INTERCOLONIAL.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 458, 14 July 1898, Page 4

INTERCOLONIAL.

Sydney, July 12. Eastern news states that the rebellion has spread to the Kw.m Tung and Kwaay-Si of provinces. The rebels have taken the town of Chow-chow-fu, near Swatow, kiUed the district magistrate and his wife, and burned the yamen. The Hongkong ' Telegraph ' states that discontent is evident in various parts of the empire, though it may be too much to say that a huge revolution is under way ; but it is certain that there is great restlessness throughout South China. Mr Barton has issued a manifesto in which ho ftates tbat he has decided to contest the King Division against the Premier, and pledges himself to strenuously oppose any alteration in the colony's policy till federation is secured. He will suggest a conference of Premiers to consider eliminating the "Braddon blot " and the substitution of a bare majority for three-fifths, and that the capital be in New South ' Wales. The financial clauses of the constitution must stand till something better can be devised. He advocated after federation the cutting down of the local Parliament from 125 members to 04, with an efficient form of local government. BmsriANE, July 11. A demented swagnian, armed with a gun and knife, stuck up Claverton station. MiLeeds, the manager of the station, shot him dead in self-defence. Hobart, July 12. The Criterion Hotel at Gomianston was destroyed- by fire. Six of tho lodgers — Messrs •Davie, Mobe, Johnson, aud Henry Powell, and two Assyrian hawkers — who were sleeping upstairs, were burnt to death. Powell was a New Zealand miner. Lynch, the proprietor of the hotel, with his wife and children, escaped by the balcony in their night clothes. A number of the lodgers jumped from the balcony, a distance of 10ft., several boing injured slightly. Mr Johnston, one of tho victims of the Gormanston fire, was previously in business in New Zealand where he left 24 years ago. He was one of tho pioneer prospectors of the Mount Lyell mines.