"2. Twenty feet of the bed of a tributary to a river or main creek, extending across its whole breadth. "3. Sixty feet of the bed of a ravine or watercourse. "4. Twenty feet square of tableland or river flats. "These claims to be secured to parties only as they may continue to hold licences for the same, except in case of flood or accident. Licences liable to be cancelled on conviction of the holders of selling spirits, or of any disorderly and riotous conduct. Persons found working alluvial gold on public or private lands without a licence to pay a double licence fee. Disputes as to claims to be settled by the commissioners. Licences to dig on lands alienated from the crown to be issued only to the proprietors, or persons authorized by the proprietors, in writing, to apply for the same. The fee for such licences to be 15s. per month. Licences for draining ponds and waterholes, for the purpose of obtaining alluvial gold, to be obtainable on paying as many licence fees as shall be proportioned to the area of the waterhole-calculating twenty-five feet square for every licence. Reservoirs and dams for the purpose of washing gold to be constructed on the permission of the commissioners. Owners of claims employing labourers, and paying licence fees for them, allowed to transfer such licences to other labourers. All persons searching for matrix gold, by working auriferous quartz veins, to pay a royalty of ten per cent. on all gold obtained to an officer appointed by the government. The party working the vein to come under a bond in the sum of £1,000 to pay such royalty; the government officer to reside on the land, and to have access to the buildings and premises and to all books and accounts connected with the production of gold. All buildings and machinery erected on the land to be considered as additional security to the government. The claim to consist of half a mile, and in the course of the vein, with a quarter of a mile on each side of the vein reserved for building purposes, &c. The right to cut timber and to use water on the land to be granted. The claim to be forfeited by neglecting to pay the prescribed royalty; by not employing twenty persons or machinery, calculating one horse power to seven men, within six months after the application for the claim has been accepted; or by ceasing to employ that number subsequently; by the employment of unlicensed persons to work alluvial gold on the claim, or violating in any way the terms of the bond. The duration of the claims to be three years, to be extended further under instructions from her Majesty's government, if the conditions of the bond have all been fulfilled. No portion of land previously occupied and claimed for alluvial gold will be open for selection for matrix gold while it continues to be worked for the former. The royalty for working auriferous quartz on private lands to be five per cent. Persons occupying portions of the gold-field for trading purposes to pay a licence fee of £1 10s. per month." The opening of gold-fields in the Goulburn district, another fine pastoral and agricultural country, seventy miles from Sydney and on the Shoalhaven River, followed the Turon, and every day brought some new obscure spot into temporary attention; but nine-tenths of the reports are mere repetitions of the same coloured story. In May, 1852, the localities in New South Wales figuring for large amounts in the Sydney gold circulars were Major's Creek, Araluen, Braidwood, GOLD-FIELDS OF VICTORIA. 403 and Sofala, on the Turon. At all these new centres of population arrangements were made for the performance of religious worship by the heads of the several denominations. The Bishop of Australia, himself, dug the first posthole for a church at Sofala, raised by the voluntary contributions of the people; and the government, by order in council, offered to the members of those societies of the religious community who were in the habit of receiving assistance a salary for such of their clergy and ministers as would proceed to the gold-diggings of £150 per annum, with an allowance for horse hire and house rent. The next important event was the opening of the gold-fields of Victoria. Gold was sold in small quantities to a jeweller of the name of Brentance, in 1848, which was found on the banks of the River Loddon, at the foot of the Clunes Hill, which is supposed to be of volcanic origin, and rises from a plane. In August, after a reward had been offered for the discovery of gold in the Port Phillip district, the diggings were opened at the Clunes, whence a piece of two pounds of fine grain gold was sold. Afterwards they were successfully opened at Buninyong, a deep gorge formed by the bed of Anderson's Creek, in the heart of stringy bark ranges. The weather was unfavourable, and the first attempt to levy licence fees at the Clunes created discontent. A different spirit from that at the Turon was displayed: the people struck their tents and retreated further into the ranges, which led to the discovery of Ballarat. The commissioner having acted with great discretion, taken pains to conciliate, and applied his mechanical talent to constructing a better cradle, an improved feeling was created. In September the returns were better-more nuggets—one man eight ounces in a week. Success soon brought two hundred up, and, the weather clearing, gold-gathering became one of the trades of Victoria, and licence fees, being found a protection, were paid willingly. Diggers combined to preserve order, held meetings, and settled all disputed points. At Clunes the rock was mined—at Ballarat the soil only was washed. In October the government escort was established, and large returns were raised daily. By the middle of the month ten thousand men were at work with 1,200 to 1,300 cradles at Ballarat. The estimated daily earnings were £10,000, very unequally distributed. In the same month a public meeting of the Ballarat diggers was held, to adopt measures for securing a supply of water during the coming dry season, and a subscription of one shilling a head was commenced for the purpose of damming up the waters of the creek; the commissioner of crown lands was elected treasurer; and any surplus was to go towards an