VICTORIA GOLD FIELDS.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 619, 20 March 1852, Page 3

VICTORIA GOLD FIELDS.

The latest accounts from Mount Alexander are of the most deplorable character. Outrages against person and property of the most fearful character are committed with impunity, in so far as the authorities are concerned, and the consequence is, that Lynch law is resorted to by the reckless miners. The following is from the last letter received by the Argus, from its correspondent at Fore&t Creek :—: — The dreadful state of anxiety in which most of the diggers are placed from the horde of scoundrels infesting Fryer's and Forest Creeks, induces me to beg the assistance of your able pen to awaken the government from their lethargy, and endeavour to drive, if not induce them, to do something for our protection. As this is a matter which occupies the attention of most persons on the ground at present, and which will eventually end in a general crusade against the robbers., causing bloodshed and murder, I am anxious to make such statements as can be proved, and nothing more. On Fryer's Creek no man's life is safe, if he happens either to offend the fellows or possess gold. They may be seen coming out of sly-grog shops in a beastly state of intoxication,* carrying a bottle of grog in one hand and a pistol in the other, in open day. They have been seen to knock a man down and rob him, by more than one, close to a cluster of tents, but such is the dread these gentlemen have caused, that the beholders hare merely shaken their heads, and walked away to tell their neighbours of the circumstance, without daring even to expostulate a»ainst such villany. A poor dog chained to a hut, happened to growl as one of these gentry was passing, when he deliberately drew a pistol and shot him dead. This was on Wednesday morning about six o'clock ; the inmates were sleepingwith their heads within three feet of where the doo- lay and had the fellow missed his aim, the chances arethatthc ball would have penetrated the head of a human being. They make no # secret ot what they will do, for they tell parties it is useless watching, when they feel inclined to make a lift," they will do it. On Tuesday, an unlucky digger was coming over to this creek with 16 ounces of gold for the purpose of proceeding to Melbourne. He fell in with one of the gangs, who robbed him of all. Another, while looking for his horse, lost his way, and at night fell in with a gang-, who taking him for a spy, stripped him of every thing, and were preparing some punishment, when he managed to slip oft and

reached hove next morning. A new game has commenced. They watch during the day, learn where the rich holes are, and while the real ow ncr is sleeping or watching in his tent, the gangs visit the holes, pick out the best earth, and at daylight they may be seen with bagfttlls of carth'on their shoulders returning to their tents and in some cases they are adjoining the tent of the party robbed. ' :; " * Already Lynch law has been put in force. A fellow was caught, and was made to vit.it the bottom of a deep muddy water hole, head downwards, and when he came up again he was told that his next visit to that hole would be his last, if taken there for the same offence ; another was lashed to a tree, got a couple of dozen, and allowed to escape. This is certainly better than shooting them on their entering a tent, but a pistol being a handy weapon is more likely to be brought into use than a rope or a whip. The writer concludes by saying :—": — " No police, no guard, no patrol, through a forest of twelve miles, thick enough to hide an army, and where thousands of pounds are passing daily, is another great oversight of the Government ; but of late, like the robberies at the Mount, they have become so frequent that we pass them by as we would a bad debt."

