|
Reference
for David Allan.
The bearer hereof is David Allan, a young
unmarried man, Son of Mr. Andrew Allan, Manager of
an extensive sheep walk in this parish. Wherein the
bearer has been brought up since his infancy. Born
of worthy and respectable parents, he has been
trained by them in sound -moral and religious
principles, thus always conducted himself with
strict propriety. While there he has had numerable
opportunities and practice for acquiring the
knowledge of sheep and cattle management.
I have every confidence in certifying it on my
behalf that the bearer is a young man who will
prove faithful in the discharge of any charge
committed to him. He is a member of the Church of
Scotland.
Given under my hand at the Manse Killmonivaig on
Lochaber.
June 20th, 1854.
John MacIntyre, Minister
********************
April
23rd, 1854
David Allan
"Inverlair", Fort William,
Scotland.
To Richard Allan,
Geelong Post Office, Victoria.
(To be left till called for)
Dear Brother,
I take up my pen to inform you that I have at
last got the consent of my father to go to that
land of attraction which has drawn so many towards
its shores. He does not seem to have any
inclination to go himself now at all. He is getting
duller on it every year. He will rather toil away
here for the third of the wages he would get there,
and besides he would not be half so sore thought.
There are no future prospects of any young person
bettering their condition in this country now.
So I am quite resolved to go this year if God
spares me. I shall likely go away about the month
of June. Thomas and George smith are going to go
along with me. Thomas is at Annot yet, but he is
going to leave it at the term of Whitsunday, and it
will likely be a few days after the term before he
gets together ready to go. It will likely be the
middle of June or perhaps a few days later before
he gets ready to go.
I hope when you receive this that you will send
your address to the Melbourne Post Office so that I
may know if you are still at the gold where you are
which would be of great benefit to me after
arriving there in a strange country. I would like
very well to join you but you being there a
considerable time will know what is best for me to
do. Tom McCall that was here is talking of going
this year. He was doing the same last year, but did
not go yet. He like a great many more they talk a
great deal about it, but still don't go.
I have no particular news to write you, but
about that eastern affair which is not likely to go
past in a hurry, for the Emperor of Russia is an
ambitious scoundrel. He has got the two thirds of
Europe under his power already, but that won't
serve his ambition. He would like to get Turkey
under his power also which will give him some
trouble if Britain and France do their duty. But
they are rather slow as yet for they have allowed
him to advance to with his forces. It is a war,
which may last for many a year for he has got such
a command of men under his power. It will be a fine
chance for the Australians to throw off the British
yoke when she is engaged with the Russians, but if
such should be the case, I would advise you to take
no part in it for it might lead you into very
dangerous circumstances.
I wrote you a letter in August last which you
will have received by thus time if it has gone on
prosperously. My father received one from you about
two months ago and we were very glad to hear that
you were quite well as it found us. Hoping this
will find you the same. I will now conclude and I
remain your affectionate brother,
David Allan.
P.s. Tell Angus Rankin that his sweetheart Peggy
Burton eloped with Donald McIntosh Connor the other
day. But if reports were true, she was over doing
the same when he went away.
********************
25th
June, 1854
From David Allan
"Oliver Lang"
Liverpool Docks
Dear Father,
I write you these few lines to let you know that
I arrived in safety here and all the rest of my
companions. Our passage from Glasgow was a little
rough, and nearly all on board were sick, but I
escaped it.
We came on board the "Oliver Lang" yesterday. We
could not get on board on Friday night when we
came. We were rather late of getting in, and Messrs
Baines' office was shut. She is moving out of the
docks today, into the river, and will set sail
tomorrow at twelve o'clock. She is a fine looking
vessel as far as I can judge. She is all newly
painted, and the berths are all new, which is a
good thing.
Thomas Smith, his wife and two brothers and me,
we are all in one room which is a good thing for us
to be all together. The ship is rather through
other as yet, but she will get in better order if
we were once clear away. There are a great many
passengers on board. I think there is about 465.
The passengers and crew will amount to about 600 I
believe which is rather many. I think for she is
not what may be termed a very large vessel. The
greater part of the passengers are English, but
there are a few Scotch too. Liverpool is an awful
place. Nothing but docks to be seen, and full of
ships of all kinds and sizes. The Sabbath day is
not much regarded here. There is a band of
musicians on board, and they are playing today the
same as if it had been a week day, which is truly
an awful thing to think upon it.
