THE "TIMES" ON THE GOLD DISCOVERIES OF AUSTRALIA.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 605, 31 January 1852, Page 3

THE "TIMES" ON THE GOLD DISCOVERIES OF AUSTRALIA.

The discovery of gold-fields in New South Wales will produce very different effects on different minds; some will lament over it as calculated to introduce a new element of corruption into an atmosphere only just recovering from the moral taint with which we have so sedulously innoculated it ; while others, with perhaps more justice, will regard any discovery which tends rapidly and permanently to augment the amount of wealth possessed by the human race as a subject which, due allowance being made for all drawbacks, cannot be contemplated without feelings of self-gratulation. As it is not in our power to prevent the existence of that cause which is sure to give rise to these speculations, we think that we should be employing ourselves more profitably in considering the question in its more immediate relations to the welfare of the colony than in abstract speculations on the advantages or disadvantages of that which is clearly inevitable. In California the discovery of gold was made in a country where society was as yet rude and unformed, and no branch of industry had been cultivated with any degree of prominence or success. The new State is the Creation of the gold mines, and its population consists, not of inhabitants of the country who had relinquished their regular occupations for this more attractive pursuit, but of persons drawn from every quarter of the earth, and whose absence from their respective communities was in many cases felt to be a relief rather than a bui'den. The case of the Australian colonies (for this purpose they may all be considered as one) is as different as can possibly be imagined ; besides the usual occupations of agriculture, they have, as everybody knows, become a field for pastoral enterprise on a scale of unequalled magnitude. The sheep, which constitute their principal wealth, are divided into flocks varying from four hundred to a thousand in number, each of which is intrusted to the care of a single shepherd. Two of these flocks are generally driven, together to the same station, where a third person resides, whose duty it is to change the hurdles and watch the sheep by night. The country being infested by wild dogs, it is absolutely necessary that some one should always be present with the sheep, in order to protect them from this cause of destruction, and the force required for this purpose is about three men to every twelve hundred sheep. . Jtfow, in the year 1848, the number of sheep in New South Wales and Port Philip exceeded eleven millions six hundred thousand, not to speak of the flocks of South Australia or Van Diemen's Land. It is not, probably, unreasonable to calculate that in the three years which have elapsed since this return was made the number of sheep has increased to at least, fourteen millions. This enormous amount of property exists from day to day by virtue of the unceasing care and attention bestowed upon it by the shepherds under a rigid system of central superintendence ; without that care it could not exist_ for a single week. Now, let oiir readers imagine the effect which must be produced on the minds of the proprietors of these fourteen millions of sheep by the information that a goldfield has been discovered which is certain to

