you may even be bewitched with the beauty of galvanized iron roofs and the snowy whiteness of the tents as they are bathed in the ever glorious sunlight. As to Hill End itself, there are many matters about which it is difficult to get satisfactory information. The thing which has been uppermost for the last three or four days is the mud. The tenacity of the clay, which is to be found in its virgin purity in all the streets, is un deniable; and it has rarely happened that such multitudes of men have been seen stoically dragging themselves through such a sea of liquid filth as were to be found, yesterday in the principal street. But the term
"principal street"
is calculated to convey a wrong impression. Clarke-street, where nearly all the business of the town is transacted, is about as wide as some of the back lanes leading off Clarence-street, and is as crooked as any ram's horn in the country. The eastern side is a good deal higher than the western; but the people on the west seem to have protected themselves from the surface drain-age by throwing up small mounds in front of their doors; and thus most of the rain water that fills on the eastern hill flows into the middle of the road, where it is worked up into a puddle by the traffic. There are a few good wide streets, but they have only a few houses facing them; and how this miserable hole, which cannot be said to lead anywhere, has attracted everybody to itself is an inscrutable mystery. Hill End, I am told, has been surveyed half a dozen times; and the result is that it is one of the worst laid out towns in the colony. If, after the experience of the last week, the inhabitants don't"go in"
strong for municipal incorporation, they richly deserve to flounder up to their necks (as they have been up to their knees) in mud till Doomsday. Every trade, calling, or profession is more or less respectably represented here; and every shopkeeper, seems to have his hands full of business. On a Saturday night especially trade is brisk, for the town is, then full of miners, who come in from the surrounding district for their supplies. How they get in and out with safety is a problem rather perplexing to a stranger, seeing that all the occupied level, country is full of deep-pits, made when this was a surface diggings years ago, and which have not been filled. Addison's vision of Mirza might find some sort of counterpart, with the , exception that the wayfarer, instead of being floated down to the Elysian fields, would be dropped into a well. It is a grim view of the matter, but there must be holes enough already dug to form the graveyard of the community. The building are mostly of a make-shift character, those occupied by the banks (the Australian Joint Stock and New South Wales have branches here), being similar to about third-rate houses in Sussex-street. One or two of the hotels are passable, and there have been a few nice cottages erected. The requirements of business appear to be too exacting to allow time for the erection of permanent warehouses; and the plan of sharing shops is by no means uncommon. Thus you may get bread and butcher's meat at one place ; church services and clothing at a second; law and tobacco at a third; oysters, tarts, and grog at a fourth; and so on ad infinitum. The price of land, like everything else, has gone up rapidly. For ground, which twelve months ago was not worth 5s. a foot, £10 5s. was offered a little time back; while in another case, Is. a foot per week was demanded ~~ the lessee covenanting to build an inn, and to leave it without compensation at the end of three years. Good bricks may be bought for £3 a thousand, but it is said that there is no building stone nearer than fourteen miles. The Wesleyan church, built of rubble-stone, is the best ecclesiastical edifice in the town. It accommodates about two hundred worshippers; but the services, held by the Rev. Mr. Brown, are so crowded that it is considered necessary to enlarge it. The members of the Presbyterian body have nearly completed a church, resembling in appearance and size that belonging to the Congregational body at Windsor. The wooden church used by the Anglican communion is shortly to be superseded by a huge brick structure. The Roman Catholics are erecting a brick church, and they have just completed a large canvas chapel, roofed with galvanized iron, which will serve for temporary purposes. When the churches now in progress shall be finished, they will afford accommodation for about ten to fifteen hundred worshippers. The Public school has outgrown itself, and cannot accommodate much more than half of the children whose parents desire them to attend. A new brick building is being erected to accommodate 230 scholars; but so great has been the influx of population within the last few months that a school-house more than double that size is now required. The present wooden building is so small that the master has been driven out of his house and has had to take refuge in the kitchen. The attendance averages 245 at the beginning of the week, and falls to an average of 230 towards the close. The school is well supplied with maps and furniture, but the teaching staff only amounts to three. As to the other public establishments, which I may designate as"Government"
buildings ~~ they are unique. There is very little of the"cloud-capp'd tower, the gorgeous palace, or the solemn temple"
