The New=Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 350, 4 September 1849, Page 2

The New=Zealander.

He just and fear not: Let all the ends thoii ainis't at, be thy Country's, Thy God's, and Truth's.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1849.

At California " the cry is still, They come !' The gold-fever epidemic has diffused its influence far and wide. From the Old World as well as from the New, from continent and island, multitudes are rushing, in numbers and with headlong earnestness sufficient to cast into the shade all the former exemplifications of the attractive power of gold, which historians have recorded, or poets sung, or philosophers or preachers moralized upon. The statements in the newspapers (such as those we lately copied) that thousands were almost daily arriving at the modern El Dorado, and tens and tens of thousands on their way thither by sea and land, might seem exaggerated, if they were not so fully corroborated by what we see and hear around us, and what we read, not only in the news department but in the advertising columns of the public journals. This last is by no means a bad thermometer by which to measure the heat of such a fever as the present. Advertisers are generally the mobt shrewd and intelligent species of the commercial genus. They are not the men to squander their shillings and pounds without the prospect of an adequate return. And when we find column after column filled with advertisements headed " California," in every variety of typographical display, we have so far a cogent proof — not that California is really one of the most desirable fields to which an emigrant can rush, for it proves nothing of the kind ; — but that trowds of people think it i s> — which answers the purpsse of the advertisers just as well. We need not go beyond a few of the papers received by the " Susan," which lie upon our table while we write, for ample illustrations of this. Here are more announcements than we can stop to count of vessels about to sail for " the gold regions," with their respective accommodations and advantages so graphically and seductively set forth, that one might be tempted to regard the voyage as quite a pleasure excursion. And here are dealers and manufacturers, with an originality of invention which, were Sheridan alive again, might lead him to re-write his Critic, in order to make Puff's devices keep some pace with the march of modern ingenuity, benevolently suggesting to intending goldfinders all the wants they may possibly or probably experience while they are amassing their treasures, and liberally offering to provide against them, — at astonishingly low charges. One good man, at Sydney, more inventive than his neighbours, has constructed an Omnibus specially suited to California, which, although it " would insure a certain fortune by conveying passengers and stores to the Diggings " he does not intend to use for himself, but is willing to sell to some " industrious man :" — while another, a manufacturing jeweller and goldsmith, patriotically jealous lest his friends at home should not participate in the benefits of that " success of the gold finders in California," of which he has " now indisputable proof," announces that he actually has on board the " William Hill " "no less than six hundred weight" (!) of gold, being only "the first shipment " of the precious metal, with which " an influential gentleman in San Francisco " is to supply him, " for the express purpose of being manufactured into every description of plate and jewellery." A third, (not the least practically sagacious, we suspect), advertises himself not as a seller but a buyer— of "guns and pistols" for California. Then, the principle of association for mutual advantage is brought into operation. Some are invited to unite for "self defence" — (a very proper and necessary object ;) and some, for " agreeable society." A certain "R. H." is forming a party for the Sacramento River, which is to be not only " respectable," but " inseparable:" — (if "R. H." has found out a secret for securing this, he has made a discovery incomparably more valuable to poor human nature than all the gold in California). A geutleman of long experience in the army, is organizing at Adelaide an " expedition. " of one hundred " brave and determined men, whose pecuniary

