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Northern Star (1837-1852), 4th September 1852, Edition 1 of 2, Page 3

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      AUSTRALIA AND ITS WEALTH . ( Abridged from the British Quarterly Beview . ) ( Continued from last Saturday ' s Star of Freedom . )

      Hitherto we have surveyed only the surface of this mighty continent , but Australia has treasures also hidden deep in the earth . It was not until 1343 that the mineral wealth of New South Wales was discovered . As in the case of the gold mines , so in respect to the earlier found copper , no one suspected their existence , except a German geologfst , named Menge , who jersisted that the hills oi South Australia were metalliferous , but whose opinion was treated , not only with incredulity , but with ridicule . Accident a £ length verified the geologist ' s

      assertion . In 1 S 45 . flirt VrHITVfltoef o / vn r \? /" ViTvioirv lJ «< rn + TirTvilef r « ci _ ton . In 1342 , the youngest son of Captain Bagot , whilst gathering wild flowers , discovered some pieces of grey slate , strongly tinged with the green xarbonate of copper , and attracted probably by the brilliancy of its colour , the ^ boy brought one of the pieces home . Soon after , Mr . Dutton , a neighbouring resident and sheep owner , having ascended a little Ml , to obtain a view of one of his distant flocks , was struck with the

      beauty of what seemed to bs a patch of bright green moss ust at liis horse ' s feet . He dismounted , but on closer view lie iotffid that It was copper ore . Being on intimate terms with Capt . ^ Bagot , Mr . Button communicated his discovery , and tiien found that his friend ' s son , on a spot hard by had found a similar piece of ore . Mr . Button—from whose interesting jro rk , ;' South Australia and its Mines , " we have taken the foregoing account—together with his friend , now applied to

      government for the purchase of the land-no reserves being Jiade in South Australia with regard to minerals—and at the axed price of £ 1 per acre they purchased eighty within which tie precious ore was found . Some Cornish miners , who had fortunately just arrived , were hired , and the Kapunda mine opened , and its produce , during only a part of the first year , aincmn + Afl + /¦ » osoi -j . ~ <' . e _ ~ __„ * r •„! .. „ ,, « i ; i ; ,, {?„/> . amounted to 252 * tons of fine * which sold in

      copper , were Engl and for 6 , 225 ? . . But other " out-croppings , " ' though less extensive than on the original land , were soon after discovered hard by . A keen competition was therefore commenced , and a hundred acres put up to auction by government were purchased alter a sharp contest ou the part of Captain Bagot raid oux author , at the large price of 2 , 210 ? . In his table of the

      average produce of the various copper mines in South America , and m England and Ireland , Mr . Button proves that those of South Australia hold the highest place . Since the date of Mr . button ' s work ( 1846 ) , mining operations have been widely exteiiaed , the Burra-Burra mines now taking the lead ; and the importance of this new branch of commerce may be estimatodwien we find in the report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners , that while from the vicinity of the above mentioned mines , 8 , 676 cwt . of copper was shipped in 1349 ; in Ao 30 , the shipments rose to 44 , 594 . In audition to this , a small

      quantit y of lead was also sent . « ut interesting and important as these statements might be , ]?? S 01 * . discovery has thrown them wholly into the hack ground—indeed , with some people , the whole ' Australian contifl ent seems to be considered as worthy of notice only on account Qt the precious metal which is drained from her rivers , or dug « om her mines . Although the district in which . sold was first found has been long occupied by sheep stations or by small setjl ' f ^ gold-bearing earth has " been actually tilled , and tI ^ e gold-bearing stream used for domestic purposes , still the presence of gold was not discovered until about iifteem months

      since . The probability that some portion of the regions of New » -outh Wales were auriferous was , however , pointed out by the £ ev . Mr . Clark , a resident , as early as 1841 , and at the same » ne Si y Roderie Murchison , in Europe , was led to the same conclusion , from a comparison of the gold-bearing rocks of the u Mountains , which he had explored with those of the

