AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 919, 10 July 1869, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Soundings Have been , taken of the Blue Lake, which occupies the 'centre of an extinct volcano at Mount Gambier; and the greatest depth was found to be 672 ft. In the shallowest, part the plummet, touched thn bottom at 180ffc. . , , < As an evidenoe of what can fee; done ;by sheep farmers,, even when .ordinary stock, w selling (so, cheap,, the Argus mentions that Messrs Power, Rujkherford, and Co; woently sold for Mr , Alexander 0rr t , ( of { Paradise Farm, .near the Deck Ponds, 103 cross-bred Leicester sheep at from 80s to 4Qij>aah, averaging 33a 6d; seventy lambs, same breed, at from 20s to' 255, averaging 225. These were kepis upon English grasses % during the late drought,' conclusively proving that sheep of this description,' wh«n well cared for, are very remunerative to f armors. According to the Colac correspondent of the Geeloag Register, a meeting of gentlemen was lately held at Colao to inaugurate a sooiety which will, for wantof a better name, bo known as the. "Anti-Shouting. Society. 1 ' The gentlemen present bound* themselves by promise not to give or take drinks in the way of shouting, under a penalty of a fine of LI, to bo paid to some good or charitable institution . The meeting elected a president, vice-president, and secretary, ana contemplate ere long calling a public meeting to promulgate their principles. We understand, says the Mercury, that some Hobart Town tradesmen would not regret another visit from H.M.S.S. Galatea, as certain of the officers were extremely liberal | with their patronage on the occasion of her last visit, but have been particularly forgetful of the little accounts, left behind them. We have heard of several instances in which reminders have been forwarded to meet the vessel at the station she has visited, but the time of the officers is. doubtless, too much occupied to enable them to Bend a reply. Verily, the Galatea seems to have earned an unenviable distinction everywhere.

There is now some capital salmon trout fishing to be got at Greenwich, on the Lower Yarra. The fish are of larger size than usual, and a few remarkably fine ones have been obtained, some of which' have turned the ooale at 6lb, and even 71b. The average weight, however, teems to be about lilh, Three gentlemen the other day oaught, in a Bhort time, 601b weight of these fish, ana on another occasion they were almost equally successful. The salmon trout, it may be observed, is pretty fare for the tab'e, and pives the angler plenty of sport. Mallet of a large size are also in abundance just now in this portion of the river, and a few bream under a pound weight have also been taken lately. It is stated that some fine bream have been obtained above Solomon's Ford, but the report wants confirmation.

Apathetic story comes to us in the oolumns of the Ararat Advertiser. A. child two nod a half yearn old was severely burnt through attempting to tako tea from a kettle left on the fire to boiL She was attended to as well as the rough surgery of neighbours would admit, and then sent on to the Ararat hospital. Bat when she arrived there, ad* mission as an indoor patient was refused her, by virtue of » rule excluding all chUdroa under the age of five yean, and so her friends were obliged to cart her back again to her own home, where she died nextmor* ning. The condition of the poor little sufferer is described as that of a person roasted from foot to waist, and when the kindly neighbour who extinguished the clothing withdrew the woollen apron he had used for the purpose, the skin oam© with it As some attention has been given in Collins street during the last few days to the foot that diamonds have been found in some quantity in New South Wales by a prospecting party sent out from Melbourne, and to the prospectus of » now company in coarse of formation to work the mine, wo may state that sinoe the receipt of the diamonds (and other precious stones) now oa view at the shop of Mr Oriip, jeweller, Queen street, information has been reoeived of the finding of a diamond, of nearly rix oarats. This is by far the largest diamond •* yet found io. Australia. The mine tt situate on tho Cadgogong River, about 25 miles from Mudgee, This diamond, it appear*, was not foua* ia the graveldrtft of the river, but m the •oil of the banks, which is said to oonsirt of genvsaud, or tho true natural btdoarth or the diamond. . „ ._. . . The first part of th» statittios of Viotoria for the year 1868 has just made its appearaaoo. It rivos the population on the Slst of DeoembevljHtM 684,816, bsingan inorsaso of 24,429 only during the year, while tho j»t gain by immigration was no mow than ?,253. Itta^stimatodthattheroarsS7UßJ persons on tho goM-fioMs, of whom H668 are rnusn, being little more than ono half the number «ngaged in this oooupatUm in 1889. Tho estimated population oT tha ©orporat. towns '■*$ boroughs «« W^J**? 1 too DOns aid to*d dStrioto, 806,989. U

