SYDNEY.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 611, 11 June 1851, Page 3

SYDNEY.

“The Gold. —From the intelligence received from Bathurst yesterday, it. appears that this colony is to be cursed with a golddigging mania. Whether the gold fields will ultimately turn out productive is still problematical, but the success of some of the pioneers is sufficiently exciting to cause thousands of persons to proceed to the diggings. Mr. Austen, of Bathurst, arrived in Sydney yesterday with a lump of gold, with small pieces of quartz attached, which weighed nine ounces, and is supposed io contain eight ounces of pure gold. This was shown to great numbers of persons, and, we need hardly say, has caused a great sensation. Several small parcels of dust and scale gold resembling that brought down from California, were also received by different persons yesterday. As it appears to be impossible to avoid the trial which the colony has to go through, it must be met boldly, although we fear it will be attended with the ruin of thousands. It behoves the Government to lose no time in promulgating a strict code of licensing laws for those who proceed to dig on Crown lands. The digging cannot be prevented, but it may be regulated, provided no time is lost in framing the regulations.” —Sydney Herald, May 16. “In consequence of the great number of persons anxious to go to Bathurst yesterday, the fares by the mails were doubled.’ I — lb.

lhe mania for emigrating to the goldfields of California, which at one time threatened to decimate our population, and which naturally filled sober-minded colonists with an anxiety bordering on alarm, has often occupied our most serious consideration; but that mania, compared with the one with which we are now menaced by the discovery of gold within our own territory, was as nothing. Emigration to California was necessarily a work of time, requiring forethought and preparation, and in most cases needing the courage and enthusiasm which can sacrifice present comforts, and risk imminent dangers, for the sake of a remote and at best a doubtful good. The scene of adventure lay in a land of strangers, a land swarming with ferocious barbarians, and frequently ravaged by deadly pestilence. Ere it could be reached, the ocean had to be crossed, a round sum of money to be raised, pronerty sold, establishments broken up, domestic ties rent asunder, and the whole habits of life suddenly and violently wrenched. These considerations served as a wholesome check upon the rage for gold, and induced multitudes to stay at home who would otherwise have rushed headlong into the glittering snare. “ But the Eldorado which has sprung up within the last few days, and which is every where and with every body the all-absorbing topic of discourse, is attended with none of these difficulties. It is in the bosom of our own country. It is on the very skirts of our settled districts. It is within a week’s ride of our metropolis. And should its charms’ prove to be half as seductive as the sanguine imaginations of many amongst us are at this moment picturing them, Australia will have reason to rue the day when her Eldorado was brought to light. Already, we are told by our Bathurst correspondent, there are said to be two hundred persons on the gold ground, and the number is daily increasing. “And within six days’ sail of them, scattered over the colonies,” says a correspondent, “ there are more than 50,000 persons who have been transported for various crimes, and a very large number of them within a few hours’ distance. Should the reports of gold prove true, the excitement, speculation, and license will attract thousands of the worst characters. This,” he adds, “ no one can doubt, and the consequences to security of life and property, without any needless exaggeration, are sufficiently obvious and appalling.”

Exaggeration would be as cruel as it is unnecessary. But it becomes the duty of every sober-minded man in the community to look the danger calmly yet fully in the face. That there is gold on the surface of our western interior, is a fact which cannot now be doubted. But let us cling to the hope, until driven from it by irresistible evidence, that the treasure doesnot exist in large quantities; that the cost of finding, collecting and conveying it to market, will prevent the speculation from being more than moderately remunerative ; and that experience will soon convince the masses of the people that, after all, the ordinary pursuits of industry are the safest and the best. Should this hope be realised, all will be well. The rage for emigration from these colonies to California will be quelled ; whilst New South Wales will in her turn become an object of general attention and of powerful attraction. If the precious metal be no more than an auxiliary to our general resources of wealth, then shall we have reason to rejoice in its discovery, for then will a new impulse be given to every branch of industry, and a new character imparted to our country in the eyes of the world. Then shall we become a rich and a prosperous people in the true sense of the words, for our wealth and prosperity will be solid and enduring, and attended by a corresponding advancement in those moral and social virtues without which riches are not a blessing, but a curse. “ But should these hopes be disappointed —should our gold prove to be abundant in quantity, rich in quality, and easy of access —let the inhabitants of New South Wales and the neighbouring colonies stand prepared for calamities far more terrible than earthquakes or pestilence. On the fearful pictures which the bare thought of such a communication calls up to the mind, we will not, dare not dwell. Nor would it be right to allude to them, even in these vague and general terms, for the mere purpose of agitation. But the mere possibility of their being realized imposes upon the Government, and upon all the intelligent classes of the community, a solemn and an urgent duty. It is the duty of the colonists not only to take every possible precaution, in good time, against the disasters which may befall them; but to employ all the influences of reason and good sense in counteracting and subduing the spirit of excitement in its earliest stages. Let every man reflect that upon the prevalence of those influences his own safety, the safety of his person and property, the safety of all that is nearest and dearest to him, may ere long depend.”— lb., May 17.

