PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XII, Issue 589, 22 February 1881, Page 6

PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

Latest accounts from the Temora goldfields continue to be uniformly favorable. A Commission has been appointed by the Governor to inquire into and report upon the military organisation of the Colony of New South Wales. The Australian Eleven have met their match at last, the Wanganui cricketers having defeated them by one run and eleven wickets. There is the prospect looming in the distance of another colonial team going Home. At Westport, on Tuesday, a miner named Hewitt, aged 24, was killed in the Colliery Company's mine by a block of coal which he was heaving out falling on him. The body was not discovered until some hours after the accident happened. There is at present in the Paramatta .Benevolent Asylum an old blind man who, 30 years ago, was worth quite L 50.000. Gambling and drink were the factors of his present misery. He was an old associate of the celebrated " Bill Nash." A Mr Thomas Williams, who " was present at and a purchaser at the first sale of lands on which the city of Melbourne now stands, held on June Ist, 1837, and after an absence-of 25 years from the Colony finds on his arrival that so useful an institution as the Melbourne Hospital is ■in want of funds," forwarded to that institution his cheque for £SOO. "It is better to be born lucky than rich." This will probably be the opinion of most people on reading the following incident, related by a Queensland journal :—A party of Chinese took it into their heads to chip a boulder of stone at the Margaret River, and found inside 700 ounces of gold. Dozens of people had sat on it, and a party of miners made their fire against it regularly. " John" scored the trick to the tune of L 2,700. Amongst the funny devices for the extermination of rabbits (says the Ballarat Star) is one by Mr Thornell, who has submitted a plan to Government for approval. It is described to be the coating of some of the animals with a "stinking" specific, and then sending them into the wild rabbits' burrows. The latter will then be driven out, netted, killed, and their skin sent to market. The Minister has requested the scheme to be submitted in writing. The Kyneton Observer mentions a case of grossly brutal treatment to a woman by her husband, which is rumored as likely to be brought before the police court of a neighboring town. A husband is alleged to have dragged his wife with & rope around her neck about a quarter of a mile across a paddock with the intention of hanging her on the first tree he came to. Fortunately some neighbors interposed, and prevented the tragedy being carried out. Mrs Hampton the evangelistic preacher is creating great excitement on the Thames. Her service on Sunday evening in the open air was attended by 3,000 persons. All the churches with the exception of the Roman Catholic and Church of England were closed. The speaker has a wonderful command of language, speaking at times for an hour and a half, and never hesitating for a word. Many persona, especially women, at each service call out excitedly, and threw themselves at the feet of the speaker. The woman who, under the name of De Lacy Evans, some time since gained a shortlived notoriety as the " man-woman," attended at Mr Pan ton's chambers, at the Melbourne Police Court, on Feb. 3rd, and applied to that gentleman for relief. The applicant, who presented the appearance of being a hearty, well-conditioned woman of middle-age, stated that she had recently arrived from a neighboring colony, where she had been the victim of a- speculating showman, who has at length left her to her own resources. Being heartily sick of the show life she has recently led, she had managed to obtain a passage back to Melbourne, and, suffering from a physical infirmity, which incapacitates her from severe labor, she desired that she might be admitted to the Benevolent Asylum. Mr Panton gave the woman a letter of introduction to a member of the committee of the ■Benevolent Asylum.