264 Australian Life 



In the greatest excitement, he turned to the bush- 

 man who accompanied him, and explained the 

 consequences of their find. " I shall be knighted, 

 Bill, and your name will get into the papers. As 

 for our old horse here, when he dies they '11 stuff 

 him and put him in a museum." The prophecy 

 was a lame one, for none of these things hap- 

 pened. But Hargraves earned by his discovery 

 a Government reward of ^10,000 and a Govern- 

 ment position as Commissioner of Crown L,ands. 



When Hargraves' s discovery became known to 

 the outside world, there followed such a rush of 

 immigrants as Australia had long needed and 

 desired. They came from all quarters of the 

 globe, brave, enterprising men well fitted to be 

 the ancestors of a new race. Some of them were 

 little suited to the work of mining, and soon 

 dropped into the callings they had followed before 

 their pilgrimage to Australia. Many settled on 

 the land, or in the towns that grew up about the 

 richest mining fields of the country. Some re- 

 turned in disgust to the Old World, which they 

 had left with such high hope of fortune' s favours. 

 But the access to the population was enormous. 

 Victoria alone gained a quarter of a million peo- 

 ple in five years, and nearly all of them pioneers 

 of the finest type. Younger sons of noble houses 

 rubbed shoulders with enterprising tradesmen, 

 adventurers from every corner of the earth 

 worked side by side with stolid miners from 

 Cornwall and Lancashire. But they all had the 



