NOTES AND QUERIES

Otago Witness, Issue 2080, 4 January 1894, Page 26

NOTES AND QUERIES

Discovery of Gold in Australia,— " Soutlilander" writes :— Perhaps I am not the only survival ot the past who will venture to correct an error of date in your reply to "Miner" in your issue of December 28. Hargreaves discovered gold in New South Wales on February 12, 1851, not 1853, as your reply stated. His discovery led to the opening out of the Turon field, long since worked out. He died on October 3u, 1891. Gold was discovered at Bendigo, Victoria, December 8, 1851. Who really was the discoverer has never been satisfactorily pioved, although the Victorian Parliament voted a large sum a few years since to the man who could prove himself to be the rightful claimant. Many came forward, but in no one case could the claim bear the inquiry of a committee appointed for investigating all claims. The opening out of Forest Creek soon followed that of Bendigo, and fresh fields broke out rapidly: But prior to all these, gold was discovered at Buninyong, near Ballarat, on August 4, 1851, and this discovery led to another of immensely more importance the following month— that of Ballarat itself, with its famous " jewellers' shops," as some of the rich claims on "the gutter" were justly called. The firct escort came down from the goldfields to Melbourne on Jueg 14, 1852, and totalled 30,0000z— just 12 days 'before I landed there— and that quantity (theweekly average for many a long day after) sent Melbourne fairly mad. The charge per escort was fid per ounce. Gold in Melbourne at that time was £3 per ounce, but soon rose. The three banks (New South Wales, Union, and Australasia) were by Far the largest buyers. I don't remember any other banks there at all then. On the diggings gold was £2 17a per ounce, and as the gold was of a carat which commanded £4 2s 6d in London, the banks must have coined money wholesale. I saw it sold at £i 2s 6d on the goldfields before I left Victoria in 1859. I left England in 1852, with the purpose of going to some friends \ip the Murray, but of course I never got there. No steamer had crossed the ocean, nor had the rush from the wide world over set in, when I landed in Melbourne, but even then to my eyes the world seemed topsy-turvey. The streets were full of lucky diggers full of swagger, in moleskins, blue shirt, cabbage-tree hat with long ribbons behind, some on horseback, some on foot, all more ot less half-mad, all bent on one thing— knocking down their money in every conceivable form of riot, as though its possession were a perfect nuisance. And at night saturnalia reigned supreme. Violence was common, of course. One of my shipmates, a quiet, inoffensive young fellow, was found brutally murdered outBide the town within a week after landing. His murderer was never discovered. The Yarra could account for many disappearances. The cases of " drunks " every morning at court were awful, and the lowest penalty was 40s. The court was presided over by John Fawkjner, one of the founders of Melbourne 17 years before (1835), and "Johnny" would dispose of a long list of topers in a surprisingly short time, thus:— "You are charged with being drunk last night ; we're you drunk or were you not?" As likely as not the culprit would attempt to ramble into an explanation, only to be pulled up short by " Johnny" roaring out, " Were you drunk or were you not ?" " Oh, well, perhaps L was Vr '! T . he P w , hy . nofc say Bo at firs t ? Fined 40s. Next." And the next, and the next, to the last one of a batch of perhaps a score, went through the mill in like fashion. Strange as it may appear, Sunday was well observed, considering all things, and the churches were fairly well attended. Dean Macartney, now !)4, still officiating, officiated then, in the pro-cathedral. Apple Blossom.— The cuttings sent are covered with mussel scale, but both cuttings and scale have apparently been dead some time. This was probably duo to mildew, which frequently attacks the foliage and sometimes the extremities of the shoots or branches. The samples sent are, however, too far gone for a definite expression of opinion. Glenelg. — A strong solution of hot caustic potash— using hot water to dissolve the potashwill remove old paint and grease from steam engine boilers. Scrub with a rag on the end of a stick, as the potash burns up brushes. INQ.uiRER.-Yeß ; we believe she matriculated at Zurich, Switzerland, and subsequently received double degrees at Dublin. Novice.— See Ladies' page.

