COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL. 



'37' 



their quiet doors ; a post and telegraph office gives the place a location on the map ; 

 and the deserted " diggings " sleeps in the sun and dreams over its past story, with 

 romantic snatches of which any old resident will still astonish the casual visitor. I Icn-afi.-r, 

 if the conditions favour it, some one will discover that the quartz in the neighbourhood 

 is sufficiently promising to warrant the formation of a company to purchase tin- r< <|uisite 

 reefing- plant, and a 

 new day of prosperity 

 will dawn upon the dis- 

 trict. These are the 

 leading lines of the 

 story of most of the 

 more modern gold- 

 fields. The revival of 

 interest in a decayed 

 " diggings " was accom- 

 panied by an appeal to 

 the public at large to 

 speculate in shares in 

 the companies formed 

 to carry out the pro- 

 posed workings, and 

 in this way what may 

 be called the second 

 great mining fever of 

 Australia was made to 

 appeal in a more gene- 

 ral and comprehensive 

 way than the first, to 

 the whole of the popu- 

 lation. People who had 

 never been on a gold- 

 field in their lives 

 invested largely in 

 claims they never ex- 

 pected to see, and the 

 amount of capital thus 

 put into circulation 

 brought in many places, 

 as it still continues to 



bring, substantial returns from the more modern and more scientific methods that 

 wealthy companies, managed by experienced specialists, and worked with the most 

 improved appliances and machinery, were enabled to bring to bear. 



Copper was heard of in Australia as early as 1827. On the 2Oth April, in that 

 year, copper ore was found at the convict settlement at Macquarie Harbour in Van 



A DIAMOND DRILL AT WORK. 



