WESTGARTH'S VICTORIA. * A LARGE portion of this volume, though appropriate

in " an his- torical and descriptive account" of the colony of Victoria, is not very new in its topics. The foundation, rise, and wonderful pro- gress of the late Australia Felix—its climate, scenery, productions, and aborigines—the squatting system, and the story of the gold- discoveries—have been done in a great variety of forms ; often, indeed, with greater fulness than by Mr. Westgarth. But he brings to his narrative practical knowledge—experience of Colonial life, observation of Colonial nature. His story of the early stages of the colony is obviously from local tradition ; the ac- counts of the climate and the scenery is that of a man who has felt the one and seen the other. His sketch of Colonial politics and legislation, though brief and rather small—for Victoria has had but a few years of either—is animated by an actual know- ledge. The moat entirely original subject is a visit to the Dig- gings ; which has the freshness that follows when Nature sits for her portrait; though late writers, having visited the fields about the same time as our author, have in a measure forestalled some of the particulars. The next best subject to the Diggings for actual transcription is in the chapter headed " Society." It wants the liveliness and feminine appreciation of Mrs. Clacey's pictures. As a general rule, Mr. Westgarth is inclined to the didactic, and when he wanders into the imaginative he is too common and artificial.

• Victoria; late Australia Felix, or Port Phillip District of New South Wales; being an Historical and Descriptive Account of the Colony and its Gold-Mines. With an Appendix, containing the Reports of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce for the last Two Years upon the Condition and Progress of the Colony. By William Westgarth, late Member of the Legislative Council of Victoria. Published by Oliver arid Boyd.

His sketch is too much like that of many others ; but it is based on truth. We see the wildness and reckless extravagance of the successful gold-digger returned to Melbourne and bent upon matri- mony, through the colouring of the artist.

The opinion of Mr. Westgarth as to the facilities at Victoria for getting a present livelihood are even less encouraging than that of his precursors. It is only " luck" that makes a fortune at the Diggings ; the average earnings would not yield much surplus to each workman. Practically, indeed, some get little, some up. thing, some only meet with death. Of course the man accustomed to hard work will do well in Victoria anywhere. Anybody save a hard worker had better stop away. Of that class of persons who emigrate with a view to the future—men with large families and very small incomes, and who must inevitably lose caste and pro- bably starve by remaining at home—Mr. Westgarth says nothing. A gold-country, however, seems scarcely the place for them. Suc- cess would hardly answer their purpose ; and failure, which is the most likely thing, would be ruin. Victoria is not the place for anything but hard work or speculation ; there is little land in the mark-et, and that little is enormously dear. The gold has so dis- turbed the price of all productions that rural " settlement" would seem a hazardous attempt. Of the future social state of Victoria Mr. Westgarth is hopeful; at present there seems to be no society at all. It is the world turned not only upside down but inside out.

This is a picture of work generally, and hazard in particular from the Bendigo gold-fields.

" The gold-fields are a scene preEminently calculated to exhibit the con- tinuous powers of human bones and muscles; and a gold-digger, working on his own account, is the personification of these powers. Few know what men can do, and how willingly they do it too, under an adequate stimulus. We gazed at laborious and incessant,iodustry, which neither dazzling sun nor pelting rain could cause to intermit. A number of German mining par- ties were met with, which had been generally successful. Little accustomed even to see gold, much less to possess it in such abundance, the peasantry of the Fatherland ' roused their every energy, and we heard of labours in their pith and tunnels continued by torchlight during the night, as well as by light of day. We passed other foreign parties. Here and there a Swiss, a Frenchman, an American party, or a few Dutch sailors. A New Zealander might be distinguished ; and we were amused at one spot by a whole party of Malaya and Chinamen, who worked as laboriously for the root of all evil as any orderly Christian. "In these enthusiastic pursuits serious accidents were frequent, from the impatience and negligence of all parties. In every locality of auriferous re- pute, the competing diggers thronged so thickly together, that very in- sufficient surface epee was left for the ejected matter in sinking their pits. There was usually, therefore, around each pit a pile of gravel, earth, and stones, rising at a very unsafe angle directly from the edge of the ex- cavation. The slightest disturbance above was ever rolling down a danger- ous shower upon the heads of those below ; and long lines of pits on either side of the narrow and devious roadways were exposed to additional danger from an incessant throng of trucks and wheel-barrows, carts of gravel, and waggons of provisions, horsemen and footmen, pressing backwards and for- wards with equal impatience and negligence in their exciting vocation. A blow on the head from a descending quartz nodule had become, therefore, as familiar, and nearly as harmless, to a sturdy digger, as the punch of an iron- tree-waddy upon the skull of an aboriginal lubra, whose noisy jealousy amongst her several rivals had disquieted the family wigwam and worn out the patience of a common husband.

" More serious injuries arose from the falling in of the sides of the pits, and particularly of the lateral borings, which were far too hastily and on- methodically executed."

Such a state of things is not attractive for a permanency.

" This vocation is too irregular in its results, and too laborious and Un- healthy for continuous pursuit ; and it is well known that the great mass of diggers ever consists of the more newly-arrived colonists, who, from love of adventure, insatiate curiosity, or the want of other employment, proceed in many instances straight from the ship to the gold-fields. These parties, under a variety of impulses, are sustained for a time at their laborious call- ing. But gradually they realize the adversities of their position. The ave- rage results are scarcely if at all beyond good current wages ; and when the want of comforts at the gold-fields, and the high prices of the necessaries of life, are duly considered, this reward proves rapidly unsatisfactory. Large proportions of those who so eagerly rushed to these scenes are, after a month or two, or possibly six months, found as eagerly marching back, on the outlook for some other employment."

