AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Colonist, Volume XV, Issue 1502, 16 February 1872, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Choeeba.—lt is reported that two cases of Asiatic holera have occurred at G-eelong, in "Victoria. An eighth ishare in Krohman's claim at Tarnbaroora (New South Wales), has been sold for £7500. Severe Bereavements. —Mr. Worland, of Dean, Victoria, had eight of his family died of diphtheria, a few weeks since. A Kanaka employed by Messrs. Mackenzie, on the Lower Herbert, (Queensland), has been attacked and killed by a large alligator, whilst bathing in a creek. At the Intercolonial Wine Show to be held shortly at Adelaide, there are two entries of spirits, and five of ale and porter from New Zealand. The ship Sussex, one of Messrs. Money, Wigram and Co.'s Blackball line of ships, of 1000 tons burden, commanded by Captain Collard, well-known in the Melbourne trade, went ashore off the Barwon Heads, at 11.30 p.m. on the 31st December. The captain mistook the flash light of the pilot boat for the Schanck light. She became a total wreck, and within a few minutes of the vessel striking the water was within two feet of the main deck. The captain succeeded in saving his papers, the crew their kits, and the passengers such luggage as they could put their hands upon. She had 47 passengers and a crew of 47 men, together with a cargo valued at £30,000, by which one Insurance Company losses £5000. The third mate and six of the crew volunteered to proceed to Queenscliff for assistance, but their boat boat was capsized on the way, and all hands but one were drowned, the survivor being two and a-half hours in the water before he reached the shore. The wreck was sold as it stood for £6800. The official enquiry into the cause of the wreck lasted four days, and resulted in the captain having his certificate suspended for a period of six calendar months. The Value of a Colonial Mint to Gold Miners. —Mr. Duffy, the Premier of Victoria, has' publicly stated that the Melbourne mint will be able to purchase gold at a shilling an ounce over the price paid at present. Through this advance, Mr. Duffy calculates the miners will gain between £80,000 and £90,000 a-year, without the Government losing Id. NtraGETS. —The Gipps Land Times reports :— "Stockyard Creek is becoming famous for nuggets. Several goodly sized ones have been found there during the past few months, and another weighing 52 ounces was obtained from the Prussian's claim. The total quantity got from the claim on the day named was 90 ounces." The total amount of gold purchased by the Sandhurst banks in December, says the Bendigo Independent, was 31,4270z. 15iwt. Isgr. This gives an average of 78560z. Isdwt. 4gr. per week, and a monthly money value of £123,351. Scene at an Execution.—Kelly convicted of the murder of Edward Edwards, a warder of Parramatta Gtaol, was executed a few days since at Darlinghurst Gaol, New South Wales, when a most horrible scene took place. The culprit obstinately and resolutely refused all religious consolation from the clergyman who attended him in his last moments. He resisted the warders on the scaffold, howled and blasphemed terribly, and swore that ho would not die. Force had to be used in order to place the rope round his neck, and then a frightful struggle took place. Eventually he was overcome. The body remained suspended more than half an hour before life was extinct. Several of the spectators were sickened by the revolting spectacle. Female Telegraphist.—The Ballarat Star' understands that Mrs. B. C. Aspinall has been appointed telegraphist to a (station in Victoria at a salary of £200 per annum. A sailor, goaded to anger by a Melbourne police court attorney, made use of a hasty expression, and was committed to 48 hours because he had been betrayed into a contempt of court. The man of law, after badgering his victim, said "I'm not fully instructed." "No!" retorted the other, "I'm (naughty word) if you are." This was the contempt. This contemptuous sailor (although a Btranger to Melbourne), the other day, collected over 100 guineas for the widow of Pilot Hansen, who wa killed by lightning on the deck of his (the sailor's ship, a few weeks ago. A- well-known Victorian squatting family have lately developed an aptitude for shipwreck. One of them, with his wife, returning to Victoria by the P. and O. Company's steamer, was a passenger by the Eangoon, and their personal belonging went under water off the Cadda rock. Their heavy luggage and furniture were on the Underley, which was lost on the English coast, When the Sussex was reported off Cape Otway, said the lady, " Well something has reached us at last." But luck was against them still, and the last of their purchases are now rolling somewhere in the surf near the Barwon Heads.