May 25, 1857.] AUSTRALIA— GOLD PEODUCE. 453 



If New South Wales has exhibited a diminished supply from 

 most of those tracts which first gave forth their golden abundance, 

 and has only recently been enriched by a small additional quantity 

 derived from a part of Bathurst county, the great coast-chain, 

 bending to the west, and passing from the high level of the 

 Mount Kosciusko of Strzelecki to Victoria, has proved to be charged 

 in certain spots with an amount of gold quite unheard of in any other 

 part of the world.* 



The extraordinary rise of the flourishing colony of Yictoria is the 

 necessary result of such a vast auriferous produce, and the simple 

 fact, that upwards of 125 tons of gold were sent to Britain in the 

 preceding year, exclusive of local use and exportation to other 

 countries, is so astounding, that a few years ago the mind would 

 have been incapable of measuring the effects which such an enormous 

 addition to the symbol of material wealth might produce upon the 

 destinies of the human race. 



Without pretending to statistical acquirements, I formerly ven- 

 tured to contend that, as the scarcity of the precious metals through- 

 out vast portions of the civilized world had long been a growing 

 evil, and that the hoarding of a substance so easily hidden as gold 

 would continue, and even increase, in countries having unsettled 

 governments, so it seemed to me | that, great as the supply might 

 be, it would not be more than sufficient to meet the demand. The 

 dry river-beds of the old world had, in fact, to be filled up with the 

 golden stream ; and experience has now shown us how long it has 

 taken to fill them, and how inadequately they are yet supplied. 



But then comes this question. If the present annual amount of 

 supply from Victoria and California should continue, must not a 

 great depreciation of the precious metal follow ? Now the answer 

 must be shaped in accordance with unquestionable geological and 

 statistical evidence. Judging from experience, all gold-veins in 

 the solid crust of the earth diminish and deteriorate downwards. 



Meeting Brit. Assoc. Adv. of Science, 1849, &c., Trans, of Sections, p. 60; 

 Quarterly Review, vol. Ixxxvii. (1850), p. 429. 



* The total produce of New South Wales in 1856 was 138,823 ozs., whilst the 

 returns from Melbourne for the same year give the enormous amount of 

 125 tons 6 cwt. 6 lbs., or a money value of upwards of 12 millions. My distin- 

 guished friend Sir Charles Nicholson, formerly Speaker of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives at Sydney, informs me that there can be no doubt that gold is surrep- 

 titiously disposed of to a considerable extent (by the Chinese especially) ; so that 

 the actual quantity of the precious metal produced is probably in great excess of 

 that specified in the official tables. 



t Quarterly Review, supra. 



