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vtowa 28 ,1852. TgE gfl&R^OJ? FREEDOM. ^
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{Abridged from the British Quarterly Rev...
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lite Itra % $sk Sipip
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Tub annexed extracts, which are selected...
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Another Swindler prom ILur.—A few days a...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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United States. Our American Corresponden...
The bhe blackened hull of the Henry Clay has now been got out tithe the water entirely . Nothing having the appearance of the 23 S ofesof dead bodies was found . . On Saturday the captain en-Kid hid into sureties to meet the charge of manslaughter pending iinstinst him . to Vears ' ears . are entertained of a general Indian war-. A dispatch m \ % Washington , dared August says : —
Let Letters from the officers of the United States Army on the ntieiitiers of . Texas , and in New Mexico , to the War Departcnt , at , say a general Indian war is apprehended , and they taanaand that the army be put in a war condition , with horses , ,,, itt , inthe Quartermaster ' s Department . There is but little ubt ibt this- information is correct , and that Congress will act ¦ on i-wi it by making much larger army appropriations than they luld . uld . otherwise have made . The Camananches and other In-„ ns « ns . are likely to give us a world of trouble . ' AUSTRALIA AND ITS WEALTH .
Vtowa 28 ,1852. Tge Gfl&R^Oj? Freedom. ^
vtowa 28 , 1852 . TgE gfl & R ^ OJ ? FREEDOM . ^
{Abridged From The British Quarterly Rev...
{ Abridged from the British Quarterly Review ) . W < We hare often of late amused ourselves with imaginmg one on our quiet , plodding great-great grandfathers , of the prosperiis tts times of George II ., falling asleep some hundred years ago , ; e xe the beauty in the iairy tale , and awaking , refreshed with s Is long slumber , some morning in the year 1852 . How overhelielming would be his astonishment at ' the many nnheard-of , n-ta-thought of objects , which on every hand would claim his otiotice ! Passing over the surprise which the altered appearance TtFthe house , the furniture—above all , the many domestic appliaenees unknown a century ago—how would the very newspaper
f 1 f the present day astound him ! These huge sheets , three imimes the size of the London fgwnal or the Daily Advertiser , vever Which perchance he had fallen asleep—those giant pages ! iVWhat can they contain ? There' is the report of the Money vlalarkets , Consols , Long Annuities , Bank Stock—these are hnhmiliar enough ; but " Steam-boat Companies , " what are they ? *? Railway Shares , " what are they ? " Mining Shares ;"—this s s more intelligible , for our great-great grandfathers were not prproof against the seductions of " mining property . " And then , ththe " Anglo-California , " the " Agua Fria , " the " gurra Burra , " tithe " Cohre Copper Mine , " the " South Australian , " where are tlthese strangely-named mines ? to what countries do they
be-Mong ? But what are these closely-printed shipping a , dyertiseaments , filling column after column in front of the large paper ? ¦ " ¦ " Steam to Bombay , " " Steam to . Calcutta "—Calcutta ! that sismali factory ; scarcely thought of until Colonel Clive went over , stand yet a dozen advertisements of steam vessels , and " line , of packets" thither . And , " Direct to California , " " Steam to ^ California , , J that ultima , thule of Spanish America , scarcely Iknown , even by name ! But what is this , strange as it must seem , to the two columns and a half of advertisements , allpoint-. lug to that unknown region , Australia ? " For Sidney direct , " " for Adelaide direct , " " for Melbourne , Geelong , Port Phillip , Hobart Town , " and still Australia , Australia , meeting the eye m each . Australia ! what country can this be ? The Hudson
Bay Company had lately sent home wondrous stories how far their enterprising hunters had penetrated iuto the American wildernesses ; and Lord Anson had , within the last few years , " put a girdle round the earth ; " but Australia—where can it be ? He turns to the map of the world , not " not the map of the world with the latest discoveries , " published by John Senex , in the year 1744 , with its wide wastes of ocean in the south , and - ~ - terra incognita" inscribed on regions where now are populous < elties—nay , " where steam and the rail find a place ; nay , not to : that well-worn old map , for it is useless now , but to Wyld ' s .