—Greymouth Star. Between 1000 and 1500 people visited the wreck of the Sussex on Sunday, 7th January, and the churches (says the Melbourne papers) were comparatively neglected. The Eev. J. Wateford, the ex-president of the Wesleyan Conference, lately in a lecture at Melbourne, condemned spiritism. He said that persons professing spiritism were resistors of the gospel, infidels, and backsliders, and he concluded by exhorting all his hearers to cling closely to the Bible, no matter what assaults might be made upon it. Some of the richest specimens seen in Sydney have arrived from Paxton and Holman's claim at Tambaroora, the specimens weighing 211b. More than half are gold. The Craigie (Victoria) Town Council had a lively meeting the other day, which culminated in a scrimmage, ,in which tho Mayor had an ear torn, and a councillor's shoulder was dislocated. A ladx in Eaglan-street, Ballarat, upon killing a fowl for the Christmas dinner, was astonished to find its gizzard full of BmaU topazes, the stones being some white and some green. On the occasion of the assembling of the Wesleyan Conference in Melbourne, a grand temperance meeting was to be held in tho Town-hall, Melbourne, on Monday, January 29. A committee of 100 abstainers had been chosen from the various Wesleyans in and around Melbourne. At Newcastle, New South Wales, it is a matter of great difficulty for several of the religious bodies in that city to obtain a place to bury their dead. Places have sometimes to be resorted where the flow of the tide almost fills the grave with water; and, harrowing as it may leem, it has occurred where the coffin has been kept down1 by poles to prevent it from floating, while the earth was shovelled in. Diphtheria in Victoria. —The ravages of this frightful epidemic, is reported by late Australian files to be most distressing in some districts. One instance is given, where out of, a family of seven children, six were carried away in less than a fortnight, the seventh child being then in a very precarious state and the father ill with the same complaint. The ages' of the deceased range from two to Seventeen years,.and the family previously was remarkably strong and healthy. At Creswick, seven of one family were attacked and five died. The press is agitating for the appointment of a commission to enquire into the causes .of diphtheria, and to see whether by a combination of , medical experts some effective remedy ..cannot be deviaed,

A Smaet Youth ehom the Sidney Side.—At Melbourne, the other day, about 150 youths of the street were observed in the Eastern Market, feasting on a case of apricots which had formed one of a Stock of fruits belonging to a fruiturer named Mann, and those who were near enough to the purloined case were rapidly filling their hats and pookets and making merry. Constable M'Donald, who was passing in the neighborhood, attracted by the crowd, went up unseen and got close to the fruit box, which soon became empty, and as the last hatful was taken out he heard one ask, in a general manner, " Who did this job ?" A lank lad replied, " I'm the sanguinary one that did it," and as he munched the apricots the thought seemed to giro an impetus to his appetite. The officer arrested him on a charge of stealing the fruit, and the youth immediately called on the crowd to "close up" for a rescue. They did so, but assistance arrived, and the prisoner, who gave the name of George Walton, was locked up. Before the City Bench, he Baid he did not boast as described, that seeing the crowd and the fruit, he merely went in to get a share. He said he had been only a few days from the Sydney side, and put forward as a point in his favor that he had never been before that Court previously. The Bench gave him three month's in gaol, as a caution to others.— Argus, The funeral of Mr. John King, the last of the ill-fated Burke and Will's Exploring Expedition, whose death occurred on Monday morning, took place on January 17th, at Melbourne. At 3 o'clock the cortege, consisting of the hearse, five mourning coaches, and between twenty and thirty private vehicles, moved from Octavia-street, St. Kilda, to the G-eneral Cemetery. Upon the coffin was a wreath, composed of appropriate flowers, sent by Baron yon Mueller, and, after the remains had been lowered into the grave, this was lowered upon the coffin by Mrs. King. The Eev. Mr. Bickford, (Wesleyan minister) during the progress of the service, shortly addressed those present, briefly sketching out the circumstances of the Exploring Expedition, of which King was one of the members, and dwelling upon his conduct as borne testimony to by the leader Burke.— Daily Telegraph. Spisituaii Advice hot Followed. —At Castlemaine, the believers in spiritism sometimes obtain prescriptions for their ailments from a deceased doctor, throngh a lady medium. On an occasion, one of the faithful presented a prescription to a local chemist, who made up the medicine. "Do you know, madame, what the effect of this mixture will be?" inquired the druggist, "because," added he, " my belief is, that if you take it you will to-morrow morning be covered with an eruption of blue spots." The lady abstained, Cats versus Snakes. — Victorian pussies are developing a new claim on the protection of mankind by the deadly antipathy they are displaying towards snakes. The latest instance is given by the Bendigo Independent, which says that a long and terrible fight took place on Saturday afternoon between a largesized domestic cat, the property of Mr. Crelin, Back Creek, and a black snake, 5 feet long. The cat, which was patroling the garden, observed the snake wriggle from out of the bush, seized it by the back, and tjhen a fight, long, severe, and fatal to both, commenced. His snskeship coiled himself round poor pussey, and in this predicament she rolled about, each biting the other. When Mr. Crelin went to the rescue of the puss, he found that the snake was gnawed through. Shortly after his appearance on the scene the cat fell dead at his feet, the snake still round its body. The reptile was dead also. ' -■ Eabe Dividends esom Gold-mining Claims.