THE CONFUSION OF 1852, 1853, 1854 369 



were mainly reserved for business stores and public buildings. At 

 one time there was not a log of European timber left in the market, 

 and, while overdue ships from the Baltic were daily prayed for, 

 some of the idle vessels in the bay were chartered to bring cargoes 

 of hardwood and palings from Tasmania. One enterprising firm 

 managed to place a most profitable order in Singapore, whence 

 over two hundred houses of the native cedar came to hand, only 

 requiring to be put together by any rough carpenter. Within the 

 limits of Emerald Hill and its adjoining suburb of Sandridge a 

 fancy was developed for corrugated-iron buildings, which even 

 extended to churches and chapels, some of which have survived for 

 half a century. The trend of desire amongst this motley crowd 

 was to make a fortune as soon as possible and " go home ". Hence 

 all the hurry and rush centred round what were regarded as tem- 

 porary make-shifts, not coveted as the life-long nest, but, at any 

 rate, a decided advance on the tent with its al fresco cookery and 

 denial of privacy. So by the winter of 1853 the better class of the 

 denizens of Canvas Town had found more congenial quarters, and 

 the residue was such a squalid lot that new arrivals gave it a discreet 

 avoidance, the tradesmen forsook it, and by the beginning of 1854 

 the area of the deserted camp that had temporarily sheltered over 

 20,000 persons was only traceable by a thick deposit of battered 

 provision tins and broken bottles. In its latter days it became 

 a great nuisance to the people who had built in the neighbourhood, 

 and a source of continual trouble to the police. 



The early months of 1853 saw the waste, the confusion and 

 the mismanagement of the import business at its maximum. The 

 rough platforms that did duty for wharves were flanked by unformed 

 approaches, transformed by the ceaseless traffic of drays into 

 quagmires of mud and slush. Goods from the lighters, which, to 

 add to the confusion, were generally moored two or three abreast, 

 were thrown ashore pell-mell, and many heavy packages, for lack 

 of hoisting gear, were rolled over into the mud, and left exposed to 

 the weather for weeks. The rough handling resulted in great loss 

 to importers from broken packages and scattered contents ; but 

 even the results of this careless handling fell short of what they 

 suffered by flagrant plunder. While it cost nearly as much for 

 VOL. i. 24 