The " Reign of Terror," to which Chief Justice a'Beckett so emphatically alluded in his charge to the Jury upon the opening of the Supreme Court, has indeed commenced at the gold fields of Victoria. To quote the words of the Melbourne Argus, "Judge Lynch is baring his red hand among them ;" and the same paper, in illustration of this fearful assertion, states that the troopers who, on the 12th instant, brought down nine prisoners to Melbourne from Mount Alexander, reported that Lynch-law had begun in terrible earnest. The report was, that a digger had killed one of his comrades with a pick, and that, despite the military and police, the mob seized the aggressor and hung him at once, over the hole where he had committed the murder. The following is taken from a letter of a correspondent of the Geelong Advertiser, and which seems to have created a great sensation both in Geelong and Melbourne, the writer being known as a highly respectable and intelligent man. It is dated Fryer's Creek, Feb. 8:—8 :—:—: — "A month's sojourn on Fryar's Creek has given me a deep insight into the morale of the diggings, and opened up scenes that I could not have anticipated during the rosy days when the wonders of Ballarat fir&t flushed our imaginations with the prospect of vast fields of illimitable wealth. At Ballarat there was peace, unity, and security ; but at Fryar's Creek these desirable qualities are reversed, and quarrels, dissensions, bloodshed, and danger of the direst description, reign supreme. The Government is palsied, whilst the ill-doer runs on a career of unchecked crime and rapine, or at the most is checked by an occasional pistol shot, or similar act of summary justice responded to by a groan ; and the effect manifested next morning by blood stains ; when a few observations are bandied about from tent to tent that a man wa's shot, and no more is heard of the matter. A surgeon is called in to attend a wounded man, no questions are asked, the fee is paid, and if the man die he is disposed of. I speak from experience, and fearlessly say that in retiring to rest the same precautions are necessary, and are had recourse to, as though one were in 'the heart of an enemy's country, and feared a midnight onslaught — guns and pistols are loaded — sentinels appointed for the nightly watch, and intruders at their peril are warned to stand off ; and if wild justice be occasionally executed, the evil cannot be imputed to those who stand in defence of selves and their hard-earned treasures, but to the necessity of the time, and the laxity of the ruling powers. Such a state of things cannot endure long. If the ordinary routine of justice be unequal to the emergency, resort will be had to that which is commensurate to the occasion — that resort is a terrible one — but it is now coolly asked by many, whether it would not be better to establish a Lynch-law, than to allow thieves a plenary impunity I It is a question now, whether Lynch-law would not be better than no law at all I Whether the honest man shall take the law into his own handstand promptly enforce it ? — or whether the thief shall prey upon him with impunity \ It is fearful to contemplate such a state of society, if^ society it can be called, whore every bond is broken asunder, and every man thrown back upon himself for protection, with only his physical force to defend him ; and in such a state of affairs, though God forbid that I should advocate the establishment of a Lynch-law, except from dire necessity, still I cannot shut my eves to the fact that something must be done, and that something be done efficaciously, or life and property will not be worth a farthing purchase. '" " ""' So far is the necessity of Lynch-law felt, that I am satisfied if it were propounded by any influential man on the diggings, it would be hailed with acclamation. The inhabitants of towns cannot conceive the' feeling of danger prevalent here. It is not a fear, but a consciousness of uncertainty that, and an indignation of the audacity with which thefts are planned and executed. Men have been stopped and rifled on the high road at mid-day, and I, standing with three other men, saw a man seized, his arms pinioned, and his pockets emptied, without daring to assist him — so numerous were the associates of the thieves robbing him. Now I ask you to imagine such a scene perpetrated before you, what would your feelings be V The writer concludes his letter with the following description of the prospects of the diggers :— " The yield in this locality is greatly diminished : the water is exhausted ; bad eyes and sore flesh prevalent ; and hundreds of people are daily leaving for their homes." It was, however, estimated that nearly 40,000 people were congregated at Mount Alexander and its vicinity ; and although the weekly transmission of gold continued to be large in the aggregate, the average of each digger's gains was far less than that earned by the miners of the luron and Meroo. The last escort brought down from Mount Alexander, 11,035 ounces ; from Ballarat, 80 ounces 10 dwts. Total, 11,115 ounces 10 dwts. In bitterly deploring the frightful fact that Lynch-law has been resorted to by the people of Victoria, the Argus thus depicts the damning consequences to the " Model Colony," if this fact is trumpeted forth to the world :—: — " What will so soon, and so thoroughly damn our fair fame throughout the world, as the knowledge that the perpetration of such atrocities has been forced upon us as Judge Lynch has ever carried in his train? What more effectually drive the respectable citizen from our shores? What more certainly bring the desperado, the assassin, the qamhler) the wretch of every sort, steeped to the lips in infamy, and who only breathes freely in an atmosphere- of bloodshed, rapine, and " confusion ? What will more thoroughly debase ourselves, or more rapidly sink us* into a community of bravoes, a nation of cut-throats, hardened by perpetual scenes of cruelty, grown desperate by the desperation of j the circumstances around ?"

Rose Tamisiiv.— lt will I>p rembeied tlut, sometime ago, Rose Tanner was tiled by the Tribunal cf Correctional Pol'ceof Carpentras, foi having got up the pietended miracle of a bleeding piciuie n the chuich ot Saint Sutuuiin.nnd having nutiagecl religion by posspssino hersel- of the consecjqt^d waters left on the altar. The Tribunal, however, after going into all ibefacts of the casn declared TiS'-iP incompetent. An appeal was theieupon presented to the Court of Appeal of Nines bv the public piosecutoi, and that Court has just tried Rose Tamisinr anew, declared her guilty, and condemned her to six months unpiiaonment, 500 francs tine, and the costs.- Gulignani,