The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-13 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 13, 1860.

THE OVERLAND MAILS.

By the arrival of the overland mails from India
and China we have received the Calcutta papers to
the Bth of August, Madras to the 14th, Ceylon to
the 16th; and from China the Hong Kong papers
to the 2,lth July, Shanghai to the 17th July, and
Singapore to the Bth of August.
INDIA.

The only events of any great importance in India
since the date of the last Calcutta and Madras mail
are, firstly and secondly, the fact of the new income
tax coming into operation, and the lamented death
of Sir Henry Ward, governor of Madras (both
which facts were made known to us last week by
the Bombay mail); and, thirdly, the equally de-
plorable loss of Mr. Jas. Wilson, financial member
of the Governor-General's Council, which was com-
municated here by private telegraph.
Of the first-mentioned subject we read aa follows :
The income tax has received the assent of the
Governor-General, and is now in operation all over
India. The mode in which it has been introduced is
characteristic. Telegrams were despatched to the
various Governments telling them that the act had
passed, and calling on them to deduct the tax from
the incomes of Government officers immediately,
that is, to deduct it from the salaries for July paid
on the Ist August, although it appears (from the
reports of the debates in the Legislative Council,
for the act itself has not yet reached us) that the
time fixed for the coming into operation of the act
was from the 31st of July. It is reported in
Madras that a high legal functionary has refused
to receive his pay, under the circumstances, minus
the amount of the tax; and it is rumoured at Bom-
bay that the Supreme Court Judges have expressed
an opinion that the authority conveyed in a tele-
gram is not legally sufficient. It is also said that
the natives of Madras are in a state of great indig-
nation, more especially the money-lendinr, portion
of the community, and that they have held meet-
ings among themselves to consider the best means
of evading the Government demand. At Bombay,
there has been a more open demonstration of dis-
satisfaction, the Hindoo merchants having resolved
to shut up their shops.
We take from the Math-as Atheneum the fol-

lowing details of the loss of the two eminent public
men whom India and England have to deplore :
We announce with the deepest regret the deaths
of our Governor, Sir Henry Ward, and of the
Right Hon. Mr. Milson. The first named melan-
choly event took place at Madras on the evening of
the 2d of August, and the disease which proved
fatal to our late ruler was that fearful scourge, the
cholera. So sudden and so sad a termination to a
career but just begun has filled all classes with pro-
found regret. It is no exaggeration to say that he
has fallen a martyr to his sense of duty. From the
time of his arrival to within a day of his death he
had been in ill health, and his medical adviser had
strongly urged upon him the necessity of moving
from Government-house, which was not considered
to be surrounded by a healthy atmosphere, to
Guindy-park, a few miles distant. But Sir Henry
steadily refused, saying that a residence at Guindy
would interfere with the despatch of public busi-
ness, and that that must be attended to before all
things. So he remained at Government-house, and
only left it to be carried to his grave. He was
buried inside the Church of Fort St. George, with
all the ceremony befitting the high position he had
occupied among us ; and it is scarcely necessary to
add that the past week, at the request of .the acting
governor, has been observed as one of general
mourning. The death of Sir Henry, sad enough in
itself, is peculiarly unfortunate at the present time.
Just as the income tax is introduced, and a state of
affairs may arise requiring a clear head and firm
and delicate hand to grapple with, he who possessed
these qualities is snatched from amongst us. Un-
like the present able head of the government, he
was uncommitted to any opinion against the policy
of Mr. Wilson's scheme of taxation, and was there-
fore in a better position to carry that scheme out.
No one doubts the ability of the present Government
to deal with a crisis, should one arise, but it is not
to be, denied that their position is a very peculiar
one—required as they are to carry out taxes which
they have condemned in the most unqualified man-
ner.

