VICTORIA.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, Issue 73, 8 December 1855, Page 3

VICTORIA.

We are m receipt of Melbourne and other Victoria journals to the end of October, from which we extract the following items : — Melbourne was visited on Saturday evening with a thunder storm of unusual severity. Flash after flash of lightning dazzled the eyes of those who happened to be abroad ; rain descended m torrents, aud streets were m a great measure impassable. The inconvenience was the more generally experienced that an amateur performance by the officers of the garrison, for the benefit of the sick and wounded of the French army m the Crimea, had attracted a numerous audience to the Theatre Royal, and a new burlesque, m which • Coppin appeared as Cupid, had filled the Olympic. A very large proportion of Melbourne play-goers live m the suburbs, and trust to omnibusses for their conve} r anee home. Scenes of great confusion and of some danger occurred on Saturday evening, but no serious accident happened. ' The electric fluid appears to have struck the end of a woodeu house at Richmond, and to have torn down part of the , wooden fence. The goodwifc was slightly in,jnred—the arm next to the course of the fluid having been for a time paralyzed. The copious

rains will be a great blessing to the adjacent country. — Correspondent of the Sydney Herald, October 3. The great topic of conversation m Melbourne at present is quartz-crushing and amalgamation. Projectors m scores are a-foot. Each is satisfied that his invention is that which is to meet the requirements of the case. His machine crushes the quartz effectually and economically. It is portable and durable, &c, and the amalgamatory process is "perfection." Drawings and models of machines, and prospectuses of new companies, meet the eye at every corner, and around them are groups of practical miners disenssing their merits and defects. The amount of gold which, according to any one of these projectors, his machine will be able to extract annually from the quartz of Victoria, will hardly bear sober repetition. A new type of the gold fever has developed itself; all are affected by it who have any capital to invest. Lawyers, physicians, merchants, tradesmen, are entering into the speculation with their whole hearts and means, and the question is perpetually asked, " Are you not going to try this quartz-crush-ing ?" So much ingenuity, enterprise, "money, and skill wiil not be all expended m vain. Loss and disappointment some will sustain, but suitable machinery will be at last procured ; aud, without doubt, through its application, the gold production of the colony will be definitely increased. — Ibid. The Population of Victoria. — A return of the population of the colony of Victoria, computed from the registers of births and deaths, and the returns of the Immigration Agent, is published m yesterday's Gazette, by which it appears the ascertained population of Victoria, on the 30th June, 1855, amounted to 303,527 persons. — Melbourne Herald. Colonial Manufactures. — We colonists are beginning to find out that there are many things that we can make as economically and as well for ourselves as our European prototypes can make them for us. Amongst these, we may mention the preparation of those little consolations which we draw from the enjoyment of tobacco m its various forms. We had an opportunity on Saturday of inspecting the snuff-mill and manufactory now m full work, at Messrs. Hommel and Co's, near the office of this paper, and were certainly astonished at the compactness and completeness of the arrangements. Messrs Hommel calculate that .their apparatus is capable of supplying the whole of the five colonies of Australia with brown rappee, Prince's mixture, highdried, &c, &c , m sufficient qxiantitics to set every man, woman, and child of them sneezing, from j the Ist of January to the 3 1st of December. The upper portions of the premises are devoted to the cutting and drying of bird's eye, shag, and cavendish tobacco ; and, having looked on ! and wondered at the trouble and skill necessary to bring these articles of consumption to tbe perfection necessary to secure a high name amongst consumers, we were glad that we had no cynic at our elbow to sneer at the bestowing so much labour and pains on what must all end m smoke. The shade of the first King James would certainly be highly disgusted, were he to look m at Hommel's, and see how closely the new world is following m the track of the world of his time, m bringing to perfection the enjoyable consolations derivable from skilful preparations of- " the fragrant weed."— lbid, Sept. 10. • Lola Montes. — Considerable excitement appears to have been raised amongst a portion of the public at Melbourne by Lola Montes' performance of the Spider Dance. In a criticism of this performance, the Argus characterised it m severe terms as not fitted for public representation. This called forth an indignant reply from Madame Montes ; and on the night following an address from her was read to the audience at the Theatre Royal defending herself from the attacks and insinuations made against her. The address concludes m these words: — "Ladies. and gentlemen, 'tis for you to decide, and by your decision to show, whether a Melbourne audience is to be deprived of its amusement, and lectured on morality by any monster, whose multiplicity of eyes discovers vice where none exists, and through a false medium to distort what is m reality a legitimate spectacle, into an immodest performance. " I am' here, therefore, ready to do my duty before the public. If I do dance, I shall ' do my best endeavour to please you, and your verdict shall decide as to its purity. Shall I dance or not ? " • The : house was m an uproSr for some minutes after the readingof this address, and the audience immediately expressed their desire that the dance should be proceeded with, which was accordingly done. At its conclusion, the popular feeling gave itself vent m " nine groans for the Argus, and nine cheers for the Herald. — Sydney Empire.