FATAL COLLISION at BALLARAT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 226, 30 December 1854, Page 4

FATAL COLLISION at BALLARAT.

(From the Melbourne Argus.) Monday, 3 a.m. At tlis above hour a gentleman arrived at this office who had ridden through express, leaving. Ballarat at half-past one yesterday. He briugs us the following disastrous'report: (From a Correspondent of the Melbourne Argus.) At four a.m. this "morning (Sunday) the troopers advanced on the right of the YVarralieep Galley, and another dhision on the left of the Eureka line, encompassing the camp of the diggers. A shout was raised, ami after a sharp firing of about twenty minutes, the troopers called to the soldiers, Vho were advancing, that it. was all over. ' ° The camp of the diggers was constructed of piles of siabs, collected from the ueMibouriu".holes. ° I enclose the official return, as known at 9 a.m. To-morrow you shall have the real truth. I fio not believe but that the loss of the military i<> .say nothing of the wounded, is considerably UK.re than acknowledged. Ballarat, Dec. 3, 1854. _ Sib, —I have the honor to inform you that the casualties on the part of the military, are, uiis private of 12ih Itegt. killed, two -privates of the 40th Jailed. Capt. Wy.-.e, 40th, is dangerously wounded ; Lieut. Paul, i2th, seriously wounded. Several privates of the 40th and 12th are more or less wounded. No oflicial. reiurn has yet been made, but the correspondent of the Argus can have it to-morrow by ajiplying at the camp. One hundred and twenty-five prisoners were Miade, but tite casualties on the part of the insurgents are not known. ItußKirr Ueue, Ilesident Corntnissioner.

In the case of Captain Wyse, amputation is considered necessary, he having received two wounds in the leg. This is but the beginning of the end. The reporter of the Ballarat fimes has been taken, and his life was with difficulty saved from the hands of the infuriated soldiers." A colored man, recognized by a soldier, would have been shot at the camp, had it not been for the officers. Nearly all the ringleaders have been taken.

Fifteen are lying dead in the Eureka camp. Sixteen are dangerously wounded. A German has received five different wounds. The Eureka camp, as well as the stores and tents in the neighbourhood, have been burnt to the ground, and considerable loss of property has ensued thereby. A former reporter for the M. M. Herald, a Mr. Haslam, was shot in the shoulder by the troopers. The London Hotel is the chief repository for the dead and wounded. The troopers swept the diggings, and are making several captures now at the moment of writing. The most harrowing and heartrending scenes amongst the women and children I have witnessed during this dreadful morning. Many innocent persons have suffered, and many are prisoners who were there at the skirmish, but took no active part. 10 a m. —Several waggons containing wounded and confiscated property have passed on their way to the camp. At present everj one is as if stunned, and but few are to be seen about. The flag of the diggers, the " Southern Cross," as well as the " Union Jack," which they had to hoist underneath, were captured by the foot police. Had the diggers fired longer, the loss to the military would have been immense, aud they, as it was, acted with a precision and regularity admired even by the officers of the military. * Keport says that only a small division of the diggers were attacked this moruing, merely a guard of relief enough to protect the " Eureka camp." Of the rest, some were off duty, but the majority were in the bush, and guarding the roads to Melbourne and Geelong.