We are to be inspected by the government
inspector tomorrow morning, and then we will
proceed on our long voyage. And I trust that God
will bless us with a good passage. I hope this
letter will find you all well, through other as it
is my place of writing is not so convenient as
yours is at home is. If God spares me to arrive in
Australia, I will write you all particulars about
it and our passage. I will add no more but wishing
you all well and give my love to mother, Isabella,
Elizabeth and James, not forgetting yourself and,
I remain your Affectionate son
David Allan.
************************************
12th
Dec, 1854
Ballarat
Dear Parents,
I think it is now time that I should write you a
few lines again. I wrote to you a few days after my
arrival which you should receive as long if they
have gone on well. In it I stated that I intended
to go up the country to the sheep shearing, but I
did not go. There was no use for there are so many
old hands now there is no use of a "new chum" as
they call them to go. There were so many blamed
when wages for shearing were so high, they got too
plentiful. They were shearing for £1 this year
when they were for 30 shillings last year. However
I did not stay long in town. I only stayed four or
five days. I came out into the country and engaged
with a settler for a month at first as I thought by
the time it would expire, I would find out where
Richard was. The wages that I had from him was at
the rate of £65 per year. My occupation while
I was there was sheep-washing, which was a very
dirty sort of work.
They go through a different process to what they
do in Scotland. We washed them in a river, they
were all thrown in by the hands into a pen made in
the water and were kept there as long as they could
swim, and were pelted on the back with a long stick
and a piece of deal on the end of it. We put them
through twice. We used to wash about 900 a day, and
I remained five weeks with him, and it would take
them a week longer when I left. So you may guess he
had a good many sheep.
The way I found out where he was is this. I
wrote from that place where I was to him to
Ballarat on chance, and so he got the letter and he
wrote to me and desired me to come up to him and so
I did. I came up by a stage coach from Geelong to
Ballarat a distance of 86 miles in seven hours.
Pretty good riding on a rough road, a greater part
of it as nature and drays left it.
The gold diggings are not doing very much at
present. There are some parties who do very well
and hundreds are not making anything. They have to
sink very deep for it now. From 130 to 160 feet is
the general run. There is no shallow sinking here
now as was at first. It runs on leads or gutters.
First it was not so difficult to get if it was more
scattered. Some places it is very wet with water.
After sinking a shaft they perhaps can't get it
worked out for water. The shaft has to be all
slabbed down the side, to keep it from falling in.
When they get down to the bottom they tunnel it
away as far as their claim will allow them. And
these tunnels or drives have all to be propped with
wood.
The following
references what became known as The Eureka Stockade
(GAA).
There was an unfortunate
affair happened here a week last Sunday morning
which ended in a good many of the diggers losing
their lives and soldiers too. The diggers a great
number of them rose to arms the Thursday before,
determined to pay no more licences. There had been
some of their fellow diggers shot that day by some
of the troopers who go about hunting for licences,
which enraged them so much that they and their
rights were not to be trampled any longer. They
were drilling for 2 or 3 days. They amounted to
about 2,000 in number on Saturday night, but there
had been spies from the government camp among them
all the time, and these fellows rose a false report
that a lot of soldiers and guns were expected up
from town. And all the diggers but about 200 men
went to meet these troops that were expected from
town. Those that remained were within a sort of
barricade that they had erected and were laying
there, the most of them asleep.
These spies had gone to
the camp and told the officials there how things
were. So the soldiers and troopers came and
attacked them about daylight, and set them to
flight, killing and wounding a good many. If there
had been as many diggers as soldiers, they would
have stood a hard chance. It is very clear thay
they were afraid of the diggers or else they would
have put a stop to it sooner. It is as well for
there would be a great deal of bloodshed. The
diggers have no doubt, reason to complain of not
getting their rights. Plenty of them would buy a
small piece of land if it would be sold to
them.
This will cause a great
reformation in the laws. The citizens of Melbourne
and Geelong held public meetings as soon as they
heard of this affair, and sympathised with the
diggers as to have them and their rights had been
abused. If they had good laws they would not be
against them. The licence is an unjust law. It
taxes those who don't get any gold as heavy as
those who get it. There is as many commissioners
and troopers gathering it as eats it all up. If
they were to put an export duty on the gold, it
would require no commissioners and troopers to
collect it at the point of a sword, as they have to
do with the licences.
The country is all covered with wood round about
here as far as the eye can reach. The trees are
very large and straight, they can be split as
straight and thin as you like. A great many houses
are roofed with it. You would scarcely know them
form slates at a short distance.
