The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-19 00:00:00

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT OF THE TIMES.)
MELBOURNE, Nov. 26, 1852.
The town has long appeared to be as full as it could
hold, yet new arrivals continue to pour in upon us. Last
Week five or six vessels from England alone came into
the harbour. On the outskirts of the town the differ-
ent colonies of tents are rapidly becoming little branch
towns. Lodging-house keepers constantly advertise
vacancies, but no one knows what this means till he
tries it. The overcrowding, extortion, dirt; and vermin
are so unbearable, that most new corners who do not
rush away to the diggings, take to a tent fife as soon as
Possible. While on the subject of overcrowding, you
will be glad to hear that several captains of vessels ar-
Vving at Adelaide and Geelong have recently been fined
00/. each for having more than the legal number of emi-
grants on board. Why, is it not done here—the fine
being made proportionate to the number in excess per
head ? It would be the saving of many lives during the
voyage.
The soldiers are beginning to desert from the 40th
Regiment, and are off to the diggings. Upwards of 20
are Rune ; 251. per head is offered for their apprehension.
Murlers in the bush are said to be on the increase, but
think this is only because more bodies have been disco-
vered. There always have been, and there continue to I
be, many murders at the different diggings, and in their
vicinity, which are never known. A murder is easy
anywhere—in England or anywhere in the world=the
great difficulty is to dispose of the body. At the dig-
gings, especially among the more isolated tents, and in
the solitude of the bush, there is no further difficulty
,than that of digging an unprofitable hole. The " pro-
fit" was found in the pocket or belt of the deceased. A
gentleman is seldom murdered ; first, because he almost
always makes a desperate resistance to the last drop ;
secondly, because he is sure to be inquired after, and
his murderers pursued ; and, thirdly, because he is sober,
and not to be entrapped into drinking—more wary, ac-
tive, armed, and better practised in the use of arms.
They know that it is likely to be a very serious business
to murder a gentleman. But with the ordinary run of
the working men diggers—especially if a single man,
With no wife to cause any vigorous search or inquiry
after him, what more easy than to make him drink, or
catch him ready drunk to their bands, and then, if he
has gold about him he is sure to boast of it, and his
murder often follows as a matter of course, and nobody
ever hears anything of the matter.
The, erection of the galvanised iron house to add a
branch office to the Post-office is proceeding very slowly
—out, perhaps, not slowly when the difficulties of the
town are considered. There certainly has not been half
room enough for the business these two months and
more. Clerks have been seen. (private windows having
been continually broken by the close pressure of crowds
outside), walking over the floors apparently a foot deep
With letters and newspapers. Several days, and some-
times several weeks elapse before letters and newspapers
which arrive from England are delivered. I have good
reason to know this.
The trade in English bank notes still goes on flourish-
lnglY. One of the offices impudently writes up in large
letters,
" Bank of England notes and foreign coins pur-
ehase." The discount varies with the "customer " or
victim, from 20 to 30 per cent.
Since the two tons' weight of gold brought down by
Mr. Horne, a still larger quantity has been escorted by
his troop from Bendigo and Forest Creek ; but during
the last two or three weeks the quantity has sud-
denly fallen to about two-thirds or less. Many of
the diggers have been crying out that it is all over
With those localities ; nevertheless, two escorts still
continue to bring down between 100,0001. worth
of gold, and often more, every week (not to speak of
the amount which some diggers choose to bring down
themselves in their belts, or to bury in their tents) so
that it •
is clear there must still be some very fine pick-.
logs. The truth is, that in the absence of science and
raehinery, getting gold is a question of good luck and
body strength. It is just a lottery, in which there are
a great many prizes. You always hear of the prizes at
°nce, and very slowly of the blanks. But by this time
fancy the news of the blanks must have reached you,
and probably some of the blanks have returned with
rueful faces to speak for themselves.
Great numbers who have been to the Ovens diggings
have returned, declaring it a hoax. Much money and
mine have been lost there already. I do not by any
rUeans consider it a hoax. There is plenty of gold there,
_but it may not repay a mere pick and shovel for their
labour, or the rich veins and nuggets may be coy. Mr.
-nlowitt's cart broke down on the way, and I fear also
that the climate has not agreed with him. Mr. Har-
graves, the originator of the grand movement of gold
digging, in the Australian fields, has just arrived in Mel-
bourne, after making a circuit of all the principal gold
fields of this colony. Like any stranger newly come, he
had to go from house to house and from street to street
‘e find a lodging for the night. He eventually got shelter
in a small public-house.
FOREST CREEL Nov. 30, 1852.
Great numbers of diggers are arriving here from the
wens, having returned utterly disappointed. They
expected to succeed at once, and had not exercised a
i'ational judgment in preparing to " hold out" for the
ttirne a fair trial requires. Many remain here, but, per-
.qaPs, rather more return to Bendigo and the vicinity.
o.•
oonlight Flat has been in great favour lately in con-
sequence of a man named Merton dropping upon gold
4_
"0 the value of 1,7001. in the course of nine days, all got
Ikt of one hole.

