THE ENGLISH MAIL.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXV, Issue 3699, 27 May 1869, Page 5

THE ENGLISH MAIL.

" Anglo-Atotbaijan " writes as follows to the European Mail : — It is naturally witH the very warmest interest that Engjishmen regard the extension of the field for the employment of capital in. the colonies. The new in dustries recently started in Victoria, such as elaaswjrka, an iron-safe manufactory, and tanneries are source, of great gratification to the colon?*™ With regard to the culture of the vine, the red and white able demand in the home market, and I have heard them spoken of most favourably by connoisseurs. What with Ootton-growing.jailk cultivation, sugarplanting, and other new industries destined to promot* development there, the future of the colony may well be contemplated with satisfaction. Perhaps no country, however, under the sun has suffered more from misrepresentation than Australia, •travellers' stories are proverbial. Broken-down adventurers returning home in successive shoals have belied its fair fame with their jaundiced reports. Ihese individuals, moaning over their want of success, have for the most part only themselves to thank for it ; but their one-sided stories frequently me^t with acceptance in ill-informed circles. The Times had a few weeks ago a suggestive leader on the shiftless character of many of the emigrants to Australia. The remarks of tke leading journal were called forth by some able editorials of the Melbourne press on the subject. The notion, however, that the " ne'er-do-well v at home may do very well in Australia >s luckily fast dying out ia England. The army of idlers in Melbourne is not likely to be much longer recruited from the mob of out<of-elbow quill-drivera, lazy lawyers' clerks, and gentlemen-at-large of every description. Australia, as these individuals are beginning to realise, does not want them. It is equally true thia bountry would be glad to get quit of them. We have, however, ceased to inflict on reluctant colonies the plague of the transportation system, so we must likewise be content to endure the curie of the crowd of thriftless, useless drones thatlwng on tbe skirts of all old civilised communities. The subject of emigration is now more than ever engrossing the attention of politicians and philanthropists. While we read in the colonial newspapers of baby pazes being offered to encourage people " to be fruitful and multiply," here at homo constantly recurring cases of starvation in the streets of our great cities compel attention to the dire necessity of getting rid in gome way or another of our surplus labour. In spite of the doctrine of Malthus and his disciples, the population of England has doubLd since 1800, and the ratio of iuerease is dtstiued to enlarge rather than diminish. It is no u->e whatever telling people not to marry till they can afford to keep families. The poor simply show their contempt for the piecept by setting it at defiance. The population of London alone is increasing 60,000 every year. We cannot adopt the Chinese practico of killing a certain proportion of all the children born ; we muhfc not on any condition allow the crowds of unemployed to starve. What, then, are we to do with them ? The colonies, it is ssated, have incurred large debts, especially New South Wales and Victoria, in furtherance of emigration, and cannot do much more. If so, the Imperial Government must come to their aid. It is seriously a pressing question. Several meetings have been hsld lately in London to initiate »n organised plan of emigration. The tf sk is truly herculean, but the prize ia great. It is well that a larger porcion ot the tide of emigration should diverge from America to our owa colonies. This is generally felt by statesmen and politicians, and ib only remains for Australia and New Zealand to reciprocate the efforts that Are heiug made to this end at home. Increased population in the colonies means increased happiness and wealth, but in England simply more misery and starvation. At .a meeting of the Managing Committee of the Colonial Emigration Society the other day, it was stated that 3,000 emigrants, could be at once provided for in Western Australia. This looks cheering. Mr. Verdon, the Agent-General for Victoria, has made himself extremely popular in London. He will doubtless avail himself of the news of the new gold rush in Victoria, and the glowing accounts of the •Workiog of the 42nd clause of the Land Act there, to endeavour to give a fresh impulse to emigration to the colony. Of all the colonial topics that have recently occupied the public mind, none has given rise to so much astonishment as the comparative failure of the Victoria Government Railway Loan. Its want of success is considered a 9 very discreditable to those who have had its management. Tbe manner of its introduction to the loan market appears to have been moat short-sighted aud imprudent. Tbe fact that only £700,000 of the £2,107,000 worth of scrip offered has been tendered for might well be regarded with amazement. It is perfectly well kaown to those best informed on the subject that never was Victoria ia a mote prosperous ctate than at preeeut. The vast paid up capital of tha Victorian banka ia one proof out of many of the fiaancial resources of the colony. A writer in the London press perhaps hits as nearly as possible upon the causes of the mishap when he explains the failure of the loan as follows :—": — " 1, Par is too high a pnoe to be fixed as a minimum for a colonial 5 per cent. 6tock. 2. A deposit ought to be required upon all applications. 