AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 339, 15 June 1869, Page 3

AUST RALIAN NEWS.

♦■ (From the Argus, May 21 to May 31 inclusive.) The following testimony as to the value of prairie grass during dry seasons is borne by the Riverine Advertiser : — " During the late severe drought the manager of Perricoota Station, on the Murray, saved the half-starved stock on the run by crops cut from prairie grass paddocks, some thirty-five acrea of which yielded seventy or eighty tons of good serviceable rough hay. We believe that about 500 head of the very quiet cattle that will not wander far from the homestead, were carried fcuccossfully through the drought by the means alluded to. Of course the paddocks were first ploughed, and then the seed was sown and the soil harrowed. After this the ground was well rolled ; when this was done it was then " brushed " — that is, a lot of boughs were fastened together securely, and were drawn all over the surface of the ground to insure the safety of whatever seed might have remained on the surface, prairie grass seed being very light, and consequently if left on the surface of the soil it is likely to be carried away by the wind. We hope thia information may be acceptable tosome of our enterprising settlers, as fifty acres of land f rowi prairie seed would at least throw off 100 tons of serviceable hay, and 100 acres sown and the crop husbanded for three or four years would assist in robbing the drought of much of its terrors." Commenting upon the utter want of veneration which is the discreditable characteristic of our colonial youth, the Border Post depicts the typical Anglo-Australian boy in the following graphic, but uncomplinentary language: — " He can talk slang, ride as if born in the saddle, and steal tbe animal he bestrides into the bargain. He fears nothing, neither God nor the Devil, and looks on his fellows as his natural enemies, meant to be tormented as much as possible. Thia promising bud can swear as soon as he can speak plain. He tells lies by a natural instinct that never fails him, and by the time he is twelve years old has most likely beeu in the dock for horse or cattle stealing. At eighteen or nineteen, society objects to him and his ways, and he takes to bushranging — begins by sticking up a few old shepherds, then stops the mail, and perhaps is ' obliged ' to shoot some one. i From that time his fate is sealed. He is outlawed, and a price set on his head. He is j hunted hither and thither, now triumphant in Borne cold-blooded butchery, now hiding like a snake. Slowly the circle round him narrows ; he passes days and nights with little food, and, worst of all, with scanty portions of sleep. The Philistines are upon him, and he falls at last into their hands, shot down like a wild bea9t in the desert, or dragged to the nearest township and hanged. The influx of shipping into Port Phillip, to which attention was called in our issue of Monday last, still continues, and, in addition to the twenty-three vessels which had come to these waters during the two previous weeks, there has to be chronicled the arrival, this week, of no fewer than sixteen others from British and foreign ports, representing an aggregate tonnage of nearly 11,000 tons. The vessels from London were the ships Nyassa and Roxburgh Castle, and the barque Birch Grove, each with full cargoes of general merchandise. Two others similarly laden — the British Prince and Juliet — were from Liverpool ; while from Boston, freighted with the usual description of American " notions," there was the ship Rutland. The vessels hailing from Baltic ports, comprised the ships Benedicte and Louis de Geer, and the barques Andromeda, Westfold, and Alma. A solitary rice port was represented by the barque Charles Tottie, from Bankok -, and of sugar-laden vessels there were the ship Lucerne, the barque West Indian, the brig Sarah, and the schooner Louisa, from Mauritius, the fifth (the French barque Nouvell« Pallas) being from 110 110. The aspect of the various piers ia now wonderfully different from the desolate look which they had a month or two ago, and although it is quite too much to expect that such a blissful condition of affairs should be at all permanent, it is still matter for congratulation that our once busy port should now and then wake up into an activity which once was, and never should havp been otherwise than, chronic. The high price of meat in Deniliquin led to the formation of a joint-stock butchering company in that town, for the purpose of removing such an anomaly. The history of the enterprise is thus narrated by the Riverine Advertiser i— " At first they went on well enough, but they soon found out many diffl-

