CHAPTER III.

AUSTRALIA

First View of Ballaarat-Description of the Place-Gold Digging-A Colonial Theatre— Socialism at the Antipodes-Geelong-Melbourne-Paramatta-Republicanism in Australia-Government and Education-Emigration and probable Future of

Australia.

WE did not see any diggings, till, about four in the afternoon, Ballaarat burst on the view. I say "burst on the view,” for you mount the hill which surrounds the place without seeing any outlying tents or huts, and, all at once, on attain. ing the summit, come in full view of a valley three or four miles long, by two or three broad, filled throughout its whole extent by white cotton tents—a sea of canvass! The whole view so much exceeded, and differed from my expectations, that I could not help feeling that there was in it a certain sublimity-though I suppose few will understand the application of the term to such a scene.

Tents are almost the only sort of habitation in the place, as there is no soft timber of which, as of our pine, the settler can in a few days build himself a temporary abode.

It is impossible, I believe, for one who has not seen a similar place, to realize the appearance of Ballaarat. The whole valley has been, or is being dug, so that there is not a green bush or blade of grass to be seen from one end of it to the other. The tents are regularly laid out in streets, and just wide enough apart to allow of a shaft being sunk between them.

I went to the United States Hotel-one of the few wooden houses in the places-and having left my carpet-bag, walked out to see the gold-washing. I was not, however, fortunate in witnessing the discovery of any large nuggets. The holes

are, some of them, from 150 to 200 feet deep. They are always worked by several men who own shares, other parties also, generally shopkeepers in the place, frequently having an interest. Persons who wish to dig must mark out a claim, in the possession of which they will be protected by the police. To secure this protection, however, a gold-digger's license must be obtained, which costs about £1, and does not require renewal. The quantity of land that can be thus secured is limited by the number of the party. If gold is discovered on a squatter's land, he cannot refuse the digger the right of mining, but many demand a certain monthly rent.

The mode of digging gold at Ballaarat is as follows: the shaft is sunk until the workers arrive at a certain pebbly marl which contains the gold. The shaft is generally four feet square, and supported all the way down by a lining of logs, squared and dovetailed into each other. On attaining this depth, or before arriving at it, the shaft is frequently flooded, and months are often spent in freeing it of water, before the digging can be prosecuted. The shaft once dug, and not having more than a foot or two of water in it, the auriferous marl is hoisted out by a hand-windlass, or by horsepower, and puddled. Puddling is the first, rough washing, in a large trough, and requires two men with shovels. In the larger establishments, horse-power is applied to this also. The next process, cradling, is done by a single man. The sand, &c., taken from the puddling trough, and now much reduced in volume is transferred to a 66 cradle"-a sort of three-storied tub on rockers. This instrument is kept in motion by the left hand, and water poured on by the right. The sand is thus washed away and the gold, on account of its weight, remains in the cradle. The two lower stages of the cradle, are for the finer grains of gold which are carried off the first stage by the rush of the water, but bring up on the second or third. The refuse of the puddling and cradling processes is bought and worked over by the Chinese, of whom there are several thousands in Ballaarat. They do not however, confine themselves to working over refuse, but have holes of their own-some of them very deep. The Chinese

in Australia are a low and abominably degraded set, and as in California, very unpopular. An effort has been made, since I left Australia, to prevent any increase of their numbers, by a prohibitory tax on Chinese immigration. The law, however, has been evaded by landing them up the coast and letting them make their way to the gold diggings overland. They do not bring their women with them, and as soon as they make a little money, return to China to enjoy it.

The description given above of gold-mining is only applicable to what are called "dry diggings." There are also in Australia, as in California, numerous wet diggings, where the bed of the stream is worked for the gold brought down by its waters. The dry diggings are said to pay the best, but are also the most uncertain. No rule can be followed in selecting a claim, no rough test applied to ascertain its probable richness. The shaft has to be sunk as far as the auriferous stratum, and strengthened at great expense and labour, and weeks and months must pass in draining the water before the digger can form even an approximate estimate of the richness of his hole. I saw one man who belonged to a party which had been digging in various places for two years, without getting £100 worth of gold; but they were still persevering, and felt sure of ultimate success. There may be two holes, side by side, out of one of which thousands of pounds worth of gold may be dug, and out of the other, not one ounce. Notwithstanding this well-known fact, no sooner is there a great nugget, or much gold found in any one place, than every one abandons his old claim, if an inferior one, and is off to the new El Dorado. The population of these mining settlements is, consequently very fluctuating; and, a place which contains several thousand inhabitants one week, may not have the same number of hundreds the next. Ballaarat, when I was there, was supposed to contain 60,000 inhabitants. I know not what is the present population.

