Victoria. Gold Despatches

Folio (13 x 8 inches). Printed on blue paper. Modern brown leatherette, gilt. "It is quite impossible for me to describe to your Lordship the effect which these discoveries have had upon the whole community" (Lieut-Governor La Trobe to Earl Grey) An important collection of papers detailing the discovery of gold in Victoria. Throughout the year La Trobe gives a very detailed and increasingly desperate account of the discoveries made at Anderson's Creek, Clunes, Buninyong and Ballaarat [sic]. He not only gives a vivid account of how the gold was found, but also an analysis of the geology of the areas, soil, clay and ore type. His main and growing concern, however is the detrimental effect of the gold discoveries on the community as a whole: "Within the last three weeks the towns of Melbourne and Geelong, with their large suburbs, have been, in appearance, almost emptied of many classes of their mail inhabitants; the streets which, for a week or ten days, were crowded by drays loading with the outfit for the workings, are now seemingly deserted.Not only have the idlers, day labourers, shopmen, artisans, and mechanics of every description thrown up their employments, and in most cases, leaving their employers and their wives and families to take care of themselves, run off to the workings, but responsible tradesmen, farmers, clerks of every grade, and not a few of the superior classes have followed" (page 5-6). In the face of a complete breakdown in society, La Trobe took a number of extraordinary measures: he authorised an immediate pay rise to all clerks, turnkeys, constabulary and mounted police, as well as to messengers and surveyors; the cost of a prospector's license was increased, although La Trobe would have preferred a tax to be paid on the gold found; he seconded the help of subordinate officers from his neighbouring colonies; and begged the Imperial Government for guidance, and help in the form of men to police the diggings, and to guard the ports. After the initial fever, or "Gold Crsis" as La Trobe refers to it, many of the original absconders returned to their more mundane and less lucrative lives, having discovered what punishing and often disappointing work digging for gold actually was, but the colony's problems were ongoing.…