Another letter, of the 1st January, adds again to the picture:--“In my opinion, this town is threatened with complete ruin. Last night, two men arrived, announcing a discovery of gold deposits in the district of Gipp’s Land; they had brought £10,000 sterling in gold, and said there was enough there for all the world. What shall we do for want of labor? Suppose that 100,000 immigrants were to arrive here next year, would one of them remain in the towns or at the farms, earning a few shillings per week, when they can go to the diggings and gather £50 in one day? At this very moment I cannot find one man in Melbourne who can mend a pair of boots at any price. I get bread from Collingwood, as a great favor, and the baker will not engage to supply me regularly. I pay 5s. for two buckets of water, and 30s. for as much wood as a horse can carry. One can hardly find a man with a handbarrow to carry a portmanteau, even at any price he chooses to ask. The servants of the Judge have all left him, and he cannot use his carriage; his sons clean the knives and shoes, and drag their invalid father to the court in a wheel chair.” An inhabitant of Melbourne, himself reduced to the necessity of looking after his horse, whilst his wife attended to cooking the dinner, writes:--“One of the members of our club, a large sheep-owner, and who cannot obtain shearers, is gone to the diggings to try and hire some men. He asked them what wages he should pay them, they replied that they must have all the wool; and, as he was leaving them, they called him back to say. ‘We are in want of a cook; we will give you £1 a day if you like to take the place yourself.’” At the “placers,” a mechanic is worth at least £1 a day. The people who return to the towns with their little fortunes will no longer work, and consider that they have a right to live on in idleness. All provisions are dear. At Mount Alexander, flour was sold at 5d. a pound (which is equal to [117]60 centimes the demi-kilo.); oats at 18s. the bushel, or [118]64 francs the [119]hectolitre. In August last, wheat was not higher than 3d. a pound, and oats 4s. the bushel, in the Sydney market, a higher price than in any famine year in the European markets.