AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Colonist, Volume XVI, Issue 1661, 19 August 1873, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

New South. Wales intends to extend the Southern Kail way to Taes without loss of time. The railway is to be completed in two years, and the coat is to be £3500 per

A mxteder has been discovered near Bathurst, New South Wales* where a teamßter named Muggeridge appears to fyave

il* jia jM&i£ itofa I infta Ma&d faMa i§ iii cuifcqdy 6n j&iUJMdrit, . A& ihe %de (New Eolith Wales) Police Court, a man named Clarke was committed for trial for throwing a hive of bees into a Wesleyan Church during service. The Australasian of August 9th states:— j Really there is something rather alarming about the tables just published in the report of Dr. Paley on the lunatic asylums of Victoria. The number oOunatics in the Colony on the 31st of December, 1871, was 2037. The number shows a steady increase year by year, and in 1861 was only 702. However, as the population has beea a steadily increasing one, there ia not much in that. But it is a very significant fact that year by year there is also observable an increase in the proportion of the insane to thetotal of; the population. In 1871 they were one in 369 of the total, and in 1861 only one in.. 771; so that while the number of.lunatics: in the ten yeara has become. threefold, their proportion to the population has itself more than doubled. This might, perhaps, be attributed to some exceptional and changed conditions of the Colony, as, for instance, to the fact that there is greater care taken now than at the earlier period to put all inaane persons under restraint. But exactly the same fact is observable in the English statistics. These also show a steady, unvarying, jelentless-groflttt-of-insanity. Tear by year the proportion of the insane grows larger, increasing from one in 494 in 1861, to one in 393 in 1871. Every year shows an increase, large or small, and in no caie is a diminution presented. But if this be the condition of things, it becomes a matter of simple arithmetical computation when the time will come when the insane will be in the majority, and will incontinently proceed to lock up the sane. "A mad world, my masters!" it will be in those days; but still, according to the great irrefragable principles of democracy, the majority is infallible, and will continue to be so when it is a majority of madmen. Then, as now, vox populi will be vox Dei, and the saying will be as true under those circumstances as under these. But what can be the cause of this fearful acceleration of the numbers,of lunatic patients? The suggested explanation that more care is taken to put them into asylums now than in former years is refutable by common experience. It is plain to every one that there are as many mad people in society going about unsuspected of insanity beyond theirown narrow circle as there ever were. What, then is the cause? Is it spiritualism, or bad liquor, or cheap newspapers, or teetotalism, or sensation novels? Or is it that the spread of education developes into madmen many who would otherwise have remained harmless fools all their life long ? Whatever is the cause, there is the fact, and this is another of the ruling tendencies of modern society. .

A shocking massacre by the Queensland blacks is reported in the Brisbane Telegraph of July 31:—" We are informed by Mr. M'Devitt, M.L.A., that on the day he left Townsville (Friday last), a schooner arrived in port bringing the sad intelligence of the murder of a fishing party at Green Island. A Mr. Mercer and some others had gone to the island from Townsville, accompanied by two blacks and a gin; and the captain of the schooner, which was employed in seeking for becbe-de-mer in the same locality, found the whites of the party murdered in their camp, the deed having been evidently effected while they were aaleep. The blacks were making off in a boat belonging to the party, when they were o\ertaken, but they immediately took to the water, and made for the land, where they would doubtless he perdu. The Melbourne Argus of August 9bh states: —The ship Ben Nevis hauled off from the Sandridge pier yesterday, having on board 176 horses shipped by Mr. E. J. Hunter for the Indian market. The greater portion of these horaes were bought by Mr. Hunter in Queensland, and, being from a hot climate, will become acclimatised in India much sooner than horses reared in the more temperate districts of the Australian continent. They are all well bred, and possess great bone and substance. The manufacture of oilcloth has recently been established in Melbourne with favorable prospects of success. Considerable difficulties were experienced at the outset, as all the necessary machinery and the blocks for printing had to be obtained from England. The works are situated near Northcote, and their producing powers are stated to be equal to the manufacture of 200 square yards per week. The cloth can be sold at a price equal to that paid for the imported article iv England. The agents are Messrs. Allen Brothers, Market-street, Melbourne.

"As important discovery of fossil reraai has been made at G-owrie Creek, Queen land. They cori&ist," says the Darling Downs Gazette, "of the head, fore leg, and foot bones of an extinct species of a gigantic mammalian jmimal, named by Professor Owen, in 1844, Diprotodon Australis. Many remains of this animal have been discovered in various parts of the Darling Downs district, and particularly at King's Creek and G-owrie. From these fossils Professor Owen has from time to time been enabled to proceed with the construction of a complete skeleton, but for many years past he has been unable to procure the foot bones now brought to light at Gowrie. He is indebted to Mr. G. B. King, a Toowomba gentleman for the latter discovery. The whole series will be sent home by the next mail." Alluding- to the establishment of an important industry in Tasmania, the Hobart Town Mercwy says:—" A woollen factory is in the course of erection near Launceston. Another, with Hobart Town for its site, only wants the timely assistance of less than half a dozen investors of a small amount j and we have information that a third will probably be undertaken on the banks of the Clyde.