VICTORIAN ITEMS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume I, Issue 6, 20 May 1863, Page 3

VICTORIAN ITEMS.

(From the Weekly Age, May 1.)

Sandhurst and Echuca Railway Contract. —The tenders for the first portion of the Sandhurst and Echuca line, a distance of 4 miles 57 chains and 13 links, from Sandhurst to Epsom, were opened on Friday by the head of the department, Mr. Mitchell, in the presence of the Board. Of the number, fourteen, that of Mr. John Higgins, contractor, proved to be the lowest, and the tenderer was accordingly declared the successful one. The amount of the tender was £55,487 15s. 6d.

A singular rumor is going the rounds—which we certainly hardly credit as possibly true—that the present Government contemplate using their position to obtain knighthood for their leading political supporters as the stipulated reward for their services. The extent to which her Majesty's honors have distinguished our neighbors in New South Wales is taken occasion of to press similar recognitions to this colony. So far, perhaps, there is nothing unlikely ;in the statement, but it is followed up by the revelation that the Government and Mr. John Thomas Smith have an arrangement, by which his support is to be recompensed by the coveted honor of a knighthood. This was done more particularly to gratify his wounded feelings in the loss of the Mayoralty, which being bestowed on his rival, threatened to estrange Mr. Smith's votes from the Treasury benches. Such an episode in Mr. John Th >mas Smith's career would furnish a curious if not illustrative instance of the corruption of the party that upholds the Ministry in office.

Mr. Haines gave some information on Tuesday | upon the state of the public finances. He said ! that the Customs revenue had up to this time been in excess of what was estimated by him; that for the last three weeks of April this excess had amounted to LIOOO per week, and during the earlier part of the year to L3OO per week. ! Although there was a deficiency in the territoI rial revenue, he anticipated that the savings elsewhere would more than counterbalance it. Mr. Haines stated this in the discussion on the vote !to municipalities, and the Treasurer's rather J glowing picture of the state of the finances of the colony was amusingly turned against him- : self as an argument for increasing the vote to ! municipalities.

On Tuesday evening Mr. Duffy laid on the table of the Legislative Assembly the report of the Board appointed for the purpose of equitably distributing the sum of £SOO voted by the Legislature as a reward to persons who have been engaged in opening up practicable lines of communication between Melbourne and the Jordan gold-fields. The report stated that having considered the means of the various tracks the Board was of opinion that the distribution of the money should be as follows:—Sullivan, L 75; Connell,L6o; M'Evoy, L4O; Walsh, L3O; Ganley, LSO; Kyan, L3O; ltucke,L4o; Storkman, L3B; James, L2B; Butcher, L2B; Strickland L2B ; M'CorniacK, L2B; Robley, L 25.

i The Ballaarat police have commenced an active l warfare against Chinese gamblers. A dozen Chinese were brought before the magistrates, at the Eastern Police Court, on Monday, charged with being found in gambling houses on Golden Point, engaged in unlawful games. The prisoners were defended by Mr. M'Dermott and Mr. Kandall. The bench imposed a penalty of L 5 each, but subsequently increased it to Lo Is, so as to afford the defendants an opportunity to 1 appeal against the conviction to either the Court of General Bessions or the Supreme Court. It was urged in the defence that the dominoes seized by the police were used in playing for a I smoke of opium, and that certain dice also found on the gamblers were used to see who would commence first.

I We learn from a correspondence published in the Sydney Morning Herald that the New York I sporting papers contain a challenge from Hamill, ; the champion sculler of America, to row cither ! Chambers, Green, or Everson, or the winner of ! the pending match, in American waters. Hamill j has a great reputation on the other side of the j Atlantic.

