The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-02 00:00:00

EMIGRATION TO MELBOURNE.

The following is an extract of a letter from William
Howitt, dated Melbourne, Oct. 20 :—" It cannot be too
widely or too publicly made known what those who
come here have to expect on landing. They should be
well informed of this, that they may calculate their funds
accordingly. There are numbers of our fellow-passen-
gers who have not yet got their effects out of the ship,
and thus have had to stop a month in this exorbitant
place. All luggage has to pay 11. per ton measurement
by the lighter, 11. 10s. by the steamer ; but, in truth, I
have seen none of the goods measured—they are merely
guessed at. The clerks at the wharf, after they have come
up the river in the lighter, as soon as a cart is loaded with
a passenger's effects, say ' That cart is 31. or 41. lighter-
age,' and they will not let it go out of the yard till the
money is paid. I was made to pay 41. for one cart load—
the whole of my effects having cost 71. 10s. from London.
But, as I happened to have with me my London mea-
surement, I got it corrected. Such, however, is not the
case with many people ; they know that it is wrong, but
they are obliged to pay. This is a strange way of doing
business ; but they have many strange ways here, and
they now only look on 20s. sterling as so many pence.
Passengers should know that guessing is not measuring,
and should be prepared to show what the true measure-
ment is. People coming hither should reflect, too, that
they are coming into a colony abounding with expert
thieves, who have been shipped from England to Sydney
and Van Diemen's Land, and have assembled here to
dig for gold in the pockets and coffers of the immi-
grants. There is no safety for the goods in the
lighters, as the lightermen are very frequently finished
thieves of the convict class, and they employ themselves,
as the lighters come slowly up the river, in exploi-
ing the interior of the packages entrusted to them, and
selecting what suits them best. If the passengers find
themselves minus such articles, there is no chance of re-
covering the value, unless they can prove that the
packages went safely out of the ship into the lighter, and
that they themselves saw the packages come out of the
lighter. But this is a very difficult matter, and cannot
be done, unless the passengers go down to the ship every
day and watch the things put in ; and to do this they
must often go down for a month together, at a cost of
16s. per day for a single individual. Once out of the
lighter 11. per load is demanded for carting your things
into the town ; once in the town another great difficulty
is to be encountered—the difficulty of getting into any
lodgings, even at the most astounding prices. Notwith-
standing the temporary wooden houses erected and the
tents pitched on all sides of the town, the price of the
poorest lodgings is four times what it would be in Lon-
don, sometimes tenfold. Even for the tents you are
charged ss. a-week standing room on the common round
the town. I think that Government should allow immi-
grants the privilege of pitching their tents on the waste
lands without charge at a time when they are profess-
ing great anxiety to accommodate them. Some of our
fellow passengers are 'giving 21. and 31. a-week for poor
empty rooms. I saw a cottage yesterday at Colling-
wood which would let for about 101. a-year in England,
but for which 2001. a-year is paid, without any garden
at all. I saw another which a few years ago was pur-
chased for 1501.; the same has been sold several times,
each time advancing in price, till now it is 12,0001. I
saw a house to-day which might be built in England
for 1,0001., and which was offered to Government for
the use of the officers of the.barracks for 4,5001., but as
they hesitated the price then rose to 6,6001., and the
Government took it lest it should go still higher. The
Melbourneites have taken a few leaves out of the books
of the Sybil. In this oddly circumstanced place, there-
fore, when the immigrants get their goods liberated and
are ready to proceed to the diggings, they are next met
by terrible accounts of the state of the roads, which
early in the year are only too true, and they must pay
from 701. to 1201. per ton for carriage for about 80 miles,
or they must purchase a cart for 501. and a strong
horse for 1001., or a couple of lighter ones for 801,,
to get their effects up the country. They must
carry up all sorts of stores, especially flour, or they
must pay at the rate of 101. per sack, and 3.5. and 4s. for
the 41b. loaf, and so on. They must do this, or they must
trudge upon foot, as thousands and thousands do, with
only a bundle on their backs containing a basket and a
pick, and a spade on their shoulders. Theserthe rnen,
o
hardy as they are, have to stop under a tree_open
heavens, and become, many of them, cramped with
rheumatism and attacked with dysentery. Such are the
realities which meet the adventurer on the thres-
hold of the land of gold. These are followed by hard-
ships and severity of labour that men accustomed to
offices and banks are totally unfitted for. Hence there
are so many failures, and number are met coming down
again in perfect dejection and destitution. I hope that
long before this reaches England these facts will have
been published—these obverse features-of the golden
medal of Australia Felix. But what must be the amount
of distress when the number here is augmented by the
tens and hundreds of thousands coming from America,
Jamaica, England, and the Continent ? I perceive a
considerable number of French and Germans here al-
ready. It begins now to be an opinion that in a few
months, such is the swarm of people pouring in, there
will be plenty of labour of all kinds, and then things
will speedily find their level, to the astonishment of those
who have purchased houses and laud at the present
exorbitant prices. In a while the colony will absorb
them all."

ABDICATION OF A FOREIGN PRINCE.—The German
Journal of Frankfort, under date of Jassy 4th, says " The reigning Prince Ghika has abdicated, in conse-
quence of the state of his health. There is a clause in
the treaty of Balta Liman which states that, in the
event of the illness or death of the reigning prince, a
provisional government shall be established, composed
of the Ministers of the Interior, Justice, and Foreign
Affairs, which shall last for 7 years. Prince Ghika was
elected Hospodar on the 16th June, 1849. It is thought
that the Russians will enter the Principalities."