INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 119, 15 November 1902, Page 4 (Supplement)

INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

The mental condition and general illhealth of Mr. Justice Moorhead, of the West Australian Bench, are stated to be such as to make it impossible that he will take his seat on the Bench again. Mr. W. H. Gors, of New Guinea, bays : — "What is wanted badly in New Guinea is encouragement of settlement by young fellows with £1000 or £2000." The population of West Australia is estimated at 214,215, which is an increase of 21,054 over the same period last year. The Rev. F. Colwell, irom the Wesley Church pulpit, Sydney, described Melbourne Cup day as a "great day of bookmakers, professional gamblers, blacklegs, rogues, sharpers, and swindlers." The water in the Prospect reservoir, Sydney, had last week risen almost high enough for pumping operations to be discontinued, and the city supplied by gravitation. Sir John Forrest will start the Coolgardie water scheme on 26th January, turning a tap whereby a "river of water is to flow into the desert." The President of the Sydney Board of Health says he has been, aware all along that plague has existed in San Francisco for two years. Precautionary measures were always observed. The output of the Broken Hill Proprietary (N.S.W.) Mine for the past four weeks was exceedingly heavy, and constitutes a record for the company. The demand for wheat for Australia, in San Francisco, has rised the price above the English levels, and stopped shipments in that direction. In Going a tvoman for drunkenness at Lithgow (N.S.W.) last week, the Magistrate called on the. police to find out the publicans who served old-age pensioners and bring them before the Court. A team of camels arrived at Milparinka (N.S.W.) recently from South Australia. One of the animals attacked its driver, crushing his arm to pulp. Judging from the high temperature already recorded, Mr. Russell, the New South Wales. Government Astronomer, is inclined to think that the heat this summer will be severe. While crossing the railway line at Hartwell (Victoria), during a Methodist Sun-day-school picnic last week, a servant girl was run over by a train. Both her legs were severed. Another batch "of settlers under the British colonising scheme left Australia last week by the steam,er Titus for the New Hebrides. The steamer also carried the wives and families of settlers already there. Everything points to the settlement at Santo being a successful one. If the present hob weather continues in New South Wales, "the White Cliffs water supply will be likely to fail. At Brisbane last week John Richard Campbell was found guilty of perjury in his recent action against the Railway Commissioner for £10,000 damages. When sentenced to seven years' hard laoriur Campbell was still lying on a strptcher in the Court. Mr. Bent, Minister of Railways, in the Victorian Assembly, said that some of the engine-drivers swore that a quantity of Victoria, coal used' last year was simply "muck and blue metal." Ping pong has been denounced by the Rev. Mr. Morrison, at Tilba Tilba ■(N.S.W.) as "a senseless amusement." The West Australian gold yield for October was 194,3870z. The yield is the greatest on record, with the exception of one month in the year 1900, when the returns of phenomenally rich telluride ore from Lake View Consols were brought in. At the celebrations in connection with the anniversary of the New South 'Wales Protestant Church of England Union the other day, the Rev. C. C. Dunstan declared: — "We must fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil, and I might characterise ritualism as the world." It seemed, he added, that the Church was going over to the world, and to resist the tendency in that direction aggressiveness on the part of the Protestant Union was necessary. The West Australian Treasurer states that some mining companies, in order to show nominal profits, and so escape duty, make the working expenses appear high. A movement is on foot in western New South Wales to make a united appeal to the State .Government for help, owing to the effects of the drought. A burglar who attempted to "crack" the residence of Herbert Vivian, at Hawthorn (Vie.) the other day, met with an unexpected reception. He entered a room where two ladies were sleeping, and before he knew where he was they had jumped out of bed, grabbed him by both arms, and commenced to drag him toward the door, screaming loudly the while. The man eventually got away from them, but was shortly after recaptured by their brother. At the meeting in Sydney to protest against the execution of Selina Sangal, convicted of the murder of her husband, and whose hanging has been deferred as she is about to become a mother, Dr. M'Carthy said that he was horrified atthe nature of the crime, but owing to the physical condition of the woman, he was compelled to entertain the opinion that the crime was that of an insane person. He believed that Selina Sangal suffered from what was technically known as nymphomania, and quoted Dr. Taylor, who, he said, was one of the greatest authorities on medical jurisprudence, to show that women in a certain condition had been known to commit crimes for which they could not be held responsible owing to the state of their minds. Mr. J. M. Sinclair, agent for the Victorian Agricultural Department in London, states that a clause has been inserted in the army supply contracts for meat, to the effect that the 'frozen mutton required mui,t be obtained from British possessions. This, he says, indicates that Australia and New Zealand will become the sources of supply, and that the Argentine will be totally excluded. The clause was to come into operation on Ist November, but, owing to the drought and consequent shortage of supplies and the high prices ruling, Mr. Sinclair thinks it is doubtful whether this preferential enactment will take effect at present Federated Australia is gradually attracting to itself trade from all the groups of British islands in the Pacific. Recently the Commonwealth completed a new mail contract which provided that the mail steamers should call at the Gilbert and Ellice Islands at stated intervals. The immediate result (says the Argus) has been to divert trade to Australia which would probably have gone to the Marshall Islands, and thence to Germany. Mr. W. Telfer Campbell, British Resident in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, who is at present in Melbourne, called upon Mr. Atlee Hunt, Secretary for Ex tei-nal Affairs yesterday, and it is likely that commercial relations between this group and the union will be even closer in the future. All the Federal and State public departments, like the general public, have now to pay postage on their correspondence, but (says a contemporary) with a differencei When the public forget to put stamps on letters "they have to pay the price of the stamps, and they are surcharged as much more as a fine for carelessness. If the officers of any of the departments make similar mistakes only the postage due is charged. Curiously enough most of the unstamped official envelopes posted since Saturday have emanated from the central postal administration, which has been as keen as Shylock in exacting payment for its ser-