For Those Who Wish To Invest Small Sums In Goods For Australia, Boots
And Shoes, Cutlery, Flash Jewellery, Watches, Pistols (Particulary
Revolvers), Gunpowder, Fancy Articles, Cheap Laces, And Baby-Linen
Offer Immense Profits.
The police in Victoria is very inefficient, both in the towns and on
the roads.
Fifteen persons were stopped during the same afternoon
whilst travelling on the highway between Melbourne and St. Kilda. They
were robbed, and tied to trees within sight of each other - this too in
broad daylight. On the roads to the diggings it is still worse; and no
one intending to turn digger should leave England without a good supply
of fire-arms. In less than one week more than a dozen robberies
occurred between Kyneton and Forest Creek, two of which terminated in
murder. The diggings themselves are comparatively safe - quite as much
so as Melbourne itself - and there is a freemasonry in the bush which
possesses an irresistible charm for adventurous bachelors, and causes
them to prefer the risk of bushrangers to witnessing the dreadful
scenes that are daily and hourly enacting in a colonial town. Life in
the bush is wild, free and independent. Healthy exercise, fine scenery,
and a clear and buoyant atmosphere, maintain an excitement of the
spirits and a sanguineness of temperament peculiar to this sort of
existence; and many are the pleasant evenings, enlivened with the gay
jest or cheerful song, which are passed around the bush fires of
Australia.
The latest accounts from the diggings speak of them most encouragingly.
Out of a population of 200,000 (which is calculated to be the number of
the present inhabitants of Victoria), half are said to be at the
gold-fields, and the average earnings are still reckoned at
nearly an ounce per man per week.
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