MOUNT ALEXANDER. [From the Correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, Jan. 4.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 784, 5 February 1853, Page 3

MOUNT ALEXANDER. [From the Correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, Jan. 4.]

DiotMßiK 24,— The Monnt Alexander Assizes having been* completed, and the 40 prisoners having there met face to face the, public prosecutor, the Judge taring t proponnded the law, and the" Juries satisfied their consciences, I may be permitted to Indulge in a few remarks teaching these things. The proceedings were highly creditable to the Government and not less «o to the public, as throughoat the whole of the Assizes the greatest decorum prevailed. The Attorney General discharged his onerous duties without " fear, favour, or affection," still with great humanity. He brought the charges home to -the accused parties where the evidence was clear and indisputable, but he did not hesitate to set forth, in the strongest light .any point that really told for the prisoners. .To the hardened villain he was stern and unbending ; but to those whose previous characters did not tell against them, he was mild- and merciful. The testimony against the prisoners was generally so conclusive that the conscience of the most scrupulous juryman could not be otherwise than satisfied. I believe that out of the whole number of prisoners, only one escaped. The list of offences, as forwarded to you, contained a tolerably correct notion of life at Mount Alexander diggings. A dozen cases of "bailing up" or highway robbery ; twetbr three instances of shooting with intent ; assaults on females with intent, &c; a dozen or so of horse stealing, with a dash or two of murder to relieve this agreeable picture. These are some of the more serious discomforts that surround us. Daring the actual existence of the Assize crime was for the moment in abeyance, the terror of prompt apprehension and punishment, — the thought of being committed, being placed at the bar of public justice, tried, convicted, and condemned in the short space of two or three days, perhaps bad its due effect ; but the Judge had scarcely dismissed the jury, the Attorney. General had not even reached Melbourne to resume his duties at head quarters ere the old | leaven again broke out and " bailing up " is again the order of the day. Last Saturday evening, several ruffians visited the store of Mr. Little, Of Little Bendigo, and wished to see • iOme pistols. He had none. They departed and returned again about 10 o'clock on a like errand, when they commenced their attack on tbe storekeeper, snapped a pistol at his head four times, bnt bis loud cries for help frightened the marauders, and brought several neighbours to his assistance: The robbers did not succeed in their intentions. It was thought that being Saturday night, when the storekeepers necessarily purchase a large quantity of gold, the robbery was well timed. You see how well these double distilled villains calculate their chances. The promptitude of their attacks, and the success which" generally attends them tell how carefully accident has been provided for t In Mr- Little's case, he was fortunate and escaped with a few wounds ; it is to be hoped that there are no future favours of the same kind intended for him. Scarcely a night or day passes but similar attacks are made in different parts of the diggings, and generally with more satisfaction to the aggressor!. I i listened with great attention to the learned Judge's charge to the assembled jury at the recent assize. I dare say thousands of your reader* read it in your columns with equal attention, but I confess to utter amazement when I heard the Judge refer to the past as " a mat- ! ter of hjrtory," and I thought I gathered from Mr, Justice Qarry'd ety^ that he was con.

