The Land of the Kangaroo Part 23

CHAPTER XIX.

COAL MINES AT NEWCASTLE--SUGAR PLANTATION IN QUEENSLAND--THE END.

"The region between Sydney and Newcastle," wrote Ned in his journal, "is a diversified one. Here and there are forests interspersed with open country. Some of the ground is level, and some of it very much broken and mountainous. Most of it is fertile, and we pa.s.sed through many fields of wheat and other grain. Some of it is devoted to cattle raising and some to the production of wool, though it is not generally regarded as a good country for raising sheep. In places the mountains come quite close to the sea-coast, and there we found the railway winding over a very tortuous course, where the rocks that rose on either hand, and the tunnels through which we were occasionally whirled, convinced us that the building of the railway must have cost a great deal of money. At several places coal mining was in progress, and it was evident that Newcastle didn't have an entire monopoly of the coal-producing business.

"Newcastle is quite as much devoted to the coal business as the English city from which it was named. More than two million tons of coal are s.h.i.+pped from this port every year, and the engineers who have carefully examined the coal seams say that there is enough coal under Newcastle to keep up the supply at the present rate for more than five hundred years.

"We were first taken to the harbor where the s.h.i.+pments are made. There we found admirable facilities for loading vessels with the products of the mines. They claim that they can handle twenty-five thousand tons of coal daily, and that a good-sized coal steamer can leave port with her cargo six hours after entering. I'm not an expert in such matters, and therefore don't know, but from what I saw it seems to me that there is no difficulty about it.

"The harbor of Newcastle was not a very good one originally, but they have made it so by extending into the sea a breakwater, which shelters it from the gales that formerly swept it. It is not a large harbor, but an excellent one for its purpose.

"We visited some of the coal sheds and coal breakers, and went into one of the mines. They would gladly have taken us through all the mines in the place, but as one mine is very much like another, we declined to make the rounds of all of them. The one that we entered was about four hundred feet underground. We were lowered in a cage to the bottom of the mine, and then walked through a tunnel to where the men were at work, dodging on our way several loaded cars that were going towards the shaft, as well as empty ones coming from it. The cars were pushed along by men, each of them carrying a little lantern on the front of his hat; in fact, every man whom we saw working underground had one of these lights for his guidance. The tunnel itself was lit up with electric lights, extending from the shaft to the front of the working; and in addition to these, each of us carried a lantern, which was of material a.s.sistance in showing us where to place our feet. We had a few stumbles on the way, but n.o.body experienced a fall.

"When we reached the front of the working, the sight was a curious one.

A dozen men--I think there must have been that number at least--were attacking the coal seam, most of them lying on their sides and digging away with picks at the lower part of it. Some of them had worked their way in two or three feet, and were almost out of sight, and I shuddered to think of the possibility that the ma.s.s above might fall upon and crush them. I asked our guide if this did not happen sometimes.

"'Unfortunately, yes,' he replied. 'It does happen now and then, and the men on whom the coal falls are more or less severely injured, and perhaps killed. We have to watch the miners constantly, to see that they do not run too great a risk. If we let them have their own way, accidents would be much more frequent than they are.'

"'Why do they burrow under the coal in that way?' I asked. 'Couldn't they get it out in some manner less dangerous than that?'

"'That is the way to which they have been accustomed,' the guide answered, 'and it is difficult to get them to change. Most of these people come from the coal-mining districts of England, and they are very conservative. Machines have been invented for doing this kind of work, and they are in use in some of the mines, but the men are opposed to them, and in some instances they have disabled or destroyed the machines.'

"Then he went on to explain that the miner makes an opening below the ma.s.s of coal in the manner that we saw, and then drills a hole some distance above it, in which to explode a charge of powder. This brings down all the coal below the locality of the explosion. Sometimes it is broken up into lumps that a man can handle, and sometimes it comes down in a single block, which requires another blast to break it up, and then the cars are brought up as near as possible. The coal is loaded into them, and pushed away to the shaft. Each man is paid according to the amount of coal he gets out, and some of them receive large wages. There are about five thousand people employed in the coal mines here, and the probabilities are that the business will be extended, and the coal product of Newcastle increased within a year or two from the present time."