means will admit of an easy maintenance on, a moderate scale for at least one year and a half." They are to be governed by a Council chosen from amongst themselves, to which they are to swear obedience ; and " the whole body are to be determined to live and die, to go, and if possible, to return together." Wo should not forget to add, — c< Parties entering to pay £20 to the leader." But we have not time or space to notice the advertisements about California, even in the half-dozen papers over which we have now glanced. We do not refer to them with a view of casting any reproach on the advertisers, who are men wise in their generation, and in some instances at least, are only " pushiug business" fairly ; but we notice them merely as significant indications of the extent to which California and its gold now engages public attention. The real character and prospects of an enterprise on which such numbers are staking their all, is a subject which cannot be too seriously considered. Like most other subjects it has two sides, which are not only distinct, but, in some important respects, different. That gold exists, and has been obtained in wonderfully large quantities in California, is absolutely certain. Setting aside altogether statements which, like some of those published in the American papers, are wholly incredible, and deducting a large per centage from various other statements put forward both by Europeans and Americans, this fact we regard as established by cumulative and still accumulating testimony. Nor is this all, or evert the best, in relation to the ultimate prospects of the country, that has been asserted on authority which we do not feel at liberty to question. Not the best ; because one of two results will take place : either, as some predict, after the removal of the auriferous deposits on • or near the surface, the gold will become comparatively scarce ; or, continuing to be procured so largely, it will lose mnch of its value as a precious metal, and something else, (not improbably Platina) will be more extensively substituted for it as a medium of exchange. A corresponding uncertainty may rest upon the ultimate value of the quicksilver mines, which are known to exist also in California, and one of which is said to be profitably worked even at the present extravagant rate of' labourers' wages. But, in addition to — and perhaps more permanently important than — these sources of wealth, are the other capabilities of the country. The soil is. exceedingly fertile. Wheat yields seventy oreighty-fold. Capt. Sutter, who before the 'discovery of the gold literally speaking, had been extracting it realty in enlightened and industrious agricultural pursuits, collected from his own fie. Ids in the year 1848, 40,000 bushels, and in the previous year stored 75,000. Barley, hemp, flax, and tobacco are produced in most of the valleys. Oats and mustard grow spontaneously, and with such rankness that an emigrant declares, "I have forced my way through thousands of acres of these which were higher than my head, even when mounted on a horse," — a report which, though probably much exaggerated, gives a striking idea of the truth. We are also told " The varieties of grasses are great, and they, are very nutritious ; they seed heavily, and the seed, when ripe, is so fattening to stock as to render every description of corn wholly unnecessary." Vines, and all kinds of fruit-trees, and most of the vegetables of Europe, especially the leguminous vegetables, grow well. ' Numerous other statements are made whic,h concur to show that the land is endowed with extraordinary natural capabilities. Not to dwell, however, on what is prospective, there is much at present to attract enterprise. Gold, as we have said, has actually been found ; and many have actually gathered it in large quantities; whll all agree to assure us that " plenty of ix remains.'* Several mercantile speculations have turned out better than the most sanguine expectations of their projectors, and the prices of such articles as are in demand are more than remunerative. Captain Jackson, of the American ship " Inez," had been offered and refused four thousand dollars for two horses purchased by him at Sydney for £40. Labour is paid for at enormous rates. Common labourers obtain from four to six dollars per day, and mechanics receive three times that amount. A washerwoman can get eight dollars per dozen for washing. Wages in every department of manual work are high in proportion. Who then — if this were the only view to be taken — would not go to California ? But there is another side to this picture ; and it is difficult to imagine a stronger contrast to the vivid and glowing colouring of these allurements, than the dark and gloomy representations of some who have learned by personal experience what life in California really is. We need not recapitulate here the details which have lately appeared in our columns from such victims of disappointed hopes. Merchants and ship-owners are learning the difficulties in the'r, way, from the restrictive regulations imposed on all but American vessels and those sailing under the Tahitian flag : from the enormous duties levied on their goods, and the no less enormous charges for the landing and stowage of them : from the trouble, delay, and loss occasioned by the general desertion of the crews, and not uncommonly, of the officers of ships : and from the uncertainty whether, after these and other obstacles have been surmounted, the

