COLONEL MUNDY ON THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 766, 4 December 1852, Page 4

COLONEL MUNDY ON THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES.

The extracts from Colonel Mundy's work in our last number (taken from the Sydney Herald) referred exclusively to New Zealand, the following extracts relate to Sydney and Van Piemen's Land. The first extract refers to the difficulty of obtaining servants at Sydney. ' *' Of all the plagues of New South "Wales, and indeed of all the Australian colonies, the household servants are the worst. There are" few good and faithful — as few skilfuj. One reason of this is the blameworthy indifferencelo chajacter and came of discharge exhibited fay the classes — a relic this of ; the old convict system. Another cause lies iv the unsettled mind of fbe emigrant, and his trying half-a-dozen trades, of which he knows nothing, before he is driven to accept service. Many old colonists do riot scruple to say that they prefer convicts to free servants. "We have a greater hold

upon them'," says one, "There ore but two classes — the found-out and the unfound-out," mutters a cynic. A servant, holding the most responsible place, discharged in disgrace at an hour's notice and without a character, is engaged the next day in a similar post, and you have the pleasure of seeing him installed as a confidential butler behind the chair of the lady or gentleman who may be entertaining you at dinner. You recognize the soupe a la jardiniere, the baked schnapper farci, in the preparation of which and other dishes it had taken you six months to instruct your late cook-^-whom you bad just discharged for repeated insolence and dishonesty. * The Sydney domestic servants treat service like a round of visits ; taking a sojourn of a week, a month, or a quarter, according to their own tastes, tbe social qualities of their fellow servants, the good living of " the hall," and the gullibility and subserviency of the employer. * I think I must have had twenty or even thirty servants in one year, always giving the highest wages. I shall not readily forget the amusing results of an advertisement for a butler and'valet, which I was recommended to insert in the Sydney Morning Herald. There was no want of applicants. The first was a miserable old ruin of a man, scarcely four feet high, who indignantly repelled my well-Intended hint, that I did not think him strong enough for the situation. The next was a gigautic negro. He had .been "'teward," he said, on board three or four mer-chant-vessels, and was tired of the sea. He looked like a descendant of Mendoza the pugilist, and had probably been transported for killing a man in a twelve-foot ring. A tall, thin, grey-haired man, of polished exterior, next tendered bis services. He had been a solicitor in England ; had met with reverses ; was at present a tutor of a school ; could clean plate because once he bad bad a service of his own. Then came a handsome, dark-eyed gaillard, with long black curls hanging over the collar of his round jacket, who threw rapid glances over the furniture and trinkets of the drawingroom — not forgetting the maidens as he passed the kitchen-door — in a truly buccaneering style. He gave his nanre Juan da Silva, and resented any mention of references. At length we were suited. He was a highly respectable young immigrant just landed, who bad served in an aristocratic family at home. " Jeames," being steady, attentive, and perfectly acquainted with his duties, we were charmed with our acquisition, and congratulated ourselves on something like permanence of service ; when, lo I in less than a month he gave warning. He had made use of my house as an hotel until he could settle himself; and having at length decided in favour of tbe drapery line, be was in a few days duly installed behind a counter in George-street. This mode of action had probably been suggested for his observance by some crafty adviser in England ; and the idea is by no means bad. A gentleman's regular household is by no means a bad look-out post for the newly arrived, perhaps penniless, immigrant. He gets good pay, food, and lodging : he disguises his ambitious projects under a show of zeal for bis master's service ; no. one suspects that be has a soul above crumb and coat brushing. On a sudden the mask is thrown off, and the tape and ribband measurer elect stands confessed. He quits his temporary asylum, smiling inwardly at your simplicily in taking him in, and being taken in yourself; and you aTe once more on the pav6 foi a servant. In the case just mentioned, our old nurse warned us " that young fellow ain't a going to stay " ; and I wondered the less at his want of taste when she told me that she Lad one son in the irou- ! moiigery line getting fifty-two guineas a year, and another, only twelve years old, receiving at some shop £20 and his " diet." The great pleasure of shop-boys, unenjoyed by domestic servants, consists in going at half-price to the theatre, and smoking cigars ad libirarn. My first coachman bad learnt all the arcana of his trade by driving a muffin baker's cart. My second was an old worn-out, long-backed, bandylegged and gouty man, but an excellent whip, who " had druv- the last four-oss cqach between Lunnun and Huntingdon, for Muster Newman," and had been beat off the roads by tbe railways. This was an immigrant at the expense of the Land Fund. He remained about a year, and