Thamanampalli Surekha

thronged the diggings had eaten off the grass on the hills near the creek, and even cropped the shoots from the few shrubs that grew among the roots, stripping every particle of verdure from the ground, and exposing the jagged rocks on the bare surface, thus presenting any thing but a pleasing picture to the eye. Much has been said of the turbulent and criminal character of the colonists congregated at these diggings. However, we shall only speak of the people as we found them. There are a great many highly respectable individuals in the world's estimation among these men, though there is no difference in their appearance generally, the occupation making it convenient to assume the ordinary digger's costume. We invariably found them civil and kind, and we are inclined to suppose that a great deal of what has been said about the insecurity of life and property amongst them, has been made by persons for some particular purpose of their own. No doubt, disorders will from time to time break out among such a body of people gathered together. from all quarters; but feel assured that the great mass are for order and peace, and therefore the government, by the wisdom and liberality of its measures, will have nothing to fear. The question that agitates the minds of all thinking men is, will these great discoveries be for good or for evil? Whatever may be the result, these colonies will have to pass through a fearful trial: agriculture, sheep, and stock have hitherto been the pursuits of the colonists; following these pursuits, they and the colony have prospered in a most remarkable manner, and were going on to still greater prosperity, when gold was discovered to an extent never before heard of-never before even dreamed of; the rogue and vagabond of a month back, as well as the honest hard-working labourer, mechanic, and men accustomed only to small means, who never thought of realising more than a competency, have become capitalists. But so for from decent tradesmen and hard- working labourers becoming dangerous to society by being thus independent and enabled to purchase land, the every opposite of that is more likely to follow. Those who look forward to party feuds between the squatters who have hitherto possessed most influence in the colony, and gold-diggers who may now possess it, will be disappointed, we hope, in their expectations that the whole system of the colonial society will be inverted. They forge that the moment a man, by fortuitous circumstance, is raised in the social scale, his views with regard to wealth are changed, or greatly modified, thus property, which was exposed to attack, would receive the support of those men on their own account. A regular flow of emigration, however, sufficient to supply all employments may be counted upon; and the stockholder, instead of being one day the master and next day the slave of his man, ill-served for ruinously exorbitant wages, as we have heart many say, will have servants at the rate which almost every settle prefers, fair to the employed as well as employer. The large population will consume the fat stock, and the settler will realise a price for the whole carcass, instead of for a portion as at present, and the accumulation of capital, and consequent desire to invest, will cause a demand for stock and stations, and raise their market value, so that the pastoral property of the country instead of being ruined by the gold discovery, will be more easily managed, more productive, and more marketable than ever, if the whole matter is fairly worked. Thinking in this way, we have no apprehensions whatever, in the end, for the interest connected with the land. No doubt much inconvenience may, and probably will, be felt in many places from which labour has been withdrawn; but ultimately those who are unsuccessful, and physically unfit for the work of a miner, will fall back upon the land and improved wages, and by degrees such labour will return to its old quarter. However, during the progress of this change many may be ruined. If the presence of gold is to constitute the El Dorado, here is the real El Dorado. California must admit that its mines are outdone, -that Britain's sun is not set, -that she still possesses within her dominion an inexhaustible store of the coveted metal, that which makes man mad, by inducing him to abandon the basis of his true interest, viz. industry, for that which fevers him, and has a tendency to make him look upon his fellow-men with envy and distrust. Avarice, it is impossible to deny it, is the prevailing passion here, all other passions seem to give way to it; and those passions and vices which tea often are found accompanying it are showing themselves. Our boasted Anglo-Saxon race seems not in this matter superior to those races that have fallen when possessed of that which the folly of man has permitted, by making gold the representative of real property, the only great thing to be desired-the only thing to give power and influence and command of all that man seeks. At this moment the framework of all industrial enterprise, which raised the colony to its present state, is suddenly shaken, The passion for gold has drained away the greater portion of the working population. When you hear the labouring class say-suggested to them by some low, popularity-hunter-speaking of the flock-owners, with an oath, "Oh, they have had their day," one feels sad at reflecting on the possible result of this discovery on society and feeling. This scarcity of labour was severely felt by the stockholders: bullock-drivers, stockmen, and shepherds' wages had doubled in many places where men could be procured, and we heard of instances in which flocks