police, lent by Major Wentworth; found not the least desire to resist the government regulations, and did not keep the extra force on the ground half an hour. An arrangement to intercept all new arrivals, by sending them to an unoccupied ground, prevented confusion.
On June 8th, four hundred and forty-six licences had been issued; to two or three hundred new arrivals he had given a few days to pay; quiet and good order prevailed: "in one instance alone was there an inclination to disregard my decision. A tall, strong man, a butcher at Bathurst, who had been in the habit of beginning to work wherever he saw promises of lumps of gold, trusting to his strength to keep down opposition, began to work on another man's opening. I told him to desist; but as soon as I turned my back, he began again saying he would work where he liked in spite of any one. I turned back immediately, and as I went up to him he dropped his pick and snatched up a spade as if to strike at me. I instantly collared him, put him in handcuffs, and marched him off the ground, declaring my intention of sending him to Bathurst gaol. I sent up to my camp, with orders for a policeman to get ready to take him in, and continued my walk. On my return, in about an hour, the man was very penitent, begged to be let off, which I did: he has been working quietly ever since, and the neighbourhood has been relieved of a very unpleasant man. I have mentioned this to show how easily such a population may be managed. There is no occasion for any increase of force here."
There is no doubt that if convicts from Van Diemen's Land could have been kept out of the gold-fields, there never would have been any dangerous disturbances.
June 9. The government geologist reported the existence of gold in the Turon, and other branches of the River Macquarie; and Mr. Hardy, anxious that there should be no great accumulation of diggers, posted up notices of the new discoveries.
For this measure, as tending to stimulate gold-digging, for giving time to new arrivals to pay for their licences, and for not swearing in special constables, he was called to account by the Executive Council.
The advantage of dispersing the daily-arriving armies of diggers, by giving them actual intelligence instead of mere rumours for a guide, would seem obvious to any one except those Mother Partingtons of legislation who still hoped to mop back the tide which had set in from other employments towards the gold-field.
June 11. Mr. Hardy writes:—"All anxiety as to the payment of the licence fee is at end. I give parties who profess themselves unable to pay at the onset a few days. But it is well understood, and invariably