then went off to California (thereby defrauding that same Fund) to dig gold, just three weeks before tbe gold was discovered in Australia. I may here state, as a fact, that the only really steady, sober, active, and efficient coachman I had in the colony was an emancipated convict." The following description of his visit to Mount Keera, presents a pleasing picture of Australian scenery, " A ride to Mount Keera, one of the lions of Wollongong. Just at the foot of the mountain, on the estate of a gentleman, who it is to be hoped, will make the best of bis good luck, a fine vein of coal has been discovered ; indeed it discovers itself, for portions of the lode may be seen, cropping out in the^middle of the road which crosses the mountain. Here it has the appearance of anthracite or Kilkenny coal, but I believe where the works are to be opened it is of excellent quality. It is supposed to be tbe southern rim of a great coal basin, the northern rim of which appears above tbe surface about the same distance north of Sydney, at Newcastle, w here it has long been worked by the Australian Company. Hereabouts I found many curious specimens of petrifaction — one especially, a section of a palm tree with its annulated bark, rayed grain, and curled roots, so little changed in appearance by Nature's chemistry, that its weight alone convinced one that it was a block of stone. The beach near the town is thickly strewed with pebbles of petrified wood, some of them formed out of burnt trees — the white and black cinders,' and the charred vein of the timber, quite as fresh as if just out of the fire. Of course the action of tbe tides has given these atoms their present rounded shape. I rode for some distance up tbe mountain in order to examine the magnificent trees clothing its flanks, and to" obtain a good bird's-eye view of the district ; and soon found what I sought. The road swept round the back of a small "clearing, where a modest hut, covered with vines and pumpkins, stood in the midst of ' its " rood of ground," in which was a thriving potatoe-patch, and a clump of standard peach trees in full blossom. This tranquil little domain was seated, as it were, in the lap of tbe mountain surrounded on three sides by acclivities, clothed with such gigantic

trees as to keep out the light and sight of the heavens, except such as were caught from a triangular slice of the sky directly in front. 1 The view plunged hence upon the wide aud fertile plain below. Ihe prospect was bounded on the right by the long wall-like range of the BongBong hills trending away'to the southward, and fenced out this favoured province from the interior country ; on the left by the Pacific—the surf-beaten group of the 1 Five Islands breaking the dull uniformity of the coast line. Amongst the timber growing on the hill-sides were box trees of immense size, fine specimens of the cabbage palms, of which there are'two distinct kinds, of the tree fern, the gra3S tree, and of a sort of date. The hybiscus, attaining a height of twenty or thirty feet; was in full flower; bignoniasclomb from branch to branch, and many other fine creep-, ing plants, among which was one with a leaf and a bud- for the flower had not yet opened — like a camellia — whose delicious perfume filled the air around. Here and there, surrounded by the wrecks of smaller trees, crushed in their fall, lay huge logs of the gum or iron-bark, sonic sawn through into lengths, but apparently abandoned by the woodman in despair of removing such unwieldly masses, or because they were rotten at the heart. In my exploration of the bush, I was more than once only saved by the sagacity of' my mare from being stung by thegiant nettle—which she always avoided with peculiar care.' 1 It is in description -that the gallant author is most successful. Take for instance the account of the reception of the Governor at Bathurst. " This morning we drove to Bathurst, the capita? of the district, eight miles, for the purpose of receiving an address, and visiting the township. The road lay across the terrestrial billows, the long " ground swell " of the Plains, which reminded me in some degree of the " rolling prairies " of lowa and Wisconsin, although the herbage of the latter is immeasurably superior. During the last four miles we were encompassed round aud round about by an equestrian escort of all ranks and ages, in number about two hundred, which took us into its keeping for the remainder of the drive. There were " gents" in green cutaways and cords; "parties" in black dress coats, satin vests d. la Doudney, and white Berlin gloves; and one or two soldier-like figures, with stiff stocks, formal whiskers and and upright seats. These contrasted well with many gradations of the real " currency " cavalier, handsome looking men in loose tunics and blouses, broad belts, tweed pantaloons strapped inside the legs with wide leathern stripes, cabbagetree hats tied under the throat, bare necks, and beards and ringlets in hirsute profusion. There was an inferior class of the same order, wearing light drab jackets of colonial tweed, some with black velvet collars and cuffs, the everlasting cabbage-tree hat, white trousers up to the knees, bunting spurs and whips. Here and there among the thrcng rode an individual of a Puritan or Romish cut, hurried by the general excitement out of his usual demeanour and pace. Next came a legion of lathy lads, standing in their otirrups, and plainly