in these State basilisks, and it is difficult to determine to what architectural epoch they may be said to belong. The Post-office is an edifice about 12 feet x 10' 8". It must have been designed for summer use, inasmuch as the wind rushed through the openings between the gaping slabs until the apertures were filled with rags and blanketing. After making the necessary deductions for shelves, counter, couches, &c; (for be it understood this is the domicile of one or more of her Majesty's Civil servants) there is barely standing room for the two clerks who are required to conduct the large business of the establishment. There are no polished granite columns in front, but two or three rough pieces of packing cases have been nailed on there to form a sort of window opening, and you are fortunate if your nose or forehead is not abrased by contact with them, a risk you have to run from the pressure of the crowd. The morning that I first saw the Post-office, there were from 100 to 150 persons standing in the mud and rain, patiently awaiting their turn to be served at the"window,"
for there are no letter-carriers here. The letters received and dispatched from this office I have since ascertained amount to about six thousand a week, while the money order business is little short of £1500 ~~ a proof of the importance of the office, and of the frugality of the miners and others, who no doubt remit the amount named out of their savings, for the support of their wives or friends elsewhere. As to the Telegraph office, the business, done there is very large, but the office is scarcely any bigger or better. There is room for two persons to stand in the office at once, and staring you in the face is an ominous placard instructing you not to loiter about the premises. If overawed by this document you retreat hastily, you are likely to find yourself prone in the mud. The other Government building is the Police-station; and, compared with the size of the foregoing, must be designed to accommodate a large force. It looks better than either of them, but, nevertheless is fit only to be used as a stable. The Hill End Police Court is quite a new institution, and is not yet a week old. It consists of a large room, rented from one of the hotels, and is fitted up in precisely the same style, i. e., minus bottles and beer engines. It has generally been crowded when I have looked in: and the business is conducted with an amount of order and decorum not always to be found in some of the Sydney halls of justice. Mr. Lees is the Clerk of Petty Sessions, Police Magistrate, and Gold Commissioner for the district, and in those and other offices has got through an amount of work on this field during the last few months, that would take half a department to accomplish in Sydney, that is, working according to the"Government stroke."
He has obviously more work to perform than any one man can permanently attend to; and it is well worth the consideration of the Government whether, having regard to the rapid development of the gold industry in this district, it would not be advisable to appoint a gold commissioner, police magistrate, &c., to reside at Hargraves, under whose jurisdiction would be placed Windeyer, Meroo, Dun Dun, and Merrendee, and another commissioner for Chambers Creek, to look after Root Hog, and the field up to the south side of the Turon, leaving the present Police Magistrate and Commissioner in charge of Hill End, Tambaroora, Green Valley, and to the north side of the Turon. In the district I have named it is estimated that there are about 20,000 persons, and the revenue which the Government is obtaining from the district from miners' rights, leases, &c., cannot be less than at the rate of £30,000 a-year, and this too quite irrespective of postal and telegraphic receipts, escort fees, railway travelling, and the incidence of taxation through the Custom-house. Within a radius of two miles from Hill End it is computed that there are from eight to ten thousand persons settled. Lath and plaster, or in colonial parlance"wattle and daub,"
huts are being erected by the score, and several brick buildings are in course of construction. An ordinary two-roomed dwelling of the first named character can be put up for about £00. The great mass of buildings arc outside the limits of the proclaimed township, and I am informed that hundreds of these houses are put up on ground which has been leased from the Government, and that it is in the power of the lessee at any time to demand rent, or eject the owners as trespassers. Such a tenure is, no doubt, most unsatisfactory, and will probably give rise to cases of great hardship in the future. Indeed, the tenure of those who, on the strength of their miner's right, have built upon Crown lands, is by no means safe; for I am told that sixty miners, who had settled on the eastern part of what is now the town-ship, have been summarily served with notice to clear out, and the houses which they have erected, in many cases at accost of £100, are thus practically confiscated. By the survey last adopted, these houses have been brought into the middle of the streets; but the occupants allege that former surveys left most of their dwellings clear of the streets, and they complain that, while the survey has been accommodated to the convenience of property holders in Clarke-street, they have been treated with unnecessary rigour. The question of water supply is all-important at Hill End. The population is daily increasing, and it is impossible not to apprehend the most alarming consequences from even a few months' drought. The people are now altogether dependent upon holes which they dig near their huts for their supply. The rain-water thus stored quickly stagnates, and is often barely drinkable; and in the present state of things, galvanized iron tanks are not within the reach of more than one householder in a thousand. Judging from what I have seen and heard, I should conclude that the climate of these mountain ranges is singularly healthy; but a large population, dependent far its supply of water on stagnant pools, cannot expect to escape the scourge of dysentery, and indeed all the other"ills to which flesh is heir."