culties which they had not expected — they could not get good servants. If they secured a good butcher, he was good at tippling, or he had some worse defect in his character. Then their cattle were driven away and ' planted ' by some one, and £50 reward offered by the company could not find out the offenders though they were known — though the cattle were within a day's ride of Deniliquin, and though we had an expensive constabulary in the town, with a police magistrate having £600 per annum at their head. At length the cattle were discovered in almost a skeleton state, quite unfitted, of course, for killing, excepting for pigs' meat. After this the sheep of the company * boxed ' on the reserve with sheep belonging to the opposing butcher, and twenty-eight were thus lost. Eventually Mr Mathewson, a respectable butcher of the town, joined the company, merging his interests in theirs, and now this arrangement is not satisfactory to either party, so he resigned his managership last night. The absolute receipts of the company for thirty weeks were £1400 ; the manager was paid £12 per week for himself, his working gear, and men, and all rations and expenses were defrayed by the company. The positive profit of the company for thirty weeks was£tll, to meet £600 expenses. It must be borne in mind that the expenses have been immensely heavy ; there was £72 for horse feed during the drought ; there would be little or nothing for the next six months in this respect. Some very fine samples of galena, from the mines of the Yarrol Silver-lead Miniag Company, near Gayndah, on ths .Upper Burnett River, Queensland, are now to be seen at the offices of Messrs Clarke and Co., Elizabeth street, Melbourne. The ore seems to be very rich. It resembles solid masses of metal, and is very heavy. Several samples have been tested, in all cases with a most satisfactory result, the assays showing that ther. is an average of 260z. of silver in every ton of ore, together with 70 per cent, of lead and a small proportion of gold. Three assays of the ore, taken from different depths, have been made at the Sydney Mint, and show respectively to the ton " 360z. 18dwt. 6gr. silver, 69.50 per cent, lead; 250z. 9dwt. 14gr. silver, 67.21 per cent, lead; and 16oz. sdwt. silver, 72,20 per cent, lead, in each of them, thus giving a mean of 2tioz. 4dwt. silver aud 70 per cent, lead." The highest result in lead from the Melbourne assays is equal to 76 per cent., and the lowest 72 per cent.; the highest result in silver is 14oz. 22gr. per ton, amd the lowest lloz. lSdwts. 4gr. per ton. The ore yielding these results has been taken from a lode 22in. wide, and 30ft. below the surface. There is said to be an immense quantity of the mineral, and a company has been formed to work the raine, which is expected to produce the most brilliant results. An area of about 245 acres has been purchased, and the lode extends through it for a distance of more than 1000 yards. The mine is situated on the Yarrol station, Upper Burnett district, in the colony of Queensland, and is within fifty miles of a navigable river. The facilities for working out the enterprise are great, and a net profit of over £14 is expected from every ton of ore raised, even without the use of machinery. A number of gentlemen assembled at Messrs Alexander Macfarlan and Company's machinery depot, Bourke street, yesterday afternoon, for the purpose of witnessing the testing of an invention patented by Mr Walter Macfarlan, and intended to be used in raising sunken vessels. The invention and the inventor are both known to the public, the former having been tested some time ago at Sandridge upon a larger scale than yesterday. The apparatus is exceedingly simple, and in calm water would probably be most efficient. It consists of two pairs of guttapercha bags of considerable size. A pair of the empty bags are sunk at each end of the ship to be raised, and are then connected by chains which pass ronnd the hull, and are drawn taut by means of a couple of smaller bags which are attached to the chains on each side of the ship, and then inflated with air. The apparatus being fixed in the requisite position, air is pumped into tbe sunken bags, which, being inflated, raise the ship to the surface of the water with ease. The tests were made yesterday afternoon with a small model, the sunken ship being represented by a little yacht which was filled with about twenty-eight pounds of lead, and sunk in a water-tank. Tbe air was Bupplied to the bags beneath the water by means of guttapercha tubes, into which several of the spectators blew with all the power of their lungs. The air-vessels were covered with canvas, and sunk easily by the weight of the chains which were used in clasping the hull. When ths apparatus was fixed, the hull was brought to the surface in less than a minute each time the experiment was tried. The invention may be turned to good account, and there seems to be no reason why it should not fully accomplish the object sought. A curious case of somnambulism is