The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-15 00:00:00

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5, 1852.

[PRICE SD.

quantity or the quality of the load, as upon the state of
tae weather and the roads.
Trade generally was dull. This was chiefly attributed
to the want of means for conveyances, for teams—we
find it stated throughout the papers before us—occupied
more time in making one trip than was usual for three
when the roads were passable. The Surveyor-General
has issued a report, from which it appears that it
would require 500,0001. to repair the roads in New
South Wales, exclusive of the expense of construct-
ing new roads to the various gold fields. Vast
numbers of mechanics and labourers were still leaving
either for the New South Wales or the Victoria
diggings, in spite of the high prices paid to them at
Sydney and the other towns. The wages of carpenters
are quoted at 60s. per week, shipcarpenters 725., masons
555., tinsmiths 60s. to 1003., wheelwrights and dray-
builders 120 s. to 2005., while bootmakers, wireworkers,
plasterers, and other trades got proportionably high
rates. All these wages had an upward tendency. It
was generally allowed that there was no getting on with-
out roads and railroads, and, to make them, mechanics
"must be paid 10s. per day, and double that amount if
necessary." " Gold wages in a gold country" has
long been the cry of all classes in New South Wales
and Victoria, and the people generally are impatient
to be taxed, provided the revenue be laid out in
works of public utility. The Sydney Morning Herald
mentions the stockholders and golddiggers as most likely
to be benefited by, and consequently chiefly called upon
to bear the burden of a road tax. The stockholders
would derive enormous advantages from an improvement
of the roads, because sheep, beasts, and horses, the de-
mand for which is rapidly increasing, would gain a freer
access to the markets. The diggers are taxed at the rate
of ls. per day, The paper we quote from thinks the tax
should be raised to 2s. 6d. Unfortunate or incompetent
diggers would then be driven back to their ordinary oc-
cupations. This would equalise labour and expand the
revenue.

There can be no doubt that any measure tending to
stop the indiscriminate rushes to the gold fields would
act most beneficially, and that such a measure is devoutly
to be wished lbw, At present, it is as if actually no
emigrants from this country had reached Australia;
those that have landed have left no traces in the towns
or in the bush; they have at once gone to swell the
alarming number of consumers at the diggings. "Over
this country," says the Sydney Morning Herald,
"There hangs a cloud so black and threatening as to
cause men's hearts to fail them for fear. All the thrilling
descriptions given by the Times of the desolation to be
apprehended for the industrial interests of these colonies
are but too likely to be realised to the very letter, unless
population pours in upon us, and that without delay, by
thousands and tens of thousands. Our winter is fast pass-
ing away, and with the return of spring will come the hour
of our trial. We fear for our flocks and herds, we fear for
our farms, we fear for all the departments of our manual
occupation, urban as well as rural. Wages have risen pro-
digiously, are rising still, and nothing can prevent their
far outstripping the profits of capital in every branch of
business but an immense, an immediate, and a continuous
immigration."
The political condition of the colony and the temper of
the colonists are, as we hinted in a former report, quite
as distressing. The papers before us contain ample
evidence of this fact. It is the opinion of the colonists
that their affairs have arrived at a marked and porten-
tous crisis.
" This day's mail will convey to her Majesty's Govern-
ment the details and results of the late movement in our
Legislative Council. In the speeches delivered and in the
resolutions adopted, Ministers will hardly fail to perceive
that the time has come when concessions can no longer be
withheld, but at risks which even Ministers ought not to
contemplate without alarm. In some of those speeches, it
is true, expressions'. were employed of which soberminded
colonists entirely disapprove. But let Ministers be assured
of this—thatrespecting the political wrongs by which those
angry expressions were provoked there is throughout the
country but one opinion and one feeling . . . .
There is but one opinion among all ranks and all parties as
to the necesssity of our having the unfettered control of
all our own revenues and plenary powers of legislation on
subjects purely colonial The public mind has been so
exasperated by the proceedings of the Home Government
that nothing short of a speedy removal of all our just
causes of complaint can arrest and put down that spirit of
disloyalty which has of late been gaining ground in every
direction."
The above is, in temperate language, a faithful abstract
of the violent denunciations of the Home Government
and the local authorities which for months past have
filled the New South Wales and Victoria papers. No
roads, no bridges, and latterly no gold escorts ; irregular
mails, the postal communication interrupted for a fort-
night at a time, the country overrun with escaped
convicts, the police force miserably deficient,
and in many instances altogether wanting ; horse
and cattle stealing of such frequent occurrence
that the Court could not find time to try the offenders if
the offenders could be caught ; highway robberies
perpetrated with impunity, and, of late, robberies in
open daylight in the streets of Melbourne : these are the
chief feature of Australian news, to which every paper
contributes its quotuni. After this it is almost super-
fluous to mention minor grievances, such as the out-
rageous cost of the collection of the gold revenue—the
cost of collection in New South Wales on a revenue of
63,479/. being 23,0001.
The Australian winter ended in the first week of
September, Sheep-shearing was to commence in the
middle of that month. The colonists were at a loss to
know where the shearers were to come from and what
wages they would demand. But they hint very signi-
ficantly that some persons in England may be even more
interested in that question than the owners of the sheep
themselves.

