GENERAL NEWS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 127, 16 April 1872, Page 7

GENERAL NEWS.

The latest " idea" in New York is a mar-1 riage between the son of President Grant and i the Princess Beatrice of England. Shares in the Golden Fleece quartz claim | at Sandhurst, bought for thirty shillings in I 1887, are now valued at £IO,OOO. 477 ozs. of gold have been obtained from three bucketsful of stone from the Golden; Bar reef, Rosewood, Queensland. A German, named Koch, having made! £IOO,OOO by speculation at Sandhurst, has I taken himself and his money off'to the Fatherland. The Green Harp claim at Coromandel is stated by the local paper to be "turning it out in pure gold." A pannikin of loose gold and dirt weighed 11 lb. 2 oz. A liquor analyst is employed in Victoria, who visits all the public-houses, notes the quality of their drink, and reports accordingly to the Board of Health. The charge of cruelty to a child from the \ Melbourne Industrial School preferred against the Rev. Mr Abrahams, and hi.-, wife, resuited in the committal of both of them for trial. A correspondent writes to the Coromandel] Mail, deploring the increasing use of "vile, blasphemous, and indecent language" in that town; and suggests the interference of the j authorities. A digger was apprehended a few nights ago in by the Sydney police as " drunk and in capable," and surrounded at tlie time by " night-hawks." The police found £IOO7 in his possession, of which he would have been eased in a few minutes. In New Caledonia, a French convict settlement, there appears to be every probability that quartz-reeling will prove a permanent ] industry. A reef three feet thick, with good ! appearances, has been discovered ; and a crushing machine has been sent for to Syd- j ney. The census returns just published bringout very clearly the surprising fact that one j half of the present population of Victoria is native born. The Australians here number 358,000 out of a total of 729,000, and 329,000 of tliese Australians claim Victoria itself as a birth-place. The following notice appeared in a Califor-1 nian paper some time ago : —" The manager of the All Nations claim begs to state that 1 the custom of pitching Chinamen and Injuns down the shaft will have to be stopped, as I he has resumed work in the mine. The old well, back of Jo Bowman's, is just as good, I and even more centrally "located." The Dunedin Resident Magistrate, Mr A. C. Strode, lately decided that debts incurred for drinks can be recovered under the existing Otago Licensing Ordinances. Such was undoubtedly not the intention of the framevs of the last Ordinance, an oversight in which i is the cause of the error ; and next session of I the Provincial Council will most likely see it | set right. | A Greymouth telegram dated Bth inst. says : —During a t srrilij gab; at midnight, a, whirlwind swept through a portion of the town, striking the following buildings, and seriously injuring them : —Jtiyco's kerosene; depot, Taylors, Hotmail's. North's and Strick- , son's private houses, the Police Camp Build-j ings, Watson and Week's large timber yard, j Missßevell's and Mrs Hindi ov's bouses, the j Duke of Edinburgh lintel, and Wilson's boat I buildings. A shod and many other houses j were slightly injured. Many verandahs and fences were levelled. Every publican in the rural districts of Canterbury is sworn in as a special constable upon receiving a renewal of his license, and in every public-house bar is suspended a pair j of handcuffs and a baton. The hotels are visited at short intervals by the police, who! examine a book kept for the remarks of tra-i vellers upon the general conduct of the establishment, such books being necessarily' kept exposed fortius purpose; and should j complaints be entered, they are brought bo- J fore the Bench when a renewal of the license is asked for. The license for. up-country hotels is only £5. We (Eveninif Star) notice in a Bandigo! paper that a man named Thomas Hayes was brought before the City Police Court, and charged, on his own confession, with thej murder of Yorkey, at Miller's Elat, in this Province, in the year 1803. The magistrate seems to have dealt 'n a very off-hand way | with the matter, as, instead of lurking any! further enquiries, lie discharged Hayes upon his own explanation to the effect that, when 1 under the influence of drink, be was in the habit of making all sorts of ridiculous statements. A very different course was pursued! xinder similar circumstances by a London magistrate, who remanded a prisoner from j time to time until the authorities in Melbourne could be informed, the result being that the man was convicted and executed. Another paper states that Haves is described as a stalwart man, of 50 years of age, and a labourer ; his right eye is injured, and 1 it is said that lie c.;:vaot see with it.