AUSTRALIAN.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 136, 18 June 1872, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN.

At Chewton, Victoria, the Chinese have been in the hab't of sweeping the dust off the road for the sake of the gold it contained. As the practice injured the road, it has been forbidden. The monster cake of gold, from Mr John Krohmami s celebrated claim at Mill .End, Tanib.'iroora, weighing 5G12 ozs., was the great centre of attraction towards the close of the Sydney Exhibition. It looked like a large inverted cone of beeswax. Mr James, one of the members for Ballarat East, is desirous of preserving greater decorum among member aof Parliament. He seems to think that some of the scenes in the House are traceable to the too frequent habit of " liquoring up." He, therefore, last night gave notice of a motion having for its object the prevention of the sale of spirituous liquors within the precincts of Parliament houses. Among the late appointments of Mr Duffywas that of Mr Robert Clarke, of Horsham, to the justiceship of the peace, which being canvassed in the ourse of the no-confidence debate, led to an observation from the individual referred to—"Ask my clergyman if I ought not to be aju tice of the peace i" Now it appears that he was twice fined for sly-grog selling, and was brought b. fore the local court on other charges, from which, however, he managed to escape. . When his name was recommended to the Government, his spiritual adviser and pastor, certified that he, who had been fined for selling grog without a license, was as a total abstainer a most valuable coadjutor in his religious work. What more (asks the Art/us) can be required of a J.P. than to be a reformed grog-seller I We Victorians (says a writer in the Melbourne Leader) are apt to cut up rough if any Britisher writes a book about us on the strength of a week's sojourn in the Melbourne Club, and a scamper to Ballarat and Bendigo. But the tourists who rush across the straits to Tasmania, and do the voyage round New Zealand and back, are quite as hasty and incorrect as Sir Charles Dilke and Anthony Trollops. A writer in a Melbourne weekly newspaper, in a lively account of what he saw a few weeks ago in New Zealand, describes an interview with a great Waikato chief, Wiremu Thompson, and regrets the love of that distinguished Maori for strong waters. The sketch is graphic enough, only, unfortunately, Wiremu Thompson died five years ago. It is just as well that he did, or else his character for sobriety would have been irretrievably ruined.

The Mount Alexander Mail gives someparticulars of the execution of Wilkie at Castleniain j. On the scaffold the Rev. Mr Smeaton said to the condemned man, "Now, James, have you any more to say; remembar, you an- on the borders of eternity I" To which Wilkie replied, "I have no more to say, sir." J> unford now came forward, and while adjusting the fatal coid, the prisoner turned his head sharply round as if in pain, but made no remark. The cap was then drawn over his face, and the cust unary shake hands having been attempted, but evidently refused on Wilkie's part, the bolt was drawn, aud the living body fell with a heavy thud that was distinctly felt and heard throughout the building. The nervous twitching of the body for full threj minutes after the f ill indicated plainly tint death was not instantaneous, although all sensibility to pain must have ceased atoncj on the shock. The hangman having completed his hideous work, returned t) Melbourne in the custody of a warder in the Melbourne Gaol.

"An affray between a blind couple took place, *' the (Ischial Advertiser states, "in a house in O'Connell-street on Sunday morning. It- appears that the old hawker, Alex. M'Gowan, who was bitten by a dog on Thu'sday Last, received some money from the owner or the animal, and together with his wile has since been drinking. Notwithstanding that Mrs M'Gowan pretends to be quite blind, and htr bettei-halc would have it that he is nearly so, they managed to quarrel and bel ibor eich other most unmercifully with a piece of i-ou, So serious were the injuries inflict d that the 11. v. E. King was sent for, and sub eqtvently, at his request, ; Dr Creehnan v sited the house and dressed I their wounds. Both husband and wife had, ; in addition to various contusions about their faces, extensive scalp wounds ascending from j the forehead, the husband's being three ; nehes in length and penetrating to the bone. ' The interior of their house is described as a picture of dirt and misery, and the floor was saturated in places with blood." The An/us of a !a':e date reports the following disgraceful fr.tcav which took place in the Legislative Assembly on the preceding ! evening : —There was a disreputable scene in t,e Legislative Assembly yesterday. Mr W. 0. Smith was making a personal explanation : relative!,to some statements indulged in with r jferonce to him on the preceding evening by I Mr Longniore, in the course of which he dej i.iel that he was assaulted at Beaufort in the manner described. Whilst, making his rein irks, Mr M'Lellan ejaculated something ab tut kicking, and Mr Wilson retorted that Il3—the Commissioner of .Mines—,vas a mean coward, to which Mr M'Lellan replied that Mr W.lson was a mean coward, and always would hi. At the bidding of the Speaker, Mi" Wilson at <;n:c withdrew the expression, bit the example was not followed by the C immissiouer of Mines. Something subsequently took place across the table between t ie two members, after which Mr Wilson left tie Chamber. Mr M'Lellan followed him, and ne rthe library overtook him, and struck him on the ear. Severed members of Parliament whi wore standing by at once interI fered, and a further breach of the peace was (prevented.