With regard to the death of Mr. Wilson all that
we know at present is that the melancholy event
took place on the night of the 11th of August, at
ten o'clock, and that he was to be buried on the
evening of the following day. The sad news was
conveyed to Madras in a government telegrm, dated
Calcutta the 12th. Mr. Wilson has been ailing for
some time past, and was so indisposed on the 28th
July as to be unable to attend in tho Legislative
Council. Rumours have been current that ho was
about to proceed to the Neilgherries, there to recruit
his shattered health, but man proposes and God dis-
poses. It is not mentioned in the telegraphic
message of what disease Mr. Wilson died, but it is
rumoured here that it was acute dysentery, and
this, under the circumstances, we think highly pro-
bable, It is unnecessary for us to remark on the
loss to the empire, perhaps irreparable, which this
event has occasioned, for it is too much to expect
that the Calcutta blunderers will be able to carry
out the scheme of financial re-organisation which
Mr. Wilson had inaugurated ; or that another
English financier of the same ability and reputation
will be induced to risk his life in the same cause.

AUSTRALIA.

By the arrival of the Australian mail we have
received files of papers from Melbourne to the 25th
of July, and from Sydney to the 20th July.
We extract the following from the summary of
the Melbourne Argus of the 25th July :
The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-
ship Salsette, Capt. Methven, arrived off Kangaroo
Island on the morning of the 4th inst., and an-
chored in Hobson's Bay at an early hour on the 6th,
with the English mail of the 18th of May. The
Salsette brought no later intelligence by telegram
to Alexandria, and the Red Sea Cable is still out of
working order. The new arrangements for our
mails coming into operation at once on this end of
the line, the Ottawa has been detained from the
17th, and sails to-morrow, the 26th inst., with the
mails from Victoria, New South Wales, New Zea-
land, and Tasmania. The Adelaide Government
have chartered the Oscar, a coasting steamer, to
meet the Ottawa with the South Australian mail
at King George's Sound. No arrangement has yet
been made by South Austratia with the Government
of this colony, as to the proportion of the subsidy
to be paid by that Government ; and though it is
not probable that the Ottawa will carry instruc-
tions to refuse the South Australian mail on this
occasion, it cannot be expected by that Government
that they will be permitted to receive and despatch
their mails at and from King George's Sound with-
out an understanding having been previously ar-
rived at with the Government of this colony. To
make King George's Sound the depot for their
mails will cost the South Australian Government
£24,000 a year (at the rate of the tender for the
first month's service), independently of their share
of the cost of the main line service—too large a sum
to pay for any benefit to be derived from a station
at King George's Sound in place of Hobson's Bay.
The change of the mail arrangements has been well
received in this colony and in Tasmania, while New
South Wales, in the mortification to which sho is
exposed, reaps the fruits of her recent hasty, petty,
and unwise course in her relations with this colony
as to the mail route and otherwise. The next
change hoped for is a fortnightly service between
Melbourne and Galle, which this colony will en-
courage by every means in its power.
The advices from Europe, warning us of impend-
ing troubles, were followed by disastrous intelli-
gence from New Zealand, the particulars of which
are given elsewhere. The evil tidings, however,
has had the effect of drawing out the most loyal
sentiments from every district of Victoria—a suffi-
cient answer to the unfounded statements that
have lately received currency in England as to the
feelings of this colony towards the mother coun-
try, Immediate help for New Zealand was resolved
upon, and on the 18th instant the fast steamship
City of Hobart was despatched for New Plymouth,
carrying Lieut.-Col. Leslie and 210 officers and men
of the 40th Regt. Major-General Pratt, Comman-
der-in-Chief of her Majesty's forces in Australasia,
communicated to the Governor his intention of pro-
ceeding to the seat of war, with his staff and the
head-quarters of the 40th. The announcement gave
great satisfaction to the colony, and the colonial
armed steamer Victoria, which had been placed at
the service of the New Zealand Government, and
which had brought over the despatches, was again
placed at the Major-General's service, and sailed on
Tuesday last, the 24th inst., with Gen. Pratt, the
staff, and about 50 men of the 40th. Only a few
sick men and boys of the regiment are left in Mel-
bourne, and the Volunteer Rifles have responded
in the most loyal manner to the call to take up the
garrison duty hither to performed by the military.
This duty they undertook a fortnight ago, and
their only complaint is the non-arrival of the arms
so long expected from England. The Assembly
took up the subject simultaneously with the arrival
of the despatches, and, on the motion of Mr. Wil-
son Gray, one of the ultra-democratic members,
voted an additional sum of £5,000 to provide prizes
for the best marksmen among the Volunteers, the
erection of huts, the formation of bands, &c., while
the Ministry brought in a bill to increase the num-
ber of the Volunteer force from 2,000 to 10,000, and
announced that should an emergency arise during
the races they would be prepared to meet any ex-
penditure that might be called for, trusting to the
loyal feeling of the house for a bill of indemnity
next session,. Victoria, therefore, at this moment
is witlidiit resingle military representative of her
Majesty, and is engaged in her own defences in
the most loyal spirit to the Crown.
The land question approaches a settlement. At
the date of our last summary the:bill was under
consideration by the Council, after a Ministerial

