NOTES BY A NEW CHUM.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5121, 16 June 1885, Page 2

NOTES BY A NEW CHUM.

(Peom oinb Tbavelling Corbeb-

PONDENT.)

MEtBOUBN.fi, May 28.

PENTBIDGE GAOL AND THE MINI.

These two places, which are well worth a visit from anyone passing through Melbourne, are not open to the general public, but an introduction from the editor of the Star to the Hon. Mr Deakin, M.L.A., secured me the privilege. The first named is said to be the largest and best appointed penitentiary in the Australian colonies. It stands on the main road to Sydney, about 7.miles from Melbourne city, and within 10 minutes' walk of the Coburg railway station. The high stone wall, overlooked by armed sentries, encloses no less than 130 acres of land, while the average number of prisoners is between 500 and 600. The visitor is primarily conduoted to the A division, where prisoners serve the first portion of their sentence; here also are the cells for solitary confinement. I was then shown the kitchen and bake house, and afterwards the B and C divisions, (through each of which the prisoner passes as his term shortens), and from thence on to the workshops. All the work of the establishment is, I might remark, done by the prisoners, each department being superintended by one or more warders. Each man, as he comes in, is drafted off to the trade which he is oest adapted for, and so many occupations are represented that, were it not for the barred gates, doors, and windows, and the ever prominent broad-arrow, I could almost have fancied I was rambling through a model town. Here I saw the wool combed and teased, spun into thread, woven into cloth and deftly manufactured into wearing apparel; the raw hides were received at one end of a tannery and turned out leather at the other, while in a neighboring building they were converted into boots and shoes. Elsewhere carpenters, joiners, painters and polishers; blacksmiths, tinsmiths, and engineers; not to speak of matmakers, stonemasons, and bricklayers, might be seen laboring at their respective handicrafts, while away in the field some twenty or thirty were engaged in agricultural pursuits. Some of the,men, too, appeared to take a real pleasure in their work. The head engineer was one of this ilk, and I must confess that I have never seen a pair of engines in such perfect order as those uuder his control. Talk about an Otto silent gas engine—this man could " give it points ■" (as the saying is) any day. You absolutely had to look at the machinery to discover that it was in motion, so noiselessly did it do its work, and the whole apartment was a picture of cleanliness. The latter remark will, how* ever, apply to the whole establishment. The men are comfortably housed, there is a gas-light in every cell, and a capital library, of which advantage is freely j taken. Among them I noticed some! intelligent and apparently cultured faces, but the majority had a hang-dog expression, which made me glad that I was safe in the protection of the minions of the law. .

The Victorian Mint, situated near the Law Courts, is capable of turning out 120,000 sovereigns per week, besides baser coinage. Here gold is seen in sucb abundance that the average visitor would naturally wonder where it all got to, considering that so small an amount came to his share. There are the dull yellow lumps as they come in from the mines; further along the bright melted ingots are displayed to bis astonished gaze, and he is allowed to test their weight; another advance of a few yards, and the process of purification is seen, the gold being melted in crucibles, and all base metals made to rise to the surface by the introduction of chlorine gas into the boiling mass. The next stage (it is explained; we are not permitted to witness thj^operationj is the mixing of the alloy with the pure metal, which is then rolled into thin bars. We enter another room, and see these bars farther rolled till they are reduced to the requisite thickness. Then the crude sovereigns are punched out and sent away to be weighed. This is done automatically, the scale being worked by a tiny turbine, aad being so adjusted that all the discs of correct weight are dropped into a centre box, while the "heavies" and "lights" are infallibly deposited in receptacles on either side, to be melted up again. From here the coins pass through two more machines; the first raises a slight rim round the edges, and the final process, by a single blow, stamps both sides and mills the edge, the coin falling out into the box a finished sovereign—ready to take its part in the business of the world, whatever miky bo its lot— to add to the store of Dives at the Bank, or to reward Lazarus for hia week's toil.

; JL TEIP TO SANDHOBBT. Years ago, when the Bendigo "dig. gings" were attracting thousands from all parts of the colonies, aye, and from conn* tries far beyond them too, and the golden treasure was being unearthed in fabulous Sa«ntitie» from **»« allavial beds at the White Hills, to get to the El Dorado (new digniged by the name of Sandhurst),'