hospital for the sick diggers. In September the gold was found in such quantities in new fields of Mount Alexander, more properly The Forest Creek Diggings, being seven miles from that mountain, as to attract large numbers from Ballarat. Here gold was taken up by pocket-knives from soil a few inches below the surface in such profusion that one man filled a quart pot with small nuggets in the course of the day. A rush took place from all the other diggings to the last-found region, and in a very few days there were eight thousand at work. In November three tons of gold lay at the commissioner's tent at Forest Creek waiting for an escort, and not less than twenty-five thousand persons were working at the spot. On December 1st government issued a notice raising the licence fee to £3 a month; but this move met so much resistance that it was almost immediately rescinded. The dry weather setting in, the diggers in the course of January were reduced to 10,000 persons. In January the new Legislative Council came to a series of resolutions adverse to the licensing system, and suggesting an export duty. In the same month a working man found at the Forest Creek diggings the largest lump of solid gold yet discovered, weighing 27 lbs. 8oz., perfectly pure, free from quartz or other impurity, which he sold to a Melbourne dealer. On January 27th another gold-field was discovered at two hundred and sixty miles from Melbourne, situated round Lake Omeo, at the foot of the Australian Alps, washed by the River Mitta, which takes its rise in the Snowy Mountains. These diggings were so amply supplied with water that they could only be worked in the dry seasons, which rendered most other fields valueless; but great results have been obtained from this new field. In May, 1852, the numbers at Mount Alexander were estimated at from thirty to forty thousand souls, and the state of the roads, hacked up by the constant traffic, excited fears lest in the rainy season the drays from Melbourne should be so impeded that the supplies of flour and tea would fall short. The effect on South Australia of the gold discoveries of the adjoining provinces was ruinous. Their copper-mines were deserted, fifteen A TANDEM DRIVE TO BALLARAT. 405 thousand souls proceeded to the diggings, almost all their coin was abstracted, insolvency became all but universal, in some districts the male population was so reduced that the women were in fear of attacks from the aborigines, the subordinate officials resigned their situations in dozens, while the falling off of the revenues rendered any increase of salary a difficult question. Under these circumstances, on the advice of the newly-constituted Legislative Council, two measures were adopted-First, an ordinance was hurried through the Legislative Council by which gold assayed and stamped by a government officer was made a legal tender for land purchased from government, or for customs duties, and for all other payments; bank notes of the colony being at the same time also made legal tender, under certain restrictions as to extent of issue. The main object of this measure was to induce successful South Australian gold-diggers to return to the colony with their spoils; and in this respect it has proved, to a certain degree, effective. The second measure, of a more simple and practical nature, was still more successful. A sum of money was voted for opening up an overland route to Mount Alexander. The deputy surveyor-general, the commissioner of police, with a strong party of sappers and miners, were at once employed in clearing away obstructions, sinking wells, and otherwise in making the road practicable for drays, for a distance of four hundred miles; and the work was so expeditiously done that by the middle of March, having commenced in February, the first gold escort from the Forest Creek diggings arrived in Adelaide. The journey was done in a light cart, with relays, in eight days. And in May £75,000 had been remitted from the diggers, of which a large portion was destined for their families. The following sketch is condensed from a paper which appeared in the Port Phillip magazine : "A Tandem Drive from Melbourne to Ballarat. "Having cleared the city we overtook the golden army of bullockdrays moving northward, surrounded by companies of men and lads: occasionally a female is seen. Four bulldogs pull one carriage, a great dog in the shafts of another, and a man pushing behind at a load of near five hundredweight. "Presently the splendid panorama opened to view an extensive sweep of plains, encircled by mountain ranges in the remote distance. Far as the eye can reach, the pilgrimage, its line moving along the undulations, now hid, now rising into view-English and Germans, Irish and Scotch, Tasmanians. * * * * Ꮓ "Sixteen drays at Yuille's Ford, and nearly two hundred people. It is nearly impassable, from the fresh current of yesterday's rain. But the men, tailing on to the ropes by dozens, pull both the horses and carts through. Some there are pulling, some cooking their midday meals, some unloading the drays, some moving off the ground. Over the ford, the road is delightful, the scenery charming, the land more broken, and timbered like a park. Ladidak comes in view, a beautiful ravine formed by the convergence of several hills, at the base of which the river so winds that it must be crossed thrice. "Where formerly was silence, only broken by the voice of the bellbird, now bullock-drays, bullocks, and bullock-drivers, are shouting, roaring, and swearing up the hill, or descending splashing through the once clear stream. On, on until the expanse of Bacchus Marsh opens, until lately a favourite meet of our hounds. "A camp of tents has been formed by those who think it discreet to put off the crossing struggle until their beasts have had the benefit of a night's rest; loud is the ringing of bullock-bells; meanwhile an impromptu bridge of a tree has been thrown across the river, and men are crossing and recrossing like a stream of ants. A dray deep in the stream makes a complete capsize before it can be hauled through. "Our tandem dog-cart dashes through gallantly, we reach the Pentland Hills, where another encampment has been formed in the long |