The greater part of the land in this colony is
fit for nothing but grazing. There is some good
land too, but not so good as the land in South
Australia or Sydney. The weather is beginning to
get very hot now, especially when the wind is from
the North. The wind is quite warm when it is from
the North. It gets cold always in the evening. This
summer has been very cold till the last week. As
cold as I have seen it at home, but we will have 2
or 3 very hot months now. It is very warm to be
down in a hole, working on a cold day, let alone a
warm day. The hole that we are working will be
about 135 feet deep. When we get to the bottom we
will be down about Christmas, I think.
I have not seen any old acquaintances here yet,
but Richard saw Mr McIntyre's son Thomas about a
fortnight ago. I have not seen any of the Smiths
since I left Melbourne at first, I don't know what
has become of them. I wrote to David twice, but did
not get an answer from him. John McMaster is
driving a horse and cart to some of the diggings,
and his sister is in since in Melbourne. Donald
McIntosh is in Geelong.
Wages are not near so high this year as what
they were last year, nor employment so easy to be
had. I would not advise you to come to this country
in its present state. Wages are no doubt a great
deal better than at home, but there is other things
to look to. There is very little comfort. It is all
well for young men to come here, but old people
would not like it. Wherever a man goes to seek work
in this country, he must carry his blankets on his
back with him.
I hope this will find you in good health, as it
leaves me at present, thank God. Richard will write
you soon again. He sends his kind love to you and
mother and Isabella, Betsy and James. I join and
send mine. I hope James is getting stronger.
I remain your affectionate son,
David Allan
P.S. Address me in Richard's name and I will get
it that way as there is some person in Adelaide
that sends them to me when they can. I send you a
newspaper.
*************************************
Sep
27th, 1855.
David Allan
Ballarat
Dear Father,
I now sit down to write you a few lines to let
you know that I received your letter of the 31st
March on the 17th August, and I was very happy to
hear that you were all enjoying your usual state of
health. And I am happy that your letter found both
Richard and me in good health, and God be thanked.
I have enjoyed good health since I have been in the
colony. I would have wrote you sooner only kept
writing, expecting that I would hear from you by
every mail. I was beginning to think it very long
without hearing a word from home since I left,
until I got your letter.
I have not been very lucky since I have been in
the diggings, but I have made a good living and
wages as good I think as I would at anything else
in the colony. And as long as I keep digging, I
will have the chance to come across some day. Gold
is not so easy got now as it was 2 or 3 years ago.
There is none got on Ballarat now without very hard
labour. Only fancy sinking a hole 180 feet deep and
there is no gold, and having to pay £50 or
£100 for a shine in that hole, where it was
only a few feet deep, besides your loss of time and
labour and expenses.
Ballaarat is like none of the other diggings.
There is so much water to contend with. This water
I have met with at various depths when sinking in
what is called "the drifts" which is sand and
gravel. In some places there are 2 or 3 of these
drifts, but they can be puddled back by day all
except the bottom one which comes down on to the
rock. Where the gold is found is in the bed of a
subterranean creek or river, at least it has been
so at some time. It is the same as a river on the
surface. The bottom of it is full of stones and
sand, and soft clay slate which contains the gold.
There's a bank on both sides of the rock, the same
as a river. It takes many turns and twists. The
main lead has now been long miles or more. There
are a great many drained ones which join and have
been worked a long way too.
In some places it sprays 1 or 2 claims wide and
in other places more. These deep holes require 8
men to work them, 4 by night and 4 by day. It isn't
easy work to windlass 18 or 30 gallons of water and
dirt 180 feet. We require to work night and day or
else we would never work one of these holes. And
Sunday as well when we are in the water. Perhaps it
might give us a week's work to stop one day, but we
never work when we can help it on Sundays. So much
about mining matters.
You think the diggings are a very wild place to
live at. No, you may live as quiet here as at
Melbourne. Cases of sticking up are very rare now,
the most of the bad characters are sent where they
will get the chance no more. There is a township on
Ballaarat on which there are now a great many
houses. The streets are regularly laid out. It can
boast of its churches, banks, stores and public
houses. Of the last there are not few. There are
between 20 and 30 within the Ballaarat district.
Besides numberless. grog shops, you can have no
idea of what a place it is.
The main road through the digging for more than
a mile is lined on both sides with stores and
houses of all descriptions There are some as fine
stores here as in Melbourne. The roads here are in
a shocking state at present, owing to the winter
rains and so much traffic. It is a great shame for
government to have it in such state, for there can
be plenty work had, but it's like a good many more
of their affairs. The diggers wants are a little
better looked into now than what they were previous
to the "Disturbance". There are now 9 diggers
elected by the diggers to sit on the local court to
decide all cases of dispute in many matters. The
licence is done away with too. There is a miner's
right in the room of it now, which only costs
1£ and it does for 1 year.
