"no savee."
It is unquestionable that their movements are directed by some superior intelligence, to whose mandates or advice they render an implicit obedience. Upon an average calculation, about 5000 Chinese diggers have been employed upon the Western gold- fields continually during the last twelve months, and it is supposed that not less than 110,071 ounces, or two-thirds of the gold that has been forwarded by escort from the Western diggings, hus been obtained by these strangers. The value of this large quantity of gold, at £3 12s. per ounce, amounts to £399,405 12s.; of which, averaging their expenditure at 20s. per head weekly for rations, tools, and other necessaries, £200,000 has been put into circulation, leaving a balance of £139,195 12s., to be taken from our shores, and added to the wealth of another land. From this sum of £200,000, 50 per cent, must be deducted as the prime cost of the merchandise consumed by these people, leaving the remaining 50 per cent, to cover the various commercial profits, the cost of labour, freight, intercolonial carriage, and colonial duties; add to this, £13,871 7s. 6d., being the duty on the whole quantity of gold at 2s. 6d. per ounce, together with £2500 for license fees, the payment of which is questionable, and we then have the aggregate sum of £146,371 7. 6d. This is the utmost amount to which we have been benefited by the labours of the Chinese, they, meanwhile, having enriched themselves at our mines, in one year, to the tune of £400,000. If our present position in reference to the Chinese Empire renders it politic that we should receive the subjects of that Government, and place them on a level with Englishmen as far as regards their civil rights, and if we continue to license them to dig for gold, we ought, at least, to insist upon their importing a due proportion of females. This would more than double their expenditure, and would prove a salutary check upon their wandering propensities. There are those who believe that the sooner our gold-fields are exhausted the better, but those people know little of the true interests of the colony. The sudden exhaustion of the gold-fields at this moment would involve all classes in one common ruin; the crash would be frightful. It is not to our advantage to force the auriferous lands to yield their wealth with too great a rapidity. Gold is a harvest that can be gathered but once, and we should guard that source of national riches with the utmost vigilance, regulating its production by the exigencies of our fixed population. Had it been possible to limit the issue of gold-mining licenses to freeholders, it would have been to the interests of Australia. As it was not, the next best thing is to enable miners to become free-holders, and keep the gold, or its representative value, in the colony. Who can pretend to say what amount, in coin and dust, the 3000 Chinamen who left the western diggings within the last three months for Victoria, have carried across the Murray. The gold-buyers are accustomed to leave sums of money in the hands of the various storekeepers, scattered over the diggings, for the purchase of gold; and a few of these parties purchase with their own funds. It is to these stores that the Chinese and European diggers resort for the sale of their gold, chiefly on a Saturday afternoon or Monday morning. I have, on several occasions, attended these sales, and have always been surprised at the quantity of gold brought in by the Celestials. I have observed a large store crowded for hours with these gentry, all waiting for their turn, and displaying the utmost good humour and patience. The quantities offered for sale varied from 12 pennyweights to three or four ounces, and were the product of the week's work. John has a predilection for silver, and will often divide his little package of gold into two portions, to be sold at separate times, in order to compel the buyer to pay him in that species of coin; and when he is so fortunate as to obtain it, he parts with it with extreme reluctance. He has a thorough contempt for notes, and makes use of many little artifices to get rid of them. If he finds it necessary to purchase a supply of tea and sugar, he buys each article at a different store, and tenders a note in payment of each purchase, consequently, silver is very scarce. The gold-buyer frequently hands him a note, and demands, perhaps, a shilling or sixpence change, when he will request the return of his gold, and postpone the sale, sooner than part with the "sycee." The bank collector or buyer visits each district about once in a week, and receives their purchases from the various storekeepers and publicans. These he deposits with the Commissioner for transit to Sydney by escort, or in some cases carries the gold he has secured to a distant township, in order to swell the escort returns from that particular locality. To effect that object the risk is greatly enhanced, as the treasure is made to travel twice over the same ground. The storekeepers and publicans receive at the rate of 3d. per ounce for their share of the transaction, but their chief advantage is derived from the opportunity thus afforded of making sales of their wares to the vendors. The result of this system is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain from whence the gold is procured that is forwarded by the various escorts; thus, the main portion of the gold forwarded from the Louisa and Mudgee is obtained on the Upper and Lower Meroo and its tributaries. These arrangements have the effect of giving the public a false estimate of the importance of certain localities, and in the same ratio depreciates others. The Chinese, when they have accumulated a sufficient capital, often become employers of labour, and the new arrivals, ignorant alike of mining, and the customs of our country are glad to place themselves under the protection of their more experienced countrymen, and will enter into an engagement, for some months, at a rate of wagers seldom exceeding five shillings a week and their rations. These engagements are faithfully fulfilled, and it is by means of these gangs that the poorest ground can be worked to advantage. The Chinese employers are strict masters, and evince much judgment in the application, of the labour thus placed at their disposal. Many attempts have been