CHAPTER XXVII. RUMOURS OF GOLD DISCOVERY- CERTAINTY - SKETCH OF HISTORY-OLD SHEPHERD-EDWARD HARGREAVES POINTS OUT GOLD SPONDENCE WITH GOVERNOR-STUTCHBURY-PROCLAMATION ISSUED-FIRST IN N the month of April, 1851, New South Wales and Port Phillip were enjoying an unexampled condition of financial and commercial prosperity, the demand for labour was steadily increasing, and in the elder colony several manufactures and copper-mines were affording new investments for colonial capital. The leading colonial journal was amusing its readers with calculations of the period when all the pastoral land of the colony would be overstocked with sheep and cattle. The politicians had three grievances the continuance of transportation, the delay in establishing a steam post, and the shortcomings of the new constitution, which had increased the fixed taxes without giving any real additional legislative power to the colonists. In the midst of this satisfactory state of affairs, "through the Exchange of Sydney a horrid rumour ran " that a great gold-field had been found near Bathurst. Very soon small "nuggets "the word is Californian-arrived in the city, and were handed about as curiosities. Thereupon a few score pedestrians, chiefly of the humblest class, set out to walk to Bathurst, 140 miles. By the 2nd May there was no longer any doubt about the diggings; crowds of all ranks streamed across the Blue Mountains; the governor's proclamation gave official currency to the dazzling fact; the gold fever commenced. When whispers and rumours had grown into a great fact, every body wondered that the discovery had not been made before, as it had been so often prophesied by various individuals, none of whom seem to have had, like Mr. Hargreaves, sufficient confidence in their own judgment to travel to the district, and put a spade into the ground. The history of the gold discoveries in Australia lies in a very short compass, but is worth telling. It illustrates any curious things. The first written reference to the existence of gold in Australia is to be found in a despatch (not published at the time) addressed by Sir George Gipps, 2nd of September, 1840, to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in which he encloses a report from Count Strzelecki, mentioning under gold “an auriferous sulphuret of iron, partly decomposed, yielding a very small quantity of gold, although not enough to repay extraction," which he found in the Vale of Clwdd. It was known to a few that an old shepherd of the name of Macgregor was in the habit of annually selling small parcels of gold to jewellers; but those who watched him could discover nothing, and the common belief was that he sold the produce of robberies which had been melted up to destroy suspicion. The Rev. D. Mackenzie, in his "Gold-digger," states that this old man has recently acknowledged that he obtained his gold from a place called Mitchell's Creek, beyond Wellington Valley, about 200 miles west of Sydney. The Rev. W. B. Clarke, one of the colonial chaplains, and a geologist of considerable acquirements, has claimed in the colonial press the honour of having unsuccessfully directed attention to the goldbearing regions of Bathurst. In consequence of this claim, Sir Roderick Murchison, one of the most distinguished members of the geological and other scientific societies, read a paper before the Geological Society, in which he states that having, between 1841 and 1843, published descriptions of the auriferous phenomena of the Ural Mountains, in 1844, before the Royal Geographical Society, he compared the eastern chain of Australia with the Ural Mountains. In 1846, a year before the Californian discovery, he addressed the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, recommending unemployed Cornish tin-miners to emigrate to New South Wales, and dig for gold in the débris and drift of what he termed the "Australian Cordillera," in which he had recently heard that gold had been discovered in small quantities, and in which he anticipated, from the similarity with the Ural Mountains, that it would certainly be found in abundance. After these opinions had been made public, persons resident in Sydney and Adelaide sought for and found specimens of gold, which they transmitted to Sir Roderick, who thereupon wrote to Earl Grey, the minister of the colonies, in November, 1848, stating the grounds for his confident expectation that gold would be found in large quantities, and suggesting precautionary measures. Earl Grey never answered this letter, and neither took measures nor sent out private instructions to prepare the governor for the realization of the predictions of the man of science. As he afterwards explained, he thought it better that the people should stick to wool-growing. This seems no reason for keeping his own governor in the dark. The first printed notice by Mr. Clarke appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1847, in which, following in Sir Roderick Murchison's footsteps, he compares Australia with the Ural. In 1848 a Mr. Smith, engaged in iron-works near Berrima,* waited upon Mr. Deas Thomson, the colonial secretary, produced a lump of gold imbedded in quartz, which he said he had found, and offered, on receipt of £800, to discover the locality. On reference to the governor, a verbal answer was returned that, if Mr. Smith chose to trust to the liberality of the government, he might rely on being rewarded in proportion to the value of the alleged discovery. The government suspected that the lump of gold came from California, “and were afraid of agitating the public mind by ordering geological investigations." Nothing more has been heard of Mr. Smith. On the 3d April, 1851, Mr. Edward Hargreaves addressed a letter to the colonial secretary, after several interviews, in which he said that, if the government would award him £500 as a compensation, he would * Berrima, in the county of Camden, eighty-one miles from Sydney. HARGREAVES POINTS OUT THE GOLD-FIELDS. 383 point out localities where gold was to be found, and leave it to the generosity of the government to make him an additional reward commensurate with the benefit likely to accrue to the government. It seems that Mr. Hargreaves, while in California, was struck with the similarity between the richest diggings of that country and a district in the Bathurst country which he had travelled over fifteen years previously; and on his return to Sydney made an exploring expedition of two months, which realized his expectations. The same answer was returned to Mr. Hargreaves as to Mr. Smith. He was satisfied, and on the 30th April wrote, naming Lewes Ponds and Summerhill Creeks, and Macquarie River, in the district ol Bathurst and Wellington, as the districts where gold would be found. A copy of this letter was, by the governor's directions, forwarded to the colonial geologist, Mr. Stutchbury, with whom Mr. Hargreaves was put in communication. Mr. Stutchbury was appointed by Earl Grey to this position in the colony, through a recommendation of Sir Henry de la Beche, and of his geological attainments there can be no question; but almost all these home appointments are unlucky. There was a story floating in Bathurst that the government geologist was dissatisfied with his "prospecting" duties; "for it tired him to walk, and pained him to ride." No doubt by this time he is a practised bushman. Messrs. Hargreaves and Stutchbury set out on their journey. On the 8th of May a Mr. Green, a crown commissioner, writes in great alarm from Bathurst that "a Mr. Hargreaves has been employing people to dig for gold on the Summerhill Creek, who have found several ounces;" and suggests "that some stringent measure be adopted to prevent the labouring classes from leaving their employments to search on the crown lands." On the 13th of May Mr. Green writes again, in still more alarm :— "A piece of gold valued at £30 had been brought in, and he feared that any future regulations would be set at defiance." Having frequently in the course of this work had occasion to point out the mistakes and misdeeds of the local colonial government, it is only common justice to say that the line of conduct adopted by Sir Charles Fitzroy and his council on the occurrence of the gold crisis reflects upon them the highest credit. A few dates will show how rapidly gold-gathering grew into an important pursuit, stimulating agriculture, and overshadowing the pastoral interest. May 14th. Mr. Stutchbury reports that he "had seen sufficient to prove the existence of grain gold." |