The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-15 00:00:00

LATEST INTELLIGENVE•

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

THE BOMBAY MAIL.

MALTA, SEPT. 15,

The Ellora, with the heavy portion of the above
mail, will leave here at 8 a.m. today. She may
be expected at Southampton about the 24th inst.

5m...,m,..•..0

OUTWARD CALCUTTA AND CHINA
MAILS.

The Euxine, from Marseilles on the 12th,
reached Malta to-day at 5 a.m., and leaves at 9
a.m. for Alexandria.

THE BRAZIL MAILS.
LISBON, SErT. 14.

The Messageries Imperiales steamship Estrema•
dure, with the above mails, arrived here this

morning.

AUSTRALIA.
THE COLONY OF VICTORIA.

We take the following summary of news from
the Melbourne Argus of the 25th of July :
" The political history of the month may be
written briefly. Parliament has been prorogued
to the 2d proximo, then to be further prorogued or
dissolved. The Speaker is on a voyage to New
Zealand, to assist, as a commissioner, in determine
ing the future site of the capital of that colony.
The impending general election is expected to take
place in September-October, and Ministers have as
yet made no sign as to the policy with which they
will go before the eeuntry.
" The preliminary steps have been taken for the
formation of a society to encourage immigration, the
scheme for which the last Immigration Bill was
passed having become abortive, apparently, in the
hands of the present Government.
" Within the last week the river Yarra has
swollen into a flood which, from its height, the ex•
tent of country submerged, and the damage occa-
sioned in Melbourne and its suburbs, is second only
to the great flood of last D..cember.
" We have no changes of any especial importance
in regard to the production of gold to report. For
many months past the miners have been steadily erne
ployed, without being much disturbed by the news
of great rushes or discoveries, either within our own
territory or in any of the neighbouring goldbearing
countries, and such is their condition still. So great
are the hardships to be endured on the New Zee.
land goldfields during the winter, even in those of
the more northern part of the middle island, where
if the cold is not so severe, the rain is constant and
heavy enough to interfere materially both with work
and comfort, that the return stream of miners still
flews hitherward pretty strongly, although accounts
from Otago are more favourable again. The last new
lead of any consequence opened here—that found a
couple of months since at Majorca—is turning out
well, and has quite restored the popularity of a
place which was almost deserted on the working
out of the old lead there. Of the new rushes
which have taken place with the last few
weeks none promise to assume a scale of magni-
tude; still, these afford occupation to several hun.
dreds of men in all, and it is batter that the miners
should be thus distributed than collected together
in thousands at one spot. At a few of the older
places population is steadily increasing, as, for in-
stance, at Deylesford, around which town deep
sinking is steadily extending, although the leads
are not so rich by a long way as the deep leads of
Ballarat, Mount Greenock, too, is now occupied
by a large number of men, and the deeper the
sinking becomes there the more extensive do the
deposits of gold appear to be. The clearing of tracks
and marking out of roads between the settlements
formed within the last year or two among the
mountains to the eastward had just rendered the
exploration of these regions comparatively easy
when the scow began to fall, and full warning was
given that winter was rot the time when facilites
teus afforded could be taken much advantage of.
The discoveries made, however by the party of
men engaged at this work have since been followed
up by the finding of several more reefs near the
exceedingly rich one named the Pioneer, at the
Crooked River, on the Gipps Land side of the range;
and the report of the leader of the party, Mr.
M‘Millan, who first took stock through these
ranges to Gipps Land, in the olden times, shows
that he has opened paths through much auri-

ferous country, parts which will doubtless prove
to be fully as rich as those already taken up in these
regions. Roads passable for drays have been marked
out through tracts of country before impracticable
even for packhorses; and, as a proof that the value
of such services is duly acknowledged, Mr. M'Mil•
lan has been engaged to clear and make dray
roads from Sale to Wood's Point, and from Sale
to Harrietville, as soon as the weather will ad-
mit of such work being resumed. Thus, inter-
course will be rendered direct and easy between the
chief places on bath sides of the ranges ; and, as
the roads already cleared are principally along the
crests of these ridges, there will for the future be
no serious difficulty in transporting either provi.
sions or machinery to any point where fresh dis-
coveries may be made—a matter of no little conse-
quence, as will appear from the fact that the
population at and near the Crooked River had
increased from 150 to at least ten times that number
within a very few weeks of the opening of the
Pioneer Reef. Such was the result of one discovery,
at a most unfavourable season of the year; and this
may serve to indicate what use will be made of the
new roads when summer sets in."