showing by their first-rate equitation that their education had taken the direction of cattle-hunting and stock-driving rather than that of the humanities. All alike came charging alongside, around, and behind ; gallop, trot, canter, pull up, and gallop again ; themselves and ourselves in one continual cloud of dust — all apparent confusion, yet not one^ horse's nose at any time shot ahead of the viceregal equipage. If ever the circumstances of the colony should compel it to raise a local force for the preservation of internal order, I would recommend the authorities to enrol a light dragoon corps, to be called the Australian Hussars. It would be a popular service with certain individuals of all classes, fit perhaps for nothing else. There are plenty of old soldiers to instruct and command them; and plenty *of light, long-armed, bowlegged, (and, as James loves to depict his ruffling cavaliers,) "deep-chested and hollow-flanked fellows " who have been on horseback 'ever since they were born, and who know how to rough it in the bush, ready for the ranks of a regiment with good pay, a showy uniform, and a discipline not too stringent. There are moreover, plenty of active, wiry, and hardy horses,' ready to "mount" such a body. At length we came down in one grand swoop upon the Macquarie River — the Wambool of the Blacks — now a shallow gravelly stream shrunk between the wide apart and lofty banks, but after heavy rains an impassable and destructive torrenU It was a curious and cheering sight to see the troop of horsemen accompanying us, and even the gentry delighting in gigs, like Ossian's carborne heroes, taking the river at full gallop in the height of their glee, and making the water spin twenty feet into the air. All was loyalty and hilarity, pleasant to the eye and to the mind of an Old Country man and a good subject. Every .one. smiled and shouted a warm welcome, to the new representative of the Crown. Your Englishman will sometimes talk, sometimes write like a 'reprblican. Your British colonist, when the shoe pinches, will sometimes vapour about separation. But in his heart of hearts be feels the real value of our glorious constitution — our admirable institutions. His fealty may be dormant, but it is not extinct. I truly believe that a raler of a government must personally and repeatedly injure or - wrong a Briton — wherever naturalized-— before he shall be driven to the serious entertainment of a rebellious thought against bis country and bis sovereign — especially when that sovereign is a young and virtuous lady. I cannot conscientiously compliment Bathurst on its external aspect. It is as yet the mere promise of a red-brick rectangular town, looking, as bis Excellency remarked, (and Governors' jokes are always applauded and recorded !) looking as if it had just been put down to bake on the hot, bare and bright slope which forms its site. This site seems singularly ill-chosen, There is no shade from sun nor sifelter from wind. The want of fuel will soon be severely felt — indeed has already been so,' nearly all the neighbouring timber having been cut down, and no coal-mines existing in this Australian Traz os Monies. It is said that coal of good quality may be had at Piper's .Flat, though none has yet been " got " there. Mrs. Black's hotel, whither his Excellency

repaired to receive the address, is an excellent specimen of an Australian provincial inn. In bis inland hotels, however, Brother Jonathan beats Brother Cornstalk hollow ; but then the Americans, having less taste for domesticity than the Australians- or Canadians, frequent such establishments infinitely more. In the little prairie town *of Chicago, on the'western shore of Lake Michigan, full 1800 miles up the St. Lawrence, I found better French cookery at Shelly's hotel than is to be had at any table, public or private, in New South Wales — and wine as good, with moderate "charges. Yet Chicago was at that time ndt seven years old. Most of the members of the deputation destined to present the address having for the last hour revelled in the vice-regal dust as well as their own, the weather being moreover fearfully hot, and themselves (for they were substantial citizens and settlers) apparently in soft condition, a little delay was allowed them for ablutionary purposes ; — and indeed such was the plight we were all in, that it required the utmost aid of soap and -water to ensure our recognition by our nearest friends. Meanwhile, the Governor retired with his ministers and suite to a privatp council chamber to discuss' — beer, or rather a bland beverage called " Apperley's mixture," concocted by that oriental gentleman — our companion on this part of our tour- — and having bottled^ale, ginger beer, mint, and sugar for its ingredients. Ah ! a Sybarite in search of a new pleasure might wisely compound for a throat-full of dust, to have it laid by such a draught as that cooling cup 1" In connexion with the subject of transportation we gioe tire following account of Mr. Smith O'Brien's present habitation at New Norfolk. •'Government Cottage, the rural retreat of her Majesty's representative, stands amid wheatfields and gardens, on a turn of the river just below the town ; a high wooded mountain, abutting on a perpendicular wall upon the opposite bank, frowns down upon the unpretending little vice-regal farm. Some fine bop gardens are spread round the foot of the gentle eminence on which the cottage