Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/31

 seven new Gold Fields have been discovered, and are now occupied and worked by bodies of industrious diggers. Last, and not least, we have visible evidence of the progress of cultivation and settlement, and proofs are everywhere afforded that the industrious and indomitable spirit characteristic of our race in "subduing the earth" has in no degree been corrupted or diminished by the influence of gold. In no part of the world, we believe, can be seen a more energetic people than that which now occupies this rich and virgin soil. A better system of labour has been introduced, and the frenzied thirst for gold has departed. The Fields are not now worked in the selfish mania that characterized the onset, but rather as an occupation; the digger is not now, as at first, the sole gainer; companies have been formed, possessed of considerable capital, employing labour, and paying good remunerative wages, thus giving a more salutary appearance to the community, and materially facilitating the establishment of order and regularity. In many instances, the most fortunate amongst individual diggers, from the turn of fortune, finding themselves too suddenly elevated above their former position, lost all discretion, and by a continued indulgence in acts of intemperance and unheard of extravagance, soon descended to their original and more natural place. Several whose success, with proper management, would have placed them in easy if not affluent circumstances, are now the mere hirelings of others.