Provisions are much cheaper this winter than
ever they were before. Flour £5 per bag of 200
lbs, potatoes 4d to 5d per lb, beef and mutton 9d,
eggs 4/6 per dozen and everything else
proportionate. Wages are not near so good in this
country as what they were about 2 years ago. There
has been such an influx of people into the country,
there is no employment for them. In consequence of
the market being so overstocked with labour,
tradesmen are not getting one third of the wages
now.
If you had come to this country when Richard
wanted you first, you might have done very well,
but things are completely changed since then. But
still, wages are great deal better in this country,
and living too, and work not so hard. I have no
doubt if you were to come to this country, that you
might soon have a piece of land of your own and you
could live comfortable and independently. You need
not rely too much on what you see in the papers at
home regarding this country. Perhaps a voyage to
this country would do him (James) good.
There was an old man came out in the ship with
me who was troubled wih asthma, and he was very
well all the voyage except one bad turn he had one
night.
Richard wrote you from Adelaide in May, which I
expect you will have got by this time, and I expect
you were a little surprised when he acquainted you
of his marriage there. She came out in the same
ship as he did and her father and all their family
too. On his way back to here he met with Angus
Rankin at Geelong in Duncan McKillop's and
Campbell's Inn.
Donald McKillop had given up his share in it and
has gone up the country with Angus Rankin to a new
station that they have taken. McKillop has lost a
great deal of money by the Public House. They
desired to be remembered to you.
I saw John McMast's 2 Mackintoshes from
Murlaggan up here about a month ago. They were
repairing the road. I have had seen a letter from
David Smith, he is still about the same place yet
and his brothers are near him. I hope this will
find you all in good health as it leave us at
present. Richard and his wife send their love to
you and mother and all the family, and I join and
mine, and give respects to all friends and
acquaintances.
David Allan
P.S. Richard will write soon.
*************************
March
22nd, 1856
Ballaarat
Dear Parents,
I again sit down to address you a few lines to
let you know that I am still in the land of the
living, and keeping good health. And I hope and
trust in God that this will find you enjoying the
same, for what is life or wealth without health. It
is the only pleasure we enjoy. I have had very good
health 'since I have been in this country. I have
not had one day's illness in the country.
We have had a very wet summer this year.
The wettest that has been for a long time. We have
not had two weeks dry weather at once all summer,
and very little hot winds. I have seen much better
summers at home than what this has been. provisions
are not cheaper this year than what they were last
year. Flour is selling in the diggings at 4 guineas
per bag of 200 lbs. Potatoes from 5/- to 12/- cwt.
Cabbage from two to four for 1/-. Apples 1/- per
lb, grapes 1/- per lb and others at a proportionate
price according to kind. Butter 2/- to 2/6d per lb,
bread 2/- per four lb loaf, tea 2/6d per lb, sugar
6d to 8d per lb, and mutton 6d to 7d per lb.
The diggings are rather dull at present. The
diggers poet says, "The times 'ant what they used
to was about two years ago". No, there is not so
many rapid fortunes made now as what was at the
first of the diggings, although there are still
some lucky ones. Digging is a real lottery. If you
have not any luck, you can't find any gold. It all
depends on your luck, whether you have any or not.
I know plenty men who have worked hard for a whole
year and have not got an oz of gold all that time.
I have had very bad luck myself lately. I have not
made as much this last ten months as what has kept
me in provisions.
We have got a great many of the diggings now
called by Russian names. We have got a lead called
the Frenchmans, which runs through Sebastapol Hill,
and it takes about as much blowing up as the
original one did. They have to blast through about
100 feet of rock which contains great quantities of
water. They have to sink in altogether often 230 to
250 feet. It requires a good deal of labour and
expenses to sink one of these shafts. The rock is a
great hindrance to the progress of the lead. All
the different leads that have got rock, they have
got poorer since they have been worked to the rock,
where they ought to be richer for them to pay.
If you had a party of diggers to cut a road
through that rock at the end of Loch Treig, they
would soon do it if they thought they would get
gold at the end of it to pay them for it. This is a
good deal of gold got in the Ballaarat district at
present, but there is a great population for it to
be divided among. There are hundreds here who can
scarcely make a living, and they can't leave their
diggings because there is no other work for them.
If government does not sell land cheaper, this
country will never prosper as it ought to do. If
land was sold at a reasonable price, hundreds who
are now digging would be cultivating the soil,
which would add more to the prosperity of the
country would digging.