crisis, brought about by the opposition of the
squatters . in the Upper House to the measure.
The bill was altered in many of its essential fea-
tures, especiallyin the substitution of a system of
limited auction for that of lot, in deciding between
applicants for any particular section whose claims
were equal; and on the return of the bill a fierce
faction fight was got up by the extreme party in
the Assembly, headed on this occasion by Mr.
Duffy. Ministers, while indicating the amendments
they would agree to, and those they would not as•
sent to, proposed to consider the amendments
seriatim. Mr. Duffy proposed the rejection of the
amendments in globe. A fierce debate followed,
lasting over two sittings ; and although the O'Sha-
nassy party combined with the few Duffyites and
" the Corner," Ministers triumphed by the unex-
pectedly large majmity of 37 to 23. The amendments
were then taken up in detail. A number of them,
of small importance, were agreed to, and the Bill,
restored almost to the shape in which it had origi-
nally been sent up, was returned to the Council.
There the battle was again fought, mainly on the
question of lot or limited auction. The Council

has taken its stand on three points—limited auc-
tion, the limitation of the land to be surveyed
and open for selection in one year to 2,000,000 acres,
and the subdivision of allotments into two in place
of four. They desire that the purchaser of one sub-
division shall have the privilege of leasing the re-
maining half, for pastoral purposes only, with a
pre-emptive right, in place of three-fourths of the
lot, as originally proposed by the Assembly. The
practical difference between the two propositions,
as regards the subdivision, is, that by the Assemblk's
amendment the priee of the land would be ss. per
acre; but the Council's, 10s. per acre, with seven
years given to buy, in the one ease, the three-fourths,
and in the other, the half, of the lot leased. On
Tuesday night last the question was again before
the Assembly, and the state of matters at the latest
date will be found in another column.

Some important measures have been under dis-
cussion during the month. The Divorce Bill
(originally sent down by the Council) has passed
the Assembly. This bill assimilates the law to that

of England, excepting in one provision, considered
very desirable in the circumstances of this colony—
namely, absolute divorce in cases of desertion for
four years. It is probable that the addition of this
proviso may occasion the reservation of the measure
for the sanction of her Majesty, in terms of a de-
spatch dated in 1858, from Lord Stanley, then
Colonial Secretary ; but with this warning before
it, an notwithstanding the remonstrances of the
law officers of the Crown, the Assembly, in
repeated divisions, insisted on the retention of
the proviso; and as the social state of the colony
demands a change of law, in the interests of
morality and humanity, such as the bill provides,
we trust the measure as it has left the Assembly
may receive the Royal assent. The bill to abolish
imprisonment for debt has also been passed
through the Assembly, and that abolishing
Ministerial pensions and legalising limited partner-
ships in mining enterprises, will shortly pass into
law. A Law of Property Amendment Bill, in-
tended to remedy a very great variety of legal
anomalies and difficulties, has almost reached its
last stage.
Ministers have announced for an early day next
session a bill for the institution of district councils
and the management of commons, with a view to
the transference of the care of roads, &c., to these
local Parliaments. The subject of pastoral licenses,
with a view to the final settlement of the squatting
question, will also be then dealt with.
The railways are still a source of difficulty. The
recent investigations, and the remeasurement of
the works by the new engineer in-chief, have led
to a resolution on the part of the Government to
abandon the system of payments on what are known
as " progress" measurements. It is understood
that these quantities have been found to be, in
many instances, largely
in excess of the work actu-
ally performed. In regard to the execution of the
work itself the report of the engineer-in-chief is
favourable. The latest phase of the railway ques-
tion is a strike of the labourers, who have resisted
for some four or five weeks an attempt to introduce
monthly, in place of fortnightly, settlements. The
strike is likely to terminate in the yielding of the
men.

