work could not be depended on, there would be funds enough to import a whole population of Indians or Chinese. The production of these gold regions in Australia does not appear to have exceeded £1,500,000 sterling in 1851, from all the “placers” then worked; but we know that the working in the province of Sydney did not begin until the middle of May; and in Victoria, not until the end of September. In January, 1852, they reckoned 10,000 miners in the Sydney gold districts, the produce of which oscillated between 12,000 and 15,000 ounces per week. For eight month’s work this would give about [122]31,000,000 francs at the Colonial price, and [123]35,000,000 at the English price of gold; but the population will certainly have increased in 1852, and it will be a moderate calculation to estimate the produce of this province at [124]40,000,000 to 50,000,000 francs during this year. In the province of Victoria, 30,000 miners were at work at the “placers,” at the end of December; and the number was daily increasing. They probably would have received, by the spring of this year, a reinforcement of 10,000. Mineral working is a lottery, in which very few gain the great prizes. A letter from Sydney, dated 4th February, thus sums up the result of the work, and of its uncertainty and irregularity. “They calculate, that out of every ten speculators who hire workmen for the gold-washings, only one repays his expenses, and of those who work on their own account, the proportion who are successful is about one in five.” It is not to be expected, then, that the quantity of gold collected by so many miners should equal the brilliant, the extraordinary, profits made by many of the first adventurers. It is a liberal calculation to suppose that the 40,000 miners of the province of Victoria might obtain on an average 10s. or 12s. each for their daily work. At 200 days’ work this could give about [125]3,000 francs each, or about 120,000,000 francs per annum. Thus, these two provinces would yield a produce in 1852, of [126]40,000,000 for Sydney, and [127]120,000,000 for Victoria, together about [128]160,000,000 francs. In following the scale of progress of California, these results might be doubled the third year: but it should be remarked, that up to March last, notwithstanding the immense increase of the workings carried on for nearly a year in Sydney, and for six months in Australia-Felix, the colony had not shipped, of all the gold it had collected, above £819,000 sterling (20,537,000 francs) to England.