In walking along the streets of Sydney or Melbourne you hear nothing
talked about but gold; you see nothing exhibited in shop windows but
specimens of gold, or some article of equipment for the gold-digger. In
every society gold is the interminable topic of conversation; and
throughout the colonies the only newspapers now read are those which
contain intelligence from our golden fields.
Soon after the discovery the Government of New South Wales, seeing that
it could not prevent the community from digging for gold on Crown lands,
quietly made virtue of necessity, and merely sought to legalize and
regulate the diggings by the following announcement, published in the
"Official Gazette":
THE GOLD MINES
Colonial Secretary's Office, Sydney, _23rd May, 1851._
Licenses to Dig and Search for Gold.
With reference to the Proclamation issued on the 22nd May instant,
declaring the rights of the Crown in respect to Gold found in its
natural place of deposit within the territory of New South Wales, His
Excellency the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council, has
been pleased to establish the following Provisional Regulations, under
which Licenses may be obtained, to search for, and remove the same:
1.
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