gratulating the Government and the public on the past history of things around Mount Alex* ander. I asked myself whether the Judge had just awoke from a trance of 15 months, during which crimes, which in their magnitude, daring, and cruelty, could not be surpassed in the Newgate Calendar had run almost unchecked in these regions. The care which the learned Judge took to impress upon the assembled Court that there was no cause for alarm, that it was not a Special Court, &c, "as in England was sometimes held " — I wonder what the Government of this colony would consider a sufficient cause to induce them to step oat of their usual path to do justice to the public ! — how many murders a month ; how many highway robberies with violence per week, and how many minor crimes in lesser periods, would awaken them from their apathy r ' The first case tried at this assize waa for highway robbery, or bailing up, or a compound of both. The trial lasted about twenty-five minutes, and the prisoner. Cornelius Gilbert, a Pentonvillean, was found guilty of the charge, but where are his five or six companions in guilt who aided him ? The Judge was as rapid in his sentence. " Prisoner," said the Judge, " you did not use weapons in this robbejy, (he merely seized the prosecutor by the throat, And held him like a vyce while his companions robbed him) therefore I shall be lenient with you," and the prisoner's HI favoured countenance brightened for a moment. " The sentence of the Court is that you work on the public roads of the colony for ten years, the first year in irons." Could you have seen the satanic grin of the prisoner as he was removed from the bar, at the disappointment to his hopes, you would scarcely envy residents on these gold fields, who have Uttle more than a sheet of canvas between them and several thousands of these villains, by day or night. We have recently had a visit from Mr. Hargraves, who seemed sqtrijewhat surprised at the magnitude of the diggings of Forest Creek, Bendigo, Ballarat, &c, and had the discoverer of gold confined his ideas to the mining districts with a view to their improvement, it is possible that he might have done some good ; but caught up by the good citizens of Melbourne and made a lion of, he ventured to become a politician and a prophet. Victoria is not ungrateful, so she gave Mr. Hargraves a public breakfast, promised him a large sum of money, ([which' perhaps is voted to him by the Legislative Council ere this) made him a J.P. for the territory ; in swearing him in the Judge honoured him by promptly leaving the judicial bench to bind him his new honours. Artists were employed to manufacture a piece of plate for him from the gold of the colony, and others to paint him in oil in full length, (five feet eleven, according to his own statement, "in his shoes.") To all this there can be no objection, for according to the ancient principles of Toryism " a man can do what he likes with his own»" and why not the. ultra liberal colony of Victoria do the same without abusing New South Wales. You have, so they say in Melbourne, behaved shabbily towards Mr. Hargraves by merely giving him a commiseionership, a few hundreds of the money from the public funds, a ' testimonial of a few hundreds from public and private money, and two years' j leave of absence from his duties, I presume on full pay. The Melbourne press has soundly rated you for your want of Kberality, but if we are to reward people according to the absolute worth ot their discoveries, I do not see that you suffer in comparison with the vain glorious people of Melbourne. According to their own showing their yield of gold is twenty times greater than yours. If you give Mr. Hargraves j a commissionership and a thousand pounds or two they must come down with a round fifty ' thousand. This appears to me a very fair way of putting the question. All this pompous liberality on the part of a portion only of the public of the city exhibits the phases of the golden fever, which, at times, still rises to the ; acute, No counter irritation, in the shape of a murder a day or so, with a score or two of robberies in a like time, seems to have much ef- ( feet on the disease. The paroxysms are long 1 and dangerous, which the whole of the State doctors, assisted by a thousand tongues of the oipolloi, cannot remove. The endemic, not being regardful of persons, seized on the gold discoverer himself, who actually gave Victoria, the capital of the southern hemisphere ! Geologists, mineralogists, reasoning from analogy, are allowed to err, especially upon political matters. Mr. Hargraves may be a capital good prospector, but his political vision is defective. It would be almost idle in so humble an individual as myself offering an opinion on the subject, but if I had the choice of Mount Alexander, Ballarat, or all the Victoria gold fields put together on the one hand, and Sydney ! waters on the other, give me the beautiful waters of the " Queen of -the South." I believe this stupid idea of Melbourne becoming the capital of this island-continent originated with one of the members for the city of Melbourne, Mr. Johnson, a man of vast am- I bition, with a very limited understanding. Being about to leave the colony for England, he felt inclined to give his fame a finishing stroke by three grand moves on the political chess board of Victoria. The first was to induce tbjg State to forego its fostering care of religion by j withdrawing State support ; the second, to remove the seat of Government to Victoria from Sydney ; and the third, to knock down Mr. La Trobe's Government by a Legislative vote of "want of confidence." In two moves the honorable and indefatigable member wts checkmated; and will therefore go home the desponding victim of two good intentions as far as they are concerned. No doubt his presence in Eng- j land will materially assist the elucidation of the knotty points as to the future looale of our Supreme Ruler ; which, when settled, the Home Government must in gratitude appoint the honorable member to the high post of Governor General of these splendid colonies. What influence the fact may have over the matter I know not, but the Government has sent home for a new dredging machine, and some of the knowing old gold diggers apprehend that the , machine U intended to remove your harbour to the bank* of the Yarra. But a truce to this gasconading, which seems to be the weak point of the good people of Victoria, and let us see whether any good can be done in uniting all the energies of these dependencies, so as to increase: the moral and social

