MAIL NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 3078, 31 December 1872, Page 2

MAIL NEWS.

AN ENGLISH AUTHOR IN AUSTRALIA. The Daily Telegraph has recently published a batch of four letters from its correspondent “Antipodean," the iiom dc voyage, assumed by Mr Anthony Trollope. The letters are respectively entitled “Victoria and its Gold Mines,” “ A Stagnant Ar cadia,” “ An * verland Ride to Swan River,” and “ Fiscal Confusion in Australia,” These letters hear evidence that Mr Trollope has learned the wisdom of not asserting too much, because of what he may have seen on the surface of things, and the surprising conclusions ha arrived at with reference to New South Wales and Queensland are nowhere apparent in these later letters. The example and fiawo of *Sir Charles Dilke, who, after a scamper across the Colonies, took upon himself the office of Mentor-general to Colonists, miffilt have had that effect before the journey was commenced, but perhaps practical experience is always the best. As colonists, in common with, most other people, feel an interest in “seeing themselves as others see them,” we shall, as before, refer to such portions of the letter as we may deem interesting to our readers. The first portion of the first letters deals chiefly with the rise and progress of Victoria anil its goldfields, a subject with which Australians have already been made tolerably familiar. Ballarat among the goldfields, claimed, almost as a matter of course, the first place iu Mr Trollope’s searches for frold. He is not quite accurate in all he says, but for our purpose little mistakes cannot do much mischief. Speaking of himself he says; —“The stranger at Ballarat sees nothing but prosperity among the miners! The mines are chiefly worked by companies, which pay wages to the men, though there is another system of working on tribute, which I will endeavor to explain when speaking of Sandhurst. The miners* waees, when I was there, averaged from 40s to °4Bs a week. The men worked eight hours a day, thus reaching that acme of the workman’s bliss — Eight hours for work, and eight for play ; Eight for sleep, and eight shillings a day.

“ The necessaries of life, and the comforts, are, at any rate, as cheap at Ballarat as they are in .England. Meat was about 2A I a pound. House rent is dear—unless the man build a house f..r him-elf, as he often does. If he drinks, his liquor is much dearer than with us. All wages are high ; but miners do not pay wages. They never spend what they earn, yet, as a rule, they do not save

money, because the temptations to speculate are too strong. A man with 10s in his pocket can go into mining enterprises as readily as though he had L 10,000.” There are not many “ hatters” at Ballarat nowadays, but the race is not extinct, and a passing acquaintance with some of them would have taught our “ English novelist” some tilings ho failed to learn. The only great Ballarat mine of which we are told anything is the Waiter Freehold ; and the “ Hand and Bush,” “ Band of Hope, ’ and the hundred other sources of wealth to Ballarat are left unsp >kcu of. Of that other institution, “the Corner,” we are also left in ignorance. In a subsequent portion of the letter we are indeed told of the “ Verandahs,” and this is what Mr Trollope says of this—- “ In Melbourne there is a verandah ; in Sandhurst there is a verandah ; in Ballarat there is a verandah. The veran lab is a kind of open exchange, some place on the street pavement apparently selected by chance, on which the dealers in go d mining shares do congregate. What they do there, or how they carry on their business on that spot, lam unable to explain. But to the stranger, as he passes by, they do uot look lovely. He learns to walk on the other side of the road, for he hears strange tales, which make him feel that the innocence of the dove would not befriend him at all, were he to trade in those parts. i think there is a racing phrase as to 'getting a tip.’ The happy man who gets a tip learns something special as to the competence or incompetence of a horse. There are a great many tips in gold mines which fall into the fortunate hands of those who attend most closely, and perhaps with most unscrupulous fidelity, to the business of the verandahs. A certain claim is going to give gold. The man who has the tip sells out at a low price—sells out a certain small, number of shares, probably to a friend who holds the tip with him. Tho price is quoted iu the share list, and the unfortunate non-tipped sell out also, taking the figures from the share list as their guide, and the fortunate tipped one buys up all. Or the claim is not going to give gold, and the reverse happens. Or a claim is salted—gold surreptitiously introduced, is then taken out and made the base of fictitious prosperity. The tipped ones sell and tho untipped buy. It is easy to see that the game is very pretty, but slightly dangerous. It has certainly become very popular.” It is to be hoped Mr Trollope may not venture within hail of tho corner of Collins and Queen street in Melbourne, the Sharrah at Bendigo, or the comer at Ballarat, after these quotations have reached the Colony. The indigtiarion of the hnlntues of the various localities might manifest itself unpleasantly. The description given of Sandhurst, and its mines and miners, is a capital one The digger, pure and simple, evidently took Mr Trollope’s fancy, and in no place in the colonies are finer specimens of the class to be found than in the country that lies betweeen Bendigo Flat on the south. Huntly on the north, the Axe Creek on the west, and Ballarat Creek on the east of Sandhurst

