agriculture is nearly abandoned ; so much so, that if we do not receive large importations of wheat or flour from America, or other countries, we shall be reduced to a state little short of famine before another harvest. All the necessary articles of life are nearly doubled in price, and at the mines flour is £2OO per ton. Meat is the only food that is still reasonable, and that is rapidly rising in price, and must continue to do so, from the fact that it is difficult to hire a man to drive sheep or cattle to market; and immense numbers mustbe sacrificed for the tallow, or suffered to run wild. I fear the settlers will not be able to secure the coming clip of wool. Mechanics are now getting from 10s. to 20s. a-day, and labourers in proportion. Even servantgirls—and bad ones, too—are asking £2O per annum, and will seldom hire longer than a month at a time. To add to all this anarchy and excitement, the scenes of dissipation and vice of every kind at the diggings, consequent on sly grog-selling, are beyond description, and cannot be easily suppressed, when from 70,000 to 80,000 of the vilest characters on earth are congregated at only one of thse spots, and no adequate force of either military or police to keep them in order. Robberies and murders are of almost daily occurrence. This you will say is a dismal picture ; but I assure you it is no less so than true ; and a still more serious consequence is connected with it,—the desertion of the sailors from every ship entering the port, which must have the effect of preventing shipowners from sending vessels to our shores, and consequently deprive us of those supplies which are essential to our prosperity and comfort. You would be ready to conclude, from the immense quantity of gold already shipped for England, with several millions more ready for shipment, that all the diggers must have been successful ; but it is far otherwise ; not more than one-tenth part, after deducting all their ex. penses, realize an adequate remuneration for the hardships and privations to which they are subjected. It is not all who ' dip their finger in the pie' that withdraw it without a burn ; but such is the demoralizing and exciting effect of this love of ' the root of all evil,' that both successful and unsuccessful are rendered unfit for any other employment. Oh ! that the farmers of England (particularly those with industrious sons), now groaning under poor-rates and grievous taxation, would seek our shores, not to run mad after gold, but to steadily pursue the culture of the land, of which we have an unbounded extent, fit for all the purposes of agriculture, and attainable at a less price, in fee simple, than an annual rent at home, and now offering, from a daily increase of population, an ample return for every outlay."