AUSTRALIA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume III, Issue 123, 6 December 1854, Page 4

AUSTRALIA.

We copy the following from the New Zealander of the 11th ultimo :—: —

The intnlligencc from Australia is eigM days later than that previously rrcoived. The aspect of Victoria, moral, social, and financial is sadly overcast ; and consummate skill will ba required to avert the atorm that evidently impends.

At Ballarat Lynch law has deforced the integrity of British law. The occasion was this. The pro. prietor of the Eureka Hotel being suspected of para ticipation in a murder, was examined by the jusi ticca and discharged. Thii acquittal win opposed to the feelings of the diggers, who assembled, in nrms, mid to the number of trom 8000 to 10,000, determined to " execute, justice Bentley the innkeeper, fortunately for himself, had escaped, hut Im inn remdiucd, and that forthwith was burnt to the groundi

" As v matter of course," sayi the Melbourne Herald, " all the resourrei available at the camp were brought into requisition to keep the peace, but to no purpose, — for Commissioners, J. IVs inspectors military, and policemen could do nothing agaiiist such overwhelming numbers, and were therefore compelled to act as passive spectators of the extraordinary doings before their eyes, Tbe Commissioners remonstrated several times with the attacking parties, and were very coolly told to mind themselves, and interfere no further; that they (the diggers) did not wish to molest or come inlo collision vritli the authorities provided they were allowed to pursue their own course."

That course they did pursuo, piling into a heap some furniture and effects, which the police had removed, and consuming them to cinders.

A correspondent of ilic Sydney Herald gays : — " the authorities are about to act with the strong 1 hand ; and the attempt to apprehend the ringleaders in the burning riot will certainly, it ii said, lead to a deadly collision between the authorities and the diggers! If io, there is no prophesying the end. Exaspcr»ted by a long course of petty tyranny on the part of tho officials, and incensed against the Government for its indifference to their complaints, and its neglect of tlieir interests, the diggers are prepared to go all lengths in revenging themselves if onoe the fatal and linal provocation on the part of the Government be given, There ia no saying what will be the end of all these things. Unhappy as this state of affairs unquestionably ia, there is still another and more fruitful source of Colonial disorganisation {—One, too, in which the upright of all countries mu»t hi-nrtily sympathise with the colonists of Victoria ;— lt is in their noble and determinate reaiitance to keep the country free from tbe irruption of convicts ready to be let loose upon them Irom Van Diemen's Land. Twice already have tbe Colouists of Victoria enacted a Law of Self Preservation from the felon tide with which Sir William Denison and the Secretaries of State have striven to demoralise nnd destroy them. Upon the first occasion when this righteous law was disallowed by Imperial (Imperious}) authority and returned to Victoria for recomideration, it was manfully re-enacted in the iclr name form by tbe Colonial Legislature. It has again been imperU ously disallowed , and is Again sent back for amendment; and with instructions to the Tasmnmaa ruler to let slip 13,000 of his protegei. Under such circumstances, is it any wonder that Victoria should be stirred to her inmost centre ? That monster meetings of retintanco should be called? And that the Legislative Council should have res« ponded with profound unanimity to the motion I affirmatory of the law of which Mr. Fawkucr gave ' notice for the 10th inst. ?