LATEST FROM VICTORIA.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume I, Issue 15, 20 June 1863, Page 5

LATEST FROM VICTORIA.

MINING INTELLIGENCE. (From the Melbourne Leader, 6th June).

In addition to the excitement of the new discovery and hope of fortune from the Majorca field, we have had during the past week, news from Bendigo that reminds one of olden times. The new rush, successively named the Whipstick, Myers' Creek, and the Sebastian, affords the principal intelligence, if not in importance, certainly for novelty, of the week. Ample accounts having already been given of this new discovery, it only remains here to mention some of the latest facts connected with the new Bendigo rush.

I Prospecting is still confined to its narrowest limits, and, with one exception the paying | nature of the new field has only been tested to the extent of some eighty or a hundred yards, in the vicinity of the prospectors' claim. In that, the owners have commenced to log up their shaft, and make preparations for working out the ground. Adjoining their claim, holes to the number of about forty, have been bottomed ; and out of that number I about fifteen have obtained good prospects, from half a pennyweight to the bucket to two I pennyweights. In one which bottomed on Monday night, at a depth of about thirty-six feet, as much as two pennyweights were got , from a prospect. There is a payable lead of ! gold at an average depth of about forty feet, , extending throughout the flat; that the lead i varies in breadth from thirty to forty feet, | with washing stuff from three to five feet in ! thickness, washing prospects from a quarter of a pennyweight to two to the bucket, is the ! general opinion of the practical miners. There does not appear to be any certainty in strikI ing the lead, as the very next claim to the ! prospectors missed it, and lower down again jit was struck. Like the lead in some portions i of Epsom and Huntly, it runs in the most ! tortuous direction, puzzling to the foresight I and experience of all the most experienced miners on the ground. A new reef discovered, and which has been named the Alexj andra Reef, has indication of yielding a handsome result to the owners. The stone is easily i obtained from the very surface, the reef being | clearly defined, of a thickness of some five or six feet. The stone is similar in appearance j to that got from some of the reefs in the Whipstick. The reef is situated about a couple of hundred yards from the ground where the alluvial mining is carried on, and to all appearance trends towards the middle of the flat—the reef, where it has been struck, being on the rise of the ground. An extensive system j of shepherding prevails at the rush.

There seems to be no abatement of the sanguine hopes entertained of the Majorca diggings. On Saturday a large quantity of gold was offered for sale; and the quantity is said to have been so far beyond expectation that many of the storekeepers and buyers were out of cash before the afternoon was over. A shaft bottomed at the rear of the Imperial Hotel has caused much excitement. The party reached the bottom on Saturday, and at once washed 1 oz. 9dwts. 12grs. out of two tin dishes of dirt. On Monday they cleared off the bottom, and washed two tubs which yielded nearly 7 oz. They obtained nearly 14 oz. altogether from the washdirt on the bed rock. This shaft is in the deep ground, adjoining the prospectors, which formerly was abandoned, on the presumption that it was no good. The largest piece obtained weighed 11 dwt. Another claim, it is reported, has bottomed on the same ground, only a good distance down the lead, and yielded a handsome profit. Some unfavorable news is reported from the Rocky Flat Lead. The water at the paddock end of the workings is rising quickly in consequence of some of the claims having been left, and partly by the Garibaldi party, who are working ground at a shallower level than their neighbors, not baling any water. The Prince Alfred party, who have been working for ten months, and who lately got into good working order, and were raising some good dirt, the yield from which for the past week was 10 oz., have been completely swamped out.

Lawlessness at Rocky Lead.—The want of a police station on the Rocky Lead Diggings is being felt more and more every day. Robberies and sticking-up cases are occurring daily, and there are no police within twelve or thirteen miles, so that the vagabonds can rob with impunity, for before the police can be informed they are off with the plunder. Mr. Oscar Birch was riding through the diggings, and was assaulted in the middle of the day by a set of ruffians. Mr. T. Kendall's

store was robbed about three weeks ago, and about a fortnight afterwards the same store was entered by three men with crape over their faces, and Mr. Kendall was ordered, with a pistol to his head, to deliver up all he had in his possession, which was about £3O. On Thursday last a hawker was stuck up, and robbed of about £lB, and petty thefts occur daily, too numerous too mention. There are about 600 inhabitants, nine claims (deep sinking), besides farms, &c., in the district. Surely, there ought to be some sort of protection here.—Ballarat Star, June 3.