reported by the Launceston Examiner ; — «' The subject was a little boy, about eight years old, son of a man named Welsh, who resides near the Episcopalian burial-ground. The facts of the case are as follow: — A family named O'Connor who reside oh the Elphin-road, were roused from their slumbers in the middle of the night, a week or two ago, by a knock at the door. Mrs O'Connor got up, and the reply to her inquiry as to who was there was ' Patsy Welsh ; let me in ; some one's breaking into the house.' On opening the door Mrs O'Connor found ' Patsy' standing outside in his nightclothes, cold as ice, and fast asleep. The poor little fellow was at once taken in and placed in a warm bed ; but very shortly his parents were heard loudly calling for him. Having discovered he was not in his own crib, they had rushed from the house en dishabille to search for the wanderer. They were soon informed of the safety of the truant, and carried him home rejoicing. It seems Mrs Welsh awoke in the night, .and, thinking she heard some noise, aroused her husband, who got up to look round, when he found that the bedroom window was open. Having secured

the window he was about to get into bed, when Mrs W. desired him to see if the children were all right, and it was then found that * Patsy ' was missing. The little fellow had evidently dreamt that somebody was breaking into the place, got up in bis sleep, passed out of the window, and walkel through the paddocks to the house of the neighbours named. He caught a severe cold by his exposure to the night air, but this, fortunately was the only serious consequence of his midnight perambulations." Sheepwashiug is a process which has materially changed its character during the last few years. It used to be a very primitive and simple matter at one time. In the old days there was a rude and rickc-tty stage by the side of a Urge waterhole or running creek, and from this stage the sheep were pitched into the water, and there forced to swim about for a while, and perhaps duck under a pole, after which they were regarded as washed. This mode answered all requirements, and was, in fact, the only mode practicable at the time. However, the returns of recent wool sales have clearly shown that where a thorough hot-water wash has been practised the wool has sold at prices that fully repaid the trouble and outlay, and moreover that these prices have improved notwithstanding the general depreciation in the price of wool. Our largest sheepowners have not been slow to draw the practical inference, and the apparatus and machinery now employed on a large sheep station contrast favourably with the primitive means they have superseded. A notable instance of this is afforded by a visit to the engine factory of Messrs Wright and Edwards, Little Bourke street, and an inspection of a sheepwaßh — the largest yet constructed — made from the designs of Mr Gore, C.E., for an extensive station, owned by Messrs M'Culloch, Sellar, and Co., in Riverina. The wash is the result of careful experiments and close watching of the different methods of washing, and it is considered that it .secures the advantages of thoroughly cleaning the wool, yet preserving its fibre unimpaired, and without reducing it too much in weight. The sheep are to pass in rotation through the " soak," in two large round iron tanks, the water containing nothing but soda and soap. The sheep while passing through are kept sheltered from cold, and are not exposed to fatigue, and after being in a sufficient time, they pass on to the jet, each of which consists of a single sheet of water aa fine as a knife-edge, supplied under a pressure of twelve feat, and about the same length as a sheep's body. This divides the fibre of the wool without in the least degree injuring tho staple, and thoroughly removes all impurities. The wash throughout is constructed entirely of iron, made in sections for the convenience of carriage, and is easily put together at the station. The water is supplied by a powerful centrifugal pump worked by a Pteam-engine. The heater for supplying hot water possesses many advantages. It requires no brickwork or masonry, and the fireplace is adapted to take in large logs of wood six feet long. Provision is made for clearing dirt from the soaking tanks without any loss of soap and soda, and for maintaining ths water at a uniform temperature. The wash, is of ample capacity to wash 4000 sheep daily. From ita material it is of course indestructible, while its cost is very little, if any, in excess of a properly built timber wash. Messrs. Wright and Edwards appear to do a great deal of machine and engine work for the pastoral districts, and now have on their premises, besides the apparatus we have spoken of, sone large steam-boilers, water-heaters, tanks, &c, for Riverina, and a compact steam-engine and boiler for a station in Queensland.