stands. The premises are let at present, because I suppose, the ruler of so troublesome a people can have no leisure for retirement. Standing on the bridge I sketched the Government cottage, and then, facing about, without any other change of position, the pretty home-like landscape up the river, including a feature interesting at least to Irish-readers, namely, the present residence of Mr. Smith O'Brien. I could have introduced this gentleman as a figure in the foreground, for he passed twice under my pencil, and he is by no means a bad looking fellow for bis years ; but I preferred a couple of cows as more innocently bucolic in a rural landscape. I am happy to give my personal testimony to the excellent bodily health, on the last day of the year 1850, of this political delinquent, who, having at length accepted his ticket-of-leave — or license to bestow himself where be pleases within the district of New Norfolk — enjoys, as I have said before, very much the same amount of liberty as the soldier, the parochial minister, the office man, nay even the Governor on whom he and his friends have lavished so much abuse; for, like the prisoner, neither his Excellency nor the other functionaries can quit their posts without the special sanction of higher authority. • To say that be is without hope — that sheet anchor of human existence — is a piece of imbecility, nor do I believe it is true. Were lin his position I should cherish the strongest hope of some day receiving the pardon of my Sovereign, and of becoming one of the most faithful and loyal of her subjects. Why does he not send for his family to join him ? He complains that "it would be the greatest injustice to his children to bring ihem to a country, the present condition of which he will not trust himself to describe." There are many and excellent schools in this island, perhaps more than in any country in the world of equal population — not less than a hundred private establishments, without counting the various Government schools. There is a paid inspector of schools to " whip-in" the minor pedagogues, and to see that they do their duty — as the drum-major does with the drummers on certain occasions of military discipline. This is an appointment which might be beneficially introduced in older countries. On the whole, for a man under the commuted sentence of death, and whose head, had he lived and so acted a hundred years back, would have rolled on the scaffold ; on the whole, I cannot think this gentleman has good cause for complaint. With an allowance from home sufficient for every material comfort, a splendid climate, heautiful scenery, and no want of society — for he is kindly received and very well spoken of by many of his neighbours — he is clearly better off than he would be in the occupation of furnished apartments in the Tower ; and I cannot but hope that by this time he has revoked his opinion that " death alone can effect a deliveiance from the calamities of his lot." El win's 'ho.tel,-the little rural inn where Mr. 1 O'Brien at present lodges, is prettily situated on the left bank of the Derwent, amid fruit, flower, and hop-gardens, witba' neighbourhood .of well cultivated farms, backed by wooded bills. It may be likened to a villa on the upper Thames, with a climate of eternal summer and autumn."' ' We now give our author's account of his visit to the Turon in June, 185T: — "The gold mania, so rabid at the outset, had begun to abate towards the end of June. The weather at the mines had become bitterly cold, wet, and tempestuous ; provisions were exorbitantly dear, owing to the difficult transport of stores across the mountains at'this season. The Summerhill Creek was flooded,' whereby the working on its bed was put an end to.^ Iri short, gold was not so plentiful as w*as anticipated — not to be picked up on the hill sides in an afternoon's stroll ; nor were nuggets to be dug upi like potatoes, by the bushel. The privations inseparable from gold digging were more severe than suited the expectations of the sanguine, the ignorant, and that large class of idle, reckless creatures known in this colony by the name of Crawlers. In my four day's journey across the Cordillera I met, as I calculate, about 300 men returning, disheartened and disgusted, towards the townships ; many having sold for next to' nothing the mining equipments, teats, carts, ' cradles, picks, spades, .crows,' and washing dishes, which had probably, cost them all they possessed in the world three weeks before. They had nothing left but

tin-pots, 'possum rug?, and a suit of seedy clothes. A few had gold' with them — "no great things," they said. Some had drunk and gambled away, or had been robbed of their earnings. Mortified, half-starved, and crest-fallen fellows, so able to work aod so easy dispirited, were not the men for winter mining ! Some looked so gaunt, savage, ragged, and reckless, that my thoughts turned involuntarily to nsy pistols as they drew near. -They were returning to their deserted homes .and families in a state of mind by no means likely to redound to domestic peace and comfort. A good many 1 of this, ebbing stream of would-be gold miners wore a sort of shyi embarrassed, repellent air, of which I could make nothing, until I found out that they were ticklish on .the subject of a cant phrase with which it appeared they had been pelted by the villagers, and upward, passengers on the road. " Have you sold your