VICTORIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 537, 15 March 1862, Page 3

VICTORIA.

BXfRACTB FKOM VTTOI'TAV rATT.RS. A Coal Coju-axy.— le will be observed with satisfaction that at ' last the coal-fields at Cope Puterson are about to receive h fair trial, by the Victoria Coat 'Com. •any. the members of which, three in number* ai;C ail entctpr.sing men of business. Notice has Lueu (riven formally of their intentiou to apply to the Government tor ;i louse of «S4O acres of^ Ciowi! lands, und-r the Nicholson Land Act, for t!ie pun.o-c of -.inning thereon for co.il, and of their intention to unost a capital of £20,000 in the w^rk.-;. The preliminary survey and examination of the ground Imvc, no doubt, satisfied the company as to the legitimacy of their venture, an.) we trust their efforts may be entirely successful.— Argus. Mukdeu we ait Ball'akat.— A man named Timothy JKyjin was shot about three o'clock on Sunday morning, on the Lex ton road, about three and a hulf-milrs from the LennnonUi police station. The perpetrator of the deed, John Hvne.«, was arrested and lodged m the Learmonth lockup about an hour and a half afterwurd*, and it is said a clear case of murder will be made out against him. An inquest will be held to-day at Lake Lew-month, at ten o'clock, and Inspector Kubat will attend to prosecute on behalf of the Crown.— Star.

Si:i*auatiox. — The movement for separating a portion of we item teivitoiy from Victoria, and a portion of eastern territory from South Australia, with a view to the establishment of a, new colony i has now reached such maturity that a petition to the throne on the subject is about being prepared, for presentation through Sir Henry Barkly. One step lately taken by thy Committee of the" League will do much to forward the end desired. A small pamphlet has been issued, stating succinctly the views and objects of the League, and giving a sufficiency of statistics to satisfy the enquiry, "a very knotty point, not yet decisively settled, is the precise boundary to be suggested to the Home Government as tlit dividing line on the Victorian side. 143 deg. of east longitude is mentioned as a desirable boundary, but that meridian will include within the new colony an auriferous portion of the Pyrenees, and it is the wish of the Leagu? to avoid including any known gold-field in the separated territory. To avoid this, some members of the committee propose to include the whole of Heytesbury and Hampden, and a small portion only of Ripon, so as to leave intact all the Pyrenees gold-fields. On the South Australian side it is not so difficult to fix the boundary. Any line traversing tho broad belt of unsettled and barren — in many places desert — land east from the Munay, would satisfy the separalionisls, without provoking much opposition from South Australia, which has lately acquired so large an addition of territory to the westward, the settlement nnd management of whic!i wili sufficiently tax the energies of government The coveted portion of South Australia is a. well-defined and lertile area, popularly known us the Mount Gambier district, and embracing the counties of Maclonnell, Robe and Grey ; its exi.ent i4,000,000 acres. So neglected hits this portion of South Australia been, that, although the population exceeds 9,000, it is not yet provided with circuit courts; prosecutors, pi Uouors, witnesses plaintiffi and defendants, having all to travel three hundred miles to Adi hide for justice. Nor would it be wise to blame tlie South Australian Government unreservedly for this neglect. The district in question, by position, trade, and other obvious interests of the inhabitants, forms no portion, nor can it naturally ever form a portion, of South Australia. A bell of desert effectually separates it from the heu-l-quaiters of a government which could hardly bo expected to bestow any unusual care on a district marked by nature as destined to remain part and parcel of South Australia only so long as it is not sufficiently populous or sufficiently wealthy to claim independence or annexation to Victoria. The territory comprised within the present limits of the colony of South Australia is enormous, and must, in the natural order of things, " fluke oft'" as fast as portions heeonit) ready for the process. — Geelong Advertiser.

