BEST MODE OF PROCEDURE. 305 to New South Wales, from the nearest port to his residence, and select one, the regulations of which assimilate most to those laid down by the Land and Emigration Colonization Society; these are so nicely framed, that the moral, and physical comfort of the passenger is ensured. The food sufficient, nay, ample, wholesome, and palatable. This forms a very important consideration in undertaking a voyage, the average duration of which may be computed at one hundred and twenty days. Every precaution is also taken by the Government to ensure the cleanliness and safety of the ship which they charter for the accommodation of the bounty emigrants. The writer must, in justice to the general liberality publicly acknowledged in the press (while he was in Sydney), by the passengers in free ships, state, that the comfort of free emigrants is fairly and sufficiently attended to by the owners and captains. The Passenger Act is a great protection to those for whom it was enacted. Who should go to the diggings? All who think they can improve their fortunes, is our reply; who have strong perseverance and full determination. Napoleons, in the explanation of the word impossible-a word which is not found in their vocabulary. But if, reader, you have a competent income at home, meeting your wants, and adapted to the requirements of your station in society, stay in England, because you may not succeed; and if you do, you must certainly undergo privations to which you have been unaccustomed, and which your previous comforts doubly unfit you to contend with. This most particularly is advanced as advice to those who are engaged in merchants' offices and Government employments; for since, if your health fails, or your means become exhausted at the mines, you would find it difficult to fall back upon your former calling, and then you present the most deplorable object in New South Wales, of which, alas! there are already too many instances in well-informed and well-conducted young men, who cannot find suitable occu TO THE DIGGINGS. 307 pation for themselves, and being without "colonial experience," are not selected even by those who do require the description of labour these young men can offer for employment. The alternative is then starvation or the bush; i. e., becoming a shepherd, or a police or storekeeper's overseer, after some "colonial experience" has been obtained. This last is a quality rather difficult to explain; but it implies in its idiomatic sense a great deal that is of a very questionable cast. It was defined to the writer as "learning to do by having been done." This is what is tacitly understood by the advertiser who wants a person with "colonial experience;" or as the Australian native or old hand tersely and expressively construes it, "being up to a move or two," or "knowing a thing or two.' Supposing the intending emigrant digger to have taken his passage, the less he encumbers himself with luggage the better, as it will only be in his way on landing, and it is as impossible as unnecessary 308 PICKS-CRADLES-REVOLVERS. for him to carry a wardrobe to the mines. Even in this respect he would act wisely to provide himself with an outfit laid out for the information of the bounty Government emigrant, remembering that he has two climates to provide against—a warm and a cold temperature. In the tropics, which extend twenty-three degrees and a-half on each side of the equator, he will require light vestments; but when he is running East, in 52° south latitude, he will find warm clothing absolutely necessary to his health and comfort, and this he may lay aside again on his approach to Australia. The writer saw stated in a London newspaper when he was in Sydney, that a company had started from Liverpool armed to the teeth with guns, revolvers, and knives, together with pans, cradles, picks, and all the other paraphernalia requisite for mining. It is well, doubtless, for miners of a certain class to provide themselves at home with all the necessary implements, that is, if they are persons with some means; but unless |