Page:Banking Under Difficulties- Or Life On The Goldfields Of Victoria, New South Wales And New Zealand (1888).pdf/54

Rh eased of their loose cash. Some idea of the prices of things may be gathered from the following fact:—A digger went into a store— Sargood’s, I think—and while making his other purchases, saw an empty packing case, so, being of a mechanical turn of mind, he thought he could make it into a cradle; on asking the price the storekeeper replied ‘he might have it for nothing if he would pay the carriage of it up.’ This offer was eagerly accepted, and the case was put into a scale, but on looking at the cartage receipt, the weight at £100 per ton made the cost £4! Of course, he quickly ‘declared off’ his bargain.

“By-and-bye the sound of the saw and hammer was heard to the right of the old township, and soon a few buildings began to show in skeleton, and the Crescent became deserted, leaving nothing but a few weather-beaten old ruins to denote where a thriving trade had been for some two or three years carried on. Driven forth by the police ukase, the evicted settled down on the other side of the sheriff's bridge, and a canvas town of some magnitude sprang up on what is now Grave-street. This, however, never stood in comparison with the old township; almost all the substantial stores were moved into Castlemaine, which soon assumed the appearance of a thriving town; the Market Square was cleared of trees; some publichouses were licensed and opened; a local newspaper was started; industries of all sorts were developed, and it now might be said to have commenced its existence as a town. How it has improved in appearance and in reality! how every institution which can elevate the masses and aid the glorious work of social progress has been fostered and cultivated! Let those who trod the ground now occupied by Castlemaine in the dark days of 1852 mount one of the hills which command the town and look around them, and it is strange to me if they do not, on the comparison, wonder at the energy and enterprise that have in a few years converted the then waste land into the now pleasant little town before them.”

On Christmas week, 1854, I decided to take a week’s spell. For want of anything better to do, I put down a hole close to our own tent, in the allotment on which Newman’s store now stands. I sank to a depth of 6 ft., took a piece of clay from the bottom, stuck a few specks of gold in it for a joke, and took it into the tent to show my mother and sisters. While doing so one of my brothers, who was standing by, ran off to the hole. He had not been there ten minutes when he brought out some rich washdirt. We there and then pegged out a claim. Although there were at least twenty holes put down all round us, we secured all the gold, about 30 ozs., in three weeks. When working on the old ground at Preshaw’s Flat some months after, I made a valuable discovery. When I was being lowered down a hole, I discovered, about 4 ft. from the main bottom, about 6 in. of black sand, full of gold, and more like the black sand found on