AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 571, 28 March 1873, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

—o — Wright, for attempting to murder Arthur Hagan, was hanged at Caatlemaiue ■on the 11th instant. A'he Intercolonial CriekctMateh, between Victoria and New South Wales, was won by Victoria by twenty-four runs. The building known as the Temple of Pomona, with the two adjoining shops situate in Bourkc-s'tredt, Melbourne, were sold recently for the sum of 18.500/. The miners’ strike at Stawell is expected shortly to be settled. Mining news from Sandhurst are very •quiet. 22,000 Tons of coal were exported from Newcastle for the week ending March 8. The City Council of Sandhurst was recently the defendant, in an action brought by Mrs. Galvin to recover 250/. ‘damages for neglect to repair a box drain across the High-street footpath, into which Mrs. Galvin fell on the Bth Juno last, and sustained a'compound dislocation of her left ankle. By this she was laid up in the hospital fourteen weeks, is not yet recovered, ■and it is feared by her medical attendant that she will be a cripple for life. The Advertiser says the only defence was the suggestion that Mrs. Galvin fell over the kerbstone. The jitry gave a verdict for the plaintiff for 75/ For some time past the town-hall, Ararat has been haunted (says the A dvertiscr) by strange rustling noises, heard at uncertain intervals, sometimes under the stage, sometimes overhead amongst the flies. The cheeks of rehearsing amateurs occasionally grew pale as a curious kind of hiss was heard from below in response to some of their most impassioned speeches. Things began to grow serious, and it was at last believed that the forthcoming performance would require to be put of. Nothing could be seen, and the science of spirit-rapping alone appeared to be the solution of those awful sound. At length the cause of all this terror has been discovered in the form of a beautiful waterheu that somehow or other managed to gain admission into the hall, where, for a week past, it has roamed about unseen. A recent squabble between two horsedealer in Melbourne gave some employment to the lawyers in the Supremo Court. A celebrated character named David Nesbitt, better known under the sobriequet oh Scotch Jock,” had a fