The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-13 00:00:00

AUSTRALIA.

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Yesterday we published a summary of the intel-
ligence received from the gold colonies and the Cape
by the Victoria. Our tiles and biters supply the
fuller statement subjoined.
From all the colonies the intelligence is genera:ly
of a most encouraging character.
In Victoria the daily yield of gold is estimated at
fifty thousand pounds. Gold to the value of five
million nine hundred and fifty five pounds had
already been shipped from that province this year.
The population was still increasing. In the third
week in September 375 persons arrived at Melbourne,
and only 274 left. The number of inhabitants in
the district is now 250,000. There was much ',con-
fusion, and some disappointment, but the colony was
rapidly rising.
At Sydney the rural and pastoral districts to the
north were very proseerous, and high prices were
given for stations. '1 he city is free from robberies,
and handsome buildings are rising in all directions.
The Paramatta Railway is making slow progress,
in consequence of a deficiency of labour.
The market price for gold at Melbourne is V. 17s.
—rising. Wonderful discoveries are making at the
new Ballarat diggings. Three men in six days are
said to have raised 1921 b. weight of gold. The
licence fee has been commuted from 11. 10s. per
month to 21. for the remainder of the year-90 to
110 days. The diggings are healthy, and the diggers
are adopting a more scientific mode than formerly ;
they sink a shaft, from 6 to 12 feet diameter, to a
depth of from 20 to 100 feet, and from the base
work radiating tunnels, which are connected at the
outer ends by a circular tunnel. All the produce is
sent up the shaft.
Excepting one at Sydney, all the gold companies,
especially the Peel River, are unsuccessful, in conse-
quence of the heavy expenses.
Three vessels had ascended the Murray, 1,200
miles from sea. The navigation proved safe, the
depth of water varying for tlimense distances from
114 to 36 feet. The river is reported to be navigable
much further than the Darling, one of its tributaries,
for some 300 or 400 miles.

The markets for all sOrts of articles fluctuated,
bat the averages are evidently highly remunerative
to the importers.
The Victoria, considering that she has called at all
the Australian ports, and come round the Cape of
Good Hope, has made the best homeward passage of
any steamer yet. She has beat the Oriental Corn_
parry's steamer considerably, because, although the
Shanghai left Australia for Ceylon three days later
than the Victoria, the mails of the former will not
be delivered for a week from this period. The Strat-
ford, the first sailing vessel employed to convey the
mails to Australia, and which was despatched on the
4th of June last, reached Melbourne on the 20th of
September: thus, inbtead of conveying the mails out
in about 70 days, as was expected, she took 10s
days. Previous to the arrival of the Shanghai, on
the 11th of September, no mail had been received at
Australia for two months.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.
Adelaide letters of the 27th give a good accoant
of the colony.
A greater breadth of land has been put under crop
this year than in any former one, and the season
has in all respects been most propitious. The clip of
wool, too, will exceed that of all former years.
Greater attention has been paid to the sheep, and
tho season has been most thvourable for washing,
which is just now commencing. There will probably
be a large addition to the export this year, too, from
the opening up of the Murray, by which some thou-
sands of bales, which have hitherto passed through
Victoria or Sydney, will be shipped at I'ort Adelaide.
The only drawbrack to agricultural and pastoral
pursuits is the scarcity of labour, and its consequent
high price. For shearing flocktnasters have been
freely offering 1/. per hundred, but tho price de-
manded has been 11. lOs. Four and t wenty shillings
will probably rule.
Public works are to be commenced on a large
scale, and 136,000/. has been voted for that purpose.
The sale of government land is going on rapidly.
From the Ist of January to the 30th of Juno the
quantity sold was 103,175 acres, and the amount
realised 142,05.1/. Since then the quantity sold by
private contract was as follows :-15,211 acres sold
for 24,•i391. 10s. By public auction there has also
been sold during the same three months 33,000 acres,
which fetched 49,573/. At the same rate of proceed-
ing the land sales of the year will not fall tar short
of 300,0001. The chances are that they will be rather
over than under that sum.

