290 INVESTIGATION AT MELBOURNE CHAPTER XXI. THE INVESTIGATION AT MELBOURNE-LEAD SOLD FOR GOLD "POINTING دو GAMBLING 66 INTOXICATION THE MORAL DANGERS THE MINER IS EXPOSED TO A SCENE ON THE LORD'S DAY AT THE MINES-TOSSING-PREACHING A PRIZE-FIGHT-SLY GROG-SELLERS AN EXECUTION-THE CONFESSION- BAILING UP❞—VANDEMONIANS -A VESSEL ROBBED-INSECURITY OF LIFE-THE OVENS -HIGH PRICE OF DRAYS, ETC., ON A MOVE-MIGRATORY CHARACTER OF THE MINERS-TURON AND BATHURST ; STATE OF SOCIETY AT THOSE MINES SIR CHARLES FITZROY'S ADDRESS MELBOURNE-DANGER OF BEING ABROAD AFTER SUNSET-HAMMERING A MAN-APPREHENSIONS OF LYNCH LAW AT THE OVENS- SHEPHERD ING 66 A LUCKY DIGGER-CRUEL ATTACK-DYSENTERYBAD WATER-A SUCCESSFUL PRACTITIONER A DENTIST'S CHARGE-OPHTHALMIA-SAND-INSECTS-FLIES-MOS QUITOES-COUNTRY SALUBRIOUS-INFLUENZA-HOW THE INTENDING MINER SHOULD PROVIDE HIMSELF; THE BEST WAY FOR HIM TO PROCEED-WHO SHOULD GO TO THE DIGGINGS-THE LAST RESORT OF YOUNG MEN UNFIT FOR COLONIAL EXPERIENCE PICKS CRADLES MINERS THE investigation into this fraud took place at Melbourne, on December 31, 1852, before the mayor and Mr. Hall, J. P., when a ON THE FRAUDULENT GOLD. 291 charge of selling spurious gold was brought against James Karey, by Mr. L. J. Montefiore, who stated that he bought 732 ounces at 37. 9s. 10d. per ounce, and that the purchase was made conditionally, viz., that the gold should be assayed. The prosecutor deposed, that he detected some as counterfeit. "I examined every particle of the gold, with the acid test, and the result was the discolouration of two pieces, which indicated the presence of copper. The defendant said this was only dirt, and I thinking it was copper, was not deceived by its appearance." Mr. Charles Bruce Skinner, the Government gold assayer, who held a certificate from the Government Assay Master at Calcutta, stated that about ten days ago Mr. Montefiore brought him two parcels of metal in a paper. One resembled Mount Alexander gold, and the other a sort of spurious gold. Mr. Montefiore expressed a wish that he would assay the latter, which he did, and found it to be 17 than standard gold. carats or 4 less He had not the น 292 FRAUDULENT GOLD. slightest doubt but that the spurious parcel was not native gold, and he thought there could be no second opinion upon this point. Did not test the other parcel of gold, as he did not think Mr. Montefiore required it. One of the bags was opened in court and examined by witness, who swore that its contents contained a proportion of spurious gold similar to that he had assayed, and which he was certain was not the native gold of the colony, and it must have gone through some manufacturing process to be in its present state. His opinion was that Muntz' patent metal must have been mixed with it-such gold never came from the diggings. He did not think the gold had been alloyed here, but in England. The loss on the quantity bought by prosecutor would be from 500l. to 6007. The Mayor said the case appeared to be one of very great importance to the commercial interests; they would, therefore, postpone their decision until Monday, the defendant's bail to be extended. Thus the case stood when the writer sailed LEAD SOLD FOR GOLD. 293 from Sydney. The effect of this has been to make buyers cautious and shy, and to suggest the necessity of gold-sellers being licensed; but the best safeguard will be the precautions which buyers and gold dealers will take for themselves, by increased skill in applying the necessary tests, and by multiplying the number of persons competent to assay, which has been already done. Considerable profits have been made by speculators in the precious metal since its discovery. One species of fraud practised at the diggings was the following ingenious contrivance :-A digger took to the Commissioner his bag of gold dust, had it weighed in his presence and sealed; a receipt of its weight, not contents, is given to him, upon presenting which at the Treasury to which it may be consigned, the same bag is delivered to him. He offers for sale the receipt of the Commissioner, and the unlucky purchaser finds the bag, when opened, contains not gold dust, but lead shot. Of course this has ceased to entrap any one Doubtless some more complicated now. method will be discovered to defeat detection, as is generally the case; the vigilance of society provokes and sharpens the ingenuity of those who prey upon it. Some gold buyers have been suspected of using false weights, and what is called in colonial dialect, "pointing." Many are the dangers morally and bodily which attend the fortunes of the digger. Gambling, drunkenness, and dissipation of every kind and degree, are helping to demoralize any virtuous sentiments which may linger amid the wreck of the human heart. Conceive such sights as the following, which have been seen at the mines, all enacted within a stone's throw of each other on the Lord's day. The service of the church being performed on one part of the creek, attended by the sober-minded and industrious miners; on another part, within the sound of the preacher's voice, a prize-fight was going on between two diggers for 201., which lasted for three hours; and contiguous to them a party gambling and drinking. The Commissioners, it must be mentioned to their |