welfare of them all. Placing yourselves in positions completely antagonistic, what are you doing ? Ycu are destroying that bond of union which nature' has given you, and fast becoming the prey of faction. South Australia legislates for herself, and is attracting by political and social means the wealth extracted from Victoria. The Sydney Government is also doing its best in the same manner. Victoria herself seems running wild and reckless, like a ship before the wind in a storm, masts and sails gone, and compass lost. Errors of judgment have crippled the State ship. The Government, in endeavouring to do too much, is now unable to do any thing, — how is she to raise the £375,000 which she intended to impose upon the mining population ? The ten per cent, export duty bill might have been carried with tolerable ease had the Government done, as a wise Executive would, without the monthly license fee. The grasping policy lost all, and' now the Executive is on its beam ends. Were the colonies united, one export duty could be easily managed, as you are all producers of gold, and that obnoxious and unfair tax of thirty shillings per month, for which British subjects are carried aw.ay in irons, might be dispensed with — the unseemly bickerings that constantly occur between dependencies naturally and geographically but one, destroyed. Far better would it be for the press of the Australian colonies to unite in one vigorous effort to produce this desideratum than to sow the seeds of jealousy between subjects of the same Crown, who are one to all intents and purposes, "in laws, in language, and religion." Now let us return by way of conclusion to this article of the gold fields. They are to me always more attractive than the mazes of the political world — how the tens of thousands get on that still surround Mount Alexander, seeking with desperate energy the treasures of her hills and gullies, is to me a matter of intense interest — how some despair when on the very verge of success, how others succeed when in the vortex of despair, are pictures that pen and pencil could not faithfully depict. Still, this is certain that this wonderful place has seen its best days, and is on the wane. Not that the whole of the gold, or perhaps one-half thereof, has been torn from it, but its prestige is gone. — Seven-tenths of its richest hills and gullies have been worked, some well, others spoiled ; all the known rich hills are worked out, but in the gullies and flats the reverse is the case generally. The water disputes with man the possession of the monarchy of the mineral kingdom, but such is the scramble going on that gullies and flats are dug up, one after another, with wasteful prodigality and wastefulness. The major part of those engaged around the famous Mount are supposed to be "new chums" who cannot of necessity know much of gold digging. What with their ignorance, and the excess of water» large tracts of comparatively rich ground are spoiled. When the gleaning comes the cautious Fossicker is puzzled — how and where to drive he knows not. ■ Even the most knowing of the miners are often disappointed ; ground which was supposed to be rich to a degree has turned out the reverse. Men who had watched their claims' far months during the severe winter, building their hopes on the unknown riches •have been foiled. The last month has opened the «yes of thousands who have departed from this district for the Ko-rong, and the Ovens, and others for Ballarat. The gross number of licenses for the whole of the 'district of Mount Alexander, for the present month is 29,000, this includes Bendigo. Ten per cent, may be said to be doing well, twenty per cent middling, another twenty per cent, getting a little, and the remaining half earning their expenses only. Two months since men flocked to the diggings by thousands, nay tens of thousands, now the arrivals are comparatively few. Ten weeks ago; I stood on the road side and reckoned fifty persons, fresh arrivals, pass me in five minutes by the watch : it would take an hour to count the same number .now. Provisions are down to one-quarter the price prevailing during the winter. Flour is £4 per bag, and the following is a correct scale of the prices of the other necessaries of life : — Meat — mutton, 3s. 6d. fore quarter ; ditto, ss. hind quarter ; beef, 6d. per lb. ; bacon, 2s. ditto ; pork, la, 6d. ditto ; potatoes, sd. ditto ; tea, 2s. ditto ; coffee, 2s. ditto ; sugar, 6d. ditto ; cheese, 2s. 6d. ditto ; tfjarrants, Is. ditto ; raisins, 9d. ditto ; soap, 9d. ditto ; bran, 7d. ditto ; oats, 255. per bushel; eggs, Bs. per doz. new milk, Is, 6d. per pint; oranges, Is. each, cabbages, Is. to 3s. each ; carriage is from £10 to £12 per ton from Melbourne. Wages on the diggings : at the Commissioners, labourers, Bs. per day; mechanics, 20s. ditto. The weather is exceedingly variable, thermometer one day up to 109 degrees, on another 70£ degrees. Dysentery and ophthalmia are becoming prevalent, and numerous deaths have already taken place. Gold is £3 Bs. 6d. per ounce, and thousands find the precious metal very precious indeed, — a corroborative proof of the Teal position of the miners around Mount Alexander. I purpose forwarding you an early pea and ink sketph of Forest Creek and its tributaries.