VICTORIA.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVI, Issue 1612, 27 August 1861, Page 5

VICTORIA.

By way of Otago we nave received intelligence from Melbourne, up to the 31st July. The " Argus "of the 3 1st July, has the following telegraphic notice of disturbances at Kneyton : — There have beeu riots on the railway at Kueyton, and great excitement iii consequence. Five hundred of the turn-, outs have cleared the line from Malmesbury to Woodend, smashing the trucks, cranes, &c, and threatened an attack, upon Kneyton. The contractor was assaulted yesterday at Malmesbury. and received eleven cuts on the head. He ' was so seriously injured, that it was found necessary to take his depositions. The Riot Act was read this evening at Woodend, where the Kneyton Volunteers turned out and assembled en masse. The . rioters were only quieted by Mr, Lavender, the police magistrate, going to Melbourne and promising to represent the ; grievances of the turn-out labourers to Government. They are awaiting the reply at Woodend ; and the authorities consider that the maintenance of the peace nill greatly depend upon the measures taken in Melbourne. A detachment of the Melbourne police has been des- ■ patched directly to the scene of the disturbance. A man uaraed Charles Green has, duriug the day, been brought down from Woodend, charged with being one of the ringleaders of the riot, and assaulting the constables there in the cxc- : cutiou of their duty. The general report from the gold fields is to the effect that items of mining news were never more soaroe or unimportant. A few instances of individual success there have been, but scarcely a single movement of any consequence in : a public point of view. A telegram from Sydney states that order reigus at Lambing Flat, but a collision is inevitable if the authorities arrest the ringleaders. A great anti-Chinese meeting was to be held in Sydney, on the night of the 31st ult. THE EXPLORING EXPEDITION — DEATH OF DR. BECKER AND THREE OTHERS. We are in receipt of most appalling intelligence from the exploring expedi- .-.. tion. Four men of the party have died, and their is good reasou to fear that Mr. " Burke, Mr. Wills, and two others had shared the same fate. It will be remembered that Mr. Howitt was despatched about 10 days ago by. the Royal Society on an expedition to Cooper's Creek, with the view of gaining information, and affording succour to Mr. Burke. On the Loddon he met Mr. Brahe, a member of the expedition, who had returned from Cooper's Creek, and was the bearer of despatches from Mr. Wright, the second in command. Mr. Burke, it appears, arrived at Cooper's Creek about the end o{ November, having travelled from . Meninide, a distance of 480 miles, in twenty days. He then endeavoured to find a practicable route across the desert, and with that view despatched Mr. Wills and another with three camels. They penetrated about 90 miles without finding water. Unfortunately they lost their camels, and were compelled to return on foot. On the 16th of December, Mr. Burke, aooompanied by Messrs. Wills, Gray, and King, started for Lake Eyre, the furthest point reached by Start,, leaving Mr. Brahe and four men. in oharge of the Cooper's Creek Depot. ; He had with him 3 months' provisions, 6 camels, and 1 horse, and his final in*' structions to Mr. Brahe were, that if the party were not heard from in three | months, he was to return to Meninide. We now turn to Mr. Wright, vrhom Mr. \ Burke left at Meninide, with instructions ; to follow him. That gentleman left Meninide on the 26th of January, with a , large quantity of stores, ten camejs, and * thirteen horses. His party consisted of f j Drs. Beckler and Becker, Mr.Hodgkin- 1 son, and three men. He found in the '. interval since Mr. Burke traversed the same region that the water had dried up, i and that the whole face of the oountry ■ was parched- and arid. It is also mentioned that a marsupial rat infested the; 3 whole district to the destruction of the party's stores. They made their way to .j t Lake Bullo, which we may observe ia t ascertained to have been the farthest;.; point reached "by Maopherson and Lyons.,:/; This point is three days! journey ifrbms; Cooper's Creek. Here several of • the;*' men fell sick, and Mr. j oeed no further. He was ;^a6ke^;^' a considerable parties of natives, and had; b to entrench his oamp. Dr. Becker^ Pur*;;;