CHAPTER I. 

 THE GOLDPIELDS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 



IN a previous chapter it has been shown that vague rumours of 

 gold discoveries in Australia were current long before 1851. As 

 far back as 1839 Count Strzeleoki reported, in a letter to Captain 

 Philip King, R.N., that he had found grains of gold in silicate, 

 and although he had been unable to trace the veins, he was satisfied 

 that they indicated the country to be auriferous. Two years later 

 the Rev. W. B. Clarke, of Sydney, produced some pieces of quartz 

 impregnated with gold, which he had found in the ranges near 

 Parramatta, but he was urged by the Governor not to make his 

 discovery public. Again in 1844 Sir Roderick Murchison, on purely 

 scientific grounds, based upon his knowledge of the geological for- 

 mation of the country, predicted the existence of gold in Australia. 

 The reasons which delayed for ten years the development of so 

 important a factor in the country's wealth are not far to seek. 

 When the discoveries of Hargraves had plunged the Colonies into 

 wild excitement, it became necessary for the pioneering speculators 

 to vindicate themselves. The explanation of Count Strzelecki covers 

 all the others: "I was warned," he writes, "of the responsibility 

 I should incur if I gave publicity to the discovery, since, as the 

 Governor argued, by proclaiming the Colonies to be gold regions, 

 the maintenance of discipline among 45,000 convicts, which New 

 South Wales, Tasmania and Norfolk Island contained, would be- 

 come almost impossible, and unless the penal code should be amended 

 at home, transportation would become a premium upon crime, and 

 cease to be a punishment ". Therefore the Count, and others who 

 had like experience, deferred to the wishes of the authorities, much 

 as they were opposed to their private interests. 



VOL. II. 1 



