The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-23 00:00:00

AUSTRALIA.

The latest advices received from the Australian
colonies extend to the 23d March inclusive, by a
vessel arrived at Madras, but the intelligence con-
veyed to this country is of a somewhat irregular
character ; this is the more to be regretted, as it
has often occurred that very late news has been
received both from New South Wales and the
colony of Victoria by similar opporturities. There
are also accounts to the 14th March by way of New
York. The general state of trade at Sydney is re-
presented as very active, and the market for most
kinds of imports very firm. The yield of gold had
declined, but it is aceountedfor by the adoption by
the Legislature of the act to " regulate the raising
of a revenue from the gold mines of New South
Wales." The effect of this measure was to create
great dissatisfaction and disorder at the nr; ues and
to very considerably decrease the population, many
thousands of whom had left for the neighbouring
colony of Victoria. It will, if pers;sted in, says
the Empire, drive all foreigners ::•om the New
South Wales diggings, and deter the colonists and
British immigrants from the enterprise, or induce
them to step over the boundary to the still more
tempting diggings of Victoria, where a similar law
does not exist. The chief points of this law deemed
so aggressive are these :
" Under pretext of preventing runaway servants from
digging, it empowers the authorities to demand from
every one proofs that lie is not an absconder, and to
imprison him until he can produce such proofs, and all
this without any one to bring against him a complaint.
It thus, contrary to the whole spirit of British law,
throws on the innocent party the onus probandi
of his innocence, and deems him guilty without
proof of guilt. This is one of the offensive provisions.
Another is, that it requires every adult male remain-
ing in any district proclaimed as a gold field, unless
engaged in pastoral or agricultural pursuits, or in tua-
nelling, to take out a licence, as if lie were a digger, of
30s. a month, every male being reckoned adult above 14
years of age—so that all persons carrying on any kind
of trade in the township must not only pay licences for
themselves, but for every one in their employ. And it
empowers the authorities to fine or imprison all such
persons found on the ground who have not taken out a
licence. The effect is to prevent enterprise, and to raise
the cost of necessaries, so as to make digging, to the
great majority, a profitless labour. And a third objec-
tionable clause is one that makes the fee double to a
foreigner, and puts the onus probandi upon every person
who may be accused of being such."

With regard to the general effects produced by
this law, a local paper observes :
" The diggers are abandoning their work by thousands,
and retreating to Victoria, rather than hazard an illegal
collision. Meanwhile, the splendour of recent discove-
ries in that quarter is enough of itself to effect a power-
ful revolution in the minds of the laboui Ing class, in
favour of that colony ; and were other things equal,
there would soon be very little labour left in New
South Wales ' • and the concoctors of those mischievous
measures would bitterly suffer the fruits of their own
folly. However, the excessive appetite for gold in Vic-
toria has produced a state of things there extremely dis-
astrous to the public and social well-being. The im-
mense rush of immigration has found the colony unpre-
pared by wise measures for its reception. The employ-
ment at the mines, rich as the production is, adds
nothing either to the necessary sustenance or to the
comfort of the colony. Agriculture and other agricul-
tural pursuits are ill cared for. The Government is
weak and incapable. The squatting occupancy shuts
uy the land. The result is, that there is at Melbourne
a large floating population, of whiehit would be hard to
say whether it belongs to the colony or not. We are
told, says the Empire, that there are thousands of per-
sons at the city, living in tents, for the site of each of
which the Government charges a ground rent of five
shillings a week. The price of labour and material
being exorbitant, building is rendered next to impossible.
Nor is the spirit of Victoria legislation any improvement

upon our own. They, too, act upon the principle of
throwing the onus probandi upon parties unaccused„
otherwise than by constables and' magistrates."
The general progress of the colony, however,
was favourable. All articles of consumption main-
tained good prices, and the prices of colonial pro-
duse and stock were more remunerative. But tne
Empire observes :
"It is not quite easy to give a fair estimate of the
commercial prospects of the present moment, when the
cause of the recent progression has been so strangely
tampered with. The Government recently exulted in
the expectation of a large revenue from the gold
mines, for 1853, and placed the valuation of the licences
and royalties, which was considered very much be-
neath the probability, at 100,0001., with an addition
of 110,0001. for escort and conveyance. It would be
hazardous now to form an, opinion of the injury which
these expected sums will have sustained from the opera-
tions of the ill-judged Gold Act. There is every reason
to believe that it will operate most disastrously upon the
gold revenue, and it cannot fail to produce some effect
even upon the general revenue, for the quantity of mer-
chandise consumed at the diggings was becoming im-
mense. The goose and golden egg again ! It is always
best to keep bungling hands from machinery which re-
quires skill to mind it. If military , must be supported
to secure the licences, the profits of the undertaking are
not a little doubtful.

" The moral and religious aspects of the colony do not
vary from month to month. Immigration has done
nothing yet to elevate the people. The female immi-
gration is strangely absorbed, and the comfort of families
does not keep pace with the quantity of young women
imported. There is some error in the management of
this matter, which deprives the colony of any sensible
advantage from the acquisition. A few only appear to
be of a class able and disposed to live to some useful
purpose. The gold has produced a deleterious effect
upon the industrious inclinations even of young females.
They are not willing to commit themselves to industry
for support, and to learn all that is requisite to make
them honourable members of society.
" The state of crime is inauspiaious. Although far
better off than our neighbours, we are reaping the fruits
of the loose convictism of Van Diemen's Land, and of
the cupidity and profligacy produced by the speculating
tendencies of the time. Outrages are becoming some-
what alarmingly frequent, and are accompanied with
a ferocity most appalling. Yet, were the state of
education in advance, we should entertain no fear of
these symptoms. The thing to be deplored is, that
the young are, to a large extent, growing up abandoned
in morals, from the utter want of that domestic training
without which mere school education will he nearly
in vain. The state of education is fearfully bad. Moral
discipline is everywhere at fault—the result of which
will be, without speedy amendment, that the next gene.
ration will be one of vastly augmented profligacy and
crime. There is enough in the prospect to awaken the
deepest solicitude for the future."

The same journal appears to be discouraged by
the at present imperfect state of the steam commu-
nication with England by way of the Cape of Good
Hope. The experiments, it remarks, have as yet
been uniform failures, for which an extra 60 per
cent, upon the postal charges is levied.