Boston.— (1) See Home Interests. (2) The constituents of Eno's fruit salts are :— Half a pound of icing sugar, throe packets Epsom salts, 3d calcined magnesia, 2oz carbonate of soda, 2oz tartaric acid, 2oz cream of tartar. Put the salts into a slow oven till evenly dissolved ; mix all equally, and bottle tight. A teaspoonful for a dose. Angler, Wendonside.— Minnows made of preserved trout skin are a legal because an artificial bait ; but if young preserved fish were used it would be an illegal bait. W. 8., Greenfield. — Your local postmaster is wrong ; the postage on the Witness to Great Britain is one penny. A. M. M.— Mr Beverly replies to your queries :— (1) Many attempts have been made to show a connection between the moon's phases and the weather, but all have been failures so far. The chief agents that rule the weather are— the heat of the sun, the earth's rotation, and the irregularities in the earth's surface. (2) The moon's attraction is the principalfcause of the tides, but the sun's attraction also affects them to a certaia extent. At new moon and full moon the sun and moon act together, producing spring tides ; at the quarters they act contrary, producing neap tides, The highest tides occur when the moon is in perigee and near the equator, at full or change, because then her attraction is

most powerful and most direct, and is aided by the sun's attraction. Brassica.— Your cabbages are suffering from club root. Change the site of your cabbage bed to fresh ground, or renew it with soil in which cabbages have not been grown. If neither of these courses is practicable, make a stiff mixture of soot and yellow clay, and dabble the roots of the young plants well into it before planting. R. H. M.— (l) The country on both sides of the Northern Wairoa river, north of Auckland, is the main centre of the supply of kauri gum. There are about 4000 whites and 1000 Maoris at present engaged in digging for gum, the best qualities of which are found in undulating fern land. (2) The ordinary method of searching for the gum is by first feeling for it a little below the surface with a steel-pointed piece of iron about Jin in diameter and 4ft long, called a gum spear, and then digging it out with an ordinary spade. (3) The average earnings are from £1 15s to £2 per week, but it is asserted that skilful diggers can make as much as between £3 and £4 per week. (4) The climate is humid. Phreno.— (l) Individuality is found in a straight line with the nose, commencing on about a level with the eyebrows. (2) We cannot hear of Carr's or Fraser's works on phrenology being in stock in Dunedin, but Mr Braithwaite has the following :— Coombes's Phrenology, ia 9d ; Fowler's Phrenology, 7s 6d : Cohen's Self Instruction in Phrenology, 3s 4d ; Fowler's How to Read Character, 7s 4d. All these prices are postage included. R. N.— (l) The main object in modern punctuation is to adopt as simple a- style as is consistent with an easy interpretation of the sense of the matter dealt with, and no cast iron rule can therefore be laid down. Semicolons and colons are not used to anything like the extent at one time thought necessary, the full point replacing them in one direction and the comma and dash in the other. (2) In the list of creditors quoted by you a comma between the names of the firms is quite sufficient, because the pause is but momentary, and yet of sufficient duration to indicate each individual firm. In the case of Hogg, Howison, Nicol, and Co., the fact of the firm having three members in addition to the " Co." is shown by the insertion of a comma after Nicol. If this comma were not inserted (and in America it is almost universally omitted), a stranger would be apt to regard the firm as merely Nicol and Co., Hogg and Howießon being distinct individuals, but as it appears this can scarcely be, (3) In the list of

points gained for ales the punctuation, though perhaps not in accordance with ancient custom, '. would have been better without the semi- : colons, thus : — Light 8, medium 7, bottled 5, &c. : Inquirer.— lf the contract is as you state it in your letter, A would be liable for the whole 12 months. ' Inquirer. No 2. — He would be allowed to hold a deferred payment section of 212 acres as well if he could make a declaration that, including the land proposed to be acquired, he is not the owner, tenant, or occupier directly or indirectly, either by himself or jointly with any oth«=r person or persons, of any lands in the colony exceeding in the whole 640 acres of first-class land or 2000 acres of second-claßß land. P.— According to analytic results the oat crop takes more from the soil than an equivalent yield of wheat, as shown* by the following figures : — Composition of the Dry Matter of 45 Bushels 30 Bushels of Oats. of Wheat.

It is thus teen (says an eminent authority on this subject) that 39781b of the grain and straw of the bats take more of every element of plant food from the soil than 41831b of the grain and straw of wheat, except the 31b of pnosphoric acid , of which the wheat takes more than the oats. This is very different from the prevailing opinion among farmers, who .believe that oats may be grown on "much less fertile land than wheat. They are certainly strengthened in the belief by the knowledge gained from experience that an excellent crop of oats is frequently grown after but a middling crop of -wheat, but it must be remembered that the rootlets of oats are more robust and probably, therefore, better searchers for and more powerful assimilators of plant food than the tender rootlets of wheat.

in. tfh 194 litrogen .. 52 ulphur ... 8 •otash ... 38 loda 7JAme 12 lagneaia ... 9 'hosphoric acid 20 Jhlorine ... 6 189 45 8 28 31 10 7 23 2