A journey up to the Gippdand diggings is capitally described, and in connee 1 ion with it we have the following noteworthy remarks

“As regards the working miners, including all those who manage the works and overlook the machinery, I am bound to say that they form a fine body of able and industrious men. They are intelligent, manly, and independent, altogether free from that subservience which the domination of capital too often produces in many fields of labor. I have spoken strongly of the gambling propensities of a gold mining town. I should be wrong if 1 did not speak as strongly of the efforts which are mads by such communities—which in Australia are always made when the communities become large and apparently fixed —to ameliorate the condition of the people. The hospitals are excellent ; provision for the indigent is so good as almost to promote indigence ; the schools are well conducted and well filled ; the churches are sufficient, and the clergymen are supported, 'I ho money comes freely, and is freely expended ; and in no community are the manners of the people more corteous, or their conduct more decent.”

This tribute to the courtesy and good manners of the Australian miners he repeats ‘morethan once.

In speaking of Tasmania, Mr Trollope’s political proclivities are brought somewhat prominently into view, and he is nob unpleasantly sarcastic thereupon. In the opening paragraph of his second letter from the island, he says : “If 1 were to ask any place from the English Government it would be that of Governor of Tasmania. The climate is perfect, the scenery raagnificient, the residence all that a Government House should be, spacious, well-built, and beautifully situated; the people beyond measure loyal and English ; the salary sufficient for the House, and the work easy, I do not say that lam fit for the situation, but I should like it. It is required of a governor in such a Colony that he should not do foolish things, that he should not say silly things, that he should be discreet, hospitable, willing to spend his salary, and above all be a gentleman. Mr Ducanc, who now reigns in Hobart Town, when at home was a Tory member for a Tory county, and made one of a Tory Government. Of course I look upon these antecedents as gloomy. He married the daughter of Lord Lyndhurst, the greatest Tory of the century. Theoretically, I am of opinion that a Tory should never have any pleasant place given to him. Governors, and Lord-Lieutenants, and Knights of the Garter should all be Liberals. The simple people here have not seen it in this light, and are fond of their "overnor, who reigns in a pleasant, patriarchal way, and seems to have a very happy time in Tasmania. The Colony is essentially different from the other Australian Colonies, being more English, less given to politics, and no doubt less vivacious and enterprising. People, therefore, think more of the governor here than they do in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, and less, consequently, of tiieir own political leaders, I recommend, therefore, any good Liberal, with sufficient influence, who would be a governor with L4OOO or LSOOU a year, to keep his eye on Tasmania.” All this is deeply suggestive of the good old cathedral-town of downright county Tory. Some men might have said the same things much less pleasantly. The “ convict j element” occupies a considerable portion of the Tasmania letter, but the subject is not obtruded offensively. Speaking of the withdrawal of the English troops the writer thus emphatically refers to a matter a good deal talked about before tbe letter was published. The writer says :

“Tasmania regrets the red coats of the English soldiers, and thinks it hard that England will not afford some three or four companies of men to give to her streets that look of self-assertion and power which is conveyed by sentries, sashes, shakos, and martial sounds, I ventured to say among a few Tasmanians, on one occasion, that men so employed could be made serviceable only by tlieir liveries. Unfortunately for me, a British officer was present, and told me that I had spoken ill of the British army. I apologised, as one always does to a gentleman who finds that his feelings hare been hurt; biit I endeavored to explain to him and others that the man who insulted the British army was the colonist who desired that some few unfortunate men should be sent out on so useless and degrading a service. ”

The remainder of the letter is taken up chiefly with the perpetual grumblings of those who assert that Tasmania is going to the dogs. Now his readers have too much of that kind of thing to make it worth while repeating them here. The second letter from the island is devoted almost entirely to the question of Intercolonial Tariffs, but there is nothing new in what is said. The letter concludes pleasantly thus

“The scenery of this island is lovely byond description, and the air and climate so sweet that in the ChrLtmas summer mouths, from the middle of December to the end of February, men aud women flock here from th'i other Colonies, as they do in France and England to tire seaside .Everything in Tasmania is unlike the things of the other C«lonics, and muck m >re English to the eye, ear, an 1 taste. The parts of the island in which roads run are much more macadamised than Queensland or New South Wales. The waters flow bright aud clear, and the lakes are lovely as those of Switzerland. The waters of the Australian continent are generally turbid and muddy. The fruits aud vegetables of Tasmania are preferable to those I have found iu the other Colonies, where they ripen too quickly, and are consequently flavourless. In Tasmania, though they grow more abundantly than iu England, they have the English flavour. Lt may be that I am prejudiced in favor of the island ; but to my taste the beef, mutton, poultry, and butter wvrs all better in Tasmania than in any other of the Colonies. Were it my lot to take up my residence in Australia, aud could I choose the Colony in which I might reside, I should certainly pitch my tent in Tasmania.”