THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 23 
acutely. The wheat harvest of South Australia was gathered 
only by the help of aboriginal labour: Tasmania was losing 
companies of its people by every boat that crossed the straits: 
the eyes of every man were turned towards the diggings to the 
exclusion of all else. 
The most outstanding effect was, of course, that on the 
wages and the standard of living.! The changed conditions 
were to have far-reaching effects upon the Australian worker, 
not the least of them being the growth of that spirit of in- 
dependence which has played so great a part in our later indus- 
trial history. - Every overseas ship brought men of all trades 
and professions to the country, the most adventurous and 
hardy types of all lands. In one month alone 152 ships arrived 
in Port Phillip bringing at least 12,000 immigrants, whereas 
in the previous decade the total increase in population had been 
but 215,000. In the ten years following the discoveries the 
population of the colonies increased by 750,000 and the total 
number of inhabitants other than aboriginals rose, in round 
numbers, to 1,145,600. Such an influx of people had many 
immediate effects, such as the impetus given to agriculture and 
sheep-farming owing to the increased demand for food-stuffs; 
but it wrought other serious changes in the social and economic 
structure that must be examined. 
The diggings attracted from every land and from every layer 
of society the men willing to take a risk; and, when all the 
circumstances of the time are considered, gold digging was 
supremely a speculation. The second colonization of Australia 
was effected by these types; and the old traditions of labour, 
authority, and trade, the last relics of the transportation 
system, were lost for all time. The influence of this change on 
the ‘make-up’ of the people can scarcely be overrated, more 
especially when the relative numbers of the old and the new 
Population are considered. Coghlan estimates that, of a total 
male population of 229,000 in Victoria and New South Wales, 
no less than 100,000, largely new-comers, were engaged in 
mining. The average earnings of these men are computed by 
! The most complete and circumstantial account of the economic results following 
the gold discoveries is contained in Coghlan’s Labour and I ndustry in Australia, 
Pp. 744 et seq. Unfortunately this otherwise excellent work contains no references 
to sources consulted. -A shorter treatment will be found in 4 Statistical Account of 
Australia, Industrial Progress, p. 443, by the same author.