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A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



In Victoria, gold-mining has continued to flourish since the discovery of the metal 

 there, and the total yield of that colony up to 1889 is quoted at 56,282,014 ounces, 

 valued at ,225, 128,056. The deepest shaft in the colony, Lansell's, at Bendigo, is 

 down over 2,640 feet. In New South Wales, gold-fields ' have been opened up 



in many places from 

 the extreme north to 

 the extreme south, and 

 even to the far north- 

 west, but none to equal 

 Ballarat or Bendigo. 

 Gold was discovered 

 in Queensland in July, 

 1858, at Canoona, a 

 place about thirty-five 

 miles d.istant from 

 Rockhampton. The usual " rush " from the settled 

 districts of Eastern Australia set in, and the field 

 soon became over-crowded, so that considerable dis- 

 tress ensued, which the Government was called upon 

 to relieve. About nine years later, the Government 



decided to encourage the search for gold in the colony, and with that object offered 

 rewards ranging as high as ,,1,000 for the discovery of workable fields. Several fields 

 were opened up, the well-known Gympie District, a little more than one hundred miles 

 beyond Brisbane, being among them. A nugget Aveighing one hundred pounds, and worth 

 ,4,000, was found here just below the surface. Since then gold-mining has developed in 

 the colony, and has been actively carried on at Gympie, Clermont, Rockhampton, Gladstone, 

 the Hodgkinson, Charters Towers, Nonnanby, the Palmer, Ktheridge and other fields. The 

 famous Mount Morgan mine, which has been already described in dealing with Queens- 

 land, is- the peculiar boast of the colony in this connection. The yield of gold from 

 1867 to 1889 from the Queensland mines reached 6,827,888 ounces, valued at about 

 twenty-four million pounds sterling. South Australia has not been distinguished in the 

 same degree as other colonies; though in 1888, 16,763 ounces were raised, nearly doubling 

 the yield of 1886. Copper and silver-lead occupy the place of gold-mining in that colony. 

 In Western Australia gold has been met with in several places, but until 1886 not 

 in quantities sufficient to pay for working, though the Yilgarn District is now one of great 

 promise. The Government ' has offered a reward of .500 for the discovery of a payable 

 gold-field within three hundred miles of a declared port, and active search has been 

 prosecuted for some time past. In- Tasmania gold-mining has not been inactive. For 

 1889 the gold was 32,332 ounces, valued at about ,120,000. The northern portion of 

 the Island is the richest in this particular, and the Tamar River District has produced 

 the largest finds. In 1883, a nugget weighing a little over 243 ounces was found near 

 Corinna, Whyte River. From 1876 to 1889 the total quantity of Tasmanian gold unearthed 

 was 565,174 ounces. The actual discovery of gold in New Zealand dates from 1861, 

 when a Mr. Gabriel Read found indications at Tuapeka, Otago though reports of 



