Governor Latrobe to Lord Grey, the Secretary of State. 10 October 1851.
It is quite impossible for me to describe to your Lordship the effect which these discoveries have had upon the whole community, and the influence which their consequences exercise at this time upon the position and prospects of every one, high and low. The discoveries early in the year in the Bathurst district of New South Wales unsettled the public mind of the labouring classes of all the Australian colonies to a certain extent, and had a marked and immediate influence upon the labour market, and the price of provisions in this colony; still both the distance from the scene of the discovery and the approach of winter were in our favour, a journey to the Bathurst district requiring a degree of decision and preparation which few comparatively of the labouring classes were in a position to meet. The discoveries within our bounds, coming as they do at the close of the wet season, in localities in comparative proximity to our towns, exercise a far wider influence upon our excitable population than did the discoveries in New South Wales upon that colony, under the advantages of a larger population and the greater remoteness of the gold field. Within the last three weeks the towns of Melbourne and Geelong and their large suburbs have been in appearance almost emptied of many classes of their male inhabitants; the streets which for a week or ten days were crowded by drays loading with the outfit for the workings are now seemingly deserted. Not only have the idlers to be found in every community, and day labourers in town and the adjacent country, shopmen, artisans, and mechanics of every description thrown up their employments, and in most cases, leaving their employers and their wives and families to take care of themselves, run off to the workings, but responsible tradesmen, farmers, clerks of every grade, and not a few of the superior classes have followed; some, unable to withstand the mania and force of the stream, or because they were really disposed to venture time and money on the chance, but others, because they were, as employers of labour, left in the lurch and had no other alternative. Cottages are deserted, houses to let, business is at a stand-still, and even schools are closed. In some of the suburbs not a man is left, and the women are known for self-protection to forget neighbours jars, and to group together to keep house. The ships in the harbour are, in a great measure, deserted; and we hear of instances, where not only farmers and respectable agriculturists have found that the only way, as those employed by them deserted, was to leave their farms, join them, and form a band, and go shares, but even masters of vessels, foreseeing the impossibility of maintaining any control over their men otherwise, have made up parties among them to do the same. Fortunate the family, whatever its position, which retains its servants at any sacrifice, and can further secure the wonted supplies for their households from the few tradesmen who remain, and retain the means of supplying their customers at any augmentation of price. Drained of its labouring population, the price of provisions in the towns is naturally on the increase, for although there may be an abundant supply within reach, there are not sufficient hands to turn it to account. Both here and at Geelong all buildings and contract works, public and private, almost without exception, are at a standstill. No contract can be insisted upon under the circumstances In the country your Lordship will easily conceive that, viewing the season at which these circumstances have occurred, and the agricultural and particularly the pastoral interests at stake, that this is the commencement of the shearing season, and that shortly the harvest will call for labour, great embarrassment and anxiety prevails. Convinced as I am that a reaction must very shortly take place, I cannot but be alive to the difficulty and anxiety under which all are labouring, and should have been glad if it had been in any measure in the power of the Government to alleviate it ...
As far as regards the general and popular movement in the first instance, of the violence of which it is in vain for me to attempt to give your Lordship a just idea, I have already observed that doubtless a strong reaction will take place, and that speedily. Let the quantity of gold distributed under the surface of the country be what it may, hundreds who have followed the stream and first impulse, and adventured 'themselves in the gold field, will shortly find that they are physically unfitted for the labour and self-denial which it entails. Large numbers will find that they are equally morally unfitted for it, and will gladly return to the steady gains and comforts of a fixed sphere of labour and home. The unequal distribution of the precious ore under the surface, the great exertion ordinarily required for the search, and the failure of the supply of water which must follow the advance of the season, will all soon produce their effects, and multitudes will be disgusted and disappointed. I have no doubt but a certain amount of distress will follow this excitement, and the rash steps which hundreds have taken in consequence of it. Large numbers not only of the labouring classes but also of clerks, &c., have thrown themselves out of employment, spending their all, if not incurring debt, for an outfit, which, the object failing, can be of little value…
J. Sherer: The Gold-Finder of Australia, pp. 67-8, London, 1853.
At this moment a sound of a crowd of voices was heard round an angle of the creek, where there were a great many diggers at work, and where disputes were taking place at almost every hour of the day. We hastened to the spot, and found that summary vengeance was about being [sic] inflicted upon an individual who had been caught in the act of plundering a neighbouring tent. His face was already covered with blood, his shirt torn open, and his breast exhibiting marks of the severe treatment which, by this time, had been dealt to him. The confusion of the scene was indescribable. Women were shrieking, men shouting, and dogs barking. Some were for tying him to a tree, and lashing him with a rope's end; others, for drowning him - although it would have been difficult to have found enough of water for such a purpose - others for throwing him from a rock on the face of the hill as a salutary warning to all; in short, these unsophisticated ministers of justice made no distinction as to the measure of punishment to be meted out to their victim, but only as to which was the most proper, to deal the most speedily with the crime in which he had been caught. To stem, far less to oppose, the current of an infuriated rabble requires a degree of nerve and courage seldom to be found unbacked by legal authority. Here, however, they were to be found in no other than Bob Raikes, who, with the impulsive power of a lion, plunged into the middle of the crowd, cleared his way up to their victim with the easy strength of a giant, collared him first, and then calmly asked what he had done.
"Plundered a tent!" shouted a dozen voices at once.
"And what do you intend doing with him?" asked Raikes, with a winning calmness, which astonished by the self-command it exhibited.
"Shoot the villain!" cried one.
"Drown him!" cried another.
"A hundred lashes!" cried the third.
"Hang him!" cried a fourth.
"If we do, there is a moral responsibility which, in our singular situation, ought to be considered as far more sacred than any legal one, for it is by the exercise of that moral power rather than any other by which we are all governed here, and which, therefore, ought to be allowed to have fair play, (Hear, hear.) This man, you say, has robbed a tent. (Yes, yes, yes.) Well, is the crime deserving of murder? (A pause, and no reply.) One would judge from your silence, gentlemen, that it is not; but certainly it is deserving of some such punishment as will convince him and others that such misdeeds are not to be done with impunity. Where is the owner of the tent?"
"Here!" cried a voice four or five paces from Raikes.
"Well, what has he stolen?" asked Raikes.
"Nothing; he did not get time," replied the other.
"Well, what shall we do with him?"
"Give the rascal a tight lashing, and let him go," cried the other.
"Yes, yes, yes!" shouted the crowd, and rushed in upon Raikes, who tried in vain to keep them off the culprit as they hurried him to a neighbouring gum-tree, where he was stripped and bound. There the poor fellow had his back whaled with a half-inch rope in such a manner as will make him remember as long as he lives the justice of a crowd, when they take into their own hands the execution of their own laws. When he was let go, he could hardly walk, but managed to hobble out of the scene of his crime and misfortunes, no doubt to seek for the night an asylum in the bush, the refuge alike of the civilised outcast and the uncultivated savage.
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