AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1248, 30 October 1875, Page 10

AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

A correspondent of the Bairnedale Courier reports that the Oineo police received iuformation on the 27th ult. ihat a woman named Hollenbach, living at Wombat Creek, had burnt down her house, thereby causing the death of one of her children. The woman is sail to beissine.

About a week ago a cod-fish, weighing 101b, was caught iv the Ovens River, near Wangaratta. and bold to a resident of that township. TheOreustand Mercury Advertiser states that on cutting it open the body of a good -sized kitten, perfectly whole, was found in its pannch. " Scarlet fever is still raging in and around Belfast," atates the correspondent of the Warniambool Standard, writing on October 4th, " and the frequency of deuths arnoiu/dt young children is becoming alarming. There have been no fewer thin six deaths since the beginning of the week." The Oolao Herald states that "shearing has now commenced at moet of the stations in this c istrict. The clip is expected to be extremely heavy. A roost extraordinary increase has taken place borh in the quautity and quality oit tbe sheoD in the district. Within the lnsb four years the sheep have inorcnued to the extent of 100,000."

The Bal'arat Courier mentions that nearly 7000 non-indigen<ou timber trr-es of the most approved Bort» have ln-en planted in Ihe water reserves ai the dibtrkt during the preKert season. These trees wer« selected to suit the difftrtnt qualities of Boil and the hish aud l»w iyinr^ grounds reserved for the Ballarat water supply. "A fatal accident occurred," says the Ballarat Courier, "at the South Clunes mine on Fridaj' morning. As a young man named Thomas Campbell was putbiog a bar or 'trigg" across the the Bhaft for the cage to rest upon a.t the 350 ft level, his foot slipped, and he fell to the next level, a diatanco of 100 ft, and struck mi a piece of timber, which entered bin side, causing almost instantaneous death."

The Belfast oojrreapoudent of the Portland Guardian wye there k a jumoar ftlioai in tht diietritt that tho honourabl?

Mr O'Grady is going to Europe for a trip, and uhab he will not carry his scat in h\x pocket, but resign. It is abo said kir Charles Gavan Duffy is corning out to Victoria, and will woo the electors of Villiers and Heytesbury when Mr O'Grady retires.

The Borough Council, says the M \. Mail, have a dear way of showing their respect for distinguished visitors. On,e (the hon. J. Robertson) recently' visited the town for about ten minutta. and was met by three of the councillors and the town clerk, who invited the gentleman to a slight refreshment in the shape of No. 2. The " little bill" amounted to £5 ss, and on its presentation on Thursday wa3 demurred to by Cr. Finch.

The process of hatching the Euelish perch 'ova recently forwarded from Ballarat to Echuca with the view to acclimaiisp the fish, aud distribute them in the rivers and lagoons iv tbe district, i*, says the Riverine Herald, progressing very satisfactorily. By the aid of the microscope the ova ia found, ia some instances, to have so far progressed that the lit ad, with the eyes anrl mouth of the fish well formed, is quite visible.

"A moat malicious destruction of property was perpetrated on Thursday evening," the Ballarat Star states, " between 7 and S o'clock, by some person or persons unknown, when six windows ia St. Alipius's Roman Catholic Cnuroh were more or less damaged. Eighteen pane? of glass wera smashed, nnd the saslies aUo in several instances destroyed. The police found a piece of paling outside the church, which had the appearance of having oeen used in the dastardly act, l.ut as yefc no further clue has been obtained to the perpetrators."

Mr Adam Rae, who has taken great interest in stocking the like^ and cre-ks in the Oolao district with fi-ih, has received a letter from Dr King, of Ballarat, stitinn thit he was about to forward to Colao 3000 perch ovp. The Cotae Horald mentions that Mr Rao intends to distribute the ova as follows : — 1000 in Adam's Bay, Lake d>lac ; 1000 in B>rongarnok Creek, and 1000 in Diun'd Creek. There is very little risk attached to the conveyance of the ova, and no apparatus is necessary for hatching p'irpises, the ova being simply placed in tho reeds. S'ime time ago a lady arrived in Melbourn 0 , says the correspondent of theHampden Guardian, with an invalid husband, who was on the eve of joining the great majority A pquitfcer well snricken in ypar*. who had at that time a wife who was on the brink of the grave, chanced t-> go on board the ve^el which bore this lady to our shores, and happened to help her out of courtesy with her luggage. Well, the upshot of the matter was that the two fell iv love, and absolutely engaged before their respective spouses died. Die at last they did. and now the twain are to become oue flesh.

"The blessedness that cometh by tbe law" w.v, says tho Maryborough Standard, exemplified at the local <"ounty Court on Saturday, in the caso of Mr W. WatsoD, a publican at Carisbronk, who was summoned for £32 lOs Bil, tho coat of certain legal processes in obtaining a writ of prohibition from the Supreme Court to nullify the deciaion nf the Cariibrook bench The fin<j in fliotfd by the Bench was only £2. The in tha case subsequently rednced hia claim by £7, and did nut press for coBtH, on the recommendation of tbe Judge.

