The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-20 00:00:00

AUSTRALIA.

The Sydney steamer brings intelligence from
Australia to the 7th of December, some days later
than the dates by the Great Britain.
The Legislative Council of New South Wales re-
assembled on the 6th of December, and was to go
into committee on the Constitution Bill on the
7th.

A public meeting had been held at Sydney to
commence a subscription for a testimonial to Mr.
Deas Thompson, the Colonial Secretary, who is
about to embark for England. A public breakfast
is to be given to the hon. gentleman previous to
his departure, and a sum of money forwarded to
England sufficient to purchase a piece of plate of
suitable magnificence, to be selected by Mr. Thom-
son himself, as the parting gift of his friends in the
colony.
No material alteration in the state of mercantile
business is reported. The demand for most kinds
of merchandise continue steady.
A correspondent of the Empire gives the follow-
ing account of the progress of the settlement at Port
Curtis, where the Government surveyors have been
for some time past engaged :
" Further experience tends to confirm the flattering
account which is given of the harbour ; it is about a
mile in width, and is easily accessible by two entrances,
one to the north and one to the south, with ample
depth of water for large ships quite close to its shores.
A town has been laid out upon an inlet called
Auckland Inlet, where the Lord Auckland, that
conveyed the former expedition, was hove down.
It •is a :very eligible site, affording ample space for
wharfage for shipping of any tonnage. The town
has been named Gladstone, after the present Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, and the numerous allotments
and rectangular streets assume quite an imposing
appearance on the map. The necessary reserves have
been made by the Government for official buildings. The
main street is called Auckland-street, and is already so
far formed that teams can travel upon it without any
difficulty. There have been also marked out on a creek,
called King Corah Creek, about three miles from Auck-
land, a great many suburban allotments, of from 5 to 10
acres each. These will shortly be put up for sale in
Syciney. A little to the east of this settlement is a-navi-
gable river called the Boyne ; and, on the west, another
stream navigable for 20 miles from its mouth ; it is
then obstructed by a ridge of limestone, over which
it falls with considerable velocity. The party have
called this river the Liffey, but we believe the Go-
vernment intend, if possible, to discover the native
name for it. On the bank various lagoons of good fresh
water were discovered, and cod of a large size were caught
in the stream. The course of this river is serpentine,
but not so mach so as to render the navigation difficult.
The character of the soil is a fine dry sandstone, afford-
ing great facilities for forming the streets. No rain had
fallen for nearly three months, and the vegetation had
suffered very much in consequence. A chain of hills sur-
round the settlement, about 40 miles from the coast. At
the back of these hills is supposed to lie the magnificent
country which is drained by the Mackenzie. A large
river debouches into the sea about 40 miles to the north
of Port Curtis. This has been named the River Fitzroy,
and it is supposed to be the embouchure of the Mackenzie
and the Dawson of the Burnett country. If this be the
case, the Mackenzie follows the singular example of most
of the Australian rivers, and runs for a great portion of
its length parallel with the sea coast, making an abrupt
elbow near its termination. There is a fine opening
here for some enterprising man to follow Captain Cadet's
example, and to open up the country which this noble
stream must water. The aborigines are beginning to be
troublesome. Mr. Hays, who has stations about 60
miles to the southward, sends his teams with wool to
Port Curtis. They were attacked by the blacks, who
drove off the teamsrnen, and tore open the bags and
scattered the wool abroad. They stole the bags. A
skirmish had taken place between the blacks and the
surveying party, who repulsed them effectually, and
they decamped. Mr. Walker, the commandant of
native police, had arrived with twelve troopers,
and had shot some of the blacks concerned in
the robbery of Mr. Hays' wool. In a private
letter he says—' I have seen no country so good as this
for the last twelve months. I am very sanguine about
its becoming a great place. The blacks require all the
watching we can give them. The more I see of this
country the more I like it.' There is a good deal of
swamp in this neighbourhood, which, consisting of rich
alluvial districts, renders the vegetation very coarse and
rank. These swamps might be converted to rice culti-
vation. It is believed that most of the tropical fruits
will grow there, although, by the meteorological table
that has been kept by the expedition, the heat at present
has not been so great as was anticipated."
The Council of Victoria had been compelled to
pass the new Gold-fields Management Bill very hur-
riedly, the term of the temporary act expiring on
the Ist of December. The new bill was read a third
time on the 29th of November. The scale of the

license fees has again been altered ; it is now fixed
at V. for a month, and Si. for the whole year ; the
fee for three months is 2/. ; for six mouths, 4/. This
alteration has been strongly objected to, as it re-

moves the inducement to take out annual licenses,
offered by the former scale. Those who take
out a license for a year will be entitled to
the political franchise for the future represen-
sentatives of the gold fields in the Legislative
Council, and will also have a right to a plot
of ground on the diggings, to cultivate as a gar-
den. The annual license fee, therefore, partakes
of ,the character of rent. The amount of royalty
to be paid by mining companies taking leases of
land for their operations is fixed at one-twentieth
of the produce.
In consequence of the strong opposition it met
from all parties in. the Council, the Gold Export