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      Eastern Cordillera of Australia . In 1844-we quote from his own note , appended to Col . Mundy ' s work- " hSlished in the Hth volume of the Journal of the Royal G ogr ^ fal So Society , a comparison between the two mountain ranges , and ? n 184 o recommended the Cornish miners who wanted emSov S ' lnSfr - ^ ? 11 , ™"' ^^ A gom . m 1848 , having received specimens of cold from two SoTwi ir ^ r ^\^ . the &" SeJ » 1 ft f r ^™ ' } " * millister fcdined to interteie . After the " accidental open nig of the o-olden ^ ,,-1 m California » Sir Koderic publicly brooched on ? a r ou \ oc 4 tae globe Ins last and concluding views bein . » put Mi in the article "Siberia and California , - in the ffi ^ b , ££ ! September , 1850 . These views , however , as we have see ' , ' tractedno notice , until , in the early part of last ye ^ r ¥ u ? C " greaves , a gentleman who had spent nearly two vtarffc- fMi " an , y of lts geological formation and external characteristi ^ Te determined carefully to examine into it . After riding abou ? $ i e hundred miles , so as to intersect the country at minomu ? points , and spending two or three months in the psSS of his objecthe discovered soldand flRteMM *! f !! t ^ 1 ° ' 5 iXvl j ostauusiiea

      , , ,, ~ , rn i . —— - 5 " »""• a corrroanv of working-miners , at a . point of the Summer-Mil Creek " a l oo now known far and wide by its appropriate name-Opkr " liie general character and appearance of the sold distric t ^ S ^ S ^? " ! - « * - ^ '• The Australian cordillera run in a line with the coast wl at an average distance of less than one hundred miieX ^ iho shore Gold lias been found on both sides of those cordiltns mid chiefly m the smaller streams and bends of the rivc ^ At ten of the Murray may be said to form the ita

      ^ Au ^ goid field . . . .. . The very outline of the « e bUs ana mountains almost without exception , rounded , would make it probable that their surface irregularities W bwn caused by detritus , so as to give this peculiar characteristic to 500 ST ^ * W ? T ^ * , eBomi ( ras W-cocks , from oOO to l , y 00 wet high , packed as close together as impenetrable substances of such a snaps could be crammed , the k ^ L slopes , covered to the summit with the thin everg ^ nlmra ^ r , everbrown , hush erf-Australia , and you will have a , very tan itiea oi the general appearance of the trold

      lne locality named Opbirby Mr . Harpreayes , is a deep ravine througa which flows the Summer-hill Creek f rom J --he loffv Canollus , between 4 , 000 and 5 , 000 feet hitfi , on one side ¥ " k bounded by rocks of quartz and schist , in some Dlaces almost perpendicular . " * Colonel Mundy , whose sketches give additional interest to to wore , has afforded bs a very picturesque view of Summer-Mil Creek , and also of the Ophir Mines . The next soot ™ her » gold was discovered was on the Turon - Biver , from whence ' it was stated that small portions had been taken years Lefo-eindeed , Colonel Mundy tells us ? o far back as 1323 , a convict of ironed

      an gang , working on the roads near Bathurst , was flogged tor having in his possession a lump of iwh n- old waich the officer naturally enough imagined must have " be-n tlio product of watches or trinklets stolen and melted down botala is the name given to the station ; it is situated in the valley that forms the bed of that Pactolus of Australia , the luron . These " diggings" Colonel Mnndy also visited "As we topped the last of a series of small hills , which I thought interminable , my companion suddenly said , ' Stop , imtl listen . ' 1 pulled up my horse , and heard , as I imagined , tbe rushing of a mighty cataract . ' It is the cradles , ' paid lie And so it was—the grating of the gravel ov nibble , w . the metal sifter of five hundred rockers ! 1 shall not easily forget the impression made on me by this singular acoustic effect . . Looking down into that wild mountain glen , it was almost incredible that this ceaseless crash could " * be produced by human beings , not one of whom was visible . Presently , as we descended upon the creek , tents , huts , and every other kind of

      temporary tabernacle were descried dotting the slopes and levels . The camps are never entirely deserted , for one of every company remains at the hut , cookings washing , and keeping guard in the absence of his mates . I saw no women , except a few ' gins' ( native blacks ) , at the mines—this is one of the most odious peculiarities of the gold-digging population . " ^ Our Antipodes , vol . iii . p . 873 . * i ; ' Near the Wallabi Socks , the scene is very beautiful .

