The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-26 00:00:00

LABOUR.

Every week the report front the labour offices in town is,
that the demand is dull, that many more men are offering
their services than are 'immediately required. The farmers
are supplied with all the extra hands they want through
the harvest. Hundreds of men' are idling about all the
railway works on• the chance of being taken on. Many
tradeknen and mechanics have long been seeking employ-
ment in vain. Such is the burden, of each week's report,
and unfortunately the.statements are too true. •
Several meetings of the unemployed tradesmen and
others have been lately held in Melbourn to make known
and direct attention to what the speakers believed to be
the causes of the present difficulty in obtaining employ-
ment.

AGRICULTURE.
It has long been a matter of general belief that the sum-
mers of Australia are 'all sunshine and drought, rarely

tempered by a passing shower ; but the farmers have had
during the last year or two convincing proof to the con-
trary; never before, however, to the same extent as this
season. Ever since the earliest hay crops were fit to cut the
weather has been broken, not a week passing without a
heavy fall of rain, se heavy in some parts of the country as
to cause serious damage, and very much to
.impede and
delay the operations of the harvest. There was a terrific
thunderstorm at Geelong last week, during which an im-
mense quantity of rain fell within a very short space of
time. This was succeeded by hail of alarming and destruc-
tive magnitude. Near town the hailstones did not exceed
the size of walnuts, but on the plains to the north-eastward
lumps of ice fell, so:ne of which measured more than six
inches in circumference. These of course beat down every-
thing before them, passing through the roofs of houses,
smashing.fences, stripping fruit trees, killing fowls, calves,
and even full-grown cattle. Such a quantity of hail fell in
some places that, although the storm occurred early in the
afternoon, on the following morning masaes of the hail-
stone, four or five feet thick, were found even then un•
melted, having been blown or washed together by the flood,
which exceeded anything ever witnessed before in that part
of the country. Geelong has been often visited previously
by hailstorms, severe enough to break a quantity of glass,
rod 'do other damage of a similar nature, but the storm of
last week far exceeded them all in violence. The general
state' of the country may be imagined from the fact that
at the trial of reaping machines, near Melbourne, a
moneh since the machines when set to work actually bogged
in the harvest field, although this is on high and sloping
ground, well situate for drainage. So soft were some por-
tions of the field that the work allotted to the machines
could not be performed, and each had to be tried by itself
where the ground was sound enough to carry it. At this
trial, which was not very largely attended, the farmers
being now well acquainted with the different reaping ma-
chines in use, the prize was taken by a Melbourne-made
machine with a side delivery, and some trifling improve-
ments in the cutting parts.

Mr. Ledger, whose name is known in England as the
persevering collector of alpacas in Peru and Bolivia for
shipment to Australia, and whose arrival at Sydney was
notified last month, has sent an agent hither to offer the
whole flock to Government on terms which we scarcely
think will be accepted. There is little prospect of disposing
of these animals at Sydney, as they must be sold in one lot
or not at all, and the amount is more than individuals are
inclined to risk onan experiment. The price for the entire
flock, consisting of 270 in all, is fixed at £35,000. If a
sale cannot be effected, Mr. Ledger would, we believe, be
willing to bring them to Victoria and settle here, provided
that the sum of £lO,OOO is advanced to pay off liabilities
incurred in South America, and a run is given to him
rent free. If neither of these propositions be agreed
to, the whole flock is to be sent back to Chili without
the sale of an individual animal, such being Mr. Ledger's
agreement with his creditor there. As to the likelihood
of alpacas thriving in this colony there is much difference
of opinion. _lt is doubted by many that the climate
of any inhabited part of our territory is suited to their
habits, and with this feeling so general, it is scarcely to be
expected that Parliament will place so large a sum at the
disposal of Government for an experiment which ought first ,
to be tried on a smaller scale.