Truly , if he has slumbered , the spirit of discovery has not . Look at these countless cities , stretching westward , into the American" wilderness , beyond the boundary of the Mississippi ! Look at the clusters of island studding the South Pacific ! Look at that fifth continent , that new found world in the far south , pur very antipodes . This is Australia , and thither are thousands flocking , fox Australia could yield a home to the surplus populasiou of all Europe , and still " present wide tracts of fertile land crying aloud for tillers of her fields , and reapers of her abundant harvests !
A singular laud is Australia ; fertile , healthful , and , m many parte , beautiful ; but still , as though in right of its antipodal position , looking very much like the world turned upside down to the European visitant Eow different are its indigenous productions , animal and vegetable ; how strange its kangaroo , its ornithoryncus , and that paradox of Horace , its black swan J Its < $ am-tree forests , too , with " the foliage so thin and pendulous , " that when the sun is overhead , one rides through the bush almost as utterly unsheltered as if there had been no trees ;" contrasted with those which were a kind of myrtle , near two hundred feet highand twenty or thirty in girth , and cast so
, deep a shadow at noontide , that " it was literally the nemorem noctem of the poet" But what are those to " the absolute inversion of the seasons in these Austral portions of the globe ?" As our pleasant traveller Colonel Mundy remarks , " brimful ot home associations , how strange it is to find May-day , the festival of young Flora , falling iu autumn , and to see Jaek-m-the-Green " dancing about , clothed m the sere and yellow leaf . Guy Faux looks terribly out of season , and out of countenance , toiling through the streets ( as 1 saw him doing on the 5 th Oi J \ oand duswith
vember , 1848 ) in a terrific sirocco of hot wind ^ the thermometer at 100 in the shade . But , above all , ( Jurist aias ! Sitting in a thorough draft , clad in a Holland blouse , you mav see men and boys dragging from the neighbouring bush piles of greenstuff ( oak branches in fnllleaf and acorn , and a handsome shrub , with a pink flower and a pale green leal , the * Christmas' of Australia ) for the decoration of churches and dwellings , stopping every fifty yards to wipe their perspiring brows . " This is whimsical enough : but it really appears as though a revised edition of the poets , ancient as well as modern ,
will be needed for Australia . , The climate of Hew South Wales aud of Western and Southern Australia as well , is , however , very line . There are few cloudy days , and none of that uncertainty of weather which so greafly diminishes the pleasures of an English summer . To use the words of our lively traveller , " A fine day is a matter of course ; sunshine is the rule , clouds the exception ; " and , strangely , too , » o one appears to fear the sun , even at midsummer . Masons blaze for ht ten hours
and bricklayers , exposed to its full eigor a dar , seem to suffer little inconvenience . The drought and the consequent dry , parching air , are the greatest drawbacks . out " still it is a glorious climate ; glorious in its visible beauty , glorious in its freedom from lethal disorders ; pncelessm respect to this latter feature , in the eyes of those who have known what it is to serve in countries where death multiform rides on the wind , lurks in the forest or swamp , or riots in the crowded
eitr . " Whatever may be the comparative prosperity of the towns , hi a new country like Australia , it is the country that otters the chief sources of abundand wealth , and for tniar-
{Abridged From The British Quarterly Rev...
