BALLARAT DIGGINGS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 656, 15 November 1851, Page 3

BALLARAT DIGGINGS.

[From a Correspondent to the Argus]. 15th October, 1841. Doubtless you have expected a line from me before this; but a new chum in these regions has some difficulty in finding out lhe convenience of conveyances to Melbourne. We were nine days on the road from Melbourne, and experienced all the difficulties incidental to bushing in bad weather, with the additional one of not being able to obtain meat of the settlers. I made personal application to Messrs. Griffith, Cowie, and Labilliere for the purchase of a sheep, fat or lean, and in every instance was peremptorily refused, although thirty mouths besides my own were destitute of meat. You will, perhaps, be surprised at the largeness of the party, but they were stragglers picked up on the road, and begged lhe shelter of our drays from the awful weather we encountered.

On Monday, I took a ci: cuit of the diggings, an 1 endeavoured to ascertain what was doing. This is impossible ; believe nothing you are told, as no one can ascertain the truth ; the fact is, an insane rush has taken place to a small spot, lured by the reports in the Geelong papers, and as extensive an amount of distress and loss cf property will be the result, as could possibly be calculated on in this small community. The favourite locality is Golden Point, where are congregated about 1500 cradles, and about 300 more are distributed along the creek between the Black Hill and the new diggings, a distance of six miles. I estimate the whole number now engaged at 10,000 or 11,000 persons, and about 200 horses, to remunerate whom, at common labourers’ wages and rations, 2000 ounces of gold per diem should be raised, and I do not think that quantity, or half of it, is bagged. You need be under no apprehension of want of labour for the harvest or shearing. As many return as arrive; and I know of several parties, coming up at the same time with us, who have turned back. There have been some fortunes made. Captain Bull has done well; and yesterday the Messrs. Pettit bagged a dollop of 71b. and over, at the new diggings. But these successes are not common. Many are doing well, but the great majority are not paying expenses, and as soon as th Jr stores are expended, will be obliged to return. We are every day offered tools and stores at our own price, and I believe the end of this week will see flour, &c., cheaper at Ballarat than Melbourne. The fever has nearly reached its height; and except the ruin occasioned by the sale at undervalue of the 11 /«n nnmn A* a a C ~, — _ J 1 *ll 1 ail ouujc uaacoy u* wuiikiug puupiv, will do good in teaching the value of “ne sutor ultra crepidam."

I will now give you my view of the general value of the gold field ; it is, that a very rich deposit exists for many miles that may be worked systematically to great advantage, but in a country where labour is so scarce as this, the large amount lost by a scramble for gold is a dreadful calamity, the whole system is a gambling transaction, the parties have no systematic plan, no previous knowledge, nothing in tact to bring to bear likely to ensure success, and if they meet with a “ dollop’’ it is the result of the purest accident. I have seen hundreds working away for their lives, full of hope, where 1 could see in a moment no profit could be realised, yet a very large profit may be made by extensive works properly conducted, a great many persons employed at high wages, and the commercial benefit to the colony as great as by any other species of productive labour. I must not be understood as undervaluing lhe Victorian goldfield, I consider it as rich as any ; but if persons are rash enough to rush upon any given small spot in thousands, there will be very few who draw prizes in the scramble. Such has been the case here on a large scale, but if an individual happens to be lucky, his claim is completely surrounded with diggers, so that his eight feet square is all he is likely to benefit by in that locality ; this frequently leads to loss, and a lucky week or day is swallowed up by long expenditure without adequate results.