AUSTRALIA.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 295, 17 August 1860, Page 4

AUSTRALIA.

[We reanme our extract* from the Melbourne Age and Argus, for which papert we are indebted to Mr. Taylor, of the Lalla Rookh.] Kiandra.—The following account of the Snowy River Gold-field it published in the columns of the Albury Banner, having been furnished by Mr. Benjamin Slater, a resident near Wangaratta. He says:—"l left Wangaratta on the Bth of July, and reached Kiandra on Monday, the 16th. Remained there one day, returning on the 17th. I merely went up for the purpose of seeing the place- I stopped at Riley's, which is by far the best place to stop at, as the landlord puts himself to some trouble? to accommodate guests—he generally ha^ about one hundred seeking shelter there every night. There is no possibility for a, horse to live on Kiandra for forty-eight; hours, unless he is covered in, and conse-i quently none are seen there. I had to put; mine in Riley's cellar in order to save him for the night. Snow began to fall thick; and fast on the 14th, reaching about 18: inches in depth; this was immediately fol-: lowed by a fearfully heavy frost, which ati once suspended all operations, and is likely1 to do so for two months to come. The people had quite enough to do to protect themselves from the inclemency of the weather, which baffles all description. The snow extended the whole district, from about twenty-three miles from the township, of Tumut to Kiandra, at a varying depth of: from four to eighteen inches. It is quite impossible for drays or carts to proceed: beyond the Tumut Mountain, the snow being frozen, and sidelings so slippery as to render it impossible for horses to maintain their footing. At this spot may be; seen deserted drays and carts without owners, left lor any one to take who chose to avail themselves of the chance. 3^o one would give five shillings for a dray or cart there." The opinion of practical diggers, who have had long experience on the various gold-fields of the colonies, is decidedly unfavorable to these diggings, and that they will never realise the expectations which have been raised. Pilfering, even of food, is common; and if you leave your provisions exposed, they, like ' rieheo, take to themielves winga and fly away.' The population is entirely deserted by th« authorities. There is neither chnreh, nor chapel, nor reiident clergyman; and the only oubfltantial building is the n«w C®urthouse. Travellers must is©vitsbly atop at the Turaut oip Tiimberumba unsii the snow abates, which will at least b« two months yet; and in consequence of this the greatest hardships and privations exist. Influenza and bilious fever prevail; people are dying daily, and often buried without coffins. You see men on all hands begging for a mouthful to eat, and craviag a day's work, which they cannot get even for rations.' ' On the 20th of July the first of the Sunday services in tfee Theatre was given at Adelaide. The place was densely crowded. The majority of the audience are described as consisting of middle class men, with very few ladies, and a large number of boys, apparently attracted by curiosity. It did not appear that many, if any, of those persons Yor whom the services are intended were present; the majority of the assemblage consisting of persons who usually attend places of worship. A meeting was announced for three o'clock yesterday afternoon, to be held at the Town Hall, for the purpose of devising a plan to assist the widows and children of those of the troops who may fall during the conflicts in New Zealand. "Owing, however, partly to the unfavorable weather, and partly to the want of due publicity, only a few gentlemen, attended at the specified hour, and his Worship the Mayor having been voted to the chair pro forma, it was immediately resolved to adjourn the meeting until the same hour on Tuesday next, and in the interim to advertise it in the daily journals. The quantity of gold brought down by way of escort for the corresponding weeks of 1860 and 1859, as follows :-~

*Fortaightly J&corts. A resident of Geelong recently paid a visit to the Snowy River, and has managed to get back again as far as Wangaratta. ' From that place he writes to a friend at Geelong, and the following is a sentence from his letter. We take it from the Advertiser. He says:—" I have just come down from Snowy River, for ■which place I started when I left you. If you know of anybody going there, you should advise them to stay where they are.. It is a second Pott Curtis. I shall be in Geelong soon." A .very wealthy individual, who is a squatter, an old colonist, doing all that he can to purchase and' monopolise the public lands of the colony, and prevent any land in his neighborhood from" falling into the hands of small holders/ and who, moreover, strange to tell, enjoys an income of three hundred pounds per annum tltiougli possession of the, copyright of Dr. Watts'hymns, has at this moment a brother in the Melbourne Hospital, suffering from opthalmia, "and obtaining support from that" charitable institution !' " "".',■

It is rumored, and-the,, rumor is not contradicted in quarters where the real' faofs are best known, that a persou holding a tolerable high position in the police department was" placedunder' arrest on 'Thursday evening, in consequence" of alleged irregularities in regard to some of the public moneys' that were under his control The ■amount is variously stated at. fromfour to'eight hundred' pounds, but' in the: present state of the affair we abstain from making public the whole of the. information that has reached, us,