" The term squatter , inelegant as \ t may appear , is , an official term in this colony . But it is applied to a , ( l iffercp . t class ! from that to which it belongs in America , whence it is borrowed . The squatter of America is generally a sruaj ft farmer or labouring man , -with as mu . ch .. capital as he can carry in an old stocking , who , wandering beyond the limits of the district surveyed by government , and . consequently open to , sale , be sat (( own , or squatted , ou wild land , as the " buffalo or the mouse might do , with as great a right , and greater , to its , occupancy , and no more liable to destraintfor rent than his quadruped , neighbour on the
pramtJ . As the frontier of the state extends , and the surveyor approaches his ' farm , ' the , squatter either removes to fresh 4 iggins , ' pr , taking advantage of the right of preemption , purchases , for the fixed , price qf % dollar and a quarter an acre , as much of his original squattage . as he may need or can afford to make his own . I have lodged with , an American thus situated near the head-quarters , of the , Mississippi . His hut , built of substantial logs , cut . from the . ' oak-opening , ' or grove , on the > edge of which he was located , looked over a wide , expanse of rolling prairie as far as the eye could range , dotted only with
occasional clumps of timber . " His herds , therefore , however far dispersed , were still within his ken , and . needed no further care than , that of Jiim ? self and sons . How different from the forest pastures of Australia ! lie was but . twenty-two miles from / a navigable lake , communicating with the St . Lawrence ,, and the same distance from his market , a small frontier town ... ... Such are the squatters of the far west , and such were some of the original squatters of this colony . " But in Australia , at present , —
r or the purposes of sqatting , the . waste lands ( a term very improperly and imprudently given to the splendid territorial inheritance held by the crown , as trustee for the public ) are divided into three classes of the settled , the intermediate , and the unsettled districts . In the settled , the lease is enjoyable for one year only in the intermediate , for eight years ; in the unsettled , or ultra-frontier lands , for fourteen years , The rent is £ 10 per annum for a ' run' capable of carrying 4 , 000 sheep , or 640 head of cattle or horses . The runs are not open ,
to purchase during the lease , except hy the lessee . On the expiration of a lease , it . is competent for government to put up all or any part of the land for sale , the lessee having the right of pre-emption at its fair value , which shall never be less than , £ 1 per acre . The assessment on stock is 3 | d , for horses , 3 | d , for cattle , | d . for sheep per head ...... The English reader must understand that the lessees of crown lands , the squatters , are debarred by law from cultivating any part of their rims , except for the consumption of their families and establishments . Immense tracts , therefore , must remain untenanted by the plough , and continue to be primeval deserts . "
Although it seems difficult to , understand why agriculture on a large scale should be thus prohibited ,, the advantages to the Australian colonies from the consequent extension of what our author calls "the pastoral interests , " have been great . ' . ' The honour of originating the Australian wool trade is due to Mr , John Macarthur , " who , going to England about 1803 , displayed samples of wool grown by himself in New South Wales , to some brokers , and " who , foreseeing the advantages to be derived from so important a branch of commerce , obtained for him a special grant of land , and a number of assigned servants . " Thus was laid the foundation of what bids fair to become the staple of the colony , the Australian wool trade .
The English reader , accustomed to the limited fanning of his native land , must feel astounded at the gigantic scale of the farming establisnmentshere , especially of tlie sheep-owners . The proprietor of Coombing— -an elegant country seat , with a fine back-ground of hills , weeded to their summit—Mr . Iccdy , has an estate consisting of 50 , 0 . 0 , 0 . acres , '• ' with hundreds of thousands of acres of pasture rented from the crown , 25 , 000- sheep 3 , 000 head of cattle , and some 3 . 00 horses . ; " while " there are about 45 miles of substantial three-railed fencing on the property ! " This immense establishment is , however , outdone by that of Mr . Clark , who was originally a butcher at Sydney .
" In Van Diemen ' s Land , he has already purchased 50 , 000 acres , part' from the crown , and part from private persons . This season he informed me he had sheared , in New South Wales , 90 , 000 , and in Van Diemen ' s Land , 40 , 000 sheep , and had sent to England this year 1 , 500 bales of wool , which at £ 20 a bale , gives £ 30 , 000 In the shearing season he is compelled to collect at his head stations , about fifty or sixty roving roaring , rowdy blades—wild hands when idle , but good at a clip . ' On these occasions he takes care to be present himself . "
The fine quality of the Australian wool may be judged from the statement , that Mr . Clarke had sent home a fieeee weighings 27 lbs ., the growth of as many months , from one sheep , the staple of which was 21 inches long . The proprietor of " Salisbury Court" —how English , indeed how old English , is this name— " a true grazier grandee of New South Wales , " also employs about a huddred pair of lianas , pays in wages and rations not less than £ 3 , 000 , and was in 185 , 1 assessed for 90 , 000 sheep . Although , as may be fairly supposed , there are not many Australian settlers possessing such more than patriarchal wealth in flocks and herds , still the general amount of the sheep at the .
