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Show FEARED EFFECT OF GOLD FIND Australian Authorities Long Kept Secret. Australia's progress was probably retarded by nearly thirty years as the result of u chain of events which began In February, lil years ago, says the Melbourne Argus. New South Wales was a young colony. Mr. James Mcl'rien, assistant government gov-ernment surveyor, was exploring In the region of Fish River, bet w ecu iiathurst nnd Itydal, New South Wales, when, on February 15, 182.'i, he discovered the first gold ever found In Australia. It was alluvial. He wrote in his Held book, "Found numerous particles of gold In the sand on the hills convenient to the river." As a good public servant, Mr. Mc-lirien Mc-lirien went on with the job in hand, completed his survey, and made bis report. The passage which referred to the discovery ol gold was suppressed, sup-pressed, because the governor feared that a gold fever might spread and destroy discipline. In 1839 Count Strzleckl found gold beyond the Blue mountains, and he, too, was asked to keep bis discovery secret It was not until 1851 thai the secret se-cret leaked out. Bathurst, Balla-rat Balla-rat and Buninyong became Instantly Instant-ly famous overseas, for. In the last live months of that year, Victoria alone produced more than $5,000,000 worth of gold. nglishmen, Germans, Ger-mans, and Scandinavians filled every available ship for Australia. More ships were chartered. Disappointed diggers from the California goldfields came to try their luck in the new El Dorado, and before the end of 1S52 the population popu-lation of Australia had trebled. In the first ten years of the rush there was one of the most sensational outpourings out-pourings of wealth In the history of the world. Official figures showed a production produc-tion of 5528,353,000 worth of gold, from 1S51 to 18G0, but that was a gross underestimate. The most successful suc-cessful diggers, who had made their fortunes, went back to their home countries, carrying large quantities of undeclared gold. That the discovery of gold was the key to the economic development of Australia is shown by the fact that those states in which gold was discovered early have maintained their economic supremacy to this day. Western Australia, the largest of the states, where gold wag not discovered in quantity until 1887, was unprogressive in spite of every effort of government and private enterprise en-terprise until that time. Since McBrien's amazing discovery, discov-ery, $3,500,000,000 worth of gold has been produced in Australia, of which Victoria produced almost one-half. |