Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/30

 that, in that brief space, upwards of 200,000 persons have landed on these shores. By returns of the population which we have seen, it appears that the population on the various Gold Fields is not more than between 70,000 and 80,000; so that upwards of 200,000 have settled down throughout the country in various other industrial pursuits. For this immense extra population, houses have been built; and they are supplied with a system of government, law, and police, churches, schools, places of amusement, and the various other appliances of civilization, which, though still somewhat deficient, and exceedingly expensive, compared with those provided in an English country, are yet such as to excite the astonishment and admiration of every impartial stranger.

The progress made in every thing dependent on the individual energy of the people is even more surprising. One railway, from Melbourne to Hobson's Bay, has been completed; and two more, from Melbourne respectively to Williamstown and Geelong, are in rapid progress, and will be completed in little more than a year from this time. Several philosophical societies are in active operation. Fishing companies, vineyard companies, a coal company for working the seams at Cape Paterson, are likewise in course of formation. Patents have been granted to four or five different parties for the invention of quartz crushing, and other machines connected with gold mining. During the present year no less than