stations , as they are called , judging from advertisements , seem to range from 6 . 000 to 15 , 000 . Renting the sheep with or without the pastures , is growing into a common practice , especially in this colony , Victoria . The lesee pays so much per annum for 1 , 000 sheep ( £ 50 to £ 80 say ) . He gets the wool and the increase of the flocks ; and , at the termination of the lease he delivers back the station with the stock , equal in condition , age , and numbers . At present , the price of a good sheep , station , with the stock upon it , ineiu . ling the run and the premises , appears to be about 10 s . a head . Sheep , however , have been sold as low as Is . 6 d . a head , but Colonel Mundy considers the standard minimum value now to be 4 s . or 5 s . It is
in this district that sheep-fawning appears to be earned on with the greatest success . The natives are rarely troublesome ; indeed , in some cases they have been employed as shepherds for four or five years past , and at one station have had charge of 6 , 000 sheep . " The native dog has been nearly extirpated by the liberal use of strychnine , and instead of the " old practice of yarding the sheep at night , they are now encamped round the the hut of the stockman . A grand saving in wages is thus made ; for one man , or an old couple , can take charge of one or two thousand sheep . In another portion of his work Col .
Monday tells us that the habit of engaging married couples for " the bush , " as shepherds or herd-keepers , is growing rapidly into use , for even children are found of service in carrying rations to the men in charge of the flocks . The wages in 1851 were high ; £ 15 to £ 25 for shepherds , stockmen , and draymen , while watchmen and hut-keepers—offices which might well be filled by men too old for severe labour—obtained £ 15 per annum , The usual ration is lOlbs . meat , lOlbs . bread , £ lb . tea , and fife , sugar . per week . During the busy season a handsome addition is made to their wages ; lodging is always gratis , and
{Abridged From The British Quarterly Rev...
where milk is plentiful , a supply is furnished to the ^ * ovn llft * . The shepherds of Australia , it may well be supposeo . - "JJ " Arcadian" either in their tastes or habits . " Tho shepnv ¦> tend their flocks to their pastures by day , and bring them honu at mght . The hut-keeper cooks for the men , receives the sheep at mght , and is answerable for them until the next morning " the shepherd , after he has led out his fleecy charge , sits lazily enough hi the shade , not of a » spreading beech , " but of a ffuni tree , enjoying his pipe-that is , if he be able to obtain its unclassical concomitant of tobacco-but more generally amusinohimself wi h playing on the Jew ' s harp or accordion . The sale indeed , of both these substitutes for musicColonel Mtim . tells 1
, y II « is immoi-ieo U-ft ,, „ 1 J ... 3 _ -i . .. . ' * J -V *" us , is immense-- " five hundred accordions , and fifty siossoi Jews harps , being considered small investments by one vessel . A shepherd has been known to walk two hundred miles from a distant station . of the interior to purchase one of lhem at the nearest township" This " piping" life of the shephSs however contemned by the cattle-keeper , who , mounted on a spirited horse rides for many miles through the bush for the purpose of collecting the herds . This employment , which has somewhat of the excitement of the chase , is a very fkvourito one , not only with tllQ men , but actually with their Lsw one , urn omywim tne men , but actually with their masters
. W mJk £ 7 i f l hj l ™ Chhl Stra PP «<* ge-tvee hat , his bearded and embrowned visage , his keen , quiet eye . Ihe symbol of his peculiar trade is the sheep . whip-a thick but tapering thong of twelve or fourteen feet , weighing , perhaps , a couple or pounds , affixed to a handle of a foot and a half at most . At the end of to cruel hsh is a ' cracker , ' generally made of a twisted piece of silk handkerchief . The wilderness echoes for miles with the cracks of this terrible scourge , which are fully as loud as the report of a gun . . . . 1 have seen a pewter quart pot all but cut m two by one flank of the sheep whip »
Much attention is paid to cattle , and also to horses , many of which are sent to India , and bring a good price . As there is in Australia " no artificial or stored-up food for winter , or bad seasons , as m Europe , " and as drought often tries the settler , tnoie are now "boiling down establishments" in most of the SSSl ^ tW' 7 Iie ™ Sl f ep' so ™ ti ™ s even cattle , are killed , and the head and fleshy portions being thrown away the remainder is chopped in pieces and thrown into large Sate capable of containing from 16 to 24 oxen , or three times the
X W &? Ti wlthe U k boiled out ' "kimmed off into buckets , and poured E thence into casks , which are shipped JSf ^ V nl 80 v , tlmn 743 ' ^ PamuloOO AhSlfW ^ T" / " ** ' VmlUQi » 8 i 60 ' ^ t / oftai ow . Alas . ' that animal food , so great a luxury to thousands of our countrymen , should have been thus comparatively wasted ! We may mention , ere passing on , that in South Australia , olive oil is beginning to form an article of trade , and that very successful attempts at cult vating the vine have been made in various parts ; indeed , there seems little , doubt but that in a levy years Australia , together with her other produce , will sunns with a very excellent dinner wine . ' " - * ( 2 b oe continued . )
Lite Itra % $Sk Sipip
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Tub Annexed Extracts, Which Are Selected...