market will not be found glutted to repletion with the very commodities through which they hoped to realize a fortune. Gold-seekers— (we do not speak now of those most recently arrived, who found that the object of their search was so deeply covered with water that they could not get at it, and were not likely to do so for a considerably time owing to the melting of a gieat accumulation of snow on the mountains, but of the body of gold -keekers generally) — have found themselves in the midst of hardships, pri\ ations, sufferings, and dangers which made life itself a buidcn to them. A large portion of their gains was swallowed up in the expenditure they were forced to incur, not merely as some have supposed for articles of luxury or comfort, which, for the time, they might do without, but for the simplest and most indispensable necessaries — such as washing, charged at (as we have mentioned) eight or ten dollars per dozen, and board and lodging, of a description, to be sentenced to which at home they would have deemed a severely penal infliction, about three dollars a day. Their treasures, if they had been fortunate enough to hoard them, were violently seized upon by the Indians, or stolen by their own fellow-adventurers The sketches of society at and about the diggings represent almost a Pandemonium — the comparatively few respectable and moral persons being overborne by those of a widely opposite character, and drunkenness, gambling, theft and profligacy of every kind being, all but universally, in the ascendant. Sickness, arising from climate, over-woik, mental anxiety and depression, insufficient or unwholesome food, and other causes, has cut down very many, and shattered irrecoverably the 'constitutions of very many more. The frequency of murders makes an apalling addition to the insecurity of life, so that, as the (London) Morning Heralt) says, " no man of any experience seeing 100 men depart to pick up gold in California, would anticipate a long or happy life to more than two out of that number ;" or, as it is touchingly expressed by a writer on the spot whose letter appeared in our last, " many a poor fellow now rushing with beating heart and high hopes to the mines, will leave his bones bleaching in the canons before the summer is closed." How many who have torn themselves from home and friends, and from circumstances in which quiet and safe industry might have secured a competence, may already address gold in words like those in which Dr. Leyden expressed his own deep feelings in his " Address to an Indian Gold Coin :"— " For thee— for thep, vile yellow slare ! I left a heart th#t loved me true : I crossed the tedious ocean wave, To roam in Climes unkind and now ; The cold wind of the stranger blow Chiil on ay withered heart— the grave, Dark and' untimely, met cay view, And all for thee, vile yellow slave I The " Confessions of a Gold Seeker," weie there a De Quincey to write them, might take a place beside the thiilling "Confessions of an Opium Eater" — one being akin to the other in representing the delirious extacy of the first excitement, and the wretchedness that remained when that excitement had passed away. If it be said, ye have given an cxtieme, or an unreal, description, we reply, extreme in one sense it may be, for we desired to slate both sides of the case as strongly as the accounts before us would justify ; but unreal it is not, if the testimony of those who have spoken from personal knowledge of the facts is to be credited. Undoubtedly some can— and do — report their individual success ; but we have met with no narrative of Californian adventure by a trustwoithy eye-witness, which does not declare or imply enough to make considerate men pause, and at least, wait further information l»efore they incur a certain risk for what is, at best, but an uncertain gain. We cannot conclude more aptly than in the words of the " Economist" — (which, under the management of its able editor Mr. James Wilson, M.P. for Westbury, is, perhaps, preeminent in the Londcm press as an authority on subjects of this nature),—-" Great losses, great misery, we are afraid, and numerous crimes, will be the conseque )ce of the delusion. The history of California will supply another painful chapter to the work on ' Popular Delusions,' and the victims of avarice will probably be found more than those of ignorance and superstition." As caterers for a public journal it is our duty to lay befoie our readers ample intelligence on a topic of so much general interest ; and we shall continue to collect diligently and impar- ) tially from every available source of information on the subject. But a still more imperative sense of duty demands that we should not make our columns instrumental in circulating statements, some of which are so seductive and dazzling, without placing on record our own distinct and emphatical warning against the deceptiveness and danger with which we believe them to be fraught. Let our opinion pass just for whatever it is worth, and no more. The reader can, — and, of course, if he be interested in the matter, will — examine the facts for himself, and draw his own conclusions from the evidence they afford.

As we were not of those who " much doubted" whether " the Governor's Deputy Registrar expedient" to meet the immediate difficulties of the Marriage Ordinance question, was " made

in earnest," we learn without surprise that his Excellency has already taken the necessary steps for bringing it into practical operation. . An official communication to this effect has ! been addressed by the Colonial Secretary to the ! Ministers of the aggrieved bodies, with the additional intimation that the fees which might be charged on licenses issued by the Deputy Registrars appointed under this arrangement, will be remitted ; — a concession which we know foimed pait of the Governor's plan, but which we did not previously adveit to, because there seemed at first some doubt whether he Avas legally empon'oied to grant it. The communication concludes by stating — " This arrangement, ivhich is but temporary, is the only one which it is in the power of the Governor, under the picsent state of the law, to carry out ; but an alteration in the law shall be submitted to the General Legislature at its next meeting, with a view of obtaining, in as far as possible, for the Piesbyteiian and Wesleyan Churches, and other religious denominations, the piivilegcs they are anxious to possess." This formal engagement on the part of the Government is satisfactory so far as it goes, and is all that, under existing circumstances, could be expected — or, at all events, could be obtained. It will now be for the Standing Committee and others interested in the question to keep a vigilant look-out for the draft of the new measure (which is to be published in the Government Gazette); and, when it appears, to give its provisions the most careful consideration.