Duty Bifi was withdrawn by the Government:
The lowest license fee in the Victoria gold fields,
under the new act, is twice the amount of that
levied by the last regulations of the Government
of New South Wales in that province ; and the
rates for licenses of three, six, and 12 months are

33 per cent. higher in Victoria than in the northern
fields.
The Government escorts that arrived at the Trea-
sury, Melbourne, on the 29th of Nov., brought the
following quantities of gold :—From Castlemaine,
25,283 oz.; the last number was 11,613 oz. ; from
Golden Point, 41 oz. ; Fryer's Creek, 1,012 oz. ;
Mount Franklyn, 177 oz.; Sandhurst, 22,967 oz.;
Eagle Hawk, 497 oz. The M'lvor escort brought
from M'lvor 2,209 oz.; and the Ovens escort, 4,193
oz. The last number from WI vor is 2,066 oz.;
from Waranga, 383 oz.; from the Ovens, 3,164 oz.;
Snake Valley, 60 oz. ; Reid's Creek, 4 oz. The
Ballarat escort brought from Ballarat to Melbourne
4,215 oz. of gold, and left at Geelong 6,689 oz.,
bringing in all 10,904 oz. The last number from
Ballarat is 3,290 oz., and from Creswick's Creek
260 oz.

Prices of goods on the Bendigo are lowering,
chiefly in consequence of the facilities for bringing.
them up, afforded by the fine weather. Gold re-
mains at 3/. 15s. per ounce.
Three cartloads of coal had been paraded through
the streets of Melbourne, as the first raised in the

province. The blocks, which were very large,
were found near Cape Paterson, close to the sea-
shore ; they appeared to be surface specimens.
The Adelaide journals are to the 24th of No-
vember.

The bill authorising a loan of 150,0001. for the
construction of a railway from the city to the port
had been passed. The only objection made to the
measure was that the sum named was too small.

The gauge adopted for th eline is sft. 3in.
On the 18th the Collector of Customs moved
the second reading of the Customs' Amendment
. . _ .

Bill, the principle Of which was that the ad valo-
rem duty was made the rule rather than the excep-
tion, the rated duty being only adopted in some few

necessary instances.
Captain Cadell had left Wellington on the 19th
for his second voyage up the Murray.
The emigrant ship Olivia arrived at Adelaide on
the 14th ult., with 358 emigrants on board, after a
passage of 107 days from Plymouth.
The New Zealand journals bring intelligence to
the sth of November.
The festival to commemorate the first establish-
ment of free government in the colony took place
at Wellington on the 20th of October. Upwards
of 1,000 persons, it is stated in the Independent,
sat down to a dinner provided on the occasion, and
a public ball terminated the proceedings.
Some dissatisfaction appears to be entertained
towards Sir George Grey on account of his alleged
tardiness in bringing the new constitution into

operation.
From the speech of the Superintendent in ope n
ing the Provincial Council of Wellington, it appears
that the province contains 10,502,000 acres of land,
and that the native title to 2,015,000 acres had
been set aside. _ _

A bill providing
.for the administration of the
Provincial Executive Government had passed
through the Council. The Executive Council is to
consist of the Secretary, Solicitor, and Treasurer of
the Province, but the Superintendent may appoint
any other persons, not exceeding two, to be mem-
bers.

The Provincial Council of Canterbury was opened
on the 27th of September. From statistics pub-
lised in the byttelton Times of the Ist of October,
it appears that, for the year ending the 30th of
June, 1853, the total revenue of the settlement
was 5,2511. Gs. Bd. ; total expenditure, 4,1621.
6s. 7d. The value of the imports for the same
period were :

From Great Britain

From New South Wales 28:402 8 2
From Victoria.,. 2,085 0 0
From Van Diemen's Land 3,706 17 0

Total £54,715 8 11
The value of the exports of sundry descriptions
of produce was 13,000/.