— The Bendigo Independent has it on excellent authority that " the dividends from various claims in the Sandhurst district paid to one gentleman alone, amounted last year to the sum of £50,000, and had one been paid just inside instead of outside the old year, his income from this source alone would have averaged £1000 per week Determined Antagonism to Vaccination : — " A rather singular defiance of the law, by an otherwise well-behaved subject, has been repeated at Meredith. A respectable tradesman of that town," states the Qeelong Advertiser, " has been already nine times before the Police Court lor negleoting to vaccinate his child, and has been fined in different sums amounting to £2 10s. His refusal to comply with the Public Health Act is based on the following grounds :—That vaccination is a violation of Gf-od's Commandments; thai it is dangerous to the child's health; and lastly, that it is no preventative." Kowdyism, or as it is termed larrikinism, seems to be much too prevalent among certain portions of the rising, generation of M&lbourne, than ia by any means pleasant to the peaceably disposed persons of that city. The Argus in a recent article comments warmly upon the annoyance these juvenile rowdies give to the public, and strongly recommends the passing of a measure by which the authorities would be empowered to treat all wno came within their reach to a sound flogging. On January 19, the deputation appointed at the annual meeting of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce had an interview with Sir James Martin (Premier and Attorney-General of the colony), to ask him to support the proposition agreed to by the Chamber in reference to granting a conditional subsidy to Webb's line.—Sir J. Martin could pot do no more now than tell them that he would bring this proposal before the Cabinet. We would consider whether we ought to propose an expenditure of £15,000 for this year on the terms mentioned.—The deputation then withdrew. A Fine Head of Haib,—■An amusing incident (says the Serald) occurred in the Supreme Court during the progress of the trial of the man Eosenwax, charged with robbery. The Fijian constable, Evero ma, who was sent from Fiji in charge of the absconder, was in Court, and looking curiously at his Honor Mr. Justice Molesworth, asked—" Is him King of Melbourne?" He was informed that the learned judge had not yet arrived at the enviable position of Molesworth Rex Melbourne, but he wm the Judge. " Oh," then replied Evarama, looking at his Honor on the bench, and closely observing hit wig, "Him have a fine head of hair." Five fatal cases of sunstroke has occurred at Murrurundi and one in the suburbs, New South Wales. Queensland Statistics.—From the Queensland statistics of production we learn that during the year 1870 the Crown Lands sold realised £76,569. The squatting runs numbered 2223 j the aores leased 106,392,334. The area under cultivation was 52,210, of ; which 14,674 acres were bearing cotton, and 6341 sugar cane. Cotton culture commenced in 1860, sugar in 1864. The following facts show the progress of mauufacture :— 1869. 1870. Number of sugar mills 28 30 Sugar manufactured, tons 1490 2854 MolaßSes, gallons 137,582 178,656 Number of distilleries 8 10 Rum distilled, proof/gal. 74,483 123,665 Of wheat there were 2881 acres, of hay 130 acres, lof maize 16,039 aores, and green food for1 cattle 343 acres j of barley or grain and fodder there were 750 acres. The sown grasses for hay, &c, covered 2000 acres. Vines covered 210 aorea, the bananas - 339 acres, tho pineapples .179: .acres, gardens and orchards 1728 acres. Tebrible Encounter with a. Bura.—" A terrible, and it is fei.red a fatal, conflict," is reported by a Ballart correspondent.—A few day's ago, Mr. Andrew Mather, who rents a farm near Mount Eowan, was asked by Mrs. Mather, who had gone into the yard to milk the cows, to turn out a neighbor's bull that had followed them in. Mr. Mather went to do so, when the brute suddenly turned upon . him and got him in such a position that it tossed him in the air some distance ; on coming down Mr. Mather fell heavily on his back, and was so stunned by the fall that before he could get on his legs the • infuriated beast was at him, and kneeling with its knees on his stomaoh. commenced to gore at and bruise the unfortunate man terribly. Mrs. jMather ran to get assistance from the neighbors. At this time Mr. Mather,-who is a strong though elderly man, had got his hand on the ring through the bull's nose, and was fighting hard -for his life. Assistance soon came, and he was resoued. Several of Ms ribs were broken, Ms breast is much torn, and it is feared his lungs are lacerated. There ii little hope of hia reoovery.«-Jlr^«*. • - : '