t perjfr;is}'«i^ . mSn aterlirig, -while that .of the shires "and. roftd'distriot* may Tjo roughly calouktea- at It .quarter; : dl >^million. >, ( 'iTheroir>«W! 73,476 dwellings within, the limits of the. first, and *62,4l2lviltiui' those pfWsecpnd, > " \;, ']*&& *W that Western'-Anst'ralii.was/so , ■Httle known wKen ' Mr ; Bedford ' wrote the Miseries of .Human Life.' Wh«t materials for a, telling chapter he might hay« found , in the .following account_by a^oettlgr of annual "plague of "flies " :— " The approach . of rammer is heralded to v* by thi^ increase in the insect tribe. Fortunately tho speoies do not appear at the same time,, otherwise madness or death would be the resnljb to, the poor 'victims. In the winter a large speoies of fly ebbies into' existence, and a most unsightly animal, but not personally hurtful; then, as summer approaches, these make way for sandflies, armed with a weapon, considerably larger than a ' needle, capable of producing most intense p&in; and wine flies; which find their' Way everywhere and into every thing, i eyes, nose, mouth. All sorts . of eatables form, an attraction too great for them to reaißt. These in turn die out, and , are snooeeibted by tha dreaded mosquito, concerning Whose f^rooions instincts we need not' here dilate. . These are accompanied by a perfeot plague of the common, house-fly, whose unre- > mitting attehtionu nearly succeed in adding ' the last straw to. the burden, and killing you outright. The summer also brings enormous hornets and 1 wasps of a most peculiar form and fearful stint; ; and last, but not least, ants, who are distressingly aotive and persevering when there is anything in the shape of feed. Only one wood exists that will defy their teeth, that is mahogany. Of all other woods they take a pleasure in eating out the interior, so that some morning your building falls to the ground." The Maryborough Advertiser is of opinion that we might construct the railways We require by the judicious husbandry of the public estate. The squatters, it observes, occupy 27,000,000, ao es, or more than half the entire area of the colony, and for this vast domain they pay the insignificant rental of L 174.33 1; whereas, at Mr Service told the House, when he was a member of it — and it will bo remembered that, having been Minister of Land* and Survey, he was entitled to speak with authority on the subjeot —if the Crown wanted to get the highest possible rentals for the runs, they could obtain a million of money. Let the people of this colony weigh well the words of that gent'eman. If the pastoral lands of Viotoria were turned to proper account, instead of being handed over to the squatters for another ten yean at a merely nominal rent they would yield a rental— over and above what they now return— capable of defraying the interest at five per cent, upon a railway loan of L 16.520.000, for which amount we conld construct, 1,652 miles of additional railway, even at what is now considered to be the extravagant estimate of Ll 0,000 per mile. Let all classes of the community in this and every other district destitute of railways ponder well the»e incontrovertible faotsT. When we ask for railwayoommunication wo are told the country o*nnot afford it ; and yet the same men who tell us this, propose to hand over to the squatters for another ten years the occupation of a magnificent estate, whioh, if properly managed, might be made to provide the interest on a loan sufficiently large to enable us to ►ring every large town, every important agricultural diitriot, and every centre of mining population, into direct connection with the metropolis. Somewhat to the amusement of hon members, who seemed rather inolined to enconrage the affair than otherwise, a somewhat brisk passage of arms took place in the Legislative Assembly yesterday, between the hon member for Wett Bourke, Mr M. L. King, and the hon member, for Miryborough, Mr M'Kean. On the House going into oomtnitte« on the Bcab Bill, Mr, Macpherson sag. getted that it would be more advisable to prooeed with either the Insolvency or Mnnioipal Bills. He had previously endeavoured to attract the Speaker's attention, bat bad failed. On tha* oooadon Mr. King several times oalle4 out ••chair," and the hon member for Dundas, feeling annoyed thereat, said ho wished the Government would keep their supporter, in order. Mr King rose to exnlain that ho did not intend to interrupt the hon. member ; ho had merely endeavoured to dirtot tho Speaker's notice towards him. Whilst making this explanation ho was several times interrupted by Mr M'Kean. upon whom he at once fastened, and termodhim *• the long member for Maryborough," who addressed the Hoose as an 41 advertising lawyer," Mr M'Kean objected to being described as an "advertising lawyer," although he had no objeotion to beta oalled M a long man, or any other man. Ho miahkd«snribe tho hon, member for West Bourke uu " adverting play actor." •• Tho mountain in lAbow hath brought forth a mouse," retorted Mr Ktt|(. "Iflwas an actor, I was a legltimato <«•, and not a mountebank, like the hon, member for Maryborongh." This again Moused tho in of tho Mtftan, who gsirs Mr King permission to stand on nis head for ft poany as lotgas he liked, but warned him not to allude to his (Mr M'Ke*n'«) professional character. Mr King J *g»^ v > Wjf *"■ fMtj, sad the little affair had tho most promtainfc aspsot, when it •uddenly dawned on the Chairman of Committees that to* altercation had not much to do with tho 8o»t> BUI, howem grtatjy hon. mombsn might be amowd, andthososne wm abrupt tSMßin****.