THE GOLD DIGGINGS.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 682, 27 October 1852, Page 4

THE GOLD DIGGINGS.

(Fiom the " Abiideen Journal" May 19 ) It was wont to be said at a jocular paradox, that Spain, with all thp gold and silver mines ol JSJfxico and Peiu, was the pooicst country in the woild. Indeed, so little does the possession of the piecious metal-- con slilute national wealth, that a fatality would almost neom to attend thp people who are the first to dig them from the bosom of the lurth. Ihe gold mines of Australia are as productive as those of California; but the colony does not appear to profit, or i ely to profit, by its golden produce. Every species of industry is deserted, for the chances of fortune-making m the gold distiicta. The shipping in the poits and the sheep farms in thp interior are like deseited, and it is questionable if the colony be not losing in its mdustiial resources, to a greater extent than it is naming from the produce of its mines. The subject was brought befoie the House of Commons, by the Home Secretary, on Friday, nnd nt a public meeting, held in Leeds yesterday week, the Hpenkers freely expressed theii apprehensions of the effect nbicb the position of the Australian wool-growers would have on the staple manufactures of Vorkshne. There is no doubt that the quantities of gold found are immpnsp, and many individuals must be amassing vast wealth at the mines. Indeed, there is no question that, if recklessness do not lead the gold seekers (o squander their earnings with a prodigality equal to the ease with which they are gathered, we shall by and by find a lot of liberated convicts the wealthiest people in the colony; while the most steady and industrious of the population are brought toibe brink of ruin through want of hands willing to forego the gambling chances of the gold diggings for the moie certain rewards of steady labour. The colonists are in some respects to blame for this, for we find that such of them as have encouraged the formation of family and domestic ties amoug those in their employment, have in a great measure, escaped the consequences of the geneial migration. In general, however, servant and master have changed places. The former dictates his own terms, and matters, ins'ead of improving must become daily vvorse as the steady productiveness of the mines becomes more and more a mitter of cet tain ty, unless some means be adopted to check, the pvil. At the meeting at Leeds it v\"^ resolved to iorm a society for the piomotion of emigration, and to appoint a deputation to lay the matter before the Colonial Secretary. It 6eetns that the colonists themselves are doing their utmost to set their example. We learn from the remarks of Sir John Pakingfon, in the House, on Friday, that <( no less than £113,000 had been transmitted from Victoria for the purposes of emigration, which, with the sum then in hand, left between £160,000 and £170,000 disposable for the purposes of emigration to that settlement." New Sou;h Wales has also sent home about £70,000 for the same purpose, but notwithstanding these exertions on the part of the colonists, the Government do not seem in clined to do more in the matter than "communicate with the ernigiation commissioners as to the mode in which the sums may be most beneficially expended," with the exception of sending out the service companies of a regiment of infantry, for the purpose of putting n stop to desertion fiom merchant ships, and for which they propose that the colonists should pay. 1 he latter course, indeed, is very distinctly called for, when we are told that there were in the port of Melbourne, on the 16th Jan., 35 vessels, with crews of 816 persons, of whom no fewer than 478 had deserted. However something more seems requisite, not only to mitigate the evils to which the colony is subjected, but for the relief of the distress of our countrymen at home, by the withdrawal of a portion of our superabundant labour to a conutry where it is so much wanted.