THE GOLDFIELDS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT 9 



informed the Secretary of State that however suitable the licensing 

 system might be to the conditions of New South Wales, whence 

 it was adopted, " it never can be fully or satisfactorily carried out in 

 this colony ". Yet he adds : " While the Council is fully disposed 

 to condemn the present licensing system, according to which the 

 man who takes thousands from the ground and the man who is 

 totally unsuccessful are presumed to pay alike, it is scarcely inclined 

 to lend efficient aid to the collection of a royalty upon the actual 

 amount of gold realised by the successful adventurer ". 



Such was the deliberate opinion in December, 1851, of the man 

 who during the two following years was denounced as the fountain 

 of all the troubles which arose from the harsh proceedings involved 

 in the collection of the licence fee. Abused by the press and 

 thwarted in the Legislature, he was held responsible by the un- 

 thinking crowd for the arrogance and tactlessness of subordinate 

 servants of the State, many of whom, while possibly detesting the 

 ungracious duty imposed on them, nevertheless carried it out with 

 a brutal insolence that quite justified the eventual turmoil which 

 led, through bloodshed, to reformation. 



How the difficulties which so oppressed Mr. Latrobe were met 

 by legislation, proclamation and regulation must be briefly told. 



When the earliest discoveries of gold were made there was no 

 definite enactment to prevent its appropriation by the finder, though 

 the theory prevailed that it was the property of the Crown. In the 

 winter of 1851 hundreds of people were gathering small golden 

 harvests without let or hindrance. Necessarily, where many were 

 assembled in close contiguity, the greedy, or the strong, or the 

 unscrupulous invaded what others claimed as rights ; hence, quar- 

 relling and violence were of frequent occurrence. 



To afford personal protection and to secure the maintenance 

 of order was the undoubted duty of the Government, and it was 

 properly held to be right that the people to be benefited should pay 

 for that protection. As a step towards such provision it became 

 necessary to warn those who, so far, had been encouraged, and 

 even stimulated by promise of reward, to make the discovery, that 

 they were under a delusion in supposing they had a legal right 

 to keep what they found. On the 15th of August, therefore, a 