The diggers generally sell the gold to the shop-keepers at low rates, who send it down to Melbourne once a week, by the government gold escort of cavalry. The shopkeepers and publicans made more money, I was told, than any other class

in the place. The bar-room of the hotel I stopped at was full all day long, and till two at night, with men and women drinking; and when I got down stairs next morning about seven, the room was again crowded with drinkers, and one woman was lying drunk on the floor. All drinks cost one shilling, except sherry cobblers, which were two and sixpence on account of the ice used in making them, which came originally from America, and had to be brought up country on ox drays.

There are quite a number of old California gold diggers, at Ballaarat. One or two of them told me that they liked their old quarters much better, on account of the greater quantity of game and other amusement there. In Australia there is no game but kangaroos, and even of them there are but few near the settlements. The gold-yield of Australia is, however, allowed to be greater than that of California, in proportion to the number of diggers.

In the evening I went to one of the two theatres in Ballaarat. Theatres seem an amusement of which the Australians are very fond; as they have several in Sydney, a very fine large one at Melbourne, and at least one in every other place I heard of. The performance at Ballaarat was sufficiently bad to be amusing, none being more fully awake to the absurd incapacity of the company and properties, than the audience. in the pit. These gentlemen and ladies kept up a rattling fire of jokes at the players, and even proceeded to the more practical facetiousness of projecting certain missiles, to the discomfiture of the heroes of the buskin. This conduct several times necessitated the interference of the police, the advent of whom was a signal for the suspension of the piece, and for a scene of the most terrific uproar, during which the offender made his escape.

After the play, I returned to the hotel, where there was a public dinner to a Gold Commissioner, or some other official, which did not end till three o'clock, and where every body got so jolly that it was impossible to go to sleep on the floor above.

Before retiring I engaged, and paid for, my place by coach

for the following morning, and settled my hotel bill which is always paid in advance "in the Colonies." I paid for two beds, and was booked as "Mr. Minturn and friend," in order to have a room to myself. At about three the next morning, just as I was falling into a doze, I was wakened by a man undressing himself in my room, and making ready to occupy the spare bed. I told him that I had engaged both and paid for them; but he said that he wanted a bed, and that if I supposed I was in England, where a man could appropriate what was wanted by the public, I would find myself much mistaken. I finally found it necessary to get up, when he left the room. The next morning I found that my little adventure had cost me £4, as the fellow who paid me the visit in the night, was the porter charged to wake me in time for the early coach, who had taken an easy revenge by not calling me.

I left Ballaarat by a different route at eight o'clock, and glad enough I was to get out of it. The inhabitants are the roughest set I have ever seen. The men generally wear the hair and beard long, a red shirt, cord breeches, and long boots. The honest women are commonly very neatly dressed; the others, of whom there was a large number, rigged out in gorgeous satins, with silk bonnets, and all the latest Parisian modes. The two bar-keepers at the "United States," had their hands full all day long, and in the evening could hardly manage to wait on the people-the crowd was so great. These bar-keepers were both Americans, and got £10 a week a piece, wages, besides perquisites, which, as they kept the landlord always drunk, must have been considerable.

I left Ballaarat on the morning of the 15th, and arrived at Geelong, a town on the coast west of Melbourne, at three that afternoon. On arriving, I found that the boat for Melbourne had left half an hour before, and that I should have to remain until the next day at the same hour, which brought me to Melbourne an hour too late for the boat of the 16th, to Sydney-a most annoying specimen of Colonial arrangements. Geelong is a fine, stone-built town, of about 15,000 inhabitants. It had formerly a great deal of business with the miners, but they now get most things direct from Melbourne.