NEW SOUTH WALES.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 554, 6 August 1851, Page 2

NEW SOUTH WALES.

Tub startling announcement that a single individual had found in one place a block of pure

cold wei"hin<> One Hundred and Six Pounds, gives an air of marvel — a romantic interest — to the intelligence from Kew South Wales which fixes and engrosses the atlention of every reader and hearer. The first impulse is to regard (ho tale with incredulity and treat it as a hoax; the next to suppose that though founded in truth there is some mistake, if not wilful exaggeration in the statement ; but when the unprecedented fact stands out in its absolutely proven certainty that this precious treasure has been presented at the Bathurst Bank by its suddenly enriched ov> ncr Dr. Kekr, weighed there in the presence of several witnesses, and then deposited in a vault connected with that establishment, other feelings give place to one of amazement ; and " What next ?" becomes the natural question on almost every lip. When we remember the excitement produced by comparatively small discoveries of gold, we need not wonder that in the neighbourhood of Bathurst this event set people's minds into a ■whirl which the accounts describe as lilfcle short of delirious. Such qualifying considerations as that a lump of this magnitude had never been found before, and very probably might never be found again ; that therefore hopes founded on this success are invested with even a greater degree of uncertainty than a hope of a Ten Thousand Pounds Prize in a lottery, inasmuch as some one ivovhl probably get that, while no one may, in a second instance, realize this; — that the treasure was not the reward of peculiar skill or more indefatigable industry, having been found, not by any regular digging party, but by an aboriginal native, who, while tending Dr. Kjbre's sheep, amused himself by scraping into the earth with his tomahawk :—: — that, in short, the good fortune was as entirely accidental as it was wonderful ; — such considerations as these were little regarded by the multitude. Even the Sydney Herald, which at first took vei-y sober and subdued views of the gold discovery, seems caught by the prevailing contagion so far as to indulge in the most emdeurderose representations of the aggrandisement, which, looking through the vista of rapidly coming years or months, it anticipates for New South Wales. We give a specimen passage :

From every considerable port in Groat Britain and Ireland, ships will come in abundance, ns full of merchandise and piwengers as the law will allow. Population and wealth will flow in upon us in copious, rapid, and continuous streams. Port Jackson will ere long be one of the most crowded and bustling harbours in thu world, and Sydney will take her place amongst the richest and most flourishing of cities. New South Wales will be crowned by England as the Quitn or a irk Coi.on'iis. Steam navigation will connect the two counti les by a stionger and de.nor bond of union, and British capitalists vie with each other in hastening so liappy a consummation. Steamers of the finest class — the largest, the strongest, and the swifto&t — will be placed on the line which is to bring England in communication with the Land of Golo. Railways will follow as a natural and necessary result. Transportation will be put down. Our political freedom will be enlarged. Our country will be blessed. It cannot he doubted that these anticipations, enthusiastic as they seem, rest upon a certain extent of probability ; and, we will add, that the other Australasian colonies, not excepting our own, may be expected to share, in their sevcial degrees, in the benefit of the revolution (for it can scarcely be regarded as less) "which the gold of Australia will effect. But, after all, this is only one side of the question. Our Sydney contemporary's own file would furni&h numerous arguments and warnings against the conclusion that rich gold mines necessarily produce abundance of real prosperity in a country. "Who will venture to affirm that the discovery of gold in California has not in the aggregate produced more of human suffering than of happiness? Extraordinary as is the spectacle of a hundred weight of gold found in one spot at once, we must not be so dazzled by it as to lose sight of the truth that, as an individual may be very wealthy and yet very miserable, so a country may overflow with material riches, and yet be poor in those moral and social possessions the want of which constitutes the worst poverty. He would be wise above mere jnan's wisdom who could predict the whole — or the average — results of these marvellous occurrences, as they will be seen fifty or even twenty years hence; and therefore he would be inexcusably rash who should dogmatically pronounce upon them now. We may and do hope the best ; but in such a cascthe great and only rcvealer of consequences is Time. We give in another column the detailed and authentic account of the circumstances connected with this great " chance," as it has appeared in the Bathurst Free Press. The remaining intelligence from the gold-district is liable to be overlooked for the moment, as compax-aiively insignificant. And yet it lias far more practical importance. The Ophir minei's had been much obstructed in their operations by the heavy rains and the consequent flooding of Suramerhill Creek. At the Turon diggings the prospects were improving, mainly through the substitution of the quick&ilvcr machine for the common cradle. Ilavilah did not seem likely to realise the expectations so sanguinely formed of it at first. The remuneration of the diggers was in many instances so inadequate to the time and labour expended, that it was supposed very few would think it worth while to take out fresh licenses. The social state of the mining population was still deteriorating. Confining ourselves here to the extracts and correspondence of the last number of the Herald which has reached us, (iho 23rd ultimo), we find such reports as thc&e; the Bathurst Free Press says,— "We are grieved to learn that many of the miners turn their earnings to very poor account. The morality of Ophir is on the wane. Drunkenness* gambling, fighting, and other irregularities arc very prevalent. * * Jt is high time that something was done to preserve the common decencies of civilized society." The "Special Corrcsjiondent" of the Tlcrulil, after giving an account of the attendance of his party ;it Divine : Service at Ophir on a Sunday, add&, ".Returned by the creek, and was sorry to observe (hat the moral tone of the miners wab palpably and rapidly declining; there were numbers roaiing drunk, and several parties playing pitch-and-toss, besides eight or nine cradles at work." Of a subsequent Sunday he reports, " Company attended Divine Service at Ophir, Three cradles at work, and numbers drunk and fighting." Several .similar .statements might be collected, illustrative of tho scenes and Hs&ocialious amids-t

which gold-seeker.s in Australia even already ea>-l thonifafh es. I The Jlfa/y JJannaiynr, wliicli was to sail from Sydney for England on the 23rd, had on board Bathur&t gold valued at the current rates at £0,919. Flour had risen in the Sydney market. At the last published quotations, it was £25 for best, and £20 for seconds.