The dredging operations on the bar of the Yarra
have been successful. Vessels drawing 14 feet of
water can now enter at any time of the tide.
Within the last few days additional interest has
been giyen to the pvbjeet of the internal navigation

of Australia by the fact of two steamers—one draw-
ing 2 feet and the other 31 feet of water having
made their way from the Murray up the River
Edward as far as Deniliquin, carrying large
c irgoes.

The leaders of the exploring expedition have
been chosen. Mr. Richard O'Hara Burke, long
superintendent of the police of Castlemaine district,
is first in command, and his second is Mr. Landells,
who recently brought the camels from India. Mr.
Wills, from the Melbourne Observatory, is ap-
pointed astronomer to the expedition; and Dr. Becker
accompanies it as naturalist. The expedition will
start in the course of next month, making Cooper's
Creek their point of departure.
The port of Sandridge is about to be separated
from Melbourne, and constituted an independent
municipality.
The prospecting parties in Gipps-land have found
traces of gold in many places, but as yet no new
payable goldfield has been reported from that dis-
trict. We are still, however, without reports, pri-
vate or official, from two of the parties-111'Crae's
and Macdonald's—sent out to examine the likely
ground on the head waters of the Yarra. A new
and important goldfield has been officially reported
as existing on the Goulbourn, and numerous parties
of miners from Inglewoodand other goldfields, who
were preparing to try the Snowy River, have
turned aside to the Goulbourn. The Yandoit dis-
trict, near Castlemaine, is attracting some attention
—seven large nuggets having been found within a
limited area in as many weeks. The last of these
nuggets, weighing 3840 z., was discovered on the
17th inst. Another diamond, weighing nearly
three carats, has been found in the Ovens distric
near Yackandandah.

The telegraphic cable across Bass's Straits is still
out of order. It has been ascertained that the in-
juries to the cable occurred on King's Island,
during one of the violent storms which are so fre-
quently experienced in the Straits. The repairs
have been considerably delayed by the tempestuous
character of the weather for some time past, but
they are now in progress.
One of the most interesting events of the month
has been the marriage of his Excellencythe Go-
vernor, Sir Henry Barkly, K.C.8., with Miss Pratt,
the only daughter of Major-General Pratt, Com-
mander of the Forces in Australasia. The cere-
mony was performed in the most private manner
at Christ Church, South Yarra, on Saturday last.
It is anticipated that Parliament will be pro-
rogued in about 10 days.
The "unemployed" made their usual demonstra-
tion before the departure of the mail yesterday in
the Eastern market. The " United Masons" still

adhere to their demand for 1.65. a day, but a new
society has been formed of men who are willing to
work for 14s. a day. In the present state of the
colony the high terms insisted on by the masons
practically suspend building operations and produce
much of the misery periodically complained of.

THE GOLDFIELDS.
We are still looking forward to the opening up of
new fields as the result of the very general pros-
pecting of the country in all directions. Reports
of important discoveries there are from time to time,
but none of these has been confirmed as yet by the
only sure test of their value, the work of many,
hands. Numbers of people are now proceeding to-
wards that point of the great mountain chain from
which the Goulburn and its tributaries flow, in
search of the diggings lately announced to have
been found there ; but of these little is known as yet
except that a small number of men have been for
some time profitably employed on the new ground,
such having been the case occasionally for years
past on one or other of the creeks flowing north-
ward from these ranges. Further to the eastward,
and more towards Omeo, or the now famous Kian-
dra, a new goldfield of great extent is reported to
have been discovered ; but of this nothing authentic
is yet known, the bearers of the intelligence having
merely heard that the place is within our territory,
that gold is plentiful, but that the auriferous ground
said to cover 20 square miles, is now covered with
snow.

