COLONIAL NEWS.
SYJDNEY. By the " Oriental" we learn that the " Gold Bubble" has burst, and that the stream of population is from, not to the diggings. A few have obtained prizes, but the multitude have got nothing but blanks. That gold exists in considerable abundance, and over an immense extent of country, is an unquestionable fact, but the labour and expense of getting it, swallows up (on the average) all the profits. According to the last accounts, the amount sent to Sydney was about 20,000/. a week, but some twenty or thirty thousand people were engaged either at the mines or supplying the diggers with the necessaries of life; the yield of gold will therefore not give to this multitude the usual wages of labourers. Most of those who threw up their employments at Sydney to try their fortunes at the various El Dorados, now bitterly repent having engaged in what turns out to be a mere lottery, a pure gambling transaction. At no time was labour more abundant at Sydney, and the prices of all articles have fallen still more rapidly than they rose; for example, flour is down to" 14/. a ton, and the wages of seamen have come down from 5/. to 21. 10s. a month. The general impression seems to be, that in future the gold will be profitably worked only by means of large companies. We are glad that the delusion has so soon been expelled, for we are aware that the " Gold Fever" was already raging to some extent in this settlement, and that it threatened to spread more rapidly than any other known epidemic. The present intelligence will, we trust, arrive in time, to make our fellow settlers pause and reflect, before they abandon a certainty for an uncertainty, and before they give up the fruits of many years' toil and anxiety, to engage in a pursuit which, it has been sufficiently proved both in California and. Australia, must entail disappointment and ruin upon probably ninety-nine persons out of every hundred that embark in it.— Wellington Independent. Sydney Settlbes' Piuce Current.—Wheat, nominal, and sales very dull. Flour, the quotations at the mills remain unaltered, fine at 16/., and seconds at 14/. per ton, but purchases may be effected at easier rates. Maize, 2s. Bd. per bushel. Butter continues plentiful, and worth from 4d. to Bd. per pound. Bacon and Hams, well cured, sd. to 6d. per pound. Eggs, 6id. per dozen. Woolpacks are'offered at Ss^d. to 4s. 6d. Woollashing, New Zealand, quoted at 27s.— Sydney Herald, October 30.
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Bibliographic details
Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 47, 29 November 1851, Page 3
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425COLONIAL NEWS. Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 47, 29 November 1851, Page 3
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