16 Inaugural Lecture 1889 



tribes. It would be difficult to say how long this might have 

 lasted, but for accidental cicrumstances. 



Soon after the discovery of America the Spanish con- 

 quistadores thoroughly explored Mexico, Central America, 

 Peru and the whole west coast of South America, and the 

 determining motive was gold. All these countries were peopled 

 by a civilised and industrious race who were well acquainted 

 with the artistic and industrial uses of the mineral wealth 

 of their country, and the gold and silver treasure was enormous 

 and lay ready to the unscrupulous hand of the conquerors. 

 It was the discovery of gold in possession of the inhabitants 

 that led to the exploration and opening of these populous 

 countries by Europeans; and it was the discovery of gold 

 in 1848 in the soil of California and a few years later in that 

 of Australia that led to the opening up of these vast countries, 

 till then with hardly an inhabitant, but capable when in the 

 hands of civilised people of supporting a population which 

 might rival that of China. 



The immigration, which began with the gold rush, quickly 

 peopled California and the adjacent territories, which proved 

 to have wealth much beyond their hidden metal. But the 

 immigrants were almost all conveyed by sea and landed on the 

 Pacific coast as their forefathers had done on the Atlantic coast. 

 At the date of the Civil War the Eastern and Western States 

 were separated by more than a thousand miles of Prairie and 

 Rocky Mountains, forming a barrier and separation much more 

 complete than an equal width of ocean. So separated were 

 they that at no time during the Civil War or afterwards did 

 the depreciated paper money pass current in California. The 

 bridge was made by the construction of the first trans- 

 continental railway. The inducement to Contractors to make 

 this Railway which passed through such an extent of at that 

 time almost uninhabited country was that of the free grants 

 of a portion of the land for a certain depth along the line, a 

 plan which has since been followed with success in opening 

 other new countries. 



In Australia the want of railways did not make itself 

 so quickly felt because it was long before any considerable 