A disgraceful occurrence—more than disgraceful, for it is cowardly ,as regards the Europeans concerned —is thua reported by a Ballaarat paper:-—" About half-past one o'clock yesterday, a stand-up fight took place opposite the American Hotel, between a European and a Chiriaman. The Celestial proved, that he was no novice in the fistic, art, and was ; getting the,better of his opponent,, when two or three Europeans rushed at and struck him repeatedly. 5 John,' thinking ' discretion the better part of valor,' with such oddi against him, took to his heels, and immediately afterwards a burly looking European mado a fierce attack on an unoffending Celestial who was standing on the footpath witnessing the encounter, and then ran away, pursued by a orowd of persons, who cried 'shame' at his brutality. Sergeant Lamer at length made his appearance, and pursued the fellow up the Golden Point road, and, after a spirited race, he .was captured near Mount Pleasant, and with another of the assailants, safely lodged in the lock-up."— Age.

' Tin ore has, it appears, been; discovered in the district of Bailaarat; at least, .the people there hope so. We hope so, too, and that the miners of Bailaarat will turn it to a better account than have the less-euterprising men of the Ovens. The Bailaarat Times thus announces the fact:—A very nice looking sample of black sand was brought to our office. yester,day by two of the shareholders of a prospecting party (John.M'Dermott and party) who have beea sluicing for the last four weeks at the head of the Werribee, in No. 10 division of the Bailaarat district. The sample was part of a quantity of about 15 cvvt., which was got by the party (of six men) during the period in question, along with a yield cf 23 ounces of gold. In the black sand there was much fine gold, which was extracted from it as well as possible, but the party still think that there is a fair per centage of gold which they have been unable to obtain, and they therefore intend having an analysis made in Melbourne, as well for the object of ascertaining the 'quantity of gold as the value of the black sand. The locality of the prospecting claim is eighteen miles from this, and six miles from the Jim Crow district, which it much resembles in appearance. There are quartz reefs in the vicinity, and the working bottom is a soft pipeclay, intersected with slaty ridges. Some of the hills are of a trap formation.

The Castlemaine Prospecting Association is Betting to work in earnest. The M. A. Mail saya :—The men selected on Monday last stored their swags, tools, &c, in the Market-house on Wednesday night, and every preparation was made for a start this morning. Drays had been hired to convey the various parties, and the hour of departure was fixed for 9 a.m. Some of the parties got under weigh pretty punctually, and before 10 o'clock all were ou their way. The men without exception are in the highest spirits, and confident of success, and all express themselves as perfectly satisfied with every arrangement that has been made. From this feeling, the public may rest assured that no pains or labor will be- spared on their parts, and there is every probability that in a very short time the well-directed enterprise of the association will bear golden fruit, to the advantage not only of those who pluck it, but of the community at large.

The Murray Valley Vineyard Company have already commenced operations. The following particulars are furnished by the Federal Standard : —" A portion of the ground is to be en closed with a substantial fence, and 20 acres are to be grubbed, ■ trench-ploughed, and planted with vines during the present seasou. Mr. John Fraueufelder, a well-kuown Albury Tigneron, has been engaged as overseer at a salary of .£2OO per annum, half the amount being paid him in shares. The ploughing, to the depth of 18 inches, is to be performed for £7 per acre,, and the total cost of operations daring the first year is estimated at £22 10s. per acre. The vines to be grown for the present will be the Reisling for white wine and the Scyras for Hermitage. The cuttiugs will be planted on the horizontal principle. The number of shares taken up does not exceed 300, but the majority of share-holders will probably avail themselves of the opportunity of doubling the number of shares held by them. The public at large are now exceedingly anxious to procure shares, but the list having finally closed ou the Ist July no more applications will be ent'ertaiiied.' Should additional capital be reqnired next year it is possible that more shares may bb allotted ; but iv the meantime the funds at the disposal of the company are ample for the works to be undertaken this year."

Castlemaino Blackwood* Sandhurst . Maryborough Avoca* Back Creek Ballaarat . ; Fiery Creek* Ararat* Pleasant Creek* . Smythesdale* Maldon . . ozs. dwts. . 2730 0 . 482 0 . 8928 0 . 975 10 . 4433 10 . 1371 10 . 6438 10 , 502 0 . 1080 0 .1453 0 . 5085 10 i«5a. os9. dwts, 6764 10 374 10 7263 10 890 0 2094 0 4007 0 7114 0 643 0 251-6 0 1844 10 3187 10 1257 0 Total . 33,479 10 38,555 0