 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
In December 1851 he wrote: These gold discoveries are throwing the whole colony into
confusion. Last week half a ton of gold was brought into Melbourne from the Mount Alexander
Diggings alone, and there are good reasons for believing that the surface ground of a large
portion of the colony is teeming with the precious metal. The consequence is that (to use an old
phrase) "beggars are now set on horseback," and are riding to perdition very fast. The ripe corn
has no one to reap it; servants are leaving their places, clerks the banks and government offices,
policemen their beats, and even tradesmen are shutting up their shops, and leaving a certainty to
embark in all the labour and uncertainty of gold finding. There seems to be an intention among
the denizens of the gold-fields to return to Melbourne and Geelong at Christmas to "enjoy
themselves" during the sacred season. This means that they will give themselves up to the most
brutal inebriety and licentiousness. You will be glad to hear that I am well, and that I am
pursuing the duties of my vast charge with content to myself, and, I trust in God, with profit to
my flock. I hope to visit the far-off regions of the Darling in a month or two. The summer heats
here are scarcely endurable.'
A few months later, however, Mereweather was back in Melbourne, having suffered from 'an
attack of virulent ophthalmis' (inflammation of the eyes), which was accompanied by fever,
weakness and depression. The prescribed cure was some sea-bathing, which seems to have
been effective. He now had time to observe what changes had occurred in Melbourne since the
discovery of gold in Victoria.
94
He wrote, on 4 February 1852: 'About September last the precious metal was found in large
quantites at a place called Ballarat lying to SW of Melbourne about 60 miles. The effect of this
news on Melbourne and Geelong was, as you may suppose, the speedy disappearance of
nearly all the male population. Shops were shut, business, legitimate business, I mean, was
despised; and one thought alone - gold - seemed to usurp the attention of every one, to the
exclusion of all other more exalted considerations. But the gold at Ballarat seemed at last to be
exhausted. Numbers of the disappointed came back weary and ill to their respective
occupations, and everything again assumed a more healthy aspect. Then in November last, a
gold-field was discovered at Mount Alexander, 68 miles to the N of Melbourne, which seems
to be inexhaustible in fertility, and almost boundless in extent.
When I visited that locality on 6 November, with Mr Powlett, about 3,000 people were
working there, but not as I then thought, with any great success. But soon after fresh ground
was broken up, and is now being broken up, yielding enormous quantities of gold, far greater
than have ever been discovered in any equal extent of ground in California. We are glutted with
gold in Melbourne, and ships are leaving here carrying tons of it (two ships have lately left here
bound for London each carrying more than two tons of gold).
'And one prominent feature of this gold-field is, that every one who chooses to work there is
successful. No one makes less than £1 a day, whilst many, and these of the lower classes, have
made £1,600 in three months. You can hardly find a labouring man who has been at the
diggings, who is not worth £100. i have heard of men giving away nuggets of gold to children in
the streets. I knew an instance of a digger who ater paying his bill at an inn, threw the servant
girl who waited, an ounce of gold for herself. I think I am speaking correctly when I say that at
this moment there are hundreds of men of the lowest stamp who are worth £1,000 or £1,800.
In fact all the great prizes have fallen to the lowest... Such prizes account for the massive golden
 |