      " As I despaired of preserving the shadow of an'impression of it by effect of pencil , so do I feel my pen equally powerless ; for a first-rate colourist , who had passed a life iri ' the'close stitily of nature , could have produced but a faint image of (! ' Celling sea of mountain-forest lying before - ' stM below tis f liill beyond hill , as far as sight could rOTge- ^ arid'the devious course oi' the

      invisible Tnron , distinc-tlf traced by a motionless wreath of smoke from the lii-vbuacsv ' sleeping on the mists of the river , and carrying the eye of the spectator along until it rested on the face of the Wallabi rocks , just , illumined by the morning sun , which threw over it a veil of golden gauze . " The landscape was truly lovely—an epithet rarely to be applied to gold-mining regions . "—vol . iii . p . 384 .

      But amid the new excitement and general good fortune , at that early period—August , 1851 , of the gold diggers , Colonel Mundy bears testimony to the injurious influence ' of this dream . He found no merriment among them—no cheerfulness : u I found it no easy task to get into conversation with them , " he says . " Some appeared sullen from disappointment ; few communicative on the subject of their gains , and all imbued with the spirit of independence and equality natural in a community where ^ all were living and labouring on the same terms . The miners , I observed , looked haggard and weatherworn about the face ; but I fancy this jaded look proceeded rather from intence mental excitement than from bodilv

      hardship . More tnan one started when I asked them if they did not dream of gold at night , and admitted , with apparent shame , that not only did gold form the main subject of many a troubled rj glit-rnare , but that , in spite of excessive fatigue , involuntary thoughts on the same theme robbed them of the rest absolutely necessary to recruit their strength for the morrow ' s labour . "vol . iii . p . 352 .

      • At the time when Colonel Mundy left , the gold mines in Victoria had not been discovered . Mr . Shilling only describes them from report ; but from his statement it appears that theso mines are richer than the earlier found ones . Buningong was the first discovered : it is about forty miles from Geclong , and is on the edge of an open forest , in t&e midst of a beautiful agricultural country . Mount Alexander is more north , and there ,

      as is the case in Aew South Wales , it seems' that the richest yield of gold is obtained from a stratum of blue clay , found at a depth of from two to nine feet . It is difficult , perhaps impossible , accurately to ascertain the amount of gold obtained from the Australian mines . The accouut up to December last , according to the report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners , " gives 464 , 668 ? . 15 s . as the value of the gold

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      shipped from Sydney to England , while the rough estimate of gold raised m Victoria between August 1 st and December 6 th , 1851 , is thus given : — In banks in Melbourne 90 , 000 ozs . ? PP < f 31 , 734 m bank m Geelong so 000 On the ground , or in merchants ' ' and p ii ' vate hands 0 Oj 000

      rn- A 07 ¦ Total 211 , 734 ozs . This at U . per oz . is , 635 . 202 Z . When we contemplate statements like the foregoing , we are less disposed to be astonished at , however we may lament , the extravagant arearas which these unexpected gold discoveries have led m > many to indulge in . Above a million of money value , sot rom Australia in less than half a year , and all in the form of gold-b ri ght , precious gold . No wonder that the eager , tue excitable , all those who would " make haste to be rich , ' should be reaay to bid farewell to friends and country , and set oft for this new El Dorado . But be it remembered that the Austrahan wool trade alone , amid the dearth of labourers , yielaed in 18 o () a result of a million and a half , and that tne woo and tallow together , amounted to more than two millions !

