The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1860-10-23 00:00:00

AUSTRALIA.

THE COLONY Of VICTORIA.

We take the following from the 111611111117 for Europe
of the Melbourne Arun. of the 2.51.1 i of August
The purchase II the Government of the Geelong
aul Meliourite Itailway has been finally completed.
A nugget weighing a 34 us. WWI found some days ago
by the liolpiNuor Company at liallatit, at a depth of
400 feet. About tua,z, of kohl in .mall nuggets ley
around it. In ahem. (hit monster mace of gold resemble,
a leg of nintton.
The Sliakspeare Memorial Committee have resolved
to place the selection of the design for the memorial
prumeed to be erected in Melbourne in the hando of
coioindiee of taate. cusiipoaed of Yeaars. Thom.,.
Carly., and JOllll 'NAM ant air Charles Eaatl•k,.
throu,th them to invite six of the moat eminent English
imulpturs to aeud in designs. All artists in Victoria
will receive a similar invitation. With the counnittei
of Unite a buinuesa committee will be emaciated.
The proposal to create • River and Harbour Trust

for Melbourne has been renewed, and the emo•truction
of a canal fro.n tht•lv at Hatadridge to the harbour is
once more talked of. If Melbourne becomes the southern
terminus of the mail line, • graving dock on the largest
scale will be one of the first public works taken in
hand.
A subscription has been set on foot at a public meet-
ing for the purpose of presenting Garibaldi with a sword.
The movement was originated by Signor M•rtelli, a
companion-in-liner of in the war of 1848-9.
Ti. sister is over, and the •pproach of spring begins
to be felt. The sea.,ou has bet it singularly mild.
•

-
THE GOLDFIELDS.
There have been no ..... venients of especial importance
on the goldfields during the loot few weeks. New
ground has been opened in different places, and rushes
there have been as a natural consequence, but none of
these promise to mamma any great magnitude. The
announcement of • new and extensive goldfield among
the mountains from which the Coldburn and its
tributaries take their rise, although made in his place
in the House by a Minister of the Crown, and, besides,
one of the goldfields' members, was soon proved to be
false, the intelligencz having been received from an
officer of police who had never been on the spot. A
few scattered parties have been working for years past
iimong these ranges, and, by sluicing some of them,
have done well, and are able oftentimes to earn El a
day each man, the yield that was announced; but the
work is hard, and the streams are so shut in among the
mountains, that there is room for but few men, and
besides, provisions, tools, and everything to be pur-
chased, are expensive, having to be carried on pack-
saddles for a considerable distance over very difficult
tracks.

On the older fields things remain pretty much as they
were. There has been POMO improvement at Inglewood
(the newest of these), but the want of water has been
sadly felt, and until this is provided in abundance •
great extent of ground that would pay well fur pud-
dling has to remain unworked. It is just now propolied
to form • company to bring water from the lawldon
through a tunnel 3! miles long; • rather formidable
undertaking, without knowing whether this will have
to pass through rock, clay, or sand; and if this project
be not carried out little can he done except on the leads
and reefs, some of which are, however, yielding very
well at present. So little rain has fallen through the
winter, that the waut of water is very much felt even
now on several of the goldfields ; and, although this is
generally allowed to be almost aufficient to account for
the yield not increasing as it ought at this season, we
are sorry to say little or nothing has been done towards
securing a better supply for the future. At Forest
Creek some iif the millowners are now only charging
the public 10. per tun for crushing and amalgamation,
so that very poor quartz will pay for the working.
These reductions have calmed much discussion among
miners as to what the actual cost of crushing is when
the machinery is good and due economy is used, and by
some it has been set down as low as 2s. per ton. That
private companies are able to do it at this isevident, for
one of the small companies of working miners at Ballarat
was for some time earning a weekly wage of 90s. per
man, clear of expenses, by raising and crushing atone
yielding the very small average of 2dwts. to the ton.
Quartz-mining is still munch on the increase in ti is dis-
trict, and some of the old alluvial companies on the
main leads are dividing 1:20, LIO, or 130 per man ep..h
week ; but this, it unnit be remembered, is sifter the ex-
penditure of a large capital, and not wily months, but
in some tames years of work. There have neen some
large yitida from email parcel* of quartz, but no such
cake of amalgamated gold as we had to chronicle last
month.