The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-24 00:00:00

AUSTRALIA.

MELBOURNE, MAY 21.
The Simla arrived on the 14th with the Febru-
ary and March mails. It was at first intended so
send her back at once with our May mail, but that
plan has bean abandoned, and the letters will go
by the Great Britain. This I think wise, as it will
tend to prevent 'any further derangement of the
mail service. The Simla, therefore, will start on
her assigned day of departure with the June mail.
This will make all regular, except that the South-
ampton June mail will have to remain at Suez, and
will be brought by the Simla with the July mail.
This liability to derangement can only be obviated
by an extra vessel ready at all times to take the
place of any one of the line which may meet with
an accident.
_ _ _

The question is raised here whether the Home
Government will enforce the contract as to the for-
feiture for delay. The daily forfeiture goes on in-
creasing at the rate of 501. per diem. That is, it
amounts to 501. for the first 24 hours, 1001. for the
second, 1501. for the third, and so on ; and such
penalties, says the contract, shall in no case be re-
linquished. But it is not to exceed in one voyage
the sum of 7,708/. 6s. Bd. The penalty for 17 days'
delay amounts to 7,650/., which was incurred by
the non-delivery of the February mail. The penalty
for the nine days' delay of the March mail is 2,2501.,
and it seems probable that there will be one more
penalty to the full amount. If it be taken both
ways the account will stand thus :

£ s. d.
Non-delivery of the Oneida' home mail ... 7,708 6 8
Non-delivery of the Oneida a outward mail 7,708 6 8
Nine days' delay in the March outward mail 2,250 0 0
No May mail from Australia 7,708 6 8
June mail from Southampton probably de-
layed to July... ... 7,708 6 8

33,083 6 8
It would have been much more econonomical had
the contractors provided a fifth vessel to be sta-
tioned here in readiness to remedy accidents and
consequent delay.
The news by the March mail has given firmness
to the markets generally. Some time since there
existed a good deal of alarm least the consignments
of goods from
,England should proceed too rapidly
for consumption,and should produce a glut. Most
of the mercantile advices state that goods are being
sparingly shipped. This naturally has a good effect
on the markets. There is also a great abundance
of money, which, perhaps, is only another mode of
stating that there is a general state of confidence
in the borrowers' securities. Everybody will trust
everybody ; but I cannot learn that this has given
rise to any unwholesome state of commercial specu-
lation. It has, however, told upon the prices of
securities, such as Government Debentures and.
Shares, and also on the price of land. Our Go-
vernment 5 per Cent. Debentures cannot be had at
101/. ; Sbuth Australia 6 per Cents. sell at 104/. ;
New South Wales Bank shares,. 201., sell for 51/.
making the interest, with all .the risk of a falling off
in the dividend, only 8 per cent. ; Hobson's Bay
Railway shares of 50/., paying leper cent., sell at
851. in face of the progressing Williamstown Rail-
way, which will divert a large portion of its goods
traffic. The Colonial Bank of Australia, which has
only just declared its first dividend of 5 per cent.,
with a reserve rather exceetling the dividend, has
disposed of all its disposable shares, the last price
being 20 per cent. premium. If the money market
continues in its present state it would not surprise
me were the shares of this new bank, Si. paid up,
to be worth 41. before the end of the year. Now,
I see that in some instances the London prices of
Australian securities are lower than colonial prices.
This indicates an advancing rate of interest in Eng-
land, the natural result of the great stimulus to ma-
nufacturing industry imparted by the gold of Cali-
fornia and Australia. If our Government is to raise
1,500,0001. next year by debentures, if the present
relative state of the money markets continues, it
can only be done by offering a higher rate of inte-
rest, or, What amounts to the same thing, selling
at a lower price. Judging from the large amount
of bank deposits here, and the quantity of coin in
the banks, I believe 1,500,000/. of Debentures
could be absorbed'here, finding their way to Eng-
land as remittance when the „relative state of the
markets should permit it.
I think there are some indications of over specu-
lation in land and houses. Land in the outskirts
of Melbourne and in the surrounding townships,
as St. Kilda, Hawthorne, &c., has been selling at
about double the price it sold for 18 months ago.
There is nothing to warrant this in the present
state of the consumptive demand and supply, and
I believe it to arise entirely from. the large amount
of accumulated money capital seeking investment
with no great choice of securities. This is certainly
the case with town lands. I have before pointed
out that by the removal of the single storey hovels
in which retail business is carried on, and replacing
them with handsome two and three storey houses,
there will be room in Melbourne for three times the
population. This grand improvement is rapidly
going on, so that I cannot see that there need be
any effective demand for town land, add yet it sells
for enormous prices ; for instance, 2181. per foot
frontage in not the best part of Collins-street,
without a house upon it worth more than
old materials. Shop rents of 8001., 1,0001.,
and 1,200!. a-year in the best pirt of the best
streets are not uncommon. Any depressed state of
trade will render the payment of such enormous
prices impossible.
The buildings now in course of erection in Mel-
bourne are really on a very splendid scale. The
English and Scottish Bank has completed a very
tasteful banking-house in Elizabeth-street. The
hall in which the money business is transacted—'he
"shop," as the successors of the goldsmiths in Lom-
bard street, with " pride that apes humility," call
it—is a most magnificent chamber. The Bank of
New South Wales is building a very magnificent
banking-house, with columns surmount ing columns,
in Collins-street. The Oriental Banking Company
is building a large but plain and tasteful house, of
cut stone in Queen-street ; the Bank of Australasia
is about to enlarge and beautify ; the Union Bank,
which used to be the pride of Melbourne, which
people flocked to see, will be the meanest of the
whole—except the local banks of Victoria and the
" Colonial," which are content to dispense good
dividends from a more humble threshold. I took
a Lew plan of Melbourne the other day, and
marked with a pen the Melbourne as I recollect it
of 1853 just before building commenced after the
commencement of the new era ; it was not one-
fourth of its present size. At the back of the
court-house and gaol you then'- came upon the
" buslt"—parklike land through which the pas-
senger threaded his way among bush tracks be-
tween trees ; one has now to go beyond that before
even the centre of the to wn is reached. This is the
case all-round . The bulk of the Melbourne popul at ion
is now located in parts of the town which were open
land four years ago. The suburrof
south of the Yarra, which is now a flourishing
municipality, had no existence four and a-half years
ago. The fist land sale took place only in October,
1852. _ .