made by Europeans to obtain a share of this cheap labour without success. The Chinese bosses assert that it is simply because we cannot speak their language, but to this may be added their dread and dislike of the European which is part of their nature, and which time only can soften, if not wholly eradicate. If the colonial policy has been to enhance the difficulty and expense attendant upon the pursuit of gold to the European, in order to prevent its to rapid accumulation; this has been lost sight of in our regulations for the management of the Chinese; and, as far as regards the employment of cheap labour, and the formation of co-operative companies amongst themselves, they have been long in a better position than any other class on the gold-fields. A few of the bosses, natives of HongKong and British subjects, who have been three or four years in the colony, and held a miner's right from the commencement, are anxious to know in what position they stand with regard to the new electoral law; they have some remote idea of claiming a vote, and of some advantage to be derived therefrom. Dr. Street's party, undismayed by the failure of the Colonial Gold Company, have leased 400 yards of the same reef that they formerly operated upon, and have sunk one shaft about seventy feet with indifferent success; they discovered at that depth that the reef narrowed to about two feet, and continued still to descend into the schists: they obtained some gold, but not sufficient to warrant further operations in the neighbourhood of the first shaft. The managing partner is an old quartz reefer, and a man of education and considerable mining experiences; he is still sanguine as to the character of thereof, and satisfied with the indications; they are now sinking another shaft on the south side. I have examined several small specimens procured from this reef which were found near the surface, about 300 yards nearer the table land. Mr. Bugg's party have struck a small leader from the same reef which promises fair to prove rich; some fine specimens have been taken from it, and a portion of the casing yields as much as one penny-weight of gold to every two pounds weight. The quantity of quartz to be procured from this leader may be small, but, by following it up to its junction with the main reef, and, sinking at that point, he will in all probability find what others have sought for in vain, viz., an abundant supply of quartz that will pay for crushing. This reef ascends to the table land, and can be traced for miles in a direct line for Tambaroora; it is supposed to be the same that crosses the Bald Hills, and reappears on the south bank of the Turon. Some portion may be immensely rich, but no reef of the same extent has ever yet been discovered auriferous through its entire length; the greatest part is usually barren, or at least not payable. Those in search of quartz claims should follow up this reef to the neighbourhood of Dundun, and examine it where it crosses the highest points of the plateau, and has suffered the least degradation; if unsuccessful, still pursue it to the point where it sinks into the basin of the Tyramel. It would furnish profit- able employment for a large body of men for many years, if payable quartz was once discovered, but the initiatory operations would absorb a large amount of capital. There arc many other reefs in the basin of the Louisa that present equally favourable indications, but the great nugget vein has ever attracted the most attention. It is remarkable that in a line with its course the richest alluvial deposits have been found from the Turon to the Meroo. The men employed in the search for alluvial gold take little interest in quartz mining, and do not profess to understand it; if they did, they arc for the most part deficient in the means requisite to undertake such expensive operations. About three miles from the Louisa, following the Burrangdong road over the plateau, you cross the Stockyard Creek. This stream, although very little worked, has produced some gold of the best quality. One party of three, who were encamped upon it for some time, were in the habit of selling from seven to ten ounces of gold weekly; a few parties have since settled upon it for a time, but the distance from the stores was so great that it induced them to return to head quarters, and the creek now remains proved to contain payable gold, but unoccupied. The best portion of the stream is three or four miles from the road: this makes the distance that it would be necessary to carry supplies about six miles. There are many small watercourses in the vicinity, and all have been proved to contain gold; some are payable, but have not been worked for the same reason. If a small store was established in the neighbourhood it is pretty certain that the district would be quickly settled, and worked to advantage. There is a general impression that the country lying between Burrangdong and the Louisa is auriferous, and that it embraces a large area of payable ground. A stray digger finds his way now and then over the table land from the Macquarie, and creates a temporary excitement by his description of the country he has passed over. A few weeks since a party started on a prospecting expedition in the direction indicated, and several reports of their proceedings have reached the camps on the Meroo of a cheering character. Their return is looked for with some anxiety. There are also reports of heavy finds in the vicinity of Merrinda, and parties of diggers may be observed making their way down the Meroo in that direction. A slight rush also has taken place on Long Creek at the head of the Meroo, to a place known as Ryan's Flat, and another to Eagle-hawk Gully, amongst the mountains to the eastward of the Devil's Hole Creek. The unsettled state of the weather and the frequent severe thunderstorms since the commencement of the year, have kept the creeks and rivers in a constant state of flood, and driven the diggers from their claims so often that a light escort return may be anticipated for this month from the Western; district. In fact, do not suppose that they have been able to work more than three days in each week for the last six weeks, and those three have been at a disadvantage, amidst all these miseries. Hope cheers the digger on and dispels the surrounding gloom.