I send you a few papers at this time in
which there is a considerable difficulty between
the diggers and the government in the property /
land question. The difficulty is whether the
diggers are to be allowed to mine upon private
property or not. They had several debates on it in
the Legislative Council, but they have come to no
conclusion yet.
I had a letter from James about a month
ago, written at his grandfather's, and he says he
had his health much better there than he had at
Inverlair. I would advise him to stay away from
Inverlair if he always gets his health better when
away. It seems as if there was something in the
atmosphere there affected him. I hope as he
increases in years, he will get stronger and
healthier. I also hope that Isabella is better than
when you wrote last, and that mother and Betsy and
yourself are enjoying your usual state of health.
Richard and his wife are both well. She gave
birth to a son on the 9th of March, and both are
progressing favourably. I have nothing further to
say at present, only hoping this will find you all
in good health as this leaves us at present.
My love to you all, Yours Affectionately,
David Allan, Ballarat.
********************
Aug
21st, 1856
Ballaarat
Dear Father,
I again take up my pen to write you a few lines
to let you know that I am still alive and enjoying
good health, a blessing we ought all to be thankful
of. I hope you are all enjoying the same blessing.
I received yours of January about 3 months ago,
and I must confess that I have been rather long of
answering it, but diggers are such an unsettled
class of people they are here today and somewhere
else tomorrow. And when we are at work we keep
strict hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and perhaps you
may have a good piece to walk home to your tent.
And then if you board yourself, you have to cook
your meals at night if on the dayshift, and in the
morning if on the night shift. So a person
generally requires all the spare time for rest.
I have been going to write by the two or three
last, but I have been so busy sinking shafts at the
time of their departure that I had no time and so
let the opportunity pass. Ballaarat is very dull at
the present, and has been for the last few months,
but I think it will get a little better in a month
or two, as there is two or three new leads of gold
found out, which are reported to be paying well.
The deep leads of Ballaarat are being worked
under a new system altogether now from the old one.
The claims are all numbered from No.1 upwards and
registered in a book in the hands of the surveyor
of the lead. Eight men are allowed a claim of 56
feet in length by an infinite breadth. So by this
system you all are sure of the lead in your claim.
Formerly they used to sink 4 or 5 abreast, and
perhaps only 1 or 2 of that number be paid for
their time and labour, but now they are sure of
getting it, whatever it is, as there is only 1
shaft sinking abreast. All the different leads on
Ballaarat now have got to go through from 40 to 100
foot of rock, containing immense quantities of
water, and requiring to be nearly all blasted. I am
about to commence work on one of these leads called
Malakhoff in No. 44, and I expect it shall take us
from 6 to 8 months before we can bottom it.
You state in your letter that you have been told
that the wheat crop does not grow well in Victoria.
You must have been misinformed in that, for there
is as fine crops of wheat grown as in any country.
60 and 70 bushels and upwards per acre in no say
sneeze crop. Potatoes are grown in this country as
good as at home, and all sorts of vegetables. There
is good deal of farming done now in the
neighbourhood of Ballaarat. There are as many
potatoes and other vegetables grown as supply
Ballaarat. There is a good deal of wheat and oats
grown now too. Potatoes will be cheap next year,
they are selling this winter at 14/- per cwt. Last
winter they were selling for more than twice as
much. Flour is much cheaper too. It's about £4
per bag (200 lb), last winter it was from £5
to £6.
You ask in your letter how does batching and
keeping a dairy pay? It pays very well I should
think if they get a good custom, for they buy sheep
and cattle very cheap. They buy sheep about 12/-
each and sell at retail for 6d per lb. And buy beef
from the slaughterhouse about 11/2 per cut and sell
it from 6d to 8d per lb.
There was quite an excitement and agitation in
Ballaarat and all the diggings and towns in the
colony during the winter, protesting against a land
bill passing which had for its object benefitting
of the squatters and not the people in general. And
after all the agitating petitioning of the people
is was passed by the Legislative Assembly, but
luckily for the country it was rejected by the
Legislative Council.
To give you an idea of what mining is on
Ballaarat now, I will give you a short description
of our work in the last claim which I was in. We
first commenced a shaft on a hill above where we
supposed the gold to be, but after about two or
three months hard work sinking through rock to a
depth of 70 feet and having all to blast, we were
compelled to leave on account of so much water. We
were not able to sink it any further, and we had to
go to the side of the fill further away from the
gold, and sink another shaft to the depth of 160
feet, so that we could avoid rock and water.
