NEW SOUTH WALES

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 137, 11 February 1859, Page 3

NEW SOUTH WALES

The Special Reporter of the 'Sydney Herald of the 18lh.ultimo, furnishes the following amusing article on a visit to the Western Gold-fields:—

On the gold-fields it 13 your lot to fall in with many varieties of the genus homo— one dubs himself civil engineer, lie is always getting up a company, and has a plan for making every body's fortune in less than no time. He is at* present engaged in forming the great Backslums Tunnel Company^ and will be happy, to take your name as one, of the shareholders; the publicans and storekeepers are his chief victims. Another, the most conspicuous, is a nondescript—a sort of seedy swell—a pothouse loafer, who makes a point of being one in at every shout—who eschews the pick and shovel as he would cold water; who shepherds a lucky digger on the spree in a spirit of puro philanthropy; who lives nobody knows how.; and comes fvorn nobody knows where; a walking .swill tub, who, when tho spirit moves him, will mount the stump to tell the diggers how hardly they are used—a trap is his detestation —a commissioner an incubus, a useless recipient of the public cash, —he would himself perform the duties for half the money. The bench—bush justice—fogh! There's that case of Lankey Bob's and Jack the Dodger. He winds up with the Government—lighting a torch—half-a-crown duty —tax on native industry—Chinese, he wishes he was a Chinaman—squatters—throw open the land, when he gets one of his eyes bunged up with a dab of mud, and retires in* disgust. He follows you into your inn, enquires if you have aeen his last letter in the Fuddlctown Gazette, and is astonished you have not; whereupon he pulls a greasy printed paper, something like a crowded poster, out of his wide-awake, and pokes it into your hand, hoping you will do your duty as a reporter of the leading journal, and let the colony, and above all the Government, know the state of public feeling in Spreetown. The diggers enjoy the fun, and view the exhibitions of this class much in the same way as they would a brace of dancing dogs; every camp boasts of one or two such characters.

We have, also, our local politics and times of stirring interest, of intense excitement. Dr. 0. Toole has emigrated and is located on Kitty's Gully, ile reports that three sheets of bark are blown off tho hut, which, like u\q domicile of tho cobbler in the old song, serves him for

Sohoolbouse, kitchen, and all. A public meeting is convened at the Pig and Whistle, on a flat; a motion is put by the supporters of the Doctor, purporting that it is expedient to replace the said three sheets of bark, and empowering- the committee to receive tenders for the same; Sykes has a down on the Doctor—he moves a counter resolution; is defeated, and rushes incontinently into print; next Saturday, there is a rush for the Fuddlestown Popgun ; you enquire what is vp —run about with frantic haste, and at last obtain a sight of the broad sheet. There it is sure enough,"dated from Kitty's Gully, two whole squares, public money, extravagance, base corruption, incapacity, jobbery, and "Aristides" in large type at the bottom. Then cornea next week a smashing n-p!y from *• Vox PopnlV followed by a crushing rejoinder from Ari.ilidea ; —the whole camp is now split into two factions, — bark or no bark !—party spirit runs high, the war wages fast and furious, vain are all attempts at compromise; frequent discussions ensue which create a tremendous thirst. Boniface 13 in his glory! ' fS To matter who loses he wins: " Inuendo" is answered by Hypocrite—tear off the mask, and the least little bit of scandal, when a court job ensues, somebody is fined ; and the Doctor borrows a tomahawk, on a fine Saturday afternoon, and cuts the three sheets of bark himself.

So ends the strang-.?, evonlfu! history

The mining interest to the west of the mountains, rai-ed from a position of political lielotism, tanks round with anxiety for a fitting reprusenia:ive in ihe new Legislature. This interest is important; the constituency amongst the largest in the colony; she seeks a man of work, of "established political character, of scientific attainments, unfettered by the trammels of party, wlio takes a liberal but lioness view of the great question of next session—the disposal of the public lands— one who is conversant with its colonial history, its present position, and the great interests that "have grown up under a succession of systems which have been forced upon us, but which,nevertheless, we cannot repudiate, and which must now be respected. A mere trader, a man who judges of a gold-field only by the number of business licenses it will carry, or spirit licenses that may be thrust upon. it,, will not do : neither will one whose aspirations are 'wholly of the Bucolic order. The diggers, as a community, are anxious that the farming lands in the neighborhood of the goldfields should be placed within their reach on easy terms ; they weary of being wanderers ; they pine for a hearth—a homestead ; at the same time they desire that the public faith should be kept with those who hare been induced, by a reliance upon that faith, to embark their ail in pastoral pursuits, for which the greatest portion of our immense territory is alone available.

A letter copied by the Maitland Mercury from a Melbourne journal, instituting a comparison between the relative progress of agriculture in California and Victoria, and which by inference is made to bear oil New South Wales, has created a considerable discussion on the gold-fields. At first view it tells against 113 to a"greater extent than the natural conditions which prevail in the respective countries would warrant.

