John Dickson found an article in a newspaper dated 12th November, 1852, warning intending migrants seeking their fortune on the Australian gold fields, of the difficult conditions they would encounter in the colony.
"Digging is so very arduous and precarious a work, that few, excepting labouring men can continue it profitably. It should be remembered that a sum which is a fortune to a working man hardly repays others. The expense of living is so great in Melbourne, that six hundred a year does not produce half the sustenance that may be had in England for two hundred a year. "There are thousands of persons, many of them females and children, daily landing at the wharf who cannot, either for love nor money get places wherein to lay their heads. Comfort is unknown here. From every part of the world, as well as from Great Britain, vessels are daily pouring in, filled with living cargoes to swell the house-less numbers. "The passengers are landed, bag and baggage, on the wharf among hundreds of their fellow sufferers, and are left ruthlessly to their fate.
1985 06 DTHS Newsletter
Extracts from an article by Horne & Hogarth published in "Household Words" (an English weekly magazine edited by Charles Dickens in the 1850s. It took its name from the line in Shakespeare's Henry V: "Familiar in his mouth as household words.") republished in Mendelawitz, Margaret & Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 2011, Charles Dickens' Australia : selected essays from household words 1850-1859. Book two, Immigration, Sydney University Press, Sydney p. 118
No comments:
Post a Comment