INTERCOLONIAL BREVITIES

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 74, 24 September 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)

INTERCOLONIAL BREVITIES

«. Kalgoorlie mines are rapidly getting down to deep levels. In several crotscutM are being driven at a depth of 500 ft from the surface. There are 5000 women engaged in commercial pursuits in Sydney, 17,000 in factories, and 10,000 connected with the various trades and professions. During a'Btorin on Saturday, the 10th instunt, several houses in the suburbs of Melbourne were struck by lightning, and one was totally wrecked. There are now on the southern poition of the New Chum line, at Bondigo, seven miuoa which have attained a depth of over 3000 ft, and many others approaching that depth. The reports of the Railway Commissioners for Victoria aud South Australia are rather discouraging. In both colonies there is a tale of increased expenditure and of decreased revenue. The Victorian Chief Secretary has decided to grant a sum of mouey to the Melbourne National Gallery sufficient to purchase the oil painting by Mr. J. Longstaff of the recent bush fires in Gippsland. The dispute at the Dudley Colliery, Newcastle, arose out of the men demanding an increased hewing rate aa compensation for the deficient light shown by the safety lamps they are to be compelled to use. The favourable early spring season continues to be propitious throughout Tasmania (cays the Mail). Should there be another good fall of rain before October the dangers of a repetition of last summer's drought will be pretty well over. A new arrival from Melbourne at Perth (W.A.) was recently deprived of £400 by a man who represented himself as an agent of Baron Rothschild, and persuaded his victim to pay over the money to bind some imaginary mining transaction. A -prisoner named Mansell, who is serving a sentence for forgery, attempted to commit suicide in Tamworth Gaol, N.S.W., recently. He succeeded in secreting a small piece of tin, which was sharpened, and he inflicted a wound on his throat. Some rather large probate duties have been paid into the the Victorian Treasury this year. Quite recently a cheque for £24,627 14a 3d was transferred to the Government, as probate duty at the rate of 10 per cent, on the estate of a Melbourne solicitor. The new Agent- General for West Australia (Mr. E. H. Wittenoom), writing to Perth from Yokohama, states that the Japanese Minister for Agriculture and Commerce is rather anxious to get wool direct from Australia instead of buying it in London, as is done at present. Advices received from Norfolk Island state that the whaling so far is not turning out very well. The weather has been, most of the time, since the boats were launched, blustery and bad, and dead against the industry ; added to this, the whaler are shy, and none too plentiful. Operations for floating the Hereward, went aground in Maroubra Bay, Sydney, are still going on. The vessel has been moved 18ft off the dangerous ledge of rock on which she rested, and the overseer considers he can get her off without a tug with a good tide and a southerly breeze. The Melbourne Stock Exchange has been much interested in a recent legal decision of Mr. Justice Hood, of Victoria. He has ruled that a taxpayer has the right to deduct from his gross income for taxation purposes the amount paid for becoming a member of the Stock Exchange where he carries on his business. Some crops sown on the Murray flats near Bowna in the Riveriua district have grown so rapidly during the past six weeks that it is feared if the next month is wet hundreds of acres will be beaten down, and thus lost. In some casea the sheep have been turned into the fields four times in five weeka. At an inquest in Melbourne on the body of an old man, aged 72, a resident of Northcote, the post-mortem examination revealed that the cause of death was acute peritonitis, and that the stomach at the time of death contained no solid food. The widow of the deceased stated that owing to poverty they had been living on slices of dry bread. At a meeting of employes in trades not under the Factories Act held at Melbourne on Ist September, it was stated that marble workers were getting 18s a week, pastrycooks 12s 6d a week, after working 70 and 80 hours ; painters, 2s 6d and 3s a day, bread carters, 12s 6d a week, although some of these were protected trades. At the Clarence rifle range, Hobart (Tasmania), a Sergeant Chisholm was injured recently by a splash from a bullet which entered a screw-hole in a mantlet, behind which he was standing as marker. The hole was barely a quarter of an inch in diameter, but the bullet splash imbedded itself in his tnigh. A bull's-eye was scored off the shot. The New South Wales Minister of Agriculture has decided to give dairy farmers and pastoralists in every part of the colony an opportunity of profiting by the importation of pure-bred stock. A stud farm is to be established near Camden as a central breeding station, and bulls are to be detached from this to travel through fixed parts of the country in rotation. A young man met with a serious accident whilst wallaby- shooting at Jimenbuau, near Coona, N.S.W. It seems that he fired at a wallaby with a rifle and wounded it. The wallaby then rushed towards him, and when he attempted to grasp the marsupial he threw his rifle, which he had reloaded, behind him, with the result that it went off, the bullet passing through him. Narrabri (N.S.W.) reports show that very deplorable accounts are received from Millie district ap to the effect of the drought. All over many paddocks at Millie sheep, shorn and unshorn, are to be seen lying dead or dying. This condition of affairs is not confined to Millie, but extends all along Thalaba Creek and the Moomin , and affects a considerable area along Mehi River. The Queensland Government is pursuing its land settlement policy vigorously. Arrangements are almost completed for throwing open for grazing farms 339,000 acres of resumed land iv the Mitchell district about Longreach. This is to be followed in about six weeks' time by throwing open 635,000 acres in the northwestern districts near Hughenden and Winton, surveys of which are now in progress. The Atacama libel case, in which Messrs . Cowliahaw Brothers, owners of the Atacama, aued the proprietors of the Sydney Bulletin for £2000 damages for alleged libel in connection with the condition of the vessel, had more than three weeks' hearing before the Chief Justice and a jury, and will probably prove one of the most expensive newspaper libel cases N.S.W. has had. The result as cabled was a verdict for the defendants. The New South Wales Government has long been considering the question of establishing an inebriates' institution, and aa a preliminary step to the State undertaking this duty has gazetted a piece of land on Long Island, Hawkesbury River, as a site. Legislation will be necessary to establish the , Home, and ifc is not yet decided whether it shall be under the control of the Prisons Department or the Lunacy Department. A sensational occurrence took place recently at Toowoomba, Queensland. When a French farmer was in the Bank of New South Wales obtaining some money, a man, who is differently described as a Japanese or Chinaman, entered and suddenly threw a handful of lime in his face, at the same time grabbing the money aud rushing for the door. A cabman stopped the culprit, who suddenly drew a long knife, and attempted to stab his captor, but eventually he was secured, and takei 1 to the lockup.