3. The system of requiring the public to bid for stock is not by any meant so popular, nor likely to be so successful, a 9 the old plan of announcing the pi ice ab tbe outset, and inviting subscriptions. By the latter plan everybody is placed upon anequalfooting." It is a source of unmixed gratification to notice the gradually increasing interest with which colonial topics are welcomed at home. Englishmen are at length beginning to realise in earnest that the Australian colonies are destined to one of the grandest careers in the history of nations. I was present the other night at ,the inaugural meeting of the Colonial Society at the Institution of Civil Engineers. Never was I more impressed with the profound importance which Australia and New Zealand are gradually assuming in the eyes of some who were but yesterday, as it weie, comparatively indifferent to the colonial empire. The president's incidental remark that " the growbh of the Australian colonies has been the marvel of our time" met with a responsive echo in the minds of every one present. Varied indeed will be the subjects for investigation by the new society. The flora and fauna of our colonies, acclimatisation, the many inventions characteristic of young nations, the decay of aboriginal tribes, the discovery of new materials, colonial federation, and other namerous topics wi,l afford ample matter for discussion. ' Moat important discoveries — as was stated at the meeting — hare been already made in Australia and New Zea'and in botany and zoology. As all the reporters lefir immediately after the inaugural address, I think it worth while to muke one or two additions to the report as given in the pnpers. The Hon. Chichester Forfcescue, who followed the President, expressed himself very , strongly against the philosophical doctrinaires, with Goldwia Smith at their head, who advocate the severance of the political ties between England and her colonies. He was full of praises for Australia, and enthusiastic for the success of the new society. Carried away by his eloquence, he stated that he had in his speech at the inaugural dinner given "two or three rocks to the cradle of the infant society, which had at length reached the hour k oi ita birth." This IriaUi4tti sent the Audience off into' a good-humoured' laugh. ' The right*' honourable' gentleman, who had thus inadvertently used the word "birth" instead of " man's estate," was somewhat put out by the " merriment oreated, and the rest e of hvt speech Buffered ia consequence. The Marqujs of Normanby, who might pass very well far an" i ea?v-going' English farmer, made some observation! thai Were very well received. He said that (< unfortunately the histories of the colonies were generally written to.darry out the political views of the writers," and 'remarked that "the organs which convey intelligence to them from thia country give their information in a ma'rfner" more attractive than is usually found in colonial journals/ He pointed out the adaptation 6!'' colonies to different ' oluses of emigrants, observing, for instance, that " a man who might do very well in Australia might feel himself at ,a loss in Canada.'' , Sjr C.^Nioholson .also made * speech that was greatly applauded., Allud?. ing to the politicaLeohool of Gold win Smith, he^aid with impressive earnestness;:—'^ repudiate the doctrines aud inferences of 'his school. To me those arguments appear, so fallacious j and, so wantonly' miflohievous, that I pannot understand how they can bs put forward at 'alt by *ny right-minded person. If the colonies were fractious there might be, a reason for the mother country; wishing^g^ever^jche^conneq". tion. "jE myself nj^ve lired jfor a/auigrtpr.pfi a gentury in one/of the most iinp'ortVpfc of opjCoplonjes^anA k believe, there is- even" more loyalfcyiip the qolqnies than ia England. Thejmijohief/hWever,' js^.hafc tM\ , colonists are apt to thtfjifc thß^ih'ejjpfoton* of « Goldtrin Smith and his aohoolare entertained to amupL -larger Extent in' thia'c&uhtrsr'tliiUr vo^iwS^S 'a>e. , , r£g*s to tlw eijpelae -of^e

sion of the Australia a colonies, there are but two or three companies of soldiers in Sydney. The Imperial Government might very well say to any colony, 'You pu(| as to so much expense for troops — therefore pay your quota.' The Australians are perfectly willing to bear, their share in the defence of their country. I have myself seen, in Melbourne alone, 10,000 volunteers assembled on one occasion." As Goldwin Smith came in for so large asharo of adverse oritioisin, it is but fair, in his absence from England, to quote' a word or two in his justification from hia splendid work entitled "The Empire." He there saya :—": — " lam no moro against colonies tfian lam against the solar system. lam against dependencies when nations are fib to be independent." Those at the meeting -who spoke against the separation of the colonies from England, combated the argument of the naval expense they involve, by asserting that we