After sinking this shaft we had to drive 330
feet and then sink 43 feet more before we came to
the gold. There are plenty of claims on Ballaarat
that have been working from one to two years
without getting any gold. It takes such a long time
to sink one of these shafts through so much rock
and water. On some leads they have to go through
from one to two hundred feet of it. All these
claims require steam engines of which there is a
great number in Ballaarat. The value of the
machinery employed in mining on Ballaarat is
estimated at £ 500,000.
Ballaarat was pretty brisk last summer and
winter, but it is rather dull now again. Last
winter was a very dry one here, but the spring was
rather a wet one, which causes the crops to be
rather late, although they look well. If you still
have a fancy for coming to this country yet, I
would like you to write me as soon as you receive
this and let me know what you intend to do, so that
I might try and assist you some way or other. I
have not the slightest doubt but what you would get
on better in this country and more especially your
family.
I have not seen any Lochaberian people this long
time, there don't appear to be many of them about
Ballaarat. I hope this letter will find you
enjoying the great blessing of health. I hope James
continues to keep better health. I am in good
health at present, and so is Richard and his wife
and family. I may add that he has got another boy
since I wrote last. Give my respects to all friends
and acquaintances, and my love to mother and all
the rest of the family, not forgetting yourself.
I remain your affectionate son
David Allan
P.s. Address my letters to the Creswick Post
Office.
********
Jan 3rd,
1858
Back Creek,
Creswick
Dear Father,
I again assume my pen after a long silence to
let you know that I am still in the land of the
living. You no doubt will have been thinking that I
had forgot you altogether. But no, though I have
been negligent in writing, my thoughts were often
of you. To apologise for my long silence it is
this. Having been engaged for the last 4 months in
a new line of life in the shape of farming which
has kept me busy. Getting in some potatoes and
clearing land, and getting a house up.
Also during my last 9 months digging, I was
working in one claim where we had to work from 7
a.m. to 7 p.m. at night, or if working on the night
shift from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m in the morning, and
having a long distance to walk to and from work,
and to cook my breakfast before leaving in the
morning and supper after coming home at night, you
may guess I didn't have much time to spare.
Having stated above that I am engaged in farming
now, Richard and I bought a lot of land containing
93 acres which cost £4 per acre. A pretty good
price for wild land in a new country. It is
situated about 16 miles from Ballaarat and about 4
from the Creswick diggings. The land around this
neighbourhood is very good, and pretty well
watered, which is one great benefit. The greater
part of it is heavily timbered which causes a deal
of labour in clearing it for agriculture.
Farming has been paying well in Victoria for the
last few years. During seed time potatoes were
£26 per ton, Ballaarat oats 18/- to 20/- per
bushel, wheat 12/- to 14/- per bushel, oaten hay
was as high as £26 per ton in the winter time,
but there has been a great fall in the last
mentioned. It is not worth more than one fourth of
that price now, and oats only about half, but they
are sure to rise in price in winter again.
Vegetables were very dear all last year, and very
scarce.
There is some sort of a blight among the
cabbages. It's a small sort of insect, and is on
the cabbage in millions, which renders them quite
unfit for use. The potatoes were rather an inferior
crop last year, both in quality and quantity. There
was a good many of them had some sort of a disease,
they were of a hard watery nature and unfit for
eating, although boiled for a day they would not
get soft. New potatoes are selling now at 3d per lb
in Ballaarat. We have not much crop in this season
being engaged in mining operations up to the time
we bought the land, the season being pretty far
advanced. But if God is willing, we shall be able
to get in a good bit next season.
To return to mining. It is now getting a very
uncertain mode of making a living, much less of
making a fortune. If government continues their
pernicious policy of witholding the land from the
people, I dread the consequences. There is such an
inadequate supply of land brought into market, it
gets run up to such a price by land jobbers and
capitalists, so that there is no chance for a man
of limited capital in getting a piece of land at
all. Now that there are so many people congregated
about the diggings and many of them scarcely making
a living, it is a shame and a sin that there should
be so much land laying waste in the colony. There
must be some other system adopted soon of selling
land, and that in greater quantities than has been,
so that the people may have a chance of getting a
living other ways than digging. If land had been
sold on liberal terms, the colony might be
exporting produce now, instead of importing.
There are a good many dairies in the
neighbourhood, and I think they ought to pay very
well if managed properly. Fresh butter sells @ 2/6
to 3/- per lb, and milk @ 1/- to 1/6 per quart.
They get their cows fed for nothing in summer and
require no hay in winter.
We have had a very wet winter of it this year,
and last summer was very wet too. I think there is
nearly as much rain falls here in a year as at
home. When this country becomes thicker settled and
more attention paid to cultivation, and the country
opened up with railroads, it will become one of the
finest countries in the world.
