68 Voyage of the Novara. 



with each month, the amount by the end of the year having 

 reached 240,044 oz., worth £871,652. The following year 

 the amount extracted was 4,247,657 oz., value £14,866,799. 



The crowd of gold-seekers and adventurers, attracted by 

 the discovery, was something tremendous. From the com- 

 mencement of Sept. 1851, when 29 men were engaged in wash- 

 ing at Anderson's Creek, to the end of December, only four 

 mouths, the population of the diggings reached 20,300 ; in 

 1852 they numbered 53,500, in 1853 75,626. 



Shortly after the discovery of the gold-fields, the Colonial 

 Government appointed special officers, the well-known "Gold 

 Commission," to watch over these improvised settlements. 

 They published " Regulations for the management of the gold- 

 fields," and sold licenses, at 20s. or 40s. according to yield, 

 for the privilege of digging within certain limits ; the local- 

 ities most in favour being Ballarat, Mount Alexander, Castle- 

 main, Sandhurst, Beechworth, and Heathcote. 



The gold obtained in 1852 was valued at from 58s. to 60s. 

 per ounce. The banks made advances at the rate of from 

 40s. to 55s. per oz., or exchanged the gold-dust at from 8^ to 

 10 per cent, discount for coined money. The freight was 4J(/. 

 per oz. In 1858 the value of the ounce had risen at the 

 " diggings" to from 70s. to 77s., and the discount had fallen 

 to 1 per cent., and the Insurance Company charged for gold 

 transport a premium of from H to 2\ per cent. 



Since that period gold has repeatedly been discovered in 

 fresh localities of the adjoining colony of Victoria, the "yield" 