Where I think there is overbuilding is in the
suburkian townships St. Kilda, South Yarra, Haw-
thorne, &o. In St. Kilda, especiilly, inhabited to
a great extent by wealthy tradesmen, rows of
houses, terraces, detached and semi-detached ho uses,
are going up everywhere. At preent theyare taken
as soon as finished at 2501. to _3OO/. and more per
annum. They are of a clws to let for aboutAieurth
or a fifth of the rent in England, in the ba of
London. The occupiers of these houses'are aban-
doning houses of an-infcrior claSs, which will fall
into decay or be removed. All this indicates a
height of prosperity. St. Kilda is run upon more
than other parts, in consequence of the opening of
the railway. The distance is three miles ; the trains
go every half-hour, and the charge is only 30s. per
month, or 121. 12s. a-year. In January, 1855, the
'buses charged 2s. 6d. each way. Except in the
matter of rent and wages the colony is in other re-
spects " settling down," as the colonial expression
is, _int o a reasonable condition.
Some hints have been thrown out by news-
paper writers disposed to take a gloomy view, that
the production of gold is falling off. The escort
returns and the shipments have rather diminished,
but still I have no doubt that the fields are prac-
tically inexhaustible—at least, for many, many
years to come. But a revolution is going on in the
mode of production, the results of which have
yet to be developed. At first gold was picked
up in abundance near the surface with •
out any material aid from capital. Surface and
shallow digging is now carried on to a very limited
extent. It is, however, not quite exhausted, for
only last week a nugget was found on the surface
weighing 1501 b., with very little quartz in it, and
another near it, only a few feet under the surface,
of more than 100 lb. But the mining of Ballarat
and Bendigo has entirely changed its character—
both requiring large capital and extensive co-ope-
ration. Companies of from 24 to upwards of 70
unite together, " amalgamate" their claims, pur-
chase steam engines, and sink shafts to a depth of
some 250 feet befoit they reach what they call the
gutters, where they are pretty certain to have their
outlay and labour rewarded. When they have
" bottomed" their shafts they drive iu the direction
they expect to find the lowest part of the
" gutters," and in this they are guided by science
and experience. I have known parties proceed in
this way unprofitably for 12 months, feeling, how-
ever, confident in the principle upon which they
were working. Nov, there is a great deal of this
deep sinking near known " leads,' whiCh has been
commenced within six months, and cannot be pro-r;,
ductive fix some time to "come. This present sa
orifice for a future result is no doubt affecting the

present weekly yield. At Bendigo there is also
a union of labour and capital, but in another way
—namely, in quartz-crushing. This is compara-
tively in its infancy. But the miners are conti-
nually improving their methods, and I have no
doubt the result will ba satisfactory. Still, our
population of 400,000 only share by the inter-
change of commerce about the same amount of
gold that less than 200,000 shared three years ago.