AUSTRALIAN TELEGRAMS.

MELUOUKJS'E. February 22. Seventy of Dufiicld'y alpacas ore dead. At the meeting at tlie ilokion's .Bay Kailway Company. resolutions were pressed Wrongly objecting to uio warh:go rate*; ami, it is beheveu, that theso rate# will he thrown out. Sugars havo advanced since the; receipt of udvico by the bar ill. Tuere ha\ o been largo indes of candle# —iid 1 weights, 1 ; light, Sjd. Xho cap-iizeti schooner had been removed from tho west channel into Swan iiuy. At Canterbury the Twenty-two wore put out for thiitv runs, and All-Knaland had .scomi ton, with two wickets down, Grace ucing bowled out by Wills tho Ui>t ball.

Arrived.—Yorkshire, from London ; Blackbird, | I'rom Lytteiion; Sarah, trom Mauritius, irilh dates to Jiiim/iIT 10th. Tho Sarah ivports a rise in sugar of £- per ton, ;uid none loading. White crystals aro quoted at S.oU; white counters, S ; yellow counters 7.76 ; and ration, t>. February 23. A public lteelmg was held last night to cousiucr the Laud Bill. Tlio Mayor of Melbourne presided. ,T. 11. l'irookri and bii lrieiids passed a resolution condemning the bill. The attendance was poor. -Mr. Coppin lias paid his creditor* 20s. in tho £. At a fii. iii'.ly dinner he announced that lie sails tor California with tins lveans ttfter the Jlelbeuruo enyagoment is completed. A fracas occurred between tho editors of tho Agt and /Ici-kI-I, i-i Kliziihoth-stn-et. Une eye was blackened, and a tooth knocked out. It arose out of their calling each other "lhuiky," "£0 between," and " riisciil journalist." I The Assembly is outraged on tho Land Bill. ! Vatua riee was hoid hy auction at -1-U to £21 od. per ten. j V. V. Hour is moving: off in trado lots. Adolaida i brands £16 to 17 per ton. ADELAIDE. February 22. The report of tho Advcrtifir Newspaper Company, as printed, aliowt. a 10.-s on the !iaU-_ve.tr of JJG32. Application* having been made' 9 dispose ot tho paper by private tender and tailed, i'-. i- reeonimondod to oiler it for sale bv publij auction. , , , The suppo.-ed piearo-pneumonia is behoved to be the coast disease. . T > < _ Arrived.—Sor.da, from Sydney; Biednch I.eutzen, from 1.1 ndon; Congou, from -Uelbourne. ° February 23. A dock of sheep to Ur. 3£ullins has gon* i'lom K.::;£ai'.' i tn i •Vrrived.—iiangui.ou uu.l I.arwan. . Cleared.—Mary Umdf.rJ, tor Sydney, with whe*t. Sour, orani ami hay; IviitU'Smith, tor Iriwlone:,'with i wheat. dour, ;i';d pollard: -Ccatcet, >.(.«■ il-ACourua, f viv'j, n-iedt, cati;, and t'ivu.

THE ACCIDENT OFF LAGOS. TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE EVENING MAIL. Sir.—Will you bo kind enough to give room in vour paper to the following extract Irom a letter from ray son. who is a midshipman mi board Her Majesty s i-hip 'Rattlesnake' (lent- to the Investigator for the fpeeial service), on the West Coast of Africa. Tt contains the detail** of an accident which occur*, red on the Ist of September last, on the bar of Lagos, and which was noticed by you at the time. My son van the only survivor capable of writing an account of it (his only fellow survivors being Africans), and as T know of many who will like to see what he has written, with whom I hnvo no means of communication without the assistance of your journal, I hope you will be able to insert it. Yours faithfully, 4, Belvedere-terrace, Brighton, G. "Ewbank. Dee. 14. " Her 'Majesty's ship Investigator, Nicer Expedition, Nov.B. " Tho last note T wrote to you from Ijigos was to tell you of the sad accident which orcuncd on I-ago-> "bar, and of my wonderfnl escape from drowning. I wrote you only a short nolo to tell vou that I wns going with the Nicer expedition, and that wo expected to be off immediately.