The Avoca Mail reports that x curious incident occurred at the Lamploiigh rush a few days ago. One of the parties had just washed off a machineful of dirt, which yielded 3^ z^., and the gold wai safely deposited in a small box by one of the matps, who then placed it on the table in hid tent. H rving occasion to le^ve »be tent for about a minute, he was surprised on returning to find that t.he box and gold ha-1 disappeared. The missing box was found at last in the dog's kennel anumght a lot <-f old boues. A similar circumstance h+ppened to a lucky miner in the palmy dvva of thß Anrat rush, wh«>n a dog walked off with a roll of bank notes of the valnc of .£l5O, and addtd thpni to a collection of light articles "f cloth'ng which he had purloined from hia master's and the neighbouring tents. The Kytiftan Observer reports that th« sheep a 4:a 4 : an out-stat'on oa Goongarry being found in a acatterol state, search w<ar tna<ie for the sh>ph«-rrl. and his b.viy was found banging by the leg in the fork of a sapling. He had, fi>r some purpose, climhrd the tref, but, losing his hold, had fallen, wth one knee catcbtag in a forked branch. Near the tree lay his watch and clasp-knife, and lie had evidently been endeavonring to cut away the branch in order to ixtricate himself. Failing in this, he had ende ivoure.-i to give support to the othpr leg by tying it to the sap'irg with his shirt. All hia efforts w«re useless, and he must have di*d a lingering and rfreaoful death in his goHtudo. When found, his head was nearly touching the ground, and one band, evidently iv the death agouy, had olutched a tuft of grass. Rather a curious accident is reported by the Maryborough Standard to have occurred at tbe Duke of Edinburgh mine, M '('ahum 'a Creek, on Sunday last, It appear* there is a considerable quantity of sand iv the drive, and as this was likely to get into tho pumps, it was dicided to siak a sand pit. The miners engagtd in the work by s<ine means loosened a set of timber, which suddenly came down, bringing down a quantity of dirt with it. So quickly did this occur that one man was soon covered to the depth of about four feet with tbe drift, from which he was unable t» pxtricato him? elf Death gfiemfd +o ba bis f<ue. The t>haft was 100 feet deep, and tbe drive wht*re the ncciih'tit occurred is in 300 f*et, and with tbe water gr.idua'ly iisin;.< up n him, the man was last losing hope. Ifoitunately, however, young Mr Walker, a son of the owner of the paddock in which tho mine is situated, camo lo the rescue, and finally mi (reeded in having the buried man brought to the surface. Dr Laid man was at once stnfc for, and he stated that beyond being somewhat crushed, no serious injury had been sustained.

"A telegraph operator," according to the fieelong Advertiser, " was sadly taken in a few days ago, and caused a deal of amusement amongst tbe officials in the offlco ia which Le is located. For some time previously ho had been in the habit of passing jokes, &(!,, with a laty operator in adiefcaafc towaphip, mi mm%wg to obtain h?r mm,

the friendship was cemented, although the parties were unkuown to each other. Tis state of things continued for some time, until one day the lady operator was announced to be at the door of the office, wishing to see the operator woo so long had kept up so interesting and intimate an intercourse by wire. When the young fellow — who had always supposed his female friend to be, as his fancy painted her, a youthful charmerviewed her, he was thoroughly ttken aback, as she was quite old enough to be hia mother. Of coarse he made himself thoroughly agreeable with her. and referred to the jokes they had cracked ; bub ifc is needless to add that no more messages passed between the two individuals."

The Maryborough Advertiser reported some days since that a person named Small, mho had a claim against the New Magnum Company for surface damage done to his land by the sludge of the company, had obtained an ex 2>arte injunction of the Supreme Court to restrain the directors from prosecuting work at the mine. The injunction came like a thunderclap on the directors, who had no knowledge of Small's proceedings, and who had made him repeatedly what appears to have been a very fair offer for the damage sustained. Nevertheless the order of the court was of course obeyed ; but on the day following that on which work was stopped the manager and the directors, seeing that the mine would be ruined if the water was allowed to rise in the workm^s, started the pumps, which have been kept going ever since. Affidavits were at once forwarded to Melbourne, setting forth that the order of the Court had beeu disobeyed, and probably the managers and directors will be marched off to gaol. If they get there they cannot be released until nexb November.

It has deen decided that the liistori testimonial shall take the form of a wreath. The City Council have yet to settle the matter of granting R'stori the use of the Town Hill for dramatic entertainment, but the Mayor has si j tt!«d the ma ter himself by le'ting the Hall and obtaining the licence, and he will see thut it is carried out, whatever the consequences may be.