As to your coming to this country now, it is
perhaps not worth your while now as you are
becoming old, and it is a long voyage. But if you
had come when Richard wanted you first, then you
would have had a good chance, but the chance is not
so good now. But still there are better chances in
this country for a man than in the old country. You
could live much easier and better in this country
than at home. But there are a good many
inconveniences to be put up with. I believe there
is always a pretty good demand for farm and station
servants, and for shepherds, but shepherds is a
lonely life in this country that I would not like.
I have not seen many old country acquaintances
here lately, in fact I have seen but very few of
them on the diggings. I saw Thomas McIntyre about 4
months ago, but I did not happen to have any
conversation with him. I never have had any chance
of talking with him. I think he doesn't know me
when I see him. If Thomas McCall has come to
Ballaarat as you stated in your letter, I have not
seen him yet. If he is in Ballaarat I think I would
see him some time or other.
There has been a large rush to some new
goldfields discovered in Sydney(sic) lately, which
are reported to be doing well. But the reports are
very contradictory. I don't know which to believe.
I have not been doing much since I wrote you
before, only making a living. I shall stick to the
digging as long as I can, for I live in the hopes
of getting a good hold some day. I have known
plenty who had hard work to get a living, but
through patience and perserverance got hold at
last.
I hope James' health continues to improve so
that he is able to attend school. You say that you
felt rather lonely at home when you write, there
being none of the family at home but Betsy. There
certainly must be a great difference now from when
we were all at home. I hope this letter will find
you all well as it leaves me, and Richard and his
wife and son as well. I conclude with my love to
you and mother and all the rest of the family, and
give my respect to all friends and acquaintances.
Yours Affectionately
David Allan
Address c/o Ballaarat Post Office, Victoria
*************************
Jan
23rd, 1859
Back Creek
Dear Father,
I take up my pen to drop you a few notes, in
answer to your letter of the 2nd of April which I
received several months ago. I have no doubt you
have thought me very negligent in not answering it
sooner. We have been so over pressed with work that
we never have a moment's rest. My correspondence is
very limited, and I think the less writing a person
has got to do, the less he feels inclined.
There is no leisure time farming on new land in
this country. As soon as a man has done one job,
there is half a dozen more staring him in the face
that want doing. It takes a great amount of labour
and expense to clear land here. It takes a deal
more than I calculated in the first place. To clear
heartily timbered land fit for the plough, it costs
from £8 to £10 per acre.
The farmers in the neighbourhood are very busy
at present with their harvest. We are busy with
ours at present too. We have about 10 acres of
wheat cut. We have in this season altogether about
30 acres of crop, about one third potatoes, and the
remains in wheat and oats. Crops are rather light
this year. We had a very long drought in the
beginning of summer that lasted for about 2 months,
without a shower heavy enough to wet a person
through in his shirt sleeves.
Produce does not bring the prices now it did 2
or 3 years ago, but still we need not grumble if it
maintains the price which it sells at now. Wheat is
selling at from 9/- to 10/- per bushel. Oats 9/-
per bushel, potatoes 10/ to 12/ per cwt.
You say in your letter that Duncan McKillop has
been home on a visit. He has not been long about
making a fortune, if he has made one already.
Although squatters get first rate prices for their
beef and mutton, I think there must be a deal of
mismanagement in sheep raising in this country for
them to maintain such a price as they do. At times
on the diggings and in towns, there is barely a
supply of beef and mutton.
I have not seen any Lochaber people for more
than 12 months. I think there is none settled in
this district. You all state that John Smith and
his family have arrived in this country. They are a
strong family and with their united effort, I have
.not the slightest doubt that they will succeed
well. You also say that George Rouson has gone to
New Zealand. As far as I can learn it is a very
good country.
I am sorry to hear that James is still troubled
with his old terms of illness. I had hoped that as
he approached manhood he would get free from it. It
is very trying for him, poor fellow. As you
intimated about doing a little for him. I should
like to do a little for him. But ready cash is
rather scarce at present. Our expenses are very
great, and we have had no returns yet. But if God
willing I hope to be able to do something for him
soon. You still seem to be undecided whether to
come to this country or not. I scarcely know
whether it is advisable or not at present. If I
succeed, I hope to be able in a few to get a place
of my own. And if you still felt inclined to come,
I should be happy for you to make it a home in your
old age, as I am an old bachelor in habits. As you
say, the rest of the family would do much better
here than at home is without doubt. There is no
person with health, steading and industry but what
can do a grat deal better than at home. There is
more independence of thought and action.