      As to tho profits of gold-digging to the miners themselves this seems to be a question involved in great difficulties . Col JViundy , who visited them during the first excitement , and who tases a more favourable view than Mr . Shilling , bears testimony to the exaggerated stories even then current . The many marvellous tales of the earnings of tho miners which found their way into the papers , were , he remarks , unfounded ; and their ettect was to unsettle the minds of credulous hearers and readers wno , behoving that Aladdin's lamp was only waiting for them

      to ruo u , gave up steady employment for gold hunting , and thereby too often abandoned solid substance for a vain shadow It is impossible to form a correct idea of the earnings at Ophir . 1 en shillings a day was pretty generally named as the average ¦ but this he considers too low . But what is £ 3 per week as the remuneration for the wear and tear , bodily and mental , 1 ^*^? „ Sf' 8 « a * J » % labour ™ demanded-great to tho middle

      we mean , and higher classes , and those unaccustomed to active employment , we have the testimony of Mr . ^ . Ulmg , a practical man , who expressly states , that although notnmg poruaps to navvies , and strong men , itisinsunnountable by tne . sedentary and weak . " His estimate of the average remuneration is lower than Colonel Mundy ' s , although » we can only surmise their gains from the accounts of the faers tiiemaeivcs . No-. v , there have been numerous failures at all the

      aiggmgs-even at Mount Alexander . The average earnings of we urst 400 at Ophir appear to have been about 10 s . a day but their success was most unequal . Mr . Forbes gives it as his opinion tnat where one gets 20 Z . or 301 , fifty earn 10 s . a day and iorty ijido scarcely their rations . Later still , a newspaper correspondent estimates the average earnings at 2 L per week and says no one would set it above U . ; few rated the average earnings at the Turon above 11 . per week . " In other parts scores were not earning even their rations . At Mount Alexander , some estimate it to have been at one time as hi ^ h as 3 / a clay per man , but the Commissioner , at the same time , puts it at from 15 s . to 30 s . Indeed , as Mr . Shilling truly remarks-_ ' Isolated facts , accounts of individual success , create undue impressions ; people arc apt to forget the oblivion that attends failure , m reading the glowing accounts of one suddenl y enriched . . . . Comparing all the accounts , it seems probable , Jiat at a time when the mail and weekly escort were bringing clown between 5 , 000 and 6 . 000 ounces weekly the number engaged in mining operations approached at least ^ OjUUU *

      "vr * l « x . ¦ -. i . _ t _ 11 . f i « , ) - . __ . Now , let us take the weekly supply of gold at its maximum oi 6 , 000 ounces , and the miners . f _ at' only 24 , 000 , and we shall divide but a quarter of an ounce of gold weekly among them —that is rather more than . 16 s ., allowing for the highest price which has been given " for gold at Sydney , SI . 5 s . 3 d . —for six day ' s hard labour , where the cost of mere living , that is , broiled mutton , damper , and tea , is at least 15 s . a week . We have therefore little do-obf that these gold diggings are , after all , veritable lotteries , ; > tew enormous prizes , like the 30 , 000 ? . so temptingly displayed in large capitals at the head of the old lottery bills and represented in this ease by Dr . Kerr ' s enormous " Hundred Weight , " imd the more apocryphal " Nuggett , said to have weighed 1 , 300 ounces , set over against the thousand lose ** concerning whose unfortunate reverses nobody ever heard " ' We may remark here , that" Aa by for tho largest supply of goH has been procured from the banks and bads of rivers flowing , through accumulated oi eitner

      masses aeons , torn irom the mountain side by some convulsion oi nature , or brought down by the floods of past ages , even although a hundred weight has been found in the matrix , at one spot , it would be assuming more than we have any foundation for doing , to say that gold may be found anywnere , concentrated in large quantities , since every circumstance rather tends to prove that it has existed but rarely in masses , or , at any rate , that these have been ^ so broken irp in the course of ages ^ and disseminated amongst the debris of the mountains , that it is now almost hopeless to search for matrix gold . " ®

      And thus we find that no second huge masses of cold have been found ; but even the most sanguine advocates of ° g old digging are compelled to content themselves with reports of the dis covery of far smaller peices , or a plentiful yield of <* old dust Mr . Shilling gives numerous instances of the great uncertainty of succesp . The best " claim on the Turon sold for 9001 and . the purchaser , during two days' trial , got 1602 . towards the ' purciiase money . Another " claim" sold for 700 L but although seven pounds were found one clay , and eight pounds the next , it did not eventually repay the buyer . While one partv of miners gained 1 , 500 * . in less than ' five weeks manfoSe ? t ^ i ^ I 8 * 008 i «* 7 l 7