California extends from latitude 30* to 42- north, with a seaboard throughout its whole length, on which are 1o be found numerous ports at nearly equal distances. A narrow entrance leads into the bay of San Francisco, when an immense sheet of water stretching north and south for sixty miles, placid as a lake, and dotted with islands, strikes the^ voyager with wonder at its vast extent, of which the entrance, closed in by mountains and island*, gave no promise; it is encircled, for the most part, with low.distant ranges, descending with long irregular slojtea to the flats, which on all sides fringe the shore. All these flats, slopes, and ranges are of the highest' agricultural capability ; they are lightly timbered, have no scrub, and the Americans found these lands cleared and ready for the plough. Two first-class navigable rivers, intersecting the State, disembogue into the estuary or bay at opposite ends, one flows from the north, the other comes in from the south, each receiving- large tributaries from the Sierra Nevada. In the basin of the Sacramento are to be found hundreds of thousands of acres of the richest alluvial soil, where the wild oats covers the swelling ridges for miles, and undulates to the breeze, while the vast plains are covered with clover, and grasses and flowers of a varied thousand hues. All these broad lands are unincumbered by a single shrub, and invite the plough ; there it is but to sow and reap—there the fanner has no bad roads to strive with—no^mountains to cross—a hundred steamers contend for the carriage of his crops to market. The flocks avd herds are to the southward all in tlie hands of the ancient race—Jonathan found them ready to his use, and his whole energies were devoted to gold in the first place, and agriculture in the second; he was shut out from pastoral pursuits, the oppressed and swindled greaser had preoccupied the ground. To the southward fortune was still more lavish of her favors. One hundred and sixteen years smce^ the followers of Ignatius Loyola, knowing the richness of the country descending from the lofty summits of the Sierra Nevada to the shores of the Pacific, founded eighteen missions on the coast extending through nine degrees of.latitude.

Unlike the humble cottages of our island missionapes, princely monastic establishments sprung up, rivalling those of Europe in the middle ages— they were fountains of light in a wilderness of darkness—the trembling Indian in his lurking place amongst the mountains on the margin of the great desert saw them from afar, —he came in and was subdued. Each monastery wag the capital of a^ district, each abbot was a potentate in his province, his herds and Hocks covered a hundred hills, a thousand Indian peons labored in his corn-fields, his olive groves, and his vineyards; he conducted streams from the mountains—his system of irrigation was perfect. His mills, his breweries, his manufactories, filled the coffera of his order; and ships richly freighted came and went. But that order fell; and by a succession of revolutions the Abbot and his brethren were first, impoverished rand ultimately expelled; the herds took to the mountains, the vineyards and olive groves were overrun with briers," the mill was silent, the bullfrog croaked from the recesses of the holy font, and the bat flapped his wings over the high altar; silence and desolation brooded over their halls; the half reclaimed Indian, removed from the presence of his masters and his teachers, became more fierce and savage than before,—but still he revered the memory of the Fathers—their houses and their lands to him were sacred—they were the property of the Church.

The Anglo-American came from the East. His words were peace; his deeds were war; his object, annexation. By a compromise he purchased the country, and with it the missions, which became public property, subject to all the Regulations for the disposal of wild lands in the Western states. Jonathan, with his thirst fox* gold abated, saw the land—that it was good—that there were house 3, orchards, vineyards, ready to his hand; fields waiting for the plough; irrigating canals only choked by weeds. He set up his stakes, and the empty cloisters re-echoed the shouts of his children and the squeaks of his porkers—hence his crops of potatoes, corn, and wine. I have seen crops of potatoes in these missions that would not pay for digging, tons of onions that would not pay to freight to the nearest market, all suffered to rot in the ground. Like a cuckoo, Jonathan has taken possession of another bird's nest, and now boasts of his skill in building." New South Wales has an equal extent of coast, but her choice lands lay nearer the tropics, and are unsuitable for the growth of cereals. Her ports are few, and nearly all bar harbors; her rivers are navigated with difficulty; her alluvial lands only are available for agriculture, and they have no breadth; are encumbered with impenetrable scrubs and dense forests of heavy, hard, and nearly useless timber, entailing years of labor upon the husbandman; like California, our roads are bad, but, unlike her, our water carriage is limited. Some of her best patches of land lay far beyond the mountains, and it is an acknowledged fact that no agricultural produce will pay for 60 miles of land carriage, even on good roads. With all these disadvantages, double the breadth ot land we have now under^ cultivation would more than supply our domestic requirements. Like our mother, England, we will try our best to feed ourselves ; grow wool and tallow, and diggold, copper, iron, and coal; she has attained greatness without exporting corn—so will we.