should have to station vessels throughout the globe for the protection of our commerce, even f we had no colonial empiie *"(Jne speaker answered the questtoi, "What do we do for our colonies ?" by maintaining that we preserve them from the political convulsions that attend the election of aa Executive, as illustrated in Arne ioa. He quoted aa anecdote related by Mr. Hawthorne of an American who, duiug the civil war, asked, "Do you thiak the British Crown ( woul(Thave us back if we would come to tUern '" . j Another gentlman declared that the Colonial Society would "knock Fenianism on the head." A Lancashire man indulged in statistica, and said that 5,000 persons had emigrated from Liverpool to America during che cotton famine, and demanded, "Why didn't they go to Australia? If they had been sent," said he, "to Queensland, that colony would be far more wealthy than it is at present," It is indeed a fact that there were 600,000 English emigrants to America duriDg the cotton famine, and it does seem a pity that a portion of that rich stream of labour was not diverted to Australia. Mr. Youl made a short speeoh asserting that Goldwin Smith and hia disciples had " not sufficiently considered the political future of the colonies in case of their separation from the mother country." I have dwelt afc some length upon what passed at the meeting after the reporters left, as I know it will have an interest for colonists. The colonial press rightly complain of theMgnorance prevalent in England of the geography of Australia and New Zealand. It is, indeed, true that many otherwise well informed Englinhmen have very hazy notions aa to where, for instance, Sydney, Adelaide, aud Melbourne, are situate, or of what colonies they are the respective capitals. There is an anecdote related, that when an Austialian politician applied to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, relative to a project for developing the resources of Queensland, the Minister leferred him, to begin with, to his junior secretary, one of who->e first startling lemarks to him wag, "Before we go any further, where the d 1 is Queensland?" Perhaps the discussions of the Colouial Society may remedy this kind of ignorance. Tho case of O'Farrall, which baa been, I observe, recently occupying the attention of the New i^outh Wales Parliament, has cropped up again in the House of Oimmons. An honourable member lately moved fora copy of the correspondence on tho subject; to be laid on the table. By the way, some of the Fenians transported to Western Australia will, doubtless, avail themselves of the free pardon granted thorn by the Government, to bacome permanent settlers there. Considering the political nature of the offence for which they were convicted, and their previous hard training, there ia no reason why they should not make useful colonists. It is a coincidence that, while a Koyal Commission is now sitting at Melbourne on the subject of payment of members of Parliament, a radical "polifciciiii broached the same questiou only tbc othei day in the House of Commons. His proposal, however, that membeis of the Houie should hs paid, yas iec-ivcd with so much laughter and ridicule that he is not likely to bring it forward again for some time to come. There is no lack of matter available to one winning to discuss Australian and New Zealand topics from an English point of view. In future articles I may touch occasionally upon discursive topics, such as the haunts of old Australians in London, and their manner of life, or some similar subjects likely to have an interest for colonists. At the Court held afc Buckingham Palace on Maroh 2, the following wero amongst the presentations :— Sir George Grey, X.C.8., by the Secretary of State for the Colonies ; Mr. Verdon, C. 8., by Earl Gianville; Mrs. Verdon, by Countess Granville. On Saturday, February 27, a large pubUc meeting was held in the Agricultural Hall, Loudon, for the purpose of promoting the emigration of the unemployed to the British colonies. Mr. It. R. Torreua, M.P., presided ; and after recounting his personal experience of a p ettler's life in Australia, be said that emigration, although perhaps not an agreeable thing for a man to contemplate, was a far more manly course to puisue than to remain at h- me in poverty j ■ -whether it was that kind of poveity in which, a workman could not %et an adequate remuneration for hia labour, or whether it was of that more genteel type which hid itself in silent misery and want. These evils had induced emigration, and would always do so until the waste places of the earth had been populated, and the now overcrowded labour market had been relieved. While thousands were perishing for food in tlm country, out in Australia meat was being thrown away in tons, and there was this season a prospect of such au abundant harvest that wheat would probably be sold for 4^. a bushel. The working classes of this country had be«jn grf atly degraded, and in many ways robbed of their legitimate rights. Mr. E. Gibbon Wakefield ouce propounded a scheme to benefit the people and relieve the country of its surplus population. He maintained that the waste lands^elonged to the people, and that it was only a figure of speech to say that they were the property of th*e Crown ; and he proposed that, instead