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

APPOINTMENTS.

Assistant•Surgeon.—James Lilbourne, to the hospital,
Jamaica.

Clerk in Charge.—A. S. Bennett, to the Locust,
steam-vessel, Brazils.
Clerks.—W. R. Scott, to the Cruiser, 14, screw-sloop,
fitting at Woolwich ; George Fait, to the Excellent,
gunnery-ship, Portsmouth ; W. P. Burdwood, to the
Ajax, 58, screw-ship, Queenstown.
Rear-Admiral Dundas's fleet had not arrived at Gib-
raltar on the 4th inst. There were then the Phaeton,
50, Captain G. Elliot, for Lisbon, to come home with
Admiral Corry; Arethusa, 50, Captain Symonds ; Tiger,
18, steam-frigate, Captain Giffard ; Niger, 14, screw-
sloop, Commander Heath ; and Antelope, steam-vessel,
Lieutenant-Commander West.

Rear-Admiral Corry, with his squadron, the Prince
Regent, 92, Captain Hutton ; Rodney, 92, Captain
Graham, C.B. ; Sanspareil, 81, screw-ship, Captain
Dacres ; Termagant, 24, screw-frigate, Captain Giffard ;
and Inflexible, 6, steam-sloop, Commander Woolridge,
remained at Lisbon.

PORTSMOUTH, DEC. 14.

Rear-Admiral Sir F. Pellew, the new commander-in-
chief for the East Indies, arrived here on Monday
evening, and proceeded to hoist his flag (red) at the
mizen, on board the Neptune, 120, ordinary guard-ship,
at nine o'clock this morning, when the customary salute
was exchanged between that ship and the Victory.
Magtera, screw steam-transport, Commander Johnson,
sailed from Spithead, on Monday evening for the
eastward.
Blenheim, 53, screw steam guard-ship, Captain W. H.
Henderson, C. 8., has been towed down from her moor-
ings to-day, and placed alongside the jetty ready for
docking, to have a leak stopped.
Archer, 14, screw steam-sloop, Commander Strange,
has been swung to-day for compass observation.
Sidon, 22, steam-frigate, Captain Goldsmith, hauled
out of dock to the fitting basin to-day, having had her
bottom cleaned.
Fire Queen, steam-vessel, Master Paul, went out of
harbour this morning to Sconce Point, with a party of
Government officials, to inspect the works in progress
for the new battery.

DEVONPORT, DEC. 13.

Vulture was taken into No. 5 Dock this morning,
to sight and clean her bottom ; she will be taken out
to-morrow morning. She is full manned, with the ex-
ception of a couple of stewards—Captain Glasse is well
known here. Magicienne, Captain Fisher, is not so for-
tunate : she is many hands deficient. Captain Glasse is
the favourite with the seamen here.
Nile, 92, will be taken into No. 4 Dock to-morrow
morning, to be fitted for screw machinery.
Avon, steam-tender, returned this afternoon from
Portsmouth.
Quail, lighter (Iveney), which was obliged to put back
into the Sound on Friday, through foul weather, sailed
to-day with stores for Pembroke.