"On the morning of the Ist of September Lieut. Dolben came an board in his whaler to see the I'ommodore, as he had only just received his appointment to the ' Investigator,' and to to command the expedition. lie came out over the bar without shipping a drop of water, about 8 a.m., and after making arrangements with the Commodore he a."ked for a midshipman. and I volunteered to go with him, with one of our Lieutenants, pour Atkinson, who also asked that T mieht be allowed to accompany him. Lieutenant Dolben seemed to think nothirc (if going in, no more than pulling on shore in a liarl our, so we shoved off from the ' Rattlesnake, - and pulled in aliout a mile before we approached the bar, talking about it. for we had nil heard that it wa-H very dangerous. l ? ut lie assured us that there was no danger, and that it was quite smooth, and as lie had come over quite safe we never dreamt of any dangerous accident. I. so far from thinking there was any danger, was sittinc in the bottom of the boat smoking my pipe, and poor Atkinson was smoking his. and we were laughimr ami talking: about our expedition up the Nicer. I-was going in to buy a mosquito curtain anil some articles for buving ivory and curiosities with on the river. "We arrived on the bar at 1 13 p.m., having left the ship at 12 o'clock, and the very first breaker we met capsized the boat, and rolled her with tremendous force over and over. I just heard poor Dolben say, before the boat capsized, "Here it come?." and being in the bottom of the boat, I put my head over tlio gunwale and looked, and saw a towering sea curling down upon us; the next I felt was a smack on the face from it, and over we wont. In my first attempt to rise to the surface T hit mv head ncninst the boat, but succeeded tho second time in laving hold of her, when T found all my companions holding on. with the exception of one of the Kroomen, whom we never saw again. Poor Atkinson ashed what was to be done, when Dolben said ' Hold on to the boat, and we shall be seen from the shore in a minute.' he had scarcely spoken when a second sea washed us all again into the water, and we bad to swim up to her again to catch hold. Poor Atkinson was hit on the head bv the boat, which was washed on the top of him, and when T looked round for him he was pone. T heard him call for help to one of the Kroomen. but it was impossible to save another per.-on in a sea like that in which we were stvncglinc. The next sea washed us off for the third time. I was the first to regain the boat, and saw Dolben a little distance away from the boat, but unable to swim from exhaustion and the weight of his clothes. One of the Kroomen succeeded in pushing a mast to him, to which he clung for a time, and then all of a sudden disappeared. " There now remained the three remaining Kroomen and myself, and we held on for a fen* seconds, scarcely lons' cnouch to recover our breath, when we were neain washed oft". This went on for about half an hour. Once T went right to the bottom, and cave myself up for lost, being quite done up, when I cave one struggle more and rose to the surface, and fnrtunately pot on the top of the boat, and there I lay during a lull of nearly a minute. That cave me breath, and I then began to feel able to swim acain. We went on for some time like this, until the Kroomen proposed that we should roll the boat over and over broadside into the surf, so as to brine her in shore, bscause all the time we were out there wo were beaten about in a most frightful manner, am! liable at any moment f<» be taken by shark". We surce"ded thus in rolling the boat to within 30 yards of the shore, when wr saw a canoe coining off. I then let go, and swam for the canoe, which landed me and the Kroomen, and the boat was washed upon the bench.

" I inu-t now tell you bow I mannered to pet rid of mv clothes, because it waa principally my doing so that enabled me to save my life. T had <>n n pair of duck a flannel shirt, flannel coat, and white uuck elastic boots. I first rried to «ret mv coat off in the usual way, but found it quite impossible, the intervals of rest on the boat beiv.s; so short; so T tore it down the hack, and pulled it 'iff in halves. jTv shirt I tore off in pieces, and then I had nothing on but m v trousers and socks. Poor Polben had his thick frockcoat on ; beinc cloth, ho could not fair it off, and it must hare been h frightful thine to swim in, especially in so heavy a sea. l'oor Atkinson had nothinc on but a white sbiit and troupers, but his sinking was caused by the blow fiom the boat. T landed in nothincr but my trousers and socks, in a broilinc hot sun, after Imvinp been ncarlv an hour in the water, and after havinc been washed nearly two miles from the place v.-liei-e we were first upset. I was, as you may imacire, nearly dead, and full of fait water, and lay on the beach scarcely able to breathe. After a little time I thoucrht it more sensible to try and pet homo cover from the sun, so I made for the town, which wss about two or three milts off, and when I had pot half way I saw a boat just t?oinp off, with a white man in her, and a basket. T went to him and asked him if lie had got any spirits, upon which lie handed me a tumbler, some brandy and soda-water, and pave me what I wanted. I took half a tumblerfull of brandy, and ho lent me a cloth to cover my head with. So ripped, I pot on board tho ' Investigator' and reported the accident. T pot clean clothes, ic., and, when I was well enough, went and saw the Governor, who was very civil to me, and I remained with hini until a steamer went out to the ' Rattlesnake.' My losses were very heavy ; I lost everything vnluahlo I had, —my wateli, chain, and all my money; and in addition to my last quarterly allowance which I had just drawn, I had with me the extra pay I had drawn for my servicei ashore. But, after all, if it had been ten times as valuable it would all have pone, because by petting rid of my clothes I Paved my life. Tho Commodore was very kind to me and thought I must bo ill; however, T was all light, thank God, and so the next day we sailed in the ' Rattlesnake' for the Niger, to await the arrival of tho ' Investigator,' to which we had to supply coal, &c. " We succeeded in communicating with Dr.Uaikie, and so far accumplishc-d the chief object of our expedition, after having been -Jo day- in the river, and 000 miles into the interior of Africa." —Event',hj Mail December 16.