The Sluogi; Difficulty.— We hear from Mr. Casey, M.L.A., who has returned to Sandhurst, that lie learned from Mr. Johnston, the Commissioner of Public Works, that it is the inteution of the Government to send up for Mr. Wardill,the Chief Inspector, to examine and report on the sludge difficulty, and on the receipt of his report, the Government wilt determine what course is most expedient to adopt. — Bendigo Advertiser. A Fraud which turned out but too successful, was, a short time since, perpetrated on the keepers of several toll-gates in the vicinity of Melbourne, by a youth named Patterson, who was discharged from the Department of Roads and Bridges, on the 30th December last. Patterson, it appears, was engaged in that branch of the department having .supervision over tho toll gates of the colony, and knew the time nt which the moneys should be paid over to Mr. Carr, the treasurer. After being dismissed from his situation, he took snloon passage for himself and a woman of very questionable character, under the names of Mr. and Mrs. Puterson, in the Great Britain. Probably, not being overburdened with funds, he resorted to the following means of replenishing the treasury. The day before the Great Britain sailed, he called on the various toll-gate keepers in the neighborhood of the city, told them that Mr. Canwanted the money that week, and to save them the trouble of going to the Bank and paying it in as usual, be had brought the slips with 'him. In very many instances the money was paid, without any hesitation, and the slips were afterwards forwarded to the department. No suspicion was at first excited, and the fraud was not discovered for .•evernl days after the Great Britain had sailed. Patterson succeeded in obtaining from his victims the sum of £480, to which amount they will be losers, as he was never authorised to collect the money by the department. — Age. The Distillation- Bill. — From three different sonices, equally reliable, we learn that the excise duty on spirits dittillcd in the colony will be ss. Cs., or 10s. per gallon. Which is the "correct figure >vc know not, but from previous information we are inclined to think 6s. the most probable amount. We have more precise information on another point. The hill is to contain 171 clauses ; and from this we infer that the measure will be valueless and unworkable.— Geelong Advertiser. Tn E Occupation Licenses.— The following notice relative to the residence and cultivation licenses under the regulations of the 28th August, 18G1. has been issued by the Board of Land and Works, and is published in Friday night's Gazette :— " Whereas it has been represented that payments have been made to licensed surveyors for the survey of a portion of land, for the occupation of which the persons making such payments intended to apply under the regulations of 28th August, 18G1, but whose applications were subsequently not entertained because they were dated after the 18th of November, 18G1 -. It is hereby notified that such applications will be received and dealt with by the Board of Land and Works if dated as late as 2."> th December, 1861, provided the statutory declaration be forwarded by the applicants that they instructed licensed surveyors on or before the 18th November, IS6I, to make the survey of the portion of the land they desired to occupy, and that similar declarations be, when possible, procured fronf the licensed surveyors, and forwarded with the declarations of the applicants." — Mail, Jan. 29. A Mr. C. F. Nicholl3, writing to the Ballarat Star, maintains the probability of a rich deep lead of gold being found under Melbourne. He says :— " The first thing that strikes an observant miner in Melbourne and its immediate neighborhood is the absence of gravel. There is none in the garden walks of the suburbs nor on the public side walks, nothing but the debris of the basalt quarries. Walking for the first time from Richmond Hill, down Church-street, across the Church-street bridge, I came to the cutting on the Chapel-street side of the Yarra. It is a slate reef intersected with quartz, and having the general appearance of the bed rocks in auriferous neighborhoods. Turning round to look back for the opposite reef I saw Richmond Hill, and, went back to examine that at the railway cutting at its foot, and found it of the same character as its opposite neighbor. Between these two reefs or bed rocks cropping out on the surface is the Yarra river, and between it and Richmond Hill is filled in with basalt rock. Here then is deep ground, probably the old bed of the Yarra before the basalt rock filled it in. The present bed' of the Yarra is said to be auriferous. Gold is said to have been found at Hawthorne and Kew, and Anderson's Creek diggings — a tributary of- the Yarra — are well known. No wonder there |is no, gravel in Melbourne, it is all covered with basalt rock. From these facts I infer that there is a large, deep, and probably rich lead of gold running through Melbourne to the Bay, and that we must look for it under the basalt and adjacent to the high ground farthest from the present bed of the river."

