AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2011, 15 October 1869, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Are the days of “ big nuggets ” about to return ? It is said that the Leviathan Gold Minin? Company, near Ballarat, have unearthed a nugget weighing 41b 9oz. The son of Mr Tregou ning, of the Black Bull Hotel, Creswick, while on his way to school on the morning of 23rd September, picked up in the middle of the road near the Wesleyan school a nugget weighing rather more than 4oz lldwt, and which was sold for LlB 6s. A telegram from Sandhurst contains the information that a 30oz nugget was found on 23rd ult at the head of the Sheepwash Creek by a “hatter.” At the Berlin goldfields a 10 'oz nugget has been found ; and at Oporsum Gully a miner had the good fortune to c,ime across a 221b piece. Mr Julius Matthews, a Melbourne citizen of some substance, has according to the English papers, fallen into a curious difficulty. Mr Matthews, who is a Jew, was many years ago divorced from his first wife by a rabbi in accordance with Hebrew customs. He was subsequently married again in this city, where his second wife and family are living. Paying a flying visit to the old land, Mr Matthews was claimed in a somewhat rough fashion by his “first venture,” and as a ready means of disposing of her prefersions be handed her over to the police. The lady, however, will not be satisfied, hut pleads her rights as the veritable Mrs Matthews. The result is that the Knglisli courts will have to de ide whether a Judaic divorce is of any validity according to English law. We believe that there are ma-iy English Jews in the same position as Mr M atthews, and the upshot of his adventure will be watched with some interest. The case will probably turn on the nature of the original marriage. If that is found to have been a legally-binding one, there is little chance of the divorce being regarded as affecting it. As the marriage law now stands here and in England, no form of div. rce would be held good save such as was promulgated in the recognised courts. Should this fact not have been recognised by the Jewish portion of the community, they will do well to bear it in mind in future if they would avoid uup'casant complications of a bigamous character. A correspondent of the Argus in London writes:—“ Spiers and Pond’s affair at the Wimbledon Itifle Meeting was very grand, something gigantic in fact, and a wonder and a marvel of steam cookery, in which steam has more surprises thau you think of. It was a great treat, quite a picture, to see Pond parading Mr Disraeli over the buildings and through the steam-cookery works, and explaining to the -wondrous author of Alray and Comngshj how legs of mutton were cooked in two minutes, and potstoes in half of one, and how, by another wonderful invention, a sackful of peas were shaken out of their shells in an instant. I don't think that Pond has felt so much dignity of position sinc^he marshalled the first All England Eleven on the Melbourne cricket-ground.” The successful local manufacture of patent fuse, applicable to a variety of purposes, bat principally blasting in mines and quarries, seems at last to have been accomplished. Three years ago a Melbourne company started a fuse factory, and their enterprise failed from several causes, but the experience so gained has le I to the invention of a new fuse, alleged to possess qualities superior to any imported, less in price, and manufactured by new machinery, also wholly of colonial origin. The nsw (Inn, Edwin Gill and Co., have e-tablished themselves on the Yarra bank, and it must be owned that one rarely sees a manufactory so compact and serviceable. A variety of experiments with the now fuse have been tried before various scientific gentlemen, who each and all have been constrained to admit the surpassing merit of the article produced,

Mr Amess, the well known contractor, is to be the next; Mayor of Melbourne. The following report by the Tasmanian Salmon Commissioners in regard to the trout, is interesting In the Plenty there arc now four generations of the trout, and they must henceforth go on increasing at a ratio which is beyond calculation. During the months of June and July last, at every suitab'e spot for a distance of several miles along the course of the stream, several, often many pairs of fish, of all sizes, were to be seen at all hours of the day busily engaged in forming the’T nests and depositing tlmir spawn. Some of the fish have attained to a largo size. One captured in 1567 was accurately measured, and weighed be'ore being returned to the water, and was found to be 9}lbs in weicht, and 26J inches in length. Others approaching to the same dimensions have beci cauuht and returned to the stream. The fish have been established in the following streams in the Col ny :—South Esk. North Esk, St. Patrick’s North-west Bay River, Ouse, Clyde, Lachlan Rivulet, Dry Cheek, Dee River, Bagdad Rivulet, Sorell Rivulet, Jones River, Brown’s Fiver, Creek. From these it is anticipated that a rich finny harvest is in store.