Young men of sanguine dispositions read
the startling amounts of gold shipped from the colonies, they think of
the "John Bull Nugget" and other similar prizes, turn a deaf ear when
you speak of blanks, and determiinately overlook the vast amount of
labour which the gold diggings have consumed.
Whenever I meet with this
class of would-be emigrants, the remarks of an old digger, which I once
over heard, recur to my mind. The conversation at the time was
turned upon the subject of the many young men flocking from the "old
country" to the gold-fields, and their evident unfitness for them.
"Every young man before paying his passage money," said he, "should take
a few days' spell at well-sinking in England; if he can stand that
comfortably, the diggings won't hurt him."
Many are sadly disappointed on arriving in Victoria, at being unable to
invest their capital or savings in the purchase of about a hundred
acres of land, sufficient for a small farm. I have referred to this
subject before, but cannot resist adding some facts which bear upon it.
By a return of the LAND SALES of Victoria, from 1837 to 1851, it
appears that 380,000 acres of land were sold in the whole colony; and
the sum realized by Government was 700,000 pounds. In a return published
in 1849, it is stated that there were THREE persons who each held singly
more land in their own hands than had been sold to all the rest of the
colony in fourteen years, for which they paid the sum of 30 pounds
each per annum. Yet, whilst 700,000 pounds is realized by the sale of
land, and not 100 pounds a-year gained by LETTING three times the
quantity, the Colonial Government persists in the latter course, in spite
of the reiterated disapprobation of the colonists themselves; and by one
of the last gazettes of Governor La Trobe, he has ordered 681,700 acres,
or 1,065 square miles, to be given over to the squatters. The result of
this is, that many emigrants landing in Victoria are compelled to turn
their steps towards the sister colony of Adelaide. There was a family
who landed in Melbourne whilst I was there. It consisted of the
parents, and several grown-up sons and daughters. The father had held a
small tenant farm in England, and having saved a few hundreds,
determined to invest it in Australian land. He brought out with him
many agricultural implements, an iron house, &c.; and on his arrival
found, to his dismay, that no less than 640 acres of crown lands could
be sold, at a time, at the upset price of one pound an acre. This was
more than his capital could afford, and they left for Adelaide. The
expenses of getting his goods to and from the ships, of storing them,
of supporting his family while in Melbourne, and of paying their
passage to Adelaide, amounted almost to 100 pounds.
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