are)aTg—r-ogtents still fl'ourish, though the proprie-
'ere caught now and then and fined 501. A word
seonmtebwis
epoint. The grogseller has a " plant" of grog
in the bush (buried, probably, near some
markedh srpeot), and he also conveys
.Ismalll.portion at a
time into his tent to
pro-
bably knows of this plant, and Now,
A3:4llet,intnu't this
would stop the trade of the man, and as the policeman has
a. share of the fine on his discovery, he only seizes what
the grogseller has got in his tent, and thus enables him
to. go on again till " ripe" for another fine. The
grogseller does not mind this. His profits are so eno r- 1
xsous, he can afford to pay a fine of 501. occasionally.
)gut if he was sent down to Melbourne, to be imprisoned i
for three months instead (as the law allows), his sly I
grog trade, together with the bribery and corruption,
would be stopped at once. It is to be understood that
few of thesepolicemen are at all trained men in the
force,•
but just such raw recruits as can be obtained.
1:11s Excellency Mr. La Trobe has just visited, these 1
liggings, and expressed his intention 'of acceding to
f
o
Several requests from great numbers as to the sale
d for small holdings, which much de lighted the
Eggers, especially as they have just heard of the throw-
lug out of the Export Duty Bill.
MELBOURNE, DEC. 4.
There is a good sprinkling of Chinainen here, to add
to the other motley costumes of the town. A few days
ago two of these, who had been in the bush, entered
Melbourne most awkwardly, ridiculously, and yet
more conceitedly attired, in soldiers' scarlet coats
13•13 d black upright caps. They had found them
l'arnioned into the hollow of a gum tree by de-
serters. 20 or 30 more soldiers (and more than that I
believe) have deserted from the 40th Regiment. If a
!err of these, after being unsuccessful as diggers, should
have the wit to place themselves under a corporal, and
associate with a band of bushrangers, and thus in-
fuse some notion of an organised attack. they are
'very likely to turn an eye upon the rich booty always
carried by the gold escorts • and the solitudes of the
_nab, or the mazes of the Black Forest, will then furnish
them with very tempting opportunities for ambuscade
and onslaught.
We are in the beginning of the Australian summer,
_ flel some parts of the day are very hot, and some are
cold, and the evenings and nights are cold. The ma-
Jerity of the people have got, or have had, the influenza,
solely, I believe, from such sudden changes. Some
wretched little green gooseberries have made their
appearance in the shops, in company with some cherries,
such as are sold on the stalls in London at 3d. per
130und, but here they are 4s. and ss. the pound. The
lettuces, which resemble bad cabbages, are Bd. each ;
and the cabbages, which resemble young docks, are ls.
each. Peas are good, and as cheap as in England, and
adiehes are very fine, tender, and not hot, though of
atamense size.
Gold has been collected in the gutters by children, and
fleraped up from the footway in Collins-street. An old
steam-boat paddle-box has been converted into a " gold
office," and is doing very well. But several other trades
are doing well besides the gold diggers. I know from
the best authority that two or three grocers in the town
have been making from 24,0001. to 27,0001 in the last
Year, and are now making at that rate per annum.
some, indeed most, of the butchers on the diggings have
blade fortunes. In Melbourne bakers, linendrapers, and
Shoemakers have done a famous business, and now that
labour is beginning to come into the market the master
'carpenters and builders are likely to realise large sums.
.8.41,4 itinerant knife and scissors-grinder—the first seen
'ere—and a locomotive shoe-black have also made their
400/. or 500/. a-year. But this will not last. Grinding
and blacking, with some other things, really must
come down. Washerwomen carried their suds very
high, charging from 9s. to 12s. a dozen—a shirt and
Its attendant collar reckoning as two. Some gentle-
laen gave away, or threw away, all dirty clothes that
were almost new, and many went down the stream
0f the Yarra Yarra, washed and rough-dried all
small articles themselves, and bought new ones in the
town.
to
This apparently rudent proceedingff is, after all,
like everything else here—a " speculation, as we have
.i.
pay storage for every bundle or package,
and the bun-
-6 of some gentlemen's rough-dried clothes have by
„
time multiplied considerably, and washing still con-
4sues " firm" at from 9s. to Its. per dozen.

DEC. 6.

A. considerable increase iu the number of women, most
.13_f them of a respectable kind, has taken place in Mel-
u°urne within the last few weeks. There are also more
111) at the diggings. The concealed tents for unlawful
Purposes at the diggings—grog selling, gambling, &c.—
arc reduced in number. The shops in Melbourne are
tidly improving, and have recently received most
tghtening additions in the shape of jewellery; but
i,Urglaries and robberies in the open streets are more
uall usually daring.

DEO. 10.
Wehave had very cool weather, with now and then
4,lsroiling day, and hot clouds of dust. On the night of
tiue 7th we had a magnificent storm of thunder and
bglitning—lakes and seas of flame in the sky—followed
1,/ a deluge of rain. The air has been cool ever since.
he Bummer is very late. No doubt we shall have it hot
enough shortly.
mines
news I have just received from the Burra Burra
fi;ll3,TB is that Sclmeider's Patent Copper Company have
tire iu their smelting-houses—a sure sign they ex-
-I~lreturn of smelters. Many of them were receiving
and 201. a month when they left. I know of at
_eaat 10 in this place who have abandoned digging, and
'4lO about to return to Burra Burra.