From Newcastle our friends continued their journey northward to Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. They traveled all the way by rail, changing trains at Stanthorpe, on the frontier. During the delay subsequent upon the change of trains, Harry made the following memorandum in his notebook:--

"It seems to me that it is a great misfortune for Australia that each colony insists upon having its own particular gauge of track, thus preventing the running of through trains without change of cars. Some day the people will find out their mistake, and I believe some of them realize it already. Dr. Whitney says that there was at one time in the United States several different gauges of track from four feet, eight inches and one half up to six feet, and that the railway managers generally agreed upon four feet, eight inches as the standard gauge.

Since that agreement all other tracks have been changed to make the tracks uniform. Now any railway car can be run all over the United States, with the exceptions of a few special lines where the gauge is three feet, six inches.

"Three feet, six inches is the gauge of the railways of Queensland. That of New South Wales is four feet, eight and one half inches, while that of Victoria is five feet, three inches. In South Australia some of the lines are of five feet, three inches gauge, and others have the same gauge as the Queensland railways. The narrow gauge is especially adapted to mountain regions, and also to thinly populated districts. On lines where the business is light and the distances are not long, this gauge answers all requirements, but on many lines, especially those having considerable business, it is not at all advantageous."

During their railway ride our friends observed the strange combination of aboriginal and English names, and called Dr. Whitney's attention to it. "Here are Coolongolook and c.o.o.nabarabran," said Harry, "and next come Clarkeville and Smithville. Here are Cootramundra and Illawarra and Murrumbidgee close by Orange and Richmond. Here are Curabubula and Waggawagga, with Warwrick and Union Camp. I could go on indefinitely with those names, and it seems to me that the aboriginal ones are about as numerous as those of British origin. They are picturesque and perhaps interesting, but they are very difficult to p.r.o.nounce."

"Isn't it possible that you will find the same state of things at home?" queried Dr. Whitney.

"Quite possible; I have never thought of that. Let me see."

"Why, certainly," said Ned. "Go to Maine and New Hamps.h.i.+re and run over some of the Indian names of lakes, rivers, mountains, and towns in those States. Think of Kennebec and Pen.o.bscot, Winnipesaukee, Pemigewa.s.set, Pa.s.saconaway, and a good many others that I could name. I think it is an excellent policy to preserve these old names and not let them die out.

Piscataqua is a much prettier name for a river than Johnston or Stiggins, and Monadnock sounds better as the name of a mountain than Pike's Peak or Terry's Cliff. The more the native names are preserved, the better I like it."

"I agree with you," replied Harry; "but I wish they would make the orthography of those native names a little easier. That's the only fault I have to find with them."

The region through which our friends traveled was devoted to agricultural and pastoral pursuits, as the numerous flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, and fields of grain that they saw gave evidence. They were told that it was also rich in minerals,--the few surveys that had been made resulting in discoveries of gold, tin, silver, antimony, and other metals. Some of the pa.s.sengers whom they met on the train were under the impression that Dr. Whitney was looking for a place in which to invest money, and they were very anxious that he should stop and investigate their promising properties. Several fine specimens of gold-bearing quartz rock were exhibited, and the fortunate owners of these specimens said that the ground was covered with them in the locality where they were obtained. Dr. Whitney politely declined to delay his journey, and a.s.sured his zealous acquaintances that he was not looking for any new investments.

When our friends were out of earshot of the would-be speculators, Dr.

Whitney said that their statement reminded him of an incident which once occurred at a town in California, where a quartz mill was in successful operation. Harry and Ned pressed the doctor to give them the story, whereupon he related as follows:--

"There were many speculative individuals around that town who were constantly endeavoring to discover deposits of ore. One day one of these speculators was standing on a street corner, when a solemn-faced Indian came along, stopped in front of the man, and, after looking around in all directions to make sure that n.o.body was observing him, he produced from under his blanket a piece of gold-bearing quartz. Without saying a word, he held the bit of rock before the eyes of the speculator.

"The speculator grasped the specimen with great eagerness. Sure enough it was gold-bearing rock, and no mistake. It was generally believed in the town that the Indians knew of valuable deposits, but were very unwilling to divulge their location to the white men."

"'Where did you get this?' the speculator asked.

"The Indian made a sweep of his arm that embraced two thirds of the horizon, but said not a word.

"'Is there any more where this came from?' queried the speculator.

"'Yes; heaps, heaps more,' and the red man made a circle with his arm that might mean anything from a mole hill to a mountain.

"'Will you show me where you got this?' said the speculator.

"The Indian said nothing except to p.r.o.nounce the words 'five dollar.'

"Unlike many of his a.s.sociates, the speculator happened to have some money about him. He thrust his hand into his pocket, drew out a five-dollar gold piece, and placed it in the extended palm of the red man.