      " Z l ^ ^ S " , * . * says , " see them toiling at their miserable task , delving Se madni n carrying huge bags of soil to be washed ? ™ Z dd fercysuch wa « the mfatuation even of the wretched losers-tlmtihey were maaing tneir Ibrtuncs , and almost breaking their necks to make ic soon . ; ' Mr . Shilling ' s final opinion incfeed is , « that it is very quesaonablo whether the gross yield of the mines has as yet equalled the expense incurred in consequence of their discovery ;• ' an opinion , which we are well aware will be keenly controverted by some , but which has certainly strong statistical arguments to support it .

      Among our contemporaries , this "dream of gold" has awakened many speculations ; while the daily press teems with theories and suggestions as to what is to be done with the mass ox surpius gold which will ere long , as they believe , flow in upon us . The Daily News , in a leader some " time since , suggested the great impulse which would be given to " art manii * Vide Mr . Sliillinq ' s lecture .

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      -o o ' clock , amidst the wild shrieks of the passengers the jamer settled and sank . The Propeller had kept in the wake the Atlantic , and those on board her did all in their power to eserve the lives of the hundreds of human beings who were , v ; seen struggling in the water . The fog was a sad hindrance their efforts , but above 150 were rescued . It was stated that iout 200 persons composed chiefly of poor emigrants had rislied . Amragihe list of missing ^ is the name of Mrs . wnwell , sister of Elihu Bumtt . _« . jiVilrtrtlr OTttincf -fha -tt »? 1 * 1 < -t 1-.-.. !^ 1- ™ _*/* j . 1 _ . _

      The be Johns , * ew Bnuiowick , papers state that the Bay 'Fundy had been completely cleared of American fishermen rumour was current at Halifax that Pier Majesiy ' s steamer evastation had taken four prizes into Charlotte-town .

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      Sep ^ mbeh 4 , 1851 THE gTAR 0 F FREED 0 Mt w """* ~~ ¦* ' ™~* " —— ' ' . ¦ . ¦ . ..- - — — . ¦ .,. , ... ,... _

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      IXDIA . esignation of Sir Colin Gampbell—Tks War in Burma !*—Supposed Loss of the Steamer * Zenolia . We have intelligence from India to the 23 rd of July Considerable excitement has been occasioned in the * military rclesofthefcorth-Westby Sir Colin Campbell ' s resionatim the Pcshawur command , an event attributed to that General ' s apatience of the interference of the Board of Administration in ie military aftairs of the frontier .

      Our latest news from Rangoon extend to the 22 nd of June The health of our troops in Burmah continues excellent he rams ot iiangoon have not been as yet disagreeable heavy ' id the temperature appears lower for the time of year than at lost stations of India . We have mentioned that the Proserpine : eamer had surveyed the Irrawaddy to within a few miles of tome . She stid remams there , and has done excellent service i intercepting and sending down to Rangoon upwards of 100

      erf large boats laden with rice , intended for the use of the Inrmese army now assembling at Prome , and which it airoears epended principally on the lower country for its commissariat upphes . Inc i-roserpine has ascended thus far ' without mcefcig an enemy , taougii she had been fired into occasionally iy bands of robbers , who are said to range uninterruptedly hrough the country below Prome , which the Burmese apnear o have entirely abandoned . x

      The Phlegethon and Mahanuddy have been throughly reaired , and sent up to join the Proserpine , with orders to reconloitre as far up tlie river as they can with safety . These fio-ht teamers give us the complete command of thelower country Che Nemesis has been ordered from China to join them , and the unber might be fus&ei- increased to anv extent desired from he Ganges and the Indus steam flotillas . The cost of the knnese expedition up to the 1 st of July has been at least £ 500 , 000 .

      Serious apprehensions are entertained in reference to the iteaaisr Zenobia , which left Moulmein for Madras on the 14 th if June , and has never since ham heard of ; as no tempest has since tiien swept the bay , nor any weather occurred of which a ins new steamer need have bs-Jn f raid , it is feared she may lave been burned at sea . __ ^ a

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), Sept. 4, 1852, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1694/page/3/