AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 231, 14 April 1874, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

_ Tho Launceston Examiner reports the suicide of a man ninety-eight years of ago, by hanging. i Mat Higgins, tho well known Victorian pedestrian, is now an inmate of the New Norfolk Lunatic Asylum, Hobart Town. On the last voyage of the Victoria steamer from Melbourne to Sydney, One of the steerage paessngers gave birth to a child, and the cabin passengers subscribed £lO, and presented it to the mother.

A monster picnic of tho employes of the traffic branch of the Victorian Railway Department took place at Mount Macedon on March 1, Sunday being the only day on which they all could get away from their duties. Education in South Australia does not show advantageously in official statistics. According to the late census, out of a total population of 185,000 there were 12,000 children between the ages of 7 and 15 unable to read and write.

The Pastoral Times reports that a squatter on the Castlereagh River went to Glenn Innes to see his brother, whom he had not met for 35 years. He died on his journey, having passed his brother on the road without recognising him.

A company, termed the Victorian Gold Extracting Company, has been formed for the purpose of treating pyrites on an entirely different principle, by which a much larger per-centage of gold can be obtained than Toy the present mode of treatment.

As an instance of the enterprise and speculation of female colonists, we clip from the Melbourne papers the following from the list of Insolvents “Emily Amelia M‘Ewan, of past Melbourne, lady. Causes of insolvency —Entering into a speculation for whaling at Fiji, which proved a failure.” Yorke Peninsula is famous for one of the most extraordinary cricket matches on record, the local twenty-two having been disposed of in their second innings for eight runs off the bat, perhaps the smallest score on record. The team included W. Wills, who was very successful with the ball. Of course the All-England Eleven obtained an easy victory.

A Bendigo paper asserts that a very disgusting affair was witnessed a few davs ago, at the Grassy Flat Reservoir, in the shape of a prize tight between two women, named Clark and Williams. Two rounds wire fought. An agreement was entered into b - fore the fight took place that pulling of hair was not to be allowed, and through this being infringed a dispute took place. Shareholding does not appear to be a very rory game on the other side of the water. In the last published list of Victorian bankrupts we see that two of the fraternity have sought the shelter of the Insolvency Court. One of them stated his liabilities at £3,065, and his assets at—one pound sterling ! A nice estate for the assignee ! The other owes £1,193 16s Bd, and has exactly £4O to pay his creditors.

Singular mistakes are sometimes clue to the extraordinary names borne by some places in the Colonies. At the Albury Court of Quarter Sessions a witness, on being questioned as to his occupation, said he was a contractor, and lived in Abraham’s Bosom. The Judge was about to reprove him for irreverence, when it was explained that Abraham’s Bosom was the name of a place on the road from Albury to Ournie, so named, it is presumed, from its extreme difficulty of access. The Bendigo Advertiser states that Mr A. Kennedy has recently been very successful in the treatment of pyrites for the obtaining of gold. Upwards of one grain of gold has been obtained from ninety-five grains of pyrites taken from stone which yielded only half an ounce to the ton. The cost per ton of pyrites, by Mr Kennedy’s process, would bo about £BO, and at the "rate of the above yield, this gives about 200 ounces of gold, leaving, in round figures, a profit of (say) £7OO per ton. Last scene of all, that closes this sad and eventful history—that is to say, the history of the A.E.E. Their leading professional— Jupp, the pride of Surrey—has to he handed over to the custody of the Adelaide keepers during an attack of delirium tremens : and it only wanted this to finish up the reputation of the team. Ho wonder its members were given to talking wildly at the festive board, and to a queer style of playing in the country districts. It is a curious fact that overtures to remain in Australia were made to members of H. H. Stephenson’s Eleven and George Parr’s Eleven, but our clubs did not think it worth while to request any of Mr Grace’s companions to stop with us. They are to be congratulated upon their discretion. — Telegraph. In Melbourne we (X. Z. Herald) read of a man being imprisoned for life under sentence for rape. Six years expires, and his innocence is ascertained beyond the shadow of a doubt. Ho is discharged, ruined in character and beggared in means. He asks the Government for some aid to reinstate him in his former position ; but ht is told his application cannot be entertained. He is simply to be looked upon as a discharged criminal. Another man named Grenham, charged “ on suspicion” of murder, has been kept in gaol, for twelvemonths and is discharged, there being no grounds whatever for his having been kept in durance. He, ton, loses his employment, while his character is blasted and his prospects in life shatttered. In man is sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for forgery. It turns out the signature he was alleged to have forged is genuine, and so, after serving a portion of his term, he is liberated ; but the Government cannot recognise any claim the accused makes on it.