The Colonial Secretary had hid on the table of the
council returns of tl.c quantity of gold brought into
the colony per escort from Mount Alexander or
otherwise, and passed through the Adelaide Amay-
office, from the 10:h of Feb., 18.2, to the 31st of Aug.,
1853. The Assay-office received and returned to the
depositors, from the 10th of February, 1832, to the
date of final delivery, 430,819 oz. 13 dwts. 19 grs. of
gold, of standard fineness-which, at 71s. per ounce,
was equivalent in value to 1,329,4091. 17s. 10d.
This quantity of gold dust seemed to have been
brought to the colony chiefly by the escort from
Mount Alexander, which fr an its commencement is
March, 1832, to the Ist of September, 1833, inclu-
sive, brought in all, in fourteen journeys, 297,639 oz.
ltl dwts.-which, valued at 71s. per ounce, would
amount to 1,036,6911. 4s. Gd. The import of gold by
sea from Melbourne, during the same period, was
29,111 ounces-which, valued at 71s. per ounce,
would make 102,3101. The total of these two sums
was 1,139,0011. 4s. Gd. Of this large sum received
for gold, 280,607/. had been invested in Crown Lands
from the beginning of 1832 to the end of August,
1833. Owing to its high price in Melbourne, the
quantity received has been gradually diminished, but
it is still considerable, and is likely to continue so.
The estimated quantity for this year is 88,000 ounces,
and for next year from 70,000 to 80,000 ounces.
A circular of the 27th says :-Trade has been
steadily improving during the last fortnight, and
, recent advice' from the neighbouring colonies have
caused increased firmness. Stocks are not generally
heavy, boots, shoes, and draperies, are perhaps ex-
ceptions, though many articles in the latter business
are much wanted, especially for the country stores.
The mill prices of grain and flour are : fine flour, 281.
per ton ; second ditto, 26/. ; bran and pollard, Se. 94.
per bushel; wheat, 9s. Gd. to 10s. ditto. Bread
is 7d. the 2-lb. loaf ; flour, 4ld. per lb. Butter,
fresh, per lb., ls. 4d.; Cheese, Is. 2d. to is. 6d. ;
pork, Is.; fowls, per pair, 65.; ducks, 9s. ditto. Po-
tatoes, 3d. per lb.; cabbages, 3d. to 6d. each. At
Adelaide, blacksmiths were making per diem, 141. to
' 155.; carpenters, 12s. to 145.; cabinetmakers, 12s.
to 135.; coopers, 10s. to 125.; day labourers, Gs. to
Bs.; engineers, 12s. to 205.; masons, 12s. to 14e.;
miners, 6s. to Bs. ; painters and glaziers, Bs. to 10s.;
shoemakers, 10s. to 12a.

NEW SOUTH WALES.
Letters from Sydney are of the 16th September.
The accounts from the diggings are full of complaints
of loss and damage by rain and floods, of impassable
roads, dear provisions, and the non-arrival of mails ;
but affairs were beginning to improve, the winter
was passing away, and the commencement of the
spring migration to the diggings was already visible.
Business had slightly revived, and there will, no
doubt, be a more marked improvement as soon as the
roads of the interior are again open.
The Legislative Council of Victoria had been
opened on the 39th of August. The speech of the
Governor, Mr. Latrobe, contained an unexpected
announcement that it was the intention of the go-
vernment to abolish the gold-license fee. The
decision must have been suddenly taken, since, in
his reply to the diggers' &potation and memorial,
and his despatches to the Governor of New South
Wales, the continued collection of the fee had been
insisted on. In the meantime, however, the attitude
of the miners had become more threatening, and it
had been found necessary to send the military force
in Melbourne to the gold fields. Up to the depar-
ture of the mail there had been no intelligence of
any collision. For the next three months a fee of
2!. to be collected; at the expiration of that period,
the act will have been passed abolishing the tee
i altogether, r reducing it to a nominal sum for the
purpose of regigtration. This sudden change of
policy on the pert of the government of Victoria
would render it impossible to maintain the license
fee on the fields of the province of New South
Wales.

On the 23th of August the first stone of the new
exchange in Bridge-street was laid, with the usual
ceremonies, by Sir C. Fitzroy, the Governor-General.