The following rather amusing account of hoax-" ing a squatter is from the Gipps Land Timek : — On Monday last a squatter, not a hundredlhiles from Trafalgar Creek, was informed -by a boy, who seemed to_ come ({own expjew, that two men Shad found a highly auriferous creek beyond the Morewell river, and were trying to keep -it secret.- This worthy squatter was immediately in ecstneies, and with a chosen friend at once started, guided by the me-seugcr, in scaich of the golden creek They prom-dud accordingly, and after a ride of twenty in;!cs found themselves iv a very rugged part of the country. They, however," toiled ou, still guided by their messenger, until they at last arrived nt a crook, at tho sight of which they were exceedingly jubilant. But their hopes were soon das-hed to tho ground by their guide declaring with great simplicity that lie thought the right creek was on the other side of the range, and that they were wrong altogether. Accordingly, they put about, and nijrht coming on, had to camp as best they could. Next clay they prosecuted their researches, and after great toiling arrived at the other creek, when the guide again declared that they were at fault, and that this was not the right creek. A thunderstorm now came on ; amid blinding rain and vivid lightning they gazed despuiringly at the luckless creek. At last the squatter'? he was raised, and rushing on tlie boy, hccollarcd him, threatening him with instant death and affirming that the storm had come to punish him for telling lies. "Do you think so ?" asked the guide. "I do," replied* the squatter " Well, then," said the guide, " I will tell you the truth, and tell no more lies. Old Mas, the dairyman, has «ot a lot of cheese to sell, and he thought if I told you of a creek with gold you would send out a lot of gold-diggers, and he could then sell his cheese. He didn't think you'd have come yourself." _ The squatter's feelings may be imagined — it is impossible to describe them — as he took his way through the scrub and rain.

GOLD-i'IKLDS REVENUE OF VICTORIA. — A l'e-tui-n of the amount of revenue derived from the liold-fields, in the shape of licence fees, gold export duty, and miners' rights, from October, 1851, to the present date, is as follows : — Gold license fees, .£1,452,008 0s 7d ; gold export duty, £2,070,297 12s 13 ; miners' lights, £.')6O,<MM 10s. Total £4,183,210 3s od.— Argus, Feb. 21.

Man Dhownkd at thk Campaspe.— On Saturday afternoon the body of a man was found floating on the Cumpaspe, near tho works of the new bridge. On taking tlie body to Drake and Noland's public house, there was found in his pockets along with some other ai tides, a Savings' Bank deposit receipt for £3, in the name of Collins. The last time the man was seen was at a refreshment place about three miles this side of the liver, when, fioni the direction in which he was travelling, it was suppocd he was from Sandhurst. An inquest will be held on the body to-day. — Bendigo Advertiser, 24th Feb.

Scudding Undkr Bare Poles.— On Saturday afternoon some excitement was caused by the appearance in that place where people most do congregate (I'all Mai!) of a person in a dress considerable more coo! than decent. It is unnecessary to go into thu details of his dress, or rather undress ; suffice it that tlio police found it necessary to pack him in a blanket, and t;ike him to the lock-up. Exce&s of tipple, and consequent aberration of intellect, were no doubt the exciting causes of this most objectionable eccentricity ; and no doubt the antiyplogistic treatment of the locktip and gaol will bring him to reason and the use of his clothes. — Uendkjo Advertiser, 24th February

A Harrow Escape. —Yesterday morning about one o'clock, a man named Salmon, living near the Ikrnal-btrccc end of ILirgmvcs-strtet, was aroused from his bed by the cries of some one in distress, and yetting alight and going out he found a man in one of the sludge and waterholes, on the ground at the side of Bernal-strcct. Mr. Salmon, who was only accompanied by his wife, went to the hole, and his wife laying hold of his hand he managed to rench his other hand to the drowning man nnd pull him out. The hole was about twelve feet in depth. The only way of accounting for the unfortunate fellow's escape was in the fact that he appeared to be in liquor as well as in sludge and water, and that Providence exercised the same care and attention to him that generally saves men in similar circumstances from peril. The man was unknown to those who saved him from such imminent danger. — Bendigo Advertiser 24th Fob.