The Underground World: A mirror of life below the surface

by Thomas Wallace Knox

Towards the end of the first year of the gold discovery, the Government determined to raise the license fee to £3 per month, and actually issued a proclamation, dated 1st December 1851, stating that on and after the 1st of January 1852 such amount would be charged. This was met by strong protests on the part of the diggers, which resulted in the proclamation being rescinded on the 13th of December 1851. No licenses therefore were ever issued at the increased rate.

Public meetings were held on some of the gold-fields to protest against this state of things, but as little notice was taken of them by the government, the discontent continued. It finally culminated in an outbreak at Ballarat, near the end of 1854, when the diggers erected a stockade known as the Eureka, and defied the authorities. All the troops that could be mustered were sent to Ballarat and on the 2d of December, the stockade was taken by storm. The riot was quelled with some bloodshed on both sides, and a government commission was appointed to investigate the matter. None of the prisoners were ever convicted, and the result of the affair was that the oppressive tax upon the miners was removed.

INCREASE OF POPULATION.

The effect of the gold discovery upon the population of Australia may be seen by a few figures from the returns of the last census in 1871. On the 2d of April of that year, the number of inhabitants in Victoria was 731,528. Ten years previously it was 540,322. The increase during this interval was therefore 191,206, or 35.39 per cent. In 1851, which was the year of the discovery of gold, the population amounted to 77,345. The increase in the twenty years between that period and 1871 was therefore 654,183, or at the rate of 846 per cent.

Like all gold mining countries, Australia has attracted a great many adventurers in search of wealth. Nearly every country on the earth was represented in the emigration, and many of the representatives were not calculated to reflect credit upon the lands of their birth. Probably the accumulation of all kinds of races and nationalities in California was fully equaled by that in Australia, and particularly at Melbourne. At one time murders were so common in that city that a correspondent writing from thence, said it was the “bourne whence no traveler returns.”

It is a remarkable fact that, both in 1873 and 1874, more persons born in the United States, in proportion to their numbers in the population, were arrested in the colony of Victoria, than those of any other nationality. The chief causes of arrest were, as in the case of citizens of most other countries, drunkenness and disorderly conduct; still, there were a not inconsiderable number of arrests for more serious offenses, and the proportion committed for trial was much greater than that of persons born in any other country. The number of Americans settled in Victoria is but small, and it is not impossible that it is to a certain extent made up of those who, in consequence of their misdeeds, found it desirable to absent themselves from the country of their birth, and that they conduct themselves no better there than they did at home. In the year under review, next to Americans, the Irish, in proportion to their numbers, contributed the largest number to the arrested; and next to them, the French. In 1873, more of the last-mentioned fell into the hands of the police than those of any other country, except the United States. In 1874, Frenchmen were next to Americans in the numbers committed for trial. The remark applied to the latter, with reference to the probable reason for their leaving their own country, will perhaps also be applicable to them. Although the proportion of Irish committed for trial was greater than that of either English, Welsh, Scotch, or Victorians, it was less than that of persons of any of the other nationalities.

TOTAL GOLD YIELD OF AUSTRALIA.

The whole quantity of gold taken out in Victoria alone, from the discovery down to the year previous to the exhibition at Philadelphia, was nearly forty-four and a half million ounces, representing a value of not far from nine hundred millions of dollars. Truly, Australia has been of no ordinary importance as a land of gold. Probably her total mineral wealth of every kind thus far taken from the earth and turned to practical use, would not fall short of two thousand millions of dollars!

As in California and elsewhere, the early form of working and surface diggings has given place to quartz mining. Of the yield, set forth in the most recent statistics, it is estimated that sixty per cent. of the gold came from quartz reefs, and forty per cent. from alluvial workings. In the previous year, it was estimated that fifty-seven per cent. was obtained from quartz reefs, and forty-three per cent. from alluvial workings.

According to estimates made by the mining surveyors and registrars, the number of quartz reefs proved to be auriferous is 3,398. The Secretary for Mines points out that these cannot in every case be distinct reefs, as parts of the same reef, in some localities, are held to be distinct ones, and named accordingly; and, moreover, as the reefs are further explored, it is frequently found that what were supposed to be separate reefs are in reality not distinct.