meant enduring at least three or font days' travelling over the rough aud well* nigh impassable road in a bulloclc wagon or dray, asd being liable to be "stuck up" by the bushrangers, highwaymen, and other lawless characters, who infested it, but the 25 years or more whioh have elapsed since then, hare wrought wonderful improvements, and you can now jump into a train at Spencer street station any morning,) afternoon, or evening, and step out on to the platform at your journey's end 4| hours' later, the distance covered being 100:} miles from Melbourne, where an altitude of 1840 ft. is reached; thence to Castlemaine (78 miles) it declines to 919 ft., rises again to 1096 ft. at Harcourt, 5 miles further on, and from that place to Sandhurst drops to 758 ft. There are twenty stations on the route, bat after leaving Footscray they are, with the exception of Malmsbury and Castlemaine (two mining centres) very small, several consisting of little more than a hotel and two or three dwelling houses. The country passed through is mostly agricultural, with a little bush at Mount Macedon. So much for the route; now for the town. This is about the size of Auckland, though it is more scattered, and cannot boast of nearly as fine buildings. It lies in the hollow between the White Hill* and the present quartz mines, aDd. presents a very pretty appearance, nearly*ail the streets being lined with trees. Sandhurst is the centre of a large mining district^ stretching south as far as Kyneton, and north many miles, but as I was unable to visit the out-districts, I must confine myself to Bendigo proper. Have you ever been to the White Hills, reader ? Most of you answer, no; then if you are ever at Sandhurst don't miss a walk over them. They are the site of the.rush some thirty years ago, and are in formation most peculiar. Seven in number, and each the counterpart; of the other, they rise, a con* spicuous landmark, out of the plain which geologists say was once the bed of a vast river. Each hill is of the same formation, water worn white quartz pebbles and gravel and in each there was a bed,of wash* dirt—poor all round the edges, compared with the wealth of gold which was found near the centre. These mounds'were once ■as busy a* an ant-hill; thousands of claims—each with its circular shaft and windlass—were worked by thousands of gold seekers, and fortunes were made or lost in a day, but now the scene is changed. The shafts are there still, with a very occasional and ricketty windlassa fitting monument of departed glory, but life is almost extinct. A few white men still eke out a precarious living, and John Chinaman is still at work sluicing the dirt rejected in more palmy days, but that is all. Yet there are reefs at the White Hills, and I was told gold had been found in them, but very little work has been done, nearly all eyes being now directed to the lodes on the other sides of the township. There are three main lines here, Hustler's, the Garden Gully, and the New Chum, running north and south, parallel with each other at a distance of about 20§yds, and dotted with chimney stacks and poppet legs for a distance of between two and three miles. There are, of course, other intermediate reefs, but the gold has hitherto been chiefly found in the main ones. It is difficult to institute comparisons between \ this goldfield and the Thames, because the latter reefs are not the main ones, but from what I saw in my brief visit, I cannot help believing that if the same enterprise and pluck had been shown in genuine prospecting on your field as has been exhibited here, the Thames people would not now be lament* ing dull times. Of course, Sandhurst has now the gold at the low levels, but before it was traced down Mr Lan«ell, in his " 180 mine " on the New Chum line, sank 1000 or 1200 feet for nothing. This mine is the deepest on the field, the shaft being 2040 feet from Bill to well-hole (or fully 1000 feet below the sea-level), and the spirited energy of the proprietor is being rewarded by handsome retmrna from the 2000 feet level. Others, when he got gold, followed his example, and several claims on the same line are getting very deep. The Garden Gully is 1300 feet down, and the Pandora, on the same v line, has just struck payable stone at the 1860 feet level. On the Hustler's line the deep gold has not yet been struck, but so confident of success are the Great Extended shareholders that they have already sunk 1200 feet "on spec." All this deep sinking is done, too, in much smaller areas than are held on the Thames. For instance, one mine on the New Chum line, 'which has only 80 yards on the reef,.recently procured a plant costing some £4500 in order to prosecute work. The reef system is certainly different, being saddles, (with east and west legs), und«r one another, but still the enterprise shown contrasts very favorably with the state of things on the Thames. I was rather disappointed in the crushing machinery; I had thought to find all the latest improvements at the batteries, but instead, it is the custom to simply crush the quartz as is done at the Thames, and, without using any berdans, to save the pyrites in ripples and send ! them off to the mill for roasting. This process costs about £3 per too, but as several ounces cf gold are often obtained, and one ounce would pay (the price of gold being about £4), the company has plenty of work.. The winding ropes here are almost exclusively of steel wire, and the safety appliances on the cages are universal.. Owing to the great depths of the shafts the winding is done very quickly, the cage at LanseU's " 180" being raised 2000 ft. in a minute aid a half, while the engineer at the Pandora complained that he had.to wind slowly for fear of the safety appliances catching as the cage descended. The field is just no# steadily keeping on its way. The average yield being 5000ozs per week. Miners' wages are 45s per week, with au increase for shaftmen, but I am afraid I cannot recommend Tbamesites to coao here in search of employment, as I was told there were a' good many men " out" just now.