Since the exciting intelligence from Kiandra,
at the close of last summer, disturbed the pub-
lic mind once more with visions of speedy fortunes
to be. realised by digging, nothing but the dis-
covery of an entirely new and extensive field,
with room and to spare for thousands,
will satisfy the general desire, so more limited dis
coveries are scarcely deemed worthy of notice. We
have had, however, to chronicle not a few of these,
and sonic of no little importance in proportion to
the number of miners finding scope for exertion
thereon. Inglewood, the site of the la3t great
rush, now some months since, has fallen sadly into
disrepute of late ; for, although it is an extensive
field, and some of the runs of gold and portions of
reefs within its limits are very rich, besides there
being a very great extent of surfacing ground,
which will be worked to good advantage as soon as
ever enough water is to be had, it was altogether
overcrowded, and is now being deserted as rapidly
as it was peopled at first. But at Lamplough, the
site of the great rush before that again and almost
deserted at one time for Inglewood, numbers are
now doing very well, and one of the best leads
opened of late is now, worked within four miles,
and is giving employment to several hundreds of
men, and a competency to a fair proportion of these.
The same thing has happened at Back Creek, a
place once in as great estimation as the two named,
and afterwards almost depopulated for them, where
the course of one of the rich leads, for some time
lost, has been recovered, and these diggings are in
as high favour as ever, but only with a compara-
tively small number, after the experience obtained
there once before of the folly of overcrowding even
the richest spot: On several others of the older
gold-fields fresh leads, or continuations or branches
of those supposed to have been worked out, or else
good patches have been found, but still insufficient
to absorb the number of miners unsettled, and half
or totally unemployed, and for these we want new
fields. Yet the old ground is far from being worked
out, and in proof of this we need only refer to the
three nuggets found within a few weeks at Yan-
doit, in a spot little tried before; but now that it
has been ascertained to contain such prizes, sure
to be pretty well turned over. The first of these,
weighing 501 b. has been described in a former sum-
mary, and the second 2400 z., was found a few days
after. Since then the third, and last as yet, weigh-
ing 2540 z., was found by another party, at a depth
of 16 feet from the surface. About the time of the
finding of the second, a nugget of 671 b. loz., and
measuring 181 inches in length by 51 inches in
breadth, with an average thickness of about two
inches, was obtained at Kingower, within a foot of
the surface. Several smaller nuggets have also
been found within the last few weeks, and among
the number one of 190 z., at the Boggy Creek dig-
gings in Gipps Land, which is mostly very fine, at
least on the lower portions of the rivers where the
workings now are, but not, Ns e should imagine,
higher up and nearer to the reefs or other sources
of supply. New reefs have been opened up in dif-
ferent directions through the country, and the reef-
ing interest generally is in a prosperous condition.
The largest cake of amalgamated gold produced
lately was one of 1,1580 z., 10 dwt., the yield of 40
tons of stone, taken out of a claim on the Eastern
Victoria reef in the Bendigo district.

NEW SOUTH WALES.
MONTHLY COMMERCIAL REVIEW.

JULY 20.
During the past month the money market has
continued tight, and we regret to record that several
failures have taken place. The following houses
have called meetings of their creditors :—Messrs. J.
N. Fairhurst and Co., Bensusan and Haes, Bette-
ridge and Haden, W. Jolly and Co., and Bowden
and Peden. The liabilities of these firms are not
very large, and altogether do not amount to more
than £120,000.
The rates of exchange charged by the banks con-
tinue the same. The buying rate for bills on Lon-
don, at 60 days' sight, being 3- per cent. discount,
and the selling rate 1 per cent. premium. The
rates of discount remain at 7,8, and 9 per cent.
A comparative statement of the consolidated re-
venue of the colony of New South Wales, and of
the special funds paid into the Treasury at Sydney
during the quarters ended June 30, 1859, and June
30, 1860, respectively showing the increase or de-
crease under each head thereof has been published
in the Gazette. From this statement we find the
total revenue received during the quarter ended the
30th of June, 1860, was £339,654 19s. Bd. For the
corresponding quarter of 1859 the revenue amounted
to £370,188 3s. 2d., or 9 per cent, on the receipts of
the quarter. During the first half-year of the year
1859 the revenue amounted to £721,365 19s. lld ,
and during thehla2l7Bes. -year ended
endeTdhethdee3cOrethaseofinJutre.,
1860, to £595,9
-half-year is, therefore, £125,453 ls. 3d., or over 21
per cent. The falling off in the revenue this quar-
ter is again in the Customs and land revenue, but
it is satisfactory to find that during the last two
months the Customs' revenue has improved, and is
fully equal to that period of last year. It must also
be borne in mind that the separation of Moreton
Bay makes a difference in our Customs' reyerme