In spite of State subventions, Chantilly and
Versailles sink into mere leather platings, in
comparison. Seven flat races and a steeple-chase,
for prizes of from sixty pounds to a
hundred pounds, with sweepstakes of not less
than ten pounds each added, all conducted in
regular Newmarket style. At Melbourne
"a grand metropolitan steeple-chase; entrance
twenty-five pounds each; three miles; weight
twelve stone; open to all the world."

The only other public sign of gambling is
an advertisement of a Musical Art-Union
lottery, beginning with a grand piano prize,
and ending with music books. In all, two
hundred and fifty pounds prizes.

But the gold digging population and their
friends have other occupations of a public
kind, in addition to concerts and balls, circus
and races. The prospectus of the Melbourne
and Geelong Railway Company, for uniting
those two important ports, with a capital of
three hundred and fifty thousand pounds in
shares of twenty pounds, appears with a long
list of respectable names, and some facts that
in a small compass tell a great deal. We
learn in this prospectus:—

"1. That even prior to the discovery of the Gold
Fields, the population had increased at the rate of
one hundred and ten per cent, in the quinquennial
period between the census of 1846 and 1851.
" 2. That the population of Melbourne had increased
a hundred and twenty per cent, in the same period
of five years.
" 3. That the population of Geelong had increased
four-fold, or three hundred per cent, in the same
period of five years.
" 4. That the population of Melbourne was, in
the month of March 1851, twenty-three thousand
one hundred and fifty-three; that of Geelong at the
same date, eight thousand two hundred and ninety-one;
total of the two towns, thirty-one thousand four
hundred and forty-four.
" 5. Since that period, the increase of population
has been advancing in a much more rapid ratio.
There was the ordinary increase up to the period of
the gold discovery. Since then, the addition of the
population of the colony has been ascertained to be,
between the month of November, 1851, and the
present time, at least six thousand souls per month.
Adopting the proportion of the previous growth of
the two towns, their united population must now
amount to at least sixty thousand souls.

"Nearly the whole of the commerce of the colony
is centered within the towns now proposed to be
united. The exports for the year ending June, 1851,
prior to the gold discovery, amounted to nearly a
million and a half—one million four hundred and
twenty-three thousand pounds; and the imports to
the value of one million—one million and fifty-six
thousand pounds.

"In the article of wool alone the exports from
Melbourne and Geelong, during the year ending
June 30, 1851, amounted to fifty-six thousand bales,
a large quantity of which was conveyed coastwise
between the two ports, the quantity arriving from the
interior at either place being nearly equal. Since
the discovery of the gold fields a large quantity of
gold dust is carried between the two towns—the gold
raised from the western Diggings passing through
Geelong, and that from the northern fields passing
through Melbourne."

The advertising sheet tells us that the inhabitants
are not entirely absorbed in getting
and spending money. In one column the
Melbournites are invited to attend a lecture on
national education at the Wesleyan school-house;
in another the official inspector of
schools, under the authority of the Colonial
Education Commissioners, calls a meeting at
the Old Post Office, Forest Creek, to take
means for establishing schools at the Diggings.
Of course there must be children to require
schools. The Congregationalists call a public
meeting to petition and protest against grants
of public money for any ecclesiastical
purposes. The Jews use an advertisement with
a Hebrew motto, printed in the Hebrew
character, announcing "to their brethren at
the Diggings and elsewhere " when two
festivals commence. In another advertisement
the members of the Jewish persuasion
call a public meeting, "to take into
serious consideration the urgent necessity of
providing temporary accommodation for the
large number of our brethren who are daily
arriving." Then the mayor, on the representation
of Captain Chisholm, calls a meeting
for the same purpose. This has ended in the
formation of a Temporary Home, in which
the women and children who arrived by the
Scindian were lodged.

Official notices, except of pounded-cattle,
are rare in the Australian colonies. Frenchmen
landing there, will cry out on seeing the
following advertisement, even more frequently
than here, "Where is the administration?"

"Notice.—A public meeting will take place at
Lever Point, Moonlight Flat, Forest Creek, on Thursday,
the twenty-first of October, for the purpose of
taking into consideration the present lawless and
unprotected state of the Diggings, and other matters
requiring the serious consideration of the diggers.
A deputation is respectfully requested from the
Bendigo and Ballarat to co-operate with this meeting."

The movement for establishing emigrant
homes at the instigation of Captain Chisholm,
shows vigorous fruits in the advertising
columns. The Governor announces that he has
appointed three gentlemen to co-operate with
the committee appointed at the public meeting
for providing accommodation for houseless
immigrants. The Wesleyans have established
their Home on a subscription list of nine
hundred and seventy pounds received up to
October thirteenth. They announce that a
building will be completed in the course of
the month; a register will be kept for
servants; a bazaar is to be held in aid of the
funds. In the same paper another advertisement
appears for a married couple as governor
and matron of the establishment—salary two
hundred and fifty pounds per annum. The
Royal Orange Institution call a public
meeting at the Protestant Hall to take into