cradle V* was a verbal dagger in their bosoms.".' ' Thefbllowing is the picture of tlie gold-fields, and ihe people thronging them : — "In strolling down the works — if strolling can ■ be applied to scrambling among jagged slate rocks in the river bed- and slipping over the loose shale on tbe hill side — I found it no easy task to get into conversation with the diggers. Some appeared sullen from disappointment, few communicative on the subject of their gains, and all apparently imbued with that spirit of independence and equality natural in a community where, whatever might be the real distinction in the station 1 and education of individuals, all were now living and labouring on the same terms. If ever there was a pure democracy, it now exists at the Bathurst gold mines ; pure as tbe most penniless possessor of nothing could wish, purer by far than any spouter of Socialism having anything to lose ever truly desired, and infinitely too transcendanily pure for the views of those who believe that human society, like a regiment, should be a graduated community. The present state of affairs will not last long. In another year or two three-fourths of the-men now working on their own account will bo the hired labourers of capitalists or companies, and the^ocial equipose will then be restored. At present,' here are merchants and cabmen, magistrates and convicts, amateur gentlemen rocking tbe cradle, merely to say they have done so, fashionable-hairdressers and tailors, cooks, coachmen, lawyers' clerks and their rr. asters, colliers, coblers, quarrymen, doctors of physic and music, aldermen, an A.D.C. on leave, scavengers, sailors, shorthand writers, a real live lord on his travels — all levelled by community of pursuit and of costume. Tbe serge. shirt, leathern belt^ Califoroian hat, and woollen comforter, with the general absence of ablution and abrasion, leave the stranger continually in doubt a? to which of the above classes he may be addressing. " What luck, my good fellow ?" said I to a rough, unshorn, clay-slate coraplexioned figure, clad in a zebra-coloured Jersey, with beef boots up to bis middle. " What luck ?" " Why, aw !" replied my new friend, with a lisp, and a movement as if he were pnlli ig up a supposititious gill, "only tho»tho at prethent. Our claim was tolewably wemunewative owiginally, but it has detewiowated tewibly since the wains set in." I learnt afterwards that this gentleman is a member of the faculty, and was turning over more gold as a miner than he had ever done as a medico. I recognized many familiar faces without being able to put names to them, so much were their owners disfigured. Some gave ma a knowing smile in return for my inquiring looks ; others favoured me with a wink. My peruquier, Mr. R — , was doing well ; he had served his time in California. My saddler, Mr. B , looked half-starved. It was clear be had better have stuck to the pigskin ; a thing, by the way, often easier said than done. The Sydney counter-skippers generally made but poor quarrymen : many of them longed, no doubt, to be measuring tape again ; and, perhaps, would have long since taken measures for resuming their old and proper trade, had they not felt sure that the employers, whom they b*d deserted at a day's notice, would probably refuse to'engage them again. I soon found, that in so earnest a quest as that of gold-hunting, those pursuing it are averse to the impertinent interruption of strangers. The Jew speculators and others, who were beginning to traffic at the mines, had, however, introduced one initiative question, seldom failing to open a. dialogue in which some information might be picked up. "Will you sell your gold?" was that query. I resolved therefore, -to become a purchaser on a small, scale. Had the idea sooner occurred to me, I might have made an excellent speculation ; for the gold rose in price several shillings p«r ounce soon after my visit to the mines. At Ophir, I could have bought any quantity at £3 to £3 Is. an ounce, and, conveying it myself to Sydney, could have* at once sold it for £3 7s. 6d. At present, however, I had made no arrangement for the necessary outlay; ' After "a long^ramble over the ranges, I was not sorry to get back to the -Commissioner's tent ; where, seated at a little table in. its entrance; our feet on a carpet spread over sheets of bark, with a huge fire of logs blazing in front, we were min r istered to by an old soldier, one of the troopers, in a rough but wholesome and welcome repast. . Whilst engaged in the discussion of tea in a r tin pot, damper, and grilled mutton, assisted by pickled onions, several men came up to camp for the purpose of getting their gold weighed by Mr. Green, fox they distrusted ,the weights of the storekeepers in the township. In some instances they had, indeed, been sadly imposed on ; but tbe cheating was not entirely confined to one side: for on a certain occasion a miner, presenting a nugget for sale at the counter of a store, was offered £2 for it, which, after solemn consultation with a, comrade, be accepted.' The nugget turned out to be a piece of a brass candlestick, battered into- a rough form, withbiti of quartz intermixed. * The imposition was' soon discovered, but the seller's .position was impregnable— be had never said it was/gold.' : The " sold " party could hardly afford to complain, /for had it been gold £5 would- have been the .lowest equitable offer for it.", ' ' ; *■» - -'