I must now draw to a conclusion, hoping this
will find you all enjoying good health, I am happy
to say that we are all in good health. Catherine
and Richard send their love to you and mother and
all the rest of the family, and I join with same,
and remain your affectionate son,
David Allan.
P.S. I am happy to say that the papers which you
are so kind in sending us are got very regularly
now. We send you some occasionally, I don't know
whether you receive them or not.
**********************
July
11th, 1859
Back Creek
Dear Father,
I take up my pen to note you a few lines in
answer to your letter of the 2nd of February which
I received by the May mail. I intended to have
wrote you by past mail, but time slipped past for
the English mail closing here before I was wary of
it. But I shall be in better time this time as the
mail is to close here on the 15th.
I am happy to hear that you are all well, but
poor James who you say is still troubled more
frequently with those bad turns. It is very trying
for him poor fellow, as well as for you. I think
this climate would be very suitable for his
trouble. From what I can learn, anyone having his
trouble are much better in this country than at
home. I think the sea voyage is not hard on them.
There was an old man who had the same trouble, came
out in the same ship with me, and he was very well
all the voyage with the exception of one bad turn.
You ask my opinion on your coming out here. I
think you could do much better here than at home,
more especially Isabella and Betsy, and if James
was only once out here, I think he would be able to
do a little more for himself than at home. This is
a much better country for a poor man, so long as he
is sober and industrious, although a man need not
expect to get on here no more than at home without
working for it. I am sure you must be getting tired
of Inverlair now. It is a very hard place,
especially as you are getting up in years now.
As soon as I can muster capital, I intend
to buy another piece of land, or as soon as Richard
shall be able to manage this place to himself. It
will be small enough for him in a year or two as
his family is increasing fast, he had an addition
of another son last April. As soon as I can get a
place of my own I should be very happy if you were
all to come out and to spend the remainder of your
days with me in a little more ease than you have
done. I feel rather lonely here now.
Land brings very high prices here just now.
There was a land sale a few weeks ago of inferior
land heavily timbered within 6 or 8 miles of
Ballaarat, which brought very high price. It ranged
from 30d to upwards of £5. Farm produce is
rather low this year with the exception of wheat,
which now sells 14/- per bushel. I am sorry to say
we had to sell ours in the early part of the season
at 9/-. Oats are from 5/6 to 6/- per bushel.
Potatoes are very low from £3/15d to £4
per ton in Ballaarat. There were a good crops this
season and a great many of them got in.
There was a great deal of new ground broke up
this year, and potatoes are mostly planted for a
first crop, as they grow best for a first crop. We
had 10 or 12 acres in, but we are now busy sowing
it all with wheat. Our grain crop was rather light
this year, it being nearly all new ground, and it
don't grow so well the first year. But crop
generally lighter allover the colony than they were
last year. If they turn out well this year, it will
give us a better start. As yet it is a hard matter
to keep things straight. Labour is so expensive. We
were paying 25/- per week to a man up to last May,
but we manage to do this winter with a boy, and we
give him 10/- per week.
You say there is no chance for a poor man at
home getting a small piece of land to live on, it
is all falling into the hands of larger farmers.
The squatters in this country would like to
monopolise all the land here too if they could.
Good land is run up very high on them when in
middling sized lots. There is an old squatter lives
about 10 miles from us. He has been living there
for upwards of 20 years, and he has about 30,000
acres purchased of the best land in the colony. And
he lets it at from 10/- to £1 per acre leases
for 10 to 14 years, to be cleared. But there is a
deal of it with little or no timber.
We have just received telegraphic news of the
arrival of the English mail, bringing news of the
outbreak of war between France and Austria, which
most likely will be a bloody one, as Napoleon has
only been waiting for an opportunity to strike a
bold stroke somewhere. I have no news of any
consequence to write you at present. The political
world is at a standstill at present. We are to have
a general election next month, and most likely a
new ministry, as the people are very dissatisfied
with the present. They are nearly all Irish, and
give too much favour to their countrymen.
We have had a very wet winter as yet, very
little dry weather for the last 2 months. I am
happy to say that we are all in good health at
present, without that blessing there is little
pleasure in this life. Catherine decrees me to say
that she wrote you by last mail, and she and
Richard send their love to you and mother and the
rest of the family, and I join with mine and hope
this will find you all well. Give my respects to
all friends and acquaintances.
And I remain your affectionate son,
David Allan.
P.S. If you could give me Thomas McCall's
address, I would feel obliged to you, as I would
like to hear from him.
*****************
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