MINING REPORT. The chief intelligence of interest centres in the new Majorca diggings," where, if we are still without decisive facts as to the value of the new field, hope is as warmly excited as on the first announcement of the rush. The success of the Triumphant party last week, who hold a claim on the rise between the prospectors on Gibraltar, caused a very large rush to that portion of the new diggings, claims being marked out a3 far as the Gibraltar Lead. The prospects washed led the party to expect a return of at least half an ounce to the load. "It is now evident," says a local writer, u that the ' fancy line,' close to the rear of Talbot-street, is not the true course of the lead, and those miners on the next line of claims, many of whom are near the bottom, appear to think that they will strike gold." No parties have as yet passed through the rock of more than 10 or 15 feet thick, but it is feared that a greater thickness of rock will have to be passed further on. This, together with the water in some shafts, will prevent this end of the lead being traced so quickly as the southern end. The Rocky Flat Lead seems to hold its own, in spite of the attractions of Majorca, and many of the miners are making first-rate returns. The British Queen claim has established itself as the best paying claim on the flat. For the three past weeks the returns have been 38, 36, and 34 ozs. and some odd pennyweights, making a total of 108 ounces as the result of three weeks' work for eight men. The intelligence from the Mount Greenock lead is again most favorable. Last week the Black Ball company washed about sixteen loads of washdirt, which yielded 16 oz. of gold. The Durham Company also made excellent wages. At Amherst Hospital Reef, the party holding claim No. 2 north struck the reef on Saturday last. An important rush has occurred at Lamplugh. On the 17th ult. a prospecting claim was granted to a party of Cornish miners at the lower end of the Deep Lead, the prospect being 2 dwt. to the tub for five consecutive tubs. The sinking is 70 feet. From Ballaarat there is not much of importance to report this week. The # share market has improved lately, and several interests have changed hands at good values. At Castlemaine last week the Ajax Company crushed 150 tons of quartz, from which they derived over 150 oz. At the Blue Mountain rush there is a considerable encampment of Castlemaine people—several from Victoria, New Chum, and other gullies (Castlemaine south), are making good wages, and some considerably more. One man washed several tubs of stuff last week, averaging half an ounce to the tub. Heie there seems to be an urgent want of police protection, as several disgraceful scenes of lawlessness and demoralization have been lately reported.

Mount Greenock Mining— We lately noticed a project for completely undermining Mount Greenock, and leaving it supported on wooden props; rather a bold idea, seeing tiiat the Mount is a mass of rock weighing some hundreds of millions of tons. Anotner project for getting at the auriferous treasures known to be embedded there, is to sink a shaft from the top, and for this end a party of eight, krown as the Durham party, have applied for a lease of fifteen acres right on the sum nit. It is believed they must sink to a depth of 600 feet before reaching the auriferous earth, and principally through basalt rock. If the lease is obtained, they will tunnel in to a distance of over 1000 feet; and in case the tunnel is not sufficiently low, they intend to make a large chamber, wherein they will erect an engine to raise the stuff and bale the water into the tunnel. The parly numbers but eight, and all are working miners ; however, they are believed to possess sufficient means, enterprise, and perseverance to carry out a project which has long been contemplated by the miners of the district. — Geelong Advertiser, April 21. Lampltjgh Redivivus.—lntelligence reached Talbot on Wednesday afternoon to the effect that some excellent ground had been struck at the end of the old lead at Lamplugh. The prospectors, it appears, have bottomed at a depth of 70 feet, and obtained a very handsome prospect. Quite a rush for claims w r e hear has set in, and it is the opinion of the miners at Lamplugh that the rush of 1859-60 is about to be reproduced on a moderate scale.— Talbot Leader, April 24.

Horrible Case of Suicide at Redbank.— At the eastern base of the Red'jank and Barkly Range stands an untenanted hut, the property of Mr. Thos. Sanderson, of Mount Teddingtou. In this hut the body of a man was found in a standing position, with a part ot a bag tightly fixed round the neck and appended to a rafter. On Monday, the 20th inst., the deceased called at Mr. Thomas Newman's dairy, a short distance from the hut in question, and requested food, and the wife of the proprietor gave him something to eat. From his outward appearance she judged that he was in great distress, and upon questioning him he said that he was in great difficulties, and then left, and no more was seen of him by her until three boys discovered the body. To all appearance the body must have been there for live or six days. The deceased was about the age of twenty-eight, had sandy hair (curly) moustache and whiskers, and by his garments appeared to have been employed at a crushing mill or engaged splitting timber.— Ballaarat Tribune, April 29.

American Notions op Villany.—The man that will take a newspaper for a length of time and then send it back ' refused' and uupaid for, would swallow a blind dog's dinner, and then stone the dog for being blind.