LATER FROM AUSTRALIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 621, 14 December 1863, Page 5

LATER FROM AUSTRALIA.

(prom our own correspondent.) By the Omeo, which arrived last evening, we have. Melbourne papers to the 6th inst. The followiog is the letter of our Melbourne correspondent :— ■ . Melbourne, sth December, 1863. The intelligence of General Cameron's successful attack on the Maoris in their entrenched position at Rangaviri, brought to Sydney by the Himalaya, reached this city by telegram early .yesterday afternoon, and was shortly afterwards published in second editions of the daily papers. The " extraordinarie9" were eagerly purchased and read with avidity, for there is no lack of interest here in everything connected with the contest now going on in your colony between the native and the British race. The pai-ticulars of the important engagement which had been fought at Raneariri -were received with mingled feelings of satisfaction and regret-satisfaction on account of the signal defeat which had been inflicted upon the enemy, and regret for the loss in killed and. wounded experienced by the British forces. The attack on the Maori position appears to have been well planned, and the bravery of the troops in carrying it out seems to have been beyond all praise. It is to be hoped that the lesson which has thus Yen taught the Maories by General Cameron at the early stage of the campaign, will not be lost upon them, and that they may, before long, become impressed with a feei- ■ ing of the hopelessness of continuing the struggle for supremacy which they have entered into with the British race. Since the departure of the Hero there have been but few-occurrences of interest here, and those few are chiefly of a purely local character. The great pension case came on tor argument before the Judges sitting in banco on Thursday, Mr Fellow appearing in support of the claimant Mr R. D. Ireland and Mr Michie in support- of the seire facias by which the Crown demurred to the payment of the pensions. Our Constitution Act provides that the pensions not exceeding in the aggregate, the sum of four thousand pounds per annum, may be paid under certain regulations to be .. made by the Governor of the calony for the time being, to retiring responsible ministers of the Crown, whose income from other sources is not adequate to their support m accordance with their social status and position; and further that in the framing of such regulations the imperial Act of Parliament, the

4ih and sth of William the 4th, chapter gith, should be followed "as near as may be.'' Now, ib was contended by Mr Michie that iiie first section of the above-named English Act, which ■ fixes the amount of pensions for retiring members of the Crown iv England at two thousand pounds per annum—the salaries attached to the offices ot such, ministers being five thousand pounds, ought to have been strictly followed in _the appointment of the pensions under the Victorian Act 1 The regulations made here, however, bestow pensions of L'ooo per annum each on of the successful claimants for them, that sum being with the single excepiion of the office of Chief Secretary—on tbo rates of more than half of the salaries attached to the various offices, while the majority cf the English pensions granted under similar circumstances, amount only to two-fifths of the resjiective salaries. Mr i'eljows, on the other hand, argued that the English Act prescribed no fixed proportion between the pensions an'l the salaries, and referred to oth=r sections of the English Act in proof of his assertion. The Court, after listening carefuily to the arguments ' 011 both sides, took time to consider its judgment. Another case which has come' before the Supreme Court within the last few days i 9 that of the Queen versus Branch and Goddardj the two men tried at the last Melbourne Criminal Sessions for a rape on the person of Mary Fraser, the details of which affair, so far as they can be published with decer cy, I have alluded to in an earlier communication. The jury, on the trial ot these men, brought in a cWur.sy kind of yerdiot as to the prisoner Branch, whom they found guilty of being an accessory to .an attempt to commit the offence with which he charged, jointly with Groddard in the information filed by the Crown. The prisoner's counsel, Mr Aspinall, raised a legal point os to the validity of the verdict, but the Uourt, after hearing his arguments, as well as those of Mr Adauison, the Crown Prosecutor, overruled the objection, and confirmed tbe conviction. • A most disgraceful and revolting case of cruelty to animals, has jusb been brought before the 'Police Court here, the- offender being a man named 'Huns, a-servant in the employ of Mr Rudall, Surgeon, raiding in Collins street*-. For some time back Mr Rudali.'d neighbors had been frequently disturbed and annoyed by the loud cries of dogs kept by him, and for flogging which animals both master and man seemed to have had a mania. At last tlie-matter was taken up by a Mr Beneraft,' residing in the neighborhood, who, from a window overlooking Hudall's yard, saw Hiiies id the act of beating a pointer dog in the most brutal and cruel manner with a heavy riding whip.' The fellow was kneeling on the poor 'animal's neck and ■ belaboring its body with all hisj might with the heavy doubled thoag of the whip, and continued this treatment until the poor animal hal lost the power even of howlino- and crawled away more dead than alive. While the beating was proceeding, Mr Bencraft called eu't to the man to desist and threatened to take out a summons against him, to which the brute merely answered " summons away," and went on with his cruel employment. When called upon in the Court to reply to the charge of wanton cruelty brought against him, he said that he had flogged the dog by"his-master's orders ".for going out into the street." (!) The Bench, inflicted a fine of 46s and 23s 61 costs, and told . the fellow they were sorry they could not order chastisement to be inflicted on him of a similar character to that which he had inflicted on the