AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 904, 27 March 1869, Page 16

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

A good specimen of Australian mutton was exhibited in Bourke street yesterday. The carcase weighed 1561b, and was that of a sheep bred by Mr W, Hoffman, at Essendon.

The arrival of H.M. steam transport Himalaya at Brisbane, from Wellington, N.Z, on the 9fch instant, is reported by telegram. The Himalaya has thus made a good run from this port to New Zealand, and back to Queensland.

We understand that detachments of the 14th Regiment are likely to be sent from Melbourne to Brisbane and Adelaide, to replace the detachments of the 50th Regiment at present stationed in those cities. The 50th, it will be remembered, are under orders for home, and will be conveyed to England in H.M.s troop-ship Himalaya.

It is stated that the London firm of John M'Call and Co. have tendered one million pounds of preserved meat to the English Government at 6d per Ib, and have ordered at once 35,000 tons of Victorian meat.

We learn with pleasure that the Fine Arts Exhibition, proposed to be held by the trustees of the Melbourne Public Library, in the Exhibition Buildings, receives a satisfactory amount of appreciation. Already numerous contributions have been forwarded, and from all accounts the hail will be well filled with art treasures, the preparations for the proper reception and exhibition of which are being proceeded with rapidly.

The Japan, the first Victorian whaler, sailed from the Heads on Sunday morning, for a two years' cruise on the "Middle ground," or northern shores of New Zealand. Messrs Osborn and dishing, the owners, deserve great credit for their enterpiise, for they have had mans 7 difficulties to contend with, and have had to pay much more for thfi outfit than will have to be paid in future. The ship is manned by thirtyfour men and two apprentices ; the master has had thirteen years' experience, and, should he not be successful on the Middle ground, he has full discretion to try any other, We shall anxiously look for news of the Janan some months hence.

Apropos of the use or abuse of gun-cotton, a correspondent of the Bendigo Advertiser asks if nothing can be done to stop the " fearful havoc" that explosive compound is making amongst our miners. He says :— " Ifc is all very well to say 'go by the printed instructions,' for what do the printed instructions say — ' As with powder, never drill out a shot.' Now, the idea of drilling out shots has been exploded years ago ; miners do not do such things now, but they prick them out, which the printed instructions say nothing about. Gun cotton has not been much more than five months in work in this district, and look at the little army of cripples it has made in that time— iive who have lost an arm each, besides other injuries 5 and one, if not more, who is nearly blind, which is more damage than powder has done in seven years."

The Ararat Advertiser says : — Those who are not inthehabitof travellinginthe coantry can scarcely realise the frightful mortality amongst sheep. There is literally no grass. The whole country is as bare and devoid of herbage as a beaten road, and in those large paddocks into which many aquatters' stations are divided, the dust swirls about with the wind much as it does on some highway It i 3 not an uncommon thing to calculate upon 4(10 to 600 sheep being dead in one paddock alone, the air being tainted for miles with the decomposing carcase 3. At the Wimmera, we believe, the squatters were all in a good position in reference to the boilingdown establishments, and were able to thin their flocks profitably and quickly. It appears that the sheep generally huddle together, in numbers of about six or eight, and die off thus grouped.

It is with no little surprise the public have learned of the course raken by the Rev. Mr Handfield, when on Sunday evening the rumour reached him of a second attempt having been made on the life of Prince Alfred. That such, & rumour was calculated to create

intense excitement must be obvious to the most ordinary Uuderatand'ng, tut perhaps those who were most deeply shocked soon saw the necessity of ascertaining Ihe character of the statement before aiding in its circulation. The Rev. Mr Handfield, however, instead of deliberating, on the authority of " a few gentlemen who had assembled in the vestry-room previous to divine service," thought proper to proclaim the rumour to his congregation, and that in a manner so circumstantial that " a suitable supplication was offered up." We believe Mr Handfield's motives to have been of the very purest ; but we should like to know upon what authority the "few gentlemen asaembled in the vestry-room" gave so circumstantial an account of the donble rumour — one describing the Prince as shot dead, the other that he had been shot in the shoulder while on horseback.

