Illustrated London News
Emigration Reports
1858

	

1858 con't..


The Illustrated London News
1858	Nov 20					Page 468
TASMANIA
The Tasmanian Legislature was opened on the 7th of September. 
On that occasion the Governor, Sir H. Young, announced that 
bills would be introduced to provide for the more effectual 
audit of the public accounts, to enable the Council and Assembly 
to deal with questions of their own privilege, to render Government 
employees ineligible to a seat in Parliament, to vest in the Judges 
of the Supreme Court the powers of the Land Claims Commissioners, 
to legalise and regulate the establishment of volunteer corps for 
the defence of the colony, to endow prize scholarships for Tasmanian 
youths to pursue their studies at English universities, and to
incorporate the provisions of the new Divorce Law and Fraudulent 
Trustees Act in colonial legislation.

NEW "DIGGINGS" IN AUSTRALIA
The following is extracted from a letter dated Sydney, Sept. 11:- 
"There are some new diggings sprung up at the Fitzroy River, 
Port Curtis, which is on the northern boundary of Moreton Bay, 
that are causing immense excitement here. The principal diggings 
are surface. A 12lb. nugget has been found, together with 50oz., 
by one party. Sydney, we expect, will soon be deserted. It is 
confidently asserted by parties cognisant of the locale that the 
extent of gold-field in that district is over 100 miles in 
circumference.
All the steamers, small coasting-vessels, &c., are engaged taking
passengers, freight, &c., up there. It is reported that it will 
prove the richest gold-field in New South Wales."

Nov 27 Page 512
The last Australian mail, which was delivered in Dublin on 
Sunday week, contained 1400 registered money letters, transmitted 
by emigrants to relatives and friends in the old country.

Dec 18 Page 564
AUSTRALIA
We have received our Australian letters and papers; the dates 
being Melbourne, October 16th; Sydney, October 12.
The third session of the first Parliament of Victoria under the 
new Constitution was opened by his Excellency Sir Henry Barkly 
on the 7th of October. The fate of the Reform Bill in the Upper 
House was looked forward to with much interest. It was understood 
to be the intention of the Ministry, in case the measure was again 
rejected, to demand a dissolution of Parliament- a demand to which 
his Excellency stood pledged to his cabinet to accede on such a 
contingency arising. On the evening of the 15th of October the 
Ministerial budget was laid before the Assembly by the Treasurer. 
"We have to congratulate the colony", says the Argus, "on the proud 
financial position in which it appears she stands. At this moment 
the colony is free of debt. She will have a balance in the
present year over and above the expenditure of £307,879 available 
for the service of the year 1859. The revenue of the present year 
is upwards of three millions, and, including the balance from the 
present year, the estimated revenue of 1859 is £3,691,879."
Since the departure of the previous mail Sir Henry Barkly had made 
a tour of a considerable portion of the country, having visited 
Belfast, Arrarat, Clunes, Ballarat, &c. Everywhere his Excellency 
was received with demonstrations of loyalty."
The New South Wales Parliament has voted the sum of £50,000 for the
establishment of postal service via Panama; and the Governor has 
put himself in communication with the rulers of the other colonies 
in furtherance of the objects of the vote.
The chief item of news in the accounts from the gold-fields is the 
failure of the Fitzroy diggings at Port Curtis. A great rush had 
taken place to that spot, and the disappointment was excessive.

Dec 25 					Page 588
AUSTRALASIA
The Niagara has arrived with the heavy portion of the 
Australian mail. She brought home twenty-three passengers, and 
thirty boxes of gold, worth £137,722. The Australian mail which 
left Alexandria  in the Niagara consisted of 80,000 letters, 
90,000 newspapers, and 5,000 registered letters. The passengers by 
the Niagara were the first persons who travelled all the way 
by rail between Suez and Alexandria, the Egyptian railroad
having been finished just before they arrived at Suez. 
On some parts of the journey by rail the passengers travelled at 
the rate of forty miles an hour. One of the most difficult and 
important railways in the world, and which has been some years 
in forming, is now completed, and the short route to India, Japan, 
and Australia can now be traversed by railway and steam-packet
throughout.
At Sydney business was dull. The fresh gold diggings just discovered 
to the north of Sydney had excited much interest, and about 5,000 
gold-diggers weekly were leaving Victoria bound for New South Wales. 
The Colonial Parliament is about to close a long Session, and out of 
the House, has ceased to be of any public interest. The Mayor of 
Sydney, Mr. John Williams, gave a fancy ball to about a thousand 
of the citizens last week, at the Prince of Wales Theatre.
The following are the chief items of news brought by the Niagara 
from Tasmania:- In the House of Assembly a resolution has been 
adopted not to vote a salary to any public officer hereafter 
accepting a seat in the Legislature. By another resolution it has 
been determined to open to settlement Tasman's Peninsula, a district 
containing 140,000 acres of Crown land. The news from Fingal 
gold-fields, although not reporting any great results, is still of 
a nature to encourage men to persevere in looking for them. 
The estimates have passed the Assembly with little alteration.

Accounts brought by the Niagara from New Zealand are 
encouraging. The colony is prosperous. The gold-fields there are 
steadily increasing in value. They have now been discovered about 
eight months, and £100,000 worth of gold, in dust and nuggets, 
have already been obtained from them. They are situated close to 
Massacre Bay, where a boat's crew of the famous circumnavigator, 
Tasman, were massacred by the natives. This bay is fifty miles 
from Nelson, and in August last 1000 persons were at work at the 
diggings. The gold is of very good quality.

Page 597
Letters from Melbourne mention that the Patent Slip has been 
opened, and found to work most satisfactorily, but it was not 
of sufficient power, it was feared, for the largest class of 
vessels.
Letters have been received at Melbourne by a leading firm announcing 
that 368 pure alpacas, belonging to Mr. Ledger's flock, had been 
shipped from Valparaiso for distribution in Melbourne and Sydney.
David Hughes, the solicitor who absconded some months since with 
liabilities and defalcations to the amount of £200,000 has been 
arrested in Australia. He had only £500 upon him.

GOVERNMENT EMIGRATION
The Government emigration-ship David M'Iver, 862 tons, 
Captain Robert Baillie, which sailed from Liverpool on the 4th 
of June, with 38 married couples, 123 single women, 101 single men, 
36 girls between the ages of 1 and 12, 27 boys between the same ages, 
5 female, and 6 male infants, (making a total of 374 souls, equal to 
331 ½ statute adults) arrived at Sydney, New South Wales, on the 24th 
of September. Five deaths (two adults and three children) and two 
births occurred during the voyage.

The Government of New South Wales have deputed an agent to visit 
England to confer with the Colonial Office, in conjunction with 
some representatives of the colony already in this country, on the 
best means for establishing a mail steam service via Panama.