Mr. Westgarth is of a sensible and solid cast of mind, but his experience gave rise to a bit of sentiment at about the last place one should look for it.

" In the midst of the busy crowd, and of the restless upturning of the soil, we noticed a small spot of ground enclosed by a rustic fence, which, on our nearer approach, proved to be a grave. Who lay here, no one seemed to know or care. Before the discovery of gold in this colony, I read a rather affecting article in a Californian newspaper upon The Unrecorded Dead,' and little thought at that time that the cases there stated would so soon be our own. But such was now emphatically our case, and to an extent and character quite Californian. At the sea-beach, by the highway-side, and scattered over the expanse of the gold-fields, were the graves of the un- recorded dead of our young Australia. We encountered in our walk a num- ber of such graves. The deaths upon these grounds are, as might be ex- pected, numerous ; and frequently does it occur that there are not only no friends around the departing spirit, but there is no knowledge whatever of the party who is thus leaving his earthly remains to the last offices and sym- pathies of his fellow men."

The following sketch of the hygiene of Melbourne shows the practical knowledge we have already noticed, and at the same time indicates how the "backs " of a great city grow up for after ages to remedy. In this case, too, there was neither the poverty of the middle ages in excuse nor the narrow limits within which the in- security of those ages confined the walled city.

" The town was originally laid out on the rectangular principle; and, un- fortunately, this poverty-stricken design has been since almost uniformly adhered to, even long after the obvious destinies of the place had warranted a more varied and graceful selection from the ample list of mathematical forms.

" The same unanticipated greatness that probably at first recommended the summary simplicity of the rectangles was also the occasion of other disad- vaatagus. The town is intersected by conveniently broad streets, which in their lengthened straightness over a perfect level or a gentle acclivity im- pet rather an imposing appearance, more particularly if the imagination is Ited to overlook the discordant little edifices by which either side of the thoroughfare is at present variegated, and to realize a page of the future, under the auspices of enterprising colonists and inexhaustible gold-fields. Between the parallel lines of these creditable streets, however, the distance being considerable, there are parallel lanes, originally intended to furnish a back or carriage entrance to each allotment; an arrangement made under the impression, no doubt, that the quiet semi-rural people, into whose hands the modestly-born Melbourne was expected to fall, would occupy each his entire half-acre, extending from the street to the lane. These town proper- ties,

however, rising promptly to a most unlooked-for value, the lanes in question, where sections and frontages were of course cheaper than in the broad streets, soon became the chief lines of traffic and population, and they have consequently :roved a very unfavourable arrangement for the health of the town. • • "To these different circumstances must be added the unhealthy condition of the towns, from the want of drainage and supplies of water. In this re- sped the condition of Melbourne, according to some recent inquiries on the part of the authorities, is truly startling. In the vacant spaces of back areas and waste grounds, within the lines of streets, were to be seen collected to- gether the putrescent carcasses of dead animals, articles of damaged mer- chandise, remnants of cast-off apparel, and accumulations of filth and ordure, diversified with stagnant and putrid water, and ranges of open and dilapi- dated closets. Such confusion is inseparable for the time from an almost incredible rapidity of change and progress ; but in recording the facts of the case as they now stand, I am happy in being able to add, that the remedy has been commenced, by the recent appointment of a commission armed with ample means and powers for the sewerage and water-supply of the capital."

The facts in the following summary of expenses are not new in themselves, but they show the mastery of a man who knows all about it—perhaps from paying for his knowledge.

"The increase in the expense of living soon became one of the most con- spicuous features among the effects of the gold-discoveries. Melbourne, in 1852, might well claim the honour, the distinction of one kind, at least, of being the most expensive place of residence in the world, California itself not excepted, although proverbial in this respect. Eight years previously, it presented merits of a precisely opposite character. -ln those earlier days, when a loaf of bread could have been bought for 4d., a leg of mutton for 6d., and a comfortable four-roomed cottage have been rented for 301. a year, it was difficult to point out a country where such advantages were available at cheaper rates. But in 1852, the loaf had advanced to 28., and the mutton to 6d. per pound. The comfortable cottage, if to be met with at all, was contentiously disputed for by a dozen applicants ; and a tantalizing land- lord had reconciled his conscience to a demand of 300/. or 4001. a year. Servants' wages had advanced from 201. a year to 50/. ; some had the assu- rance to demand 1001., many the intermediate gradations ; and the quality of the labour was not uncommonly in an inverse ratio to the wages. The supply of a house with the indispensables of wood and water occasioned a frightful bill at the year's end; a load of the former having advanced from 5s. or 68. to nearly as many pounds, and a cask of water out of the adjacent river from Is. to 5s. The 'broad shoulders of a porter were now almost a priceless luxury for the transport of baggage ; and the carter, with a sum- mary bargain wherein the terms were generally his own, trimmed his fares between 68. and 15s. for the various distances within the town. A cabriolet and pair might be hired for a day by a dexterous bargain for the trifle of half-a-dozen pounds; but this was a luxury in the indulgence of which few could compete with the diggers and other labourers. To those who had to maintain any position in society, a thousand a year, which comprises so re- spectable an array of means elsewhere, left nothing to spare in a very unas- suming style of life in the city of Melbourne and the colony of Victoria."