of giving therrrto Government favourites, they should be sold at £1 an acre as a tentative price, aud that the proceeds should be expended in bringing out labourers to perform the" work of cultivation. For a time the plan waß worked with admirable results, but when the matter got into the hands of the Colonial Secretaries, everything went wrong, because they did not understand the question, and they soon deprived tb.B people of their just inheritance. They sold the lands and spent the money in supporting the Government, instead of making taxes for the purpose. Other gentlemen having addressed the meeting, a series of resolutions were pasßed asking for Government aid, and urging the formation of emigration committees throughout ths country, and also for pressing upon the confederation of Parliament the necessity of an emigration policy for the unemployed. Relative to this subject t*ir J. Elphinstone stated the other day in the House of Commons that he recollected when there waß great distress in the Highlands and Hebrides he collected subscriptions for the sufferers, and the Government of the day placed the ' Hercule3 ' at their disposal, and carried over those who wished to New south Wales. A similar course should be adopted by the Government when they discharged a large number of men from one of their dockyards. — Mr. Child^rs, in reply, said that he could not conceive anything more foolish than that the Government should undertake on any large scale to employ public funds for the purpose of carrying men to the United States or to tho ooloniea ; but he was glad to see that the colonies were themselves ooming forward for the purpose, aad that Consul-General ▼erdon had been appointed special agent in this country for the purpose of arranging a special emigration once a month to a colony with which he (Mr. Childers) had once been connected. , ' < Chemical Method for Extracting Goi/d.— The Scientific Review describes a chemical method for extraoung gold from the rook. It has not yet beon tried on a large scale. ' The rook'iH first roasted, in order that it ; may* be-, easily broken into small fragments, which are placed ia a large earthenware tube, fixed in a furnace, and hea,ted to cherry red heat. A current of chlorine gas U then passed through the tube. This gai combines vrith the gold, and volatisesit in the state of chloride of goldj ■ All the precious metal is thus extracted -from the broken rock at the temperature indicated. The* compound volatised ia decomposed as soon as it reaches that part of the tube' which is at a dull red heat, at which part the precious metal' is deposited. This simple, process is based mpon the fact that chlorine gas unites with gold and causes it to volatise at a white heat, but the chloride -of gold thua produoed deposits the metal when tho temperature sinks to a dull red heat. When other metals, such as iron, arsenic, &c, whose chlorides are also, volatile, exist in'fcbetock, the separation of the gold as above may fie, facilitated bypassing coal gaajnto the tube ( from jiime to time. „ , f' iMPHOVBMEtfI ,IN SEPABATINa AND CONCENTRATING ,Oke 3, etc. — The Scientific American ''states that the- ** difficulties which stand in tho way of a complete' separation of tte metsdsifrpm the rook 'ark ifiaiojy^hefee fiwo^ Unless the.'rjrßjj^ qyaeted fin« (ia some -cases exceedingly n"jie),'tbX ijaewiic portions ,»re ( n ; ot entirely detached, *nd therefore cannot be naeoK&nically separated from the rook.' On the otheJ huxi f $o finer the grow. pushed the greater fir the

difficulty of washing out the earthy matter v ithout wa^hin^ away the metal with it. Hence fine crushing for ordinary ores is, fo* the moat part, eschewed; yab from the friable nature of most of them it is Impossible, in any mode of crushing, but that a large proportion of fine dust; must be made. Moreover, if fine ores could be separated with as little loss of metal as coarse, fine crushing or more perfect disintegration would be the rule. Therefore, a means of concenj trating finely crushed ore must obviously be of the first importance, and has at last been dis- [ covered. Instead of the employment of currents either of air or water — which, in whatever way they are applied, must necessarily carry off some valuable matter — the crushed ore is thrown out of a revolving distributor by very simple mechanism, and, by the operation of centrifugal force alone, is carried into concentric annular receivers, the heaviest par- I tides falling further from and the lighter nearer to the centre. .Revolving brushes or scrapers keep the machine clear and cause each quality to be discharged, as it fall», through separate pipes. These scrapers are slowly revolved by means of the outer geared rim, driven by an upright shaft having • pulley on the 1 >wer end and a pinion menhing with the teeth of the revolving rim at its upper ei<d. The brushes are attached to radial arms extending from a oollar on the central shaft to the rim. The heavier metallic pottions in the outer circles, and the waste in the mner one, will ruu where desired, and the middle portions, which may require further crushing or further separation, may fall iuto »n elevator and be carried up either to the crusher or separator, to run through at a different speed, or with fresh ore."