The Overland Route. — Mr. Joseph Henry Jones, tbe mail contractor, who arrived here on Monday last from Melbourne, states that the country between Yass and the capital of Victoria is in a most dreadful state for want of rain—far worse than can possibly be imagined. The Billybong Creek, over which the contractor had himself been compelled to have the mails punted, is now as dry as a bone ; and the Murray River can be crossed on foot without wetting one’s shoes. At Clarke’s Lagoon there were hundreds of cattle and sheep lying dead, having rushed there for the purpose of getting a little water to quench their thirst, and finding the lagoon nearly dry, the poor creatures ventured on to the boggy ground until they were fairly stuck, and there remained until they died. At Albury Mr. Jones says that wheat is 20s. a bushel, and flour £4O a ton. In order to supply the mail horses, he has been compelled to set a chaff-cutting machine to work at Yass, and to pack the hay thus cut up in woolpacks, and cart it to the different stages where the mails change horses. Between the Murrumbidgee and Aibury he has had to pay £2O a ton for hay, and £6 a ton carriage, for a few miles. There had been a little rain about Bangus, but not 1 "sufficient to cause a spring. On the Murray hundreds of families had been discharged from their services on account of the stock over which they had charge being dead ! These poor creatures were encamped on the banks of the river in an almost' famished condition. Towards Port Phillip, the country did not present a more cheerful aspect. The rich pastures of Mercer’s Vale and Kilmore had been swept over by fire, and there was no sign of grass visible in these peculiarly fertile spots. Goulburn and its neighbourhood has providentially been visited by several days’ rain, and if “ Jack Frost” keeps off, we shall have plenty of feed for the winter. — Goulburn Correspondent of the Empire.,

The Canterbury Settlement.—Mr. Joseph Hawdon, an old Australian settler, has been from Port Phillip to the Canterbury with stock. On his return he addressed ’ a letter to the Port Phillip papers, of which the following is the most important portion : —“ In the months of February and March, nearly 1000 emigrants arrived from England in the Canterbury settlement; and several vessels were daily expected. Christchurch, the capital town of the settlement, is about seven miles distant from the port, up a fresh water river; already it begins to have the appearance of a town. Churches and schools are in course of erection. Dr. Jackson, the bishop designate, with five clergy-j men and several schoolmasters, had arrived. The country round Christchurch is level, with some thirty thousand acres of the richest black soil, without limber, excepting a few patches of pine forest; all this portion of the settlement has been surveyed and pegged off for the selection of immigrants. The country north and south of Christchurch for 200 miles in each direction is well grassed, and well adapted for sheep and cattle grazing. It is generally level plains with undulating hills, intersected every few miles with rivers running from the Alps which bound the island on the west coast, whose peaks are perpetually covered with snow. Timber is seldom met with, excepting in small patches of dark pine forest from 100 to 1000 acres. This island, known as the Middle Island, now in course of being occupied as a grazing country, from my own observation of its description, and information received from an old Australian traveller, Mr. Arnold, and others, will carry about six million of sheep. This, of course, includes the whole of the Canterbury and Otago settlements, and the country around Broken Bay, situated at the south of the island explored last month by Captain Stokes, of the Acheron— sketches and a description of this country he showed me. The capabilities of this island are well known and appreciated by the energetic and talented Governor-in-Chief, Sir George Grey, whom I met during his visit at Wellington. At present there are not more than one hundred thousand sheep in these districts. The natives are useful labourers, but they are very few in number. Au excellent opening is here offered for the stock in our Port Phillip district. Some two hundred thousand might at once be sent, and scarcely be perceived on these extensive plains and grassy hills.” Wg are glad to find that one so well qualified to judge has formed so high an opinion of the new settlement. It was intended to send a very large number of emigrants from England early in the summer, so that there is no doubt there will be for some time to come a large and increasing market for sheep from these colonies. Indeedvery large number ' have already been sent. — Sydney Morniny Herald.