SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 199, 12 July 1860, Page 4

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

A great flood has taken place at Port Wib un'ga, about 30 miles,from Adelaide. s . ■The census returns have been laid on the table of .the house,- and? the population, on the Ist of last month, amounted to ‘117,727 persons. ‘ : /' ‘ /./';/• ’ U A petition had been presented on the Queen’s birth-day to the (governor, prayihgf ; f6r a reduction in tlie number of' members of Parliament‘which: is '54; 'might be reduced bn the

ground that the number was too great for the population; that the expenee. of ..electing jthein at last election) was .too great,* aud that there was difficulty* in obtaining .the requisite, numberoD good representatives, .The petitioners (about 600) requested that the memorial might be transmitted to Her Majesty—which the Governor agreed to do, while, he said he could not support the views it expressed. ;

Cashmere Goats.— An importation of theso valuable animals, says th & Cincinnati Gazette, has been made by the Hon. W. H. Stiles, and after a tedious voyage has arrived safely at his place up the river, having been accompanied by a Greek, who is still with them as an attendant, all the way / from Smyrna.. This is the ? second importation of the pure breed, of Cashmere goats ever made into this country; . .the first ■haying been made by Mr.. Davis, who soldrthem *to : Mr. Richard Peters, of Atlanta, from which importation all the crosses and half-breeds in this country haVe sprung. Mr. Stiles has eight of them, and they are no less curious, than valuable, something of the size and shape of our native breed; They differ widely in their hair, which; grows so luxuriously as to give them the appearance of a sheep with an immense fleece on it. The experiment having been thoroughly tried as to their thriving in our climate, and resulting satisfactorily, there can. be no. doubt of the value they will bq to our- country. The uses to which the hair is put are numerous. Camlet and worsted goods and ladies’ fabrics, as challies, muslin de lajnes, gentlemen’s clothing for summer wear, hosiery i &c., promising a beauty, strength, durability, lustre, and permanency of colour, far superior to the wool of the, sheep or the alpaca. , These goats are found in the Himalaya mountains, and have to .be brought. about a thousand miles -before they reach a shipping port. They are not sheared dike the sheep, but the fleece is-pulled- off twice eVery year. An ordinary fleece -weighs between three and four pounds., The New York price is 8 dols. 50 c. per lb., making at least. fifty-one dollars a year for each goat, while there is no cost in feeding them, for they are as frugal and hardy as the common goat. : i ‘ : Their great value in this country us the splendid cross with our common goat, the halfbreed being nearly as valuable every way as the full breed, and their remarkable fecundity soon repays a very - heavy ■ interest on the investment, while the expense of rkeeping them is a mere trifle, as they live on briars 1 , aud foliage not touched by other animals. There is a great; demand for them, and the prices they bring are fabulous—r-one buck sold as high as 1500 dols.-, and one? of Mr; Peters’ stock was sent to the Illinois State Fair exhibition, and so pleased the President, that he offered the weight of the animal in silver in exchange for him.— San Francisco Herald, Feb. 7. Match-Making.— Ah; woman, woman ! ah ! wedded w r ife—ah! fond mother of fair daughters'; ; how strange thy passion is, to add to thy‘ titles that of mother-in-law ! I am told, when : yon have got -the title, it is often but a bitterness and a disappointment. Very likely the son-in-law is rude to you, the coarse, ungrateful brute ; and very possibly the daughter rebels, the thankless serpent! And yet you will go on scheming ; and having met only with one disappointment from Louisa and her husband, you will try and' get‘one for Jemima, and Maria, and down even to little Toddies,-coming out of the nursery in her little red shoes;- When you see her with little Tommy, your neighbour’s child, fighting over the same Noah’s ark, or- clambering on the same rocking-horse; I make no doubt iri your fond silly head you are thinking, “ Will those little people meet some twenty years’ hience ?.” And you give Tommy a very large: piece of cake, and have a fine present for him on the Christmas tree—you know you do, though he is but;a rude noisy r child[ and has already beaten Toddles, and taken her doll away from her, and made her cry. I remember, when I myself was suffering from the conduct of a young woman in—in a capital which *is 'distinguished by a viceregal court —and from her heartlessness, as well as that of her relative, who I once thought would be. my mother-in-law—shrieking out to a friend, who happened to be spouting some lines from Tennyson’s Ulysses :■ —By George! /Farrington, I have no doubt that when the young syrens set their green caps at the old Greek captain and 1 his crew, waving and beckoning him with their white arms and glancing smiles, and wheedling him with their sw r eetest pipes—l make. no doubt, sir, that the mother syrens were behind the rocks ’(with their dyed fronts arid cheeks painted, so;as to resist water), and calling out, ‘Now, Halcyone, my'child, that air from the Pirata ! Now, Glaukopis, dear, look -well to that old gentleman at the helm! Bathykolpos, love, there’s a young sailor, on the maintop, who will tumble right down into your lap, if you beckon himi’”Rnd so on, and so on. And I laughed a- wild shriek .of.despair. For I, too, have-been on a dangerous island, and come aivay thence, mad, furious,wanting' a strait-waistcoat. —■ Coriihill Magazine, J\ r o.2 ■’