His Royal Highness Prince Alfred, on the occasion of his last visit to Sydney, permitted the publication of a waltz composed by himself, an unpretentious morceau, but exceedingly melodious. The return to Sydney of the Duke is made the subject of another composition of the same kind, also by His Royal Highness, entitled "The Return of the Galatea." This has been published, with the permission of the Royal captain, by Mr J. H. Anderson, of George street. That our Eoyal visitor delights in the " divine art " is beyond question, says the Sydney Morning Herald, and without descending to obsequiousness, we may regard it as an honour to the colony that he has given to the public the result of a few quiet hours of musical study. The ' Return Waltz ' is simple in construction, melody rather than brilliance being the object sought. The introduction is from a well-known air. The waltz, divided into three parts, with a finale, is soft, in the style known by musicians as cantabile, easy of performance, and wellmarked time for dancing. The title-page contains an admirable photograph of the Galatea, and it is elegantly printed.

A disgusting story is told by the Hobart Town Mercury in connection with the treatment of the body of William Lanny, the last of the natives of Tasmania. It appears that a rumour had got abroad that an attempt to steal the body was to be made, and Sir Richard Dry and others made every exertion to save the remains of the poor aboriginal from desecration. It appears, however, that a surgeon obtained an opportunity and removed the skull, substituting for it, under the original scalp, that of a patient who had died on the same day in the hospital. It seems that the members of the Royal Society then determined — for no intelligible reason, so far as we can see — to remove the hands and feet of the corpse. This was done, and afterwards, it appears, the mutilated body itself was stolen by, it iB supposed, the person who had removed the skull. The first and last of these barbarities are said to have been perpetrated in the name of science — that the skeleton of a male of the aboriginals of Tasmania should be obtained for private use ; while the members of the Royal Society desired to secure the skeleton to place it beside one of a female aboriginal in the Hobart Town Museum. The whole story is disgusting. It is stated that Dr. Crowther, one of the honorary surgeons of the hospital, and his son (a student) were the offenders. Dr. Crowfcher has been suspended, and proceedings will be talien p gainst him.

Another case of smallpox wa3 discovered on Friday, the patient this time being Mr Glover, a member of the firm of Messrs M'Cullooh, Campbell, and Co., of Bourke street west. Mr Glover resided with Mr Francis, 0. 8. , at the highest part of Domain road, which is considered one of the most healthy and respectable neighbourhoods around Melbourne. The patient f6lt really ill first about Wednesday last, when he was feverish, and the rush broke out upon him on Friday morning, when Dr Thomson, who had been in attendance, immediately pronounced the disease to be smallpox of a most decided form, the characteristics being altogether those which invariably accompany the disease . Four other medical gentlemen whey were called ia on Friday declined then to form an opinion, but on the next morning they all agreed in Dr Thomson's diagnosis of the previous day. The case is a very bad one, the patient being quite delirious on Friday afternoon and Saturday. Mr Francis's family were at once removed to Snapper Point, and the furniture of every room except that where the patient lay was put into" the yard. The only person in the house besides the patient is Mrs Francis's governess, who has had the smallpox, and offered to nurse Mr Glover, after two professional nurses who had been sent for declined, when they heard the nature of the disease, to atop. The patient has not been removed to the Eoyal PArk, but the house has been well fumigated, and a strict watch will be kept to prevent persons from going too near. The account Mr Glover gave to Dr Thomson for the feverish state in which he was last Wednesday and Thursday was that he had taken cold after leaving the fancy dress ball, and Dr Thomson prescribed for him, bnt was surprised to find the feverish symptoms increased, instead of, as expected, decreased. The disease is now, however, known to have been contracted at Greensborough, where Mr Glover had been. It cannot, therefore, be attributed to the "atmospheric and telluric" theory. Three cases of smallpox being made publio in two days shows that the contagion is rapidly gaining ground in the colony.

The Berlin Corporation of Merchants have been informed by M. de Lessens that the Suez Can.»l wttj be fonjghed Ootobey 1, 1869.