Worcester Daily Spy

Worcester Daily Spy.
From the National Intelligencer.
The Gold Mania.
We have met nowhere so striking, we might say
revolting pictures as are presented in the annexed
extracts of the awful scenes exhibited at the gold
diggings by the furious strife of men for the precious
ore. The poet had witnessed nothing like this when
he spoke of the auri sacra fames. The extracts are
from letters published in the Inverness Courier, which
that paper states were from respectable people who
had emigrated from that quarter of Scotland to Aus-
tralia. This journal vouches for the authenticity of
the documents. The following is from a letter dated
Melbourne, Sept. 6:

"Things will not last forever in this way. There
will be an outbreak here before many years. Noth-
ing but separation from England is talked of. Thou-
sands of Yankees and Californians are swarming in
every week, and thousands of the riff-raff of all the
world. The country is in a fearful state for want of
protection, and robberies and murders are committed
with impunity. I sleep every night with a pair of
pistols under my pillow, my father's big sword hung
by my bed head, and also an American bowie-knife
under my pillow. Our house, to be sure, is in a lone-
ly and romantic situation, and is thus liable to at-
tack at any time of night, but we do not like leaving
it to come and live in this vile Melbourne."

In another letter, the same writer speaks as fol-
lows:

"It would be utterly impossible to give you any
idea of the state of things in Melbourne now. It is
such as the world never saw before, and perhaps
never will again. With thousands arriving every
day from England, California, America, &c., we
have the same number of houses in Melbourne that
we had when the population was only about 24,000,
before the gold discovery. You may think what it
must be now. A complete wilderness of tents has
sprung up all around the city, in which all the most
hardened villains in the colony have their haunts,
and through which it is not safe to walk in broad
day light. The whole interior of the country is com-
pletely overrun with bands of bush-rangers, mounted,
armed, and thoroughly organized. The murders and
and cruelties they practice on their victims are fear-
ful. They perform their exploits quite in the same
style as the old banditti; however, they sometimes
get caught. A party of them, while prowling about
the main overland road from Mount Alexander to Ad.
elaide, in South Australia, stopped to rest and re-
fresh themselves at a shepherd's hut, and there open-
ly stated that they were lying in wait for a party of
diggers who were returning with a large quantity of
gold. Nothing was seen of them for two days, when
two of them returned, one so fearfully burnt all over
his body that he died in a few hours; the other also
died from the effect of a gun-shot wound. The oth-
er three of the gang were missing. A few days af-
ter the burnt remains of several men were found a
short distance on the road, and it ultimately turned
out that the party they had intended to have robbed
had overpowered them, and taken a fearful revenge
by burning them to death. The men were all old
convicts. Is not this a practical illustration of the
evils inflicted on these colonies by the continuance
of the transportation system? But 'there's a good
time coming,' and it is to be continued, why the
sooner the colonies are independent the better. They
are already ripe for it. I have no hesitation in say-
ing that the gold diggings have hastened the ap-
proach of that event by 50 years. It is not to be
supposed that a country which can export twenty
millions sterling per annum in gold dust will long
submit to be made the sink hole of England. How-
ever, it is no use talking more about that subject.

"I am writing this in my office, which is splen-
didly situated, being a very high room, and hav-
ing a view of about twenty miles down the Port
Philip Bay, so that I can see every ship and
steamer that comes in, and as I have a full view
of the telegraph station, I can tell at a glance
what part of the world they are from. Whilst I
am writing, there are three large ships coming in
from London, two from Liverpool, one from Bris-
tol, one from the Cape of Good Hope, one from
New York, two from San Francisco, and a new
fleet of traders between here and the neighboring
colonies—all crowded with passengers for the gold
diggings. This will give you some idea of the
rate at which our population is daily increasing,
and this is only the commencement of it. This
is not only my opinion of the state of things; it is
that of every sober and reflecting man in the col-
ony, from the Governor downwards. Every day
flour is rising by jumps of $5 per ton at a time.
It is now $35 a ton; tomorrow, in all probabili-
ty, it will be $50. Our only hope is in America,
from our friends, the Yankees. Any one ship-
ping flour now, would make an immense fortune.
Of our own growth, there will be little or none
this year. In addition to this, our social condi-
tion is fearful; only fancy bodies of armed men
rushing into the shops and gold offices in broad
daylight, shooting at the owner, and making off
with the spoil! As for stirring out after dark, it
is madness."