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The Adventures of a Surveyor in New Zealand and the Australian Gold Diggings

Chapter VII

page 61

Chapter VII.

But scarce observed, the knowing and the bold
Fall in the general massacre of gold;
Wide-wasting pest! that rages unconfined.
And crowds with crimes the records of mankind.—Johnson.

After some time I again went to Melbourne, where I learnt that a brother whom I had not seen for four years had been staying at the house I usually put up at when in town, and had only left that morning for the diggings at Friar’s Creek. I started after him at three o’clock the next morning, and stayed two days at the diggings looking for him, but without success. I then returned with my blankets on my back, walking a distance of eighty-three miles in two days.

I found Melbourne quieter than before, although people were still flocking in. Many had come down from the diggings disappointed, and settled to business in Melbourne. The police force was better organized, still there were some bad among them. I heard of several who had joined the force in a state of destitution, and who in a few months were in possession of house property at Melbourne; which could not have occurred in the regular course of things. It is currently reported that some of them are in connection with bushrangers, and that, when ra robbery is being committed in one part of their beat, they take care to be at another. The town was more crowded than ever; lodging-houses were full, with eight or ten persons sleeping in each room; and I should think that five hundred wood and brick houses had sprung up since my previous visit. The streets had now quite a different appearance, being lined with Jews’ shops, hung out with old clothes, &c.; in front of which stood some of the descendants of Abraham, offering, like the magician, to give you new hats for old ones; whilst others perambulated the streets, with a suspicious dirtylooking bag, shouting “Old clo!” Emigrants who arrive with a large outfit and little money stand in a spot called page 62 “Rag Fair,” in the midst of their pile of clothes, &c., selling them to passers-by at an AWFUL SACRIFICE; and here several worthy Israelites were arrested, hawking watches, and other things, pretending to be newly-arrived emigrants. They pull out a watch, declaring it the only one in their possession, while at the same time they have half a dozen more in their pockets, which they sell, one after another, on the same pretence. They are fined, when caught, for hawking without a licence.

There are swarms of public-houses, some of which clear 14,000l. per annum. The diggers, on coming down to town for a “spell,” amuse themselves during the day by taking what they call a walk; that is, they go the round of half the public-houses in Melbourne, and take two or three “nobblers” of raw brandy at each, there being no amusement whatever in the town in the daytime. At night they go to the theatre or one of the circuses, where smoking is allowed; after which they bring home to their lodgings three or four bottles of wine or brandy; and if any unlucky fellow has gone home and got to bed before them, they wake him up, or, if he is unwilling to join them, they pull him out of bed, and make him assist in finishing the liquor: not till that is accomplished do they “turn in;” and if that has not succeeded in making them intoxicated, they fetch in more. When they turn out in the morning, their appetite failing, they go in a body and get a “nobbier,” and then come back to breakfast, when the same routine succeeds; and this is what a digger calls recruiting his health. The government get about 7000l. per annum from drunkards’ fines.