"Forrest Creek, Mount Alexander, Port Phillip, June 6, 1852.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 778, 2 October 1852, Page 3

"Forrest Creek, Mount Alexander, Port Phillip, June 6, 1852.

" I forget now when I wrote to you last. I have been up here for the last two months : there is a party of four, who intend standing out the winter, having built a slab house, and made every thing as . comfortable as possible. Had we not got thus settled, we should, like many others, have been off to Bendigo, about thirty miles from this, where gold seemed to be moi'e plentiful than has yet been found. The first month we were here we got 31bs. weight, but this has been laid out in our house and provisions for winter. Last month we got nothing to speak of: we had a hole in Montgomery Hill 28 feet deep, in which we expected to get a few pounds, but have been disappoint ed : we gave it up yesterday, and have commenced two others. I intend to dig till the end of the year, and give it up, fortunate or not, and remain either at Sydney or Melbourne, probably the former. "We had some wet weather about four weeks ago, which drove many people to town : they ■were not able to stand the cold and damp in the tents, which are really uncomfortable in bad weather with no fire ; this caused us to build this hut. Many are gone to Bendigo, which is quite the rage : provisions, however, are very high there, flour being £20 per SOOlbs. bag, and every thing in the same rate, besides there is not a stock more than will last a fortnight, so that when the wet sets in they will be starved out. We bought two bags of flour lately, for which we paid £10 per 2001bs : sugar is Bd., coffee 35., tea 2s. 6d., onions 9d., and potatoes 7d. A digger requires to live well, so that it takes a good deal of gold to get along at these prices. Some people are doing well, but I have not heard of any great fortunes lately : one hole last week in Spring Flat turned out £1 ,000. I expect by persevering we will stumble on it, for it is all chance : a man in Montgomery Hill, not 12 yards from our hole, took out 7lbs. weight one day. The road to the diggings is now almost impassable, carriage being Is per lb. This was with two or three days' rain. What will it be when we have ram for a fortnight or ten days ! '• The return news is now come -from England, and £100,000 sent out to bring gold. Mining companies have been formed, and a manager or engineer of one has actually arrived in Sydney. Miners are to be sent out too, which they (the companies) will find to be foolish, as men like those find it much more to their advantage to work on their own account; and, though bound for service, they can easily ran to the bush, where it is not easy to find them. "These diggings are getting quieter; the blackguards, I suppose, have mostly gone to Bendigo. We have still got some sly grogshops near us, as we often see some of our neighbours drunk. However, the police will soon get scent of it. " I trust, by next time I write, I shall be able to tell you of my few pounds of gold. If you were coming here nobody would know you. I am now unshaven for two months, so that my features are scarcely discernible. I have heard a minister to-day, who preaches regularly opposite our tent : he comes from Adelaide : all his congregation had sloped to the diggings, and -he followed their example."

Wk understand the provisions of the Passengers' Act will be brought into operation by the Government in this province, the effect of which will be to prevent many of the colonial vessels, whose height between decks and other arrangements are not in conformity with those prescribed by law, from taking passengers to the Gold Diggings.