Australian News.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 23, 20 April 1870, Page 7

Australian News.

VICTORIA.. A singular death is reported by the Bnrrowa Advocate. A young girl named Eliza Randall, residing at Jerrawa, left her home a few mornings since to shepherd a number of sheep, and not having returned at the usual time, she was sought for, and found seated by the trunk of a tree, with mouth open and eyes widely distended, as if suffering trom fright. Startling to relate, she was a corpse, though retaining the same position as while living. On removing the body, a large snake was found coiled up on the spot where the unfortunate girl had been sitting. The value of the machinery employed on the quartz reefs at Bendigo, Victoria, at the end of 1869, is estimated at£370,000. During the latter half of the year these reefs yielded at the rate of 5000 ounces a week, the average return being 10| dwts. to the ton. The Geelong Advertiser of the 20th ult. reports :—“ There could not have been less than 2200 children, and at least 400 adult visitors, from Ballarat yesterday, to the missionary ship Dayspring. The children, headed by two pipers, arrayed in the garb of old Caledonia, formed rank, and marched along Great Malop-street, down Mooraboolstreet, and thence along the beach to the Yarra-street wharf. The second detachment arrived about twenty minutes afterwards, and headed by the Ballarat drum and fife band, followed the same route as their predecessors. It was when the two contingents were one going and the other arriving that the Yarra-street wharf was at its prettiest. The Dayspring, covered with the flags of all nations, the other ships similarly decorated, and the masses of gaily-dressed children, served to form a most animated picture, and one that will doubtless be long remembered by those who took part in the proceedings. QUEENSLAND. A most singular loss, says a Rockhampton paper, has been sustained by a working man of this town—John Cook, wheelwright. Forty pounds, in eight five-pound notes, had been put away by him in a pocket-book for four months, waiting an opportunity to invest it in a plot of land and cottage. An eligible bit offering, a day was fixed on for the purchase, an afternoon’s work was sacrificed to effect the same, and preparations were made to start on the business, when, on opening the pocket-book, to the utter astonishment of the owner, the notes were found, with the paper with which they were wrapped, reduced to the appearance of dirty cotton frocks and dust. Silver-flies and other insects are supposed to have effected this destruction, which ought to be a caution to the saving, to change their notes into gold, or deposite the treasure in the Savings’ . Bank. Cook has six children, and the loss falls heavily upon him.

, NEW SOUTH WALES. 1 A man named Goodwin, at Tanmangai roo, in the Yass district, is reported by the . Courier to have suffered considerable loss by tire, arising from a very simple incident. . It appears that Goodwin had occasion to i leave his work’and go into his house (an , erection of bark and slabs, lined with calico), for the purpose of getting something which he wanted out of a box that was kept in his bedroom. Having obtained what he went in for, he left the room, throwing as he went his knife, which ho did not want, into the box, in which it seems that wax vesta matches, among other things, were kept. The falling of the knife must have caused ignition, as he had barely returned to his work in the stackyard when he was alarmed by hearing his wife screaming out “ Fire ! fire!” He rushed back, but before anything could be done the whole place was in a blaze, and everything was in a very short space of time consumed. Mr Goodwin was fortunate enough to secure a bank deposit receipt for £l5O, and also a few sovereigns. Several bank notes were totally destroyed, and some silver which was in the house was found afterwards in a fused state. It is stated in the Sydney Morning Herald that Messrs Hamburgher Brothers, who by the last mail received their appointment as agents in New South Wales for the Suez Canal Company, have received intelligence from their home partner, resident in Paris, that a French mail steam company, to run boats to Australia, is about to be started, the terminus of which is to be Sydney ; and that the Messageries Imperiales will probably submit proposals to the colonial Governments to carry mails. SOUTH AUSTRALIA. Some recent gold discoveries in South Australia have begun to attract attention. The alluvial ground at Barossa has been systematically worked, and the prospectors are still spreading themselves around the scrub. Reefing companies have not- succeeded, owing to the absence of defined leads, the gold being disseminated through a peculiar cement. From an ounce to an ounce and a half per ton has not been a rare yield for the cement crushers, of which there are now two on the ground. When Barossa had had its day, Balhannah showed up. This deposit—a conglomerate of gold, silver, bismuth, and several other metals not yet identified—is on private land, up the river Onkaparinga. It has been partially developed by an Adelaide company, and shipments of bismuth have been sent to England. Pending the determination of its market value, operations are not being rapidly proceeded with. A telegram from the Barossa diggings states that the only party who had tried deep sinking struck the lead ’at 80 feet, and are getting one ounce and a half of gold to the load. Over sixty claims have been pegged out in the immediate neighbourhood. WESTERN AUSTRALIA. A recent number of the Melbourne Argus contains an interesting letter describing the present condition, climate, and resources of Western Australia. After mentioning that transportation has ceased, the writer says:—“ The colony is already undergoing a change from a state of helpless dependency to one of self-control and responsibility; the colony must now be self-supporting or else utterly fail. At the critical moment, when some exertion has become a matter not of choice, but of necessity, all eyes have been turned to the Governor, instead of relying on their own energies, and rousing their dormant faculties to action, the inhabitants have been constructing triumphal arches for his Excellency, and overwhelming him with petitions. I readily grant that they could not place their trust in a better man, or rely on one who will more assuredly labor heart and soul in their heart and soul in their service ; but, at the same time, unless Governor Weld meets with a hearty and active support from all classes of the community, it is impossible that his endeavours can be crowned with success, or that the colonists will reap those benefits which the ample resources of the country would give them every reason to expect.”