attract away from their existing engagement every shepherd and hut-keeper in their employ ment. It will be vain to attempt to retain then by offers of increased wages. One employer o labour may compete with another, but who cai bid against the imaginary riches of an Eldorado in which every adventurer expects to find i splendid fortune impatiently awaiting his acceptance ? Nor is this all. The shearing of the sheep which takes place about the month of October, is an operation not generally entrusted to the shepherds, but to persons who travel round the country for the purpose. Shearing cannot bf long deferred in Australia without ruin to the fleece, from the presence of the seed of a particular grass, well known to the pui chasers at our wool sales. If the fleece is not shorn before November, it is very greatly deteriorated in value. Now, these professional sheep-shearers are exactly the persons who, from their itinerant way of life and reckless habits, will be the first to swell the ranks of the gold-finders. Add to this, that the reckless and desperate characters who, having served # their sentence of transportation, now swarm in all the Australian colonies, will flock to the gold-field as a common centre, not so much with a view to labour, as to profit by those opportunities of plunder which such a scene of confusion and excitement must necessarily afford, and we have enumerated causes quite sufficient to overthrow a social and economical system far more firmly established than that of New South Wales. # The difficulty of carrying supplies into the interior through roads which will soon become infested with banditti, and under the care of men who will be far more disposed to desert their charge and join the general hunt for gold, than shed their blood in the defence of their master's property, will be no inconsiderable aggravation of the crisis. There is but one remedy for all these things, and that is the prevention, by armed force, of unauthorised intrusion on the lands of the Crown s and the preservation from plunder of the valuable public property recently discovered. The gold region has not yet passed into private hands, and even if it had the Royal mines of gold and silver would still remain the property of the Crown. There is, therefore, a clear right to reserve this public property for public use, and when it is considered how materially the revenue derived from it might lighten the burden of taxation to the colonists, the duty to preserve it is as obvious as the right. All the proceeds of the gold field, beyond the wages of the miners and the profits of the capital employed in working it, are clearly the property of the colony, to whose use they are to^ be applied, according to the statute 5 and 6 Victoria, c. 36, under the direction of the Lords of the Treasury. The right and duty to preserve this property being thus clear, we sincerely wish that our power to do so were equally manifest. With a commendable economy, which this unforseen event by no means impugns, Lord Grey has reduced the troops in the Australian colonies, beyond those required for the coercion of the convicts, to a number so small — some few hundreds, we believe — as to be wholly unable to cope with the general rush towards the land of promise. And yet upon their ability to do so depends, as we have shown, not merely the preservation of the gold-fields from the hands of unauthorised intruders, but the actual existence for another year of the flocks and herds which form the wealth of the colonies. Had we that regular and rapid steam-communication with Australia which ought long ago to have been provided, we might hope to apply some remedy to the evil before it becomes intolerable. As it is, our most strenuous efforts may possibly come too late. The duty of Government is nevertheless perfectly plain — to send out such a force as may enable the Colonial Government to' maintain any regulations which it shall think fit to make for the preservation of its property. Unless something of the kind be speedily done, it is hardly too much to anticipate that the desperate ruffians whom we have been for years thrusting into the social system of our reluctant colonies, being drawn to a single point by one common purpose, may learn to appreciate their own strength, and, bursting from the control of a Government too weak to coerce them, establish for a time a lawless tyranny over the peaceful inhabitants of the country which the mind shudders to contemplate. Hardly a newspaper arrives from California without some complaint of the outrages committed by Australian " expirees" who have found their way to that country. What are we to expect in a second California, not separated by the vast Pacific Ocean, but placed by nature in the very centre of those colonies which we have selected" for the haunts of crime ? There is als*o an English as well as a colonial side to this question. One of our great branches of manufacture has suffered considerably by the scarcity of its raw material — cotton. The woollen manufacture is threatened with similar peril by the events which menace the very existence of those flocks upon which we depend for the supply of the finer descriptions of wool. The only means of averting this calamity is to protect private property in New South Wales by enabling the Government immediately to assert its dominion over the public lands. These considerations are so obvious that we cannot doubt they will ultimately be attended to. What we principally urge is the imperious necessity of the utmost despatch, arising from the perishable nature of the property in jeopardy, and the danger only too likely to arise from the desperate character of that penal population which is sure to meet for the first time in large and uncontrolled masses ,on the gold-fields of Australia.

Upper Wallaby Rocks. — December 20 : Yesterday afternoon we had a most terrific thunderstorm, with very violent rain, for about an hour. We, it appears, however, had not the worst of it, it having been much more violent, accompanied with hailstones of very largo size, up the river. About sundown, James Shoobert, Esq., of Wollongong, who had been some little distance up the river, rode home with information that' the river had suddenly risen to a great height, and we immediately shifted our cradles higher up the bank, I myself , giving information of the circumstance to the people about us, and likewise to those on the next Point. Some took the hint and shifted theirs also ; but, others, after thanking me for the information, neglected to take advantage of it. About Lalf-past eight o'clock, hearing a great roaring in the river, we went 'down to 1 it, and found five or six cradles running- down with the stream, which had in the course of a few minutes risen about three feet, and eventually rose about two feet higher. Whilst there, we saw several cradles rushing 1 down with the stream. Those we could secure we did, but many passed entirely out of our reach. To-day I was up at Sofala, aud found that about the time the thunder storm visited us a waterspout burst at the junction of Little Oakey Creek, sweeping everything before it. A gentleman informed me that just above Golden Point the water came down like a wall, and must have been at least eight feet high at one time. Two men were drowned in a tunnel near the place where the waterspout burst, and another is missing-. A woman and child are also said to be missing- from Golden Point • but I have heard doubts expressed as to the correctness of this last casualty. This sudden rise in the river has not been by any means permanent, it having now attained, within a few inches, its former level. I saw yesterday, a beautiful specimen of gold and quartz in the possession of Mr. Hyland. The middle of the specimen is composed of common quarts, with crystallized quartz shaped like prisms all around it. Gold is seen in small quantities throughout the whole. Its value is estimated at £14, and I understand it was obtained at the Crudine Creek. The bank diggings here are developing their richness more and more every day ; we have obtained upwards of thirty- two ounces during the last five days ; and 1 believe other parties have been equally or more successful. Pattersons Point, a short distance higher up, is also turning out very w< j ll one or two parties netting from twenty pounds worth and upwards every day. Some of the parties holding claims wheie they are turning the course of the rivet at this side of llaiboltle's store, have sunk on the other side of the river, and are netting from two to five ounceb per diem.