AUSTRALASIAN ITEMS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 429, 8 July 1870, Page 3

AUSTRALASIAN ITEMS.

The trial of Supple, on the charge of murdering Mr. Walshe, has been postponed until the next Criminal Sessions. The application was granted on the ground that a material witness Was absent from the colony.

Inspectors Nicholson and Haro have de. dined to accept any portion of the reward (£500) for the apprehension of Power, the bush'anger. Sergeant Montford, who formed one of the party in the capture, has been promoted and made a sub-inspector.

A new term has been added to the de' script! re slang of the loafing classes of Melbourne. Vagrants are now denominated “ scalawags”an American word, which may med some explanation. There is a class of .oafers in that favoured country known as “ carpetbaggers ” who wander about the and armed with nothing more than a carpetbag, which they generally contrive to fil when no one is looking, and another class has sprung up whose members are said to De so mean that they will rob a carpetbagger of his sole piece of furniture, and .hen give him in charge for having no lawful visible means of support. The Melbourne vagrants being of toe improvident a disposition to supply themselves in a legal manner with any property wh lever, and being dso entirely destitute of honourable feelings in regard to the appropriation of the of more diligent persons, are reckoned »o belong to the genus “ scalawag.” ;On the 18th nit. the running match between Mat Higgins of Melbourne and Alfred Austin of Sydney came off at the Melbourne cricket ground distance 10 miles Austin was the favourite, but Hsggius tefeated him easily. Time 1 hour 7 minutes md a half.

Considerable damage lias been occasioned ;o the agriculturists, throughout most parts of the colony, through the late heavy rains. The roads in some parts are almost impassable, At Woods Point, all the claims ar e swamped, caused by the Hooded state of the river.

The bushranger, Power has been committed to take his trial at the next General Session, Beechworh, on the snd August next. A sword tish was fouud recently lying on the beach beyond the Hopkins, at Warnambool It was . about eleven feet long, and the sword ; measured three feet ten inches.

A Ballarat paper reports a case of bur glary at that town, iiq which a man who had broken into a dwelling house was attacked by a young lady living there, who wielded.au iron poker in such a manner that the burglar was glad to decamp. A laughable incident writes the (Geelong Advertiser) occurred on Friday in Conoßay, where steps are now being taken for the dissection of the Lightning. One of the divers, old Dick, as he is called, was down below attempting to lift a piece of pig iron. To redder his task as easy as possible he closed the escape,valve on the breast of his diving dress, and caused it to fill out like a well-blown bladder. Suddenly the hook which he had fixed into a hole in the pig iron straightened, and losing his hold came to the surface like a cork, rising until n-thing but his heavy boots were under water, and for a second he looked as if ho was standing on the sea. Then he fell on the broad of his back, and lay upon the surface of the water, like a big carcase full of gas, until his eompansons relieved him from his dangerous situation by unscrewing the face of his helmet and letting out the air, until he again looked as genteel as a diver in full dress can possibly do. At a coroner’s inquest held recently at Sandy Creek it transpired in evidence that a man his wife and three children were in the habit of sleeping in the same bed together—the bed being three feet six inches wide. What wonder (asks the Tarrengower Times) that',the baby a child of twelve days old, was oVeflaiu in the night, and taken away from such poverty.

The Chinamen Ah Pew, who wag convicted o! the violation and murder of the little girl Annie Hunt, at Glenluce, who was executed in the Castlemaine gaol, died exclaiming “ Me no do it.”

A live alligator was found in the Thames near London on the 16th April, tt was claimed by the celeWated “ Jamrach” who declared it to be a lizard that had escaped from one of his storerooms.

The vineyards and gardens about Ararat have for some time back been subjected to the ravages of a bird hitherto unknown in the district. It is of the same size and color as the Knglish thrush, although rather finer in its form.

tleasant Creek seems to he recovering from the depression caused by the speculative mania that some time ago possessed its inhabitants, and mining is much improved and eonfi lence in the mineral resources of the district are becoming restored.