HILL END GOLDFIELDS

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 214, 15 June 1872, Page 3

HILL END GOLDFIELDS

The special correspondent of tho Sydney Morning Herald writes as follows

During the short time I have been at Hill End I have met a large number of miners, and, as a rule, they are as modest and frank as they are skilled and intelligent. The bucolic mind is proverbially slow, is not dense. The men who are ®n gaged in mining hero have much of that simplicity of manner which is a characteristic of country life, without any mixture of its crass stupidity. Most of them have travelled a good deal, and in that way their wits have, no doubt, been sharpened, aud their manners polished ; and, taking them as a body, they will compare with any other section of skilled mechanics—for such they really are—in the colony. I am led to make this remark from a recollection of a certain sectiou of tlie digging population in former days, who were apt to prove extremely troublesome. You may remember that one member of the old Legislative Council was so panicstricken by tho news of the discovery of gold that ho rushed to the Executive Government to relieve his mind by informing them“ From the apprehension* which I entertain of the'dangers to which my property will be exposed, I have removed iny plate and other valubles, and do not intend to reside in my house. I fear that my own and all other stores along the line of road will be pillaged, and there are no means of police protection.”

Having, as I think, done scant justice to the general character of the population in the foregoing remarks, let mo say a word or two about the proceedings of a small section of the community who aro thriving on the credulity of men from Sydney, and elsewhere, who come up here in search of an investment for their capital. The sharpers to whom I refer are not slow in deceiving flats who have more money than brains, or in devising means to work upon their gullibility. Many of those who come up have rather feverish imaginations and sanguine temperaments, and it is by no means difficult to “ take them in.” This a common mode of operation : —Two or three unscrupulous cunning vagabonds take up a piece of ground, and pay the requisite fee (£1 per acre, with the survey fee of £2) to the Commissioner, but they do not wait for the Commissioner to issue the lease before they begin to work upon tlie credulity of some unfortunate simpleton who is in search of a “good i ropi-rty ;’’ and hitherto it has not been difficult to dispose of ground at high figures, into which a pick or a sliovt 1 lias never been driven, aud in which no honest miner would ever say that payable gold was to be found. The first day that 1 caine here I met. with a gentleman who had been specially favored with the offer of a share in one of these sham leases for the modest sum of £2OO0 —the price being fixed so low on the ground that the claimholder urgently required to go to New Zealand. The preferred boon was not accepted, and a week had not elapsed before the same ground was offered to the same person for £ls! For anything I know, tho ground in question may have been infinitely superior to either Paxton’s or Krohiuan’s ; but, on the other hand, it may not. Nothing whatever had been done to test it. I do not feel at liberty to designate transactions of this sort by any very mild term, and I fancy that many of your readers will have little hesitation in stigmatising them as barefaced attempts to cheat. They may think that in doing so they are calling a spade a spade; but in the estimation of the gentry to whom I refer they are egregiously mistaken. “ Swindle, sir ?” “ Why the thing’s preposterous ! It is simply speculation. All gold mining is speculation.” A dictum which you may observe is entitled to all the weight which it can derive from the sanction of that eminent moralist Pistol—“ Convey,’ the wise call it. * Steal!’ fob ! a fico for the phrase 1” The shameful itnpositon which is being practised here on a small scale has been, and for aught I know may be still being, carried out on a large scale in Sydney.

Apart from the immorality or the gambling that has prevailed, speculation of the kind to which I refer is calculated to seriously retard the progress of gold mining in the district, and it is for this reason that I call attention to it so prominently. It cannot be advisable that a horde of able-bodied men should be employed in this specious traffic of leaseselling when they might be far better occupied in prospecting the country. Where companies are formed in the reckless manner I have indicated, nobody need be Burprised if, in six months’ time, they should be proved to be worthless. Reasonable precautions might be taken in the first instance, and crushing be had before the public be asked to sub3cri ®. The misfortune is that companies are formed without steps being taken to ascertain whether the quartz veins run through the ground at all, and in some cases works are wildly undertaken by directors or managers of companies, having a capital of a few thousaud pounds, which are of scarcely less magnitude than the Mont Cenis Tunnel, and which, except as the result of some lucky accident, can be of no earthly use to any body but those who draw wages out of them. However, the evils which exist must necessarily work their own cure. Many incautious investors, who have borrowed money, and risked even reputation, to go into mining ventures, will probably be overwhelmed with disappointment and loss; but, on the other hand, if the opinion of the most experienced miners be of any value, the auriferous character of the rocks in this part of the country lias now been so well ascertained that reefing will become one of the permanent industries of the country. The western slope of Ilawkio’s Hill may tie said to tie a mountain permeated with gold. The deeper the workings, the richer and more numerous have the veins become. The country north and south for many miles is being prospected with an energy that shows that the Anglo-Saxon race has lost none of its robust vigor in this austral land ; and should the workings prove profitable, as at present there is every reason to expect, this mountain country will soon be thickly peopled by a hardy race, which will perpetuate, under better conditions, those traits of courage, strength, and intelligence which have pre-eminently distinguished their European ancestors.