ABSTRACT OF COLONIAL NEWS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 309, 5 February 1848, Page 194

ABSTRACT OF COLONIAL NEWS.

The Melbourne papers state that Lord Grey had retracted his consent to the £100,000 loan for emigration to Port Philip. — A company for the purchase of a small iron steamer is being formed at Perth, with a capital of £5,000.— Mr. N. Black, of Port Phillip, purchased 2,000 head of cattle from Mr. Ryrie, at £1 10s. per head. — In Western Australia they have to> pay the following sums for licenses to keep dogs : Dogs in towns — male, 7s. 6d. ; female, 10s. Dogs in country — mole, 55. ; female, 7s. 6d. Sheep dogs in country — male; 2s. 6d. ; female, 5s. — The two men, says the South Australian, who discovered the silver lead ore at Parringa, and got it on tribute, have in four months raised sixty tons. It is calculated that they will make at least £1,000 by their speculation. — A young man named Vaughan, residing near Hobart Town, fired a gun as a joke, at the rear of his father's house, for the purpose of making him think that the house was attacked, when the father rushed out, and without recognising his son, shot him dead ; the coroner's jury returned a verdict of justifiable homicide. — The British colonies throughout the world occupy an area of 2,119,708 square miles, with a total population of 107,708,323. Their exports and imports amount to £55,533,500 sterling, and they possess 7,514,585 tons of shipping. — The South Australian Register says, "For the information of those gentlemen who have recently petitioned the Council for a smelting patent, and the satisfaction of the colonists generally, we may state that the process of smelting by electricity has been patented in England ; that the patentee'sname is Napier, of Hoxton, who may be shortly expected in the colony ; and that other parties in England have obtained patents for reducing ores by the same means, although under somewhat different circumstances. We may say, in fine, that the discovery is a most valid and important one, and is esteemed of so much importance in England as to be deemed more than equivalent to a discovery of coal in this province. — Eighty-three drays laden with copper ore arrived at Port Adelaide in one day. — Mr. Charles Smith, farmer, of Morphett Vale, South Australia, clipped one of the fattest ewes, a few days ago, that was ever shorn in the colony. The clip weighed ten pounds and a-half.