Tub annexed extracts , which are selected from Australian papers of recent dates , supply a considerable amount of information which may prove useful to intending emigrants to the Australian diggings .
BELL'S CREEK , BRAID WOOD . Bell's Plat ( the private property part of it ) is turning out very well , and I " calculate" some parties there will make nice fortunes . The other parts of the creek are being a second time dug up , and many companies are doing well . There are some claims turning out their old quantities from 20 oz . to 50 oz a day , and appear to be almost inexhaustible . The drv dW ™< rB nay , aim appear to oe almost inexhaustible . The dry diings
gg are yielding remunerative returns , and as some of them require but little labour , they are very suitable for weak parties The furor in favour of the Little fever has deprived us of pome of our stores , producing a state of things not very agreeable , but we hope to be again re-visited by " the old familiar feces" that supplied us with the necessaries of life . My mates arc calling me to help them to bale out the hole— " All hands to . the pump , " I must therefore say , adieu .
THE LITTLE RIVER . Tlie diggings here are not turning out as successful as was at first anticipated . Nuggetty Point is worked out , but there are some parties doing a fair stroke in a blind creek close to it . As far as'I can ascertain , the average yield of companies of three and four—it usually takes the latter number to work claims—is about an ounce a-day .
TURON . To estimate the pecuniary loss to the Turon diggers of such floods as the last and the previous one is impossible / A number of the race diggers have betaken themselves to the Wallaby Rocks , where , with long-handled shovels , they scoop out the drift ^ matter from the bed of the creek , and make moderate earnings . Others occupy themselves washing the upper earth of their claims , which under other circumstances would be deemed too poor to pay . The fresh deposit from the hills is in some instances paying tolerably well , tlie average earnings so
far as we can ascertain , being from three-fourths to one ounce per day to each party . Another place has been recently discovered , now known as the Poor Man ' s Point , of which we record the singular fact , that whilst a digging party have been making from 30 to 40 ozs ., and in one case as much as 52 ozs . per day , ^ no other claim has been opened which would remunerate the labour expended upon it . One thing appears pretty evident from the recent discoveries , as well as from the circumstance that every flood brings with it a new deposit from the hills , that not only are the Turon diggings not exhausted , but that the Turon country is not thoroughly explored .
Another Swindler Prom Ilur.—A Few Days A...
Another Swindler prom ILur . —A few days ago , at the Mansion House , Wm . . Tim . Ingram , an elderly man , who resides at West Ham , was brought before the Lord Mayor , charged with having defrauded Mr . Thomas Hall , of No . 103 , Bishopsgate-street , liiiendraper and haberdasher , of goods to the amount of £ 58 10 s . 4 ^ d . . Mr . Lloyd , the solicitor to the
prosecutor , in briefly stating fhe circumstances , which were borne out by evidence , represented that the property had been obtained under the false pretence that the prisoner was a contractor and a creditor to the government , and that he was about to receive the immediate payment of a large sum o £ money due to him from the Board of Ordnance , there being no pretence whatever for making such a statement . The prisoner , who said he would show the matter in quite a different light , was then , remanded
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Citation
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Northern Star (1837-1852), Aug. 28, 1852, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/ns2_28081852/page/3/
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