"The latter examined the coin very carefully, even to the extent of biting it between his teeth. Then he placed it in some mysterious receptacle under his blanket and said:--

"'You with me come. You with me go share.'

"The Indian led his new partner a long walk, going out of the town on the side opposite the quartz mill, making a circuit of a mile or two among hills, and finally fetching up at the dump pile of the mill. The dump pile, it is proper to explain, is the pile of ore as it is brought from the mine to be crushed. Having reached the foot of the pile, the Indian paused and said:--

"'Me get him here. Heaps more here, too.'

"A more disgusted individual than that speculator was at that moment could rarely be found in the town. He had been completely outwitted, in fact, sold, and by a savage who couldn't read or write."

From Stanthorpe on the frontier of Queensland the country was much the same as that through which our friends had traveled from Newcastle, except that its character was more tropical the further they went northward. They reached Brisbane in the evening, and were out immediately after breakfast on the following morning to view the sights of the place, which were fewer than those of Sydney and Melbourne, as the city is not as large as either of the others mentioned. The entire population of Brisbane and its suburbs does not exceed one hundred thousand. It is named after Sir Thomas Brisbane, who was Governor of the colony at the time the city was founded. In some respects it may be called an inland city, as it lies on a river twenty-five miles from the entrance of that stream into Moreton Bay, which opens into the Pacific Ocean. It is on a peninsula enclosed by a bend in the river, so that it has an excellent water front.

Harry made note of the fact that Brisbane resembles Sydney in the narrowness of its streets, but he added that the surveyors had some excuse for restricting the amount of land reserved for the streets, inasmuch as the s.p.a.ce between the rivers was limited. The youths were reminded of New York City when they noted that the streets of Brisbane ran from the river on one side to the river on the other, just as do the numbered streets on Manhattan Island. They had a further reminder when an island in the river was pointed out to them as the site of a prison during the convict period, just as Blackwell's Island of New York City is the location of a prison to-day.

Queen Street is to Brisbane as George Street is to Sydney or Collins Street to Melbourne. The princ.i.p.al shops and several of the public buildings are located along Queen Street, and our friends observed that wide verandas extended across the sidewalks from one end of the street to the other. These verandas enable pedestrians to walk in the shade at all times, a very wise provision to avoid sunstroke. It must be remembered that Brisbane is considerably nearer the Equator than either Melbourne or Sydney, and consequently has a warmer climate. Dr. Whitney said that he was reminded of New Orleans by the temperature, and on inquiry he ascertained that Brisbane is fully as warm as the great city near the mouth of the Mississippi.

There is a fine bridge of iron which crosses the river between North and South Brisbane. It is more than one thousand feet long, and has a draw in the center to permit the pa.s.sage of s.h.i.+ps. Ned and Harry strolled across this bridge when they reached the end of Queen Street, and on arriving at its farther end they turned around and retraced their steps.

When back again in the princ.i.p.al part of the city, they continued to the end of the peninsula, where they had expected to find huge warehouses and places of business fronting the river. Instead of these edifices they found the Botanical Gardens and other parks occupying the point of land where the river makes its bend. It was an agreeable surprise to them, and they remained in and about the gardens for an hour or more.

Whenever they came to any of the public buildings during their stroll, they ascertained the name of each edifice from some by-stander or shop-keeper. They observed that all the buildings were handsome and of good construction, with the exception of the court house, which had a very low and mean appearance. The curiosity of the youths was roused by this circ.u.mstance, and Harry spoke to a good-natured cab driver to ascertain how it happened.

"That's easy to tell, when you know," the driver answered.

"Well," said Harry, "if you know, won't you kindly tell us?"

"Certainly, sir," the driver responded. "You see this is the way of it.

That court house there used to be the female prison in the old times, and for years it was crowded with women that the government had sent out here to punish 'em. They were lifers, most of 'em, and I suppose they are pretty near all dead now. If any of 'em is alive, they're pretty old. Them that was kept in prison had to do hard work, making clothes and that sort of thing, but a good many of 'em went out as a.s.signed servants to do housework, and they had to work in the fields, too; but those days is gone now, and all the prisons we have in Brisbrane in these times is for them that commits crimes right here on the spot."

"Do you mind that round building up there with the mast on it," said the cab driver, pointing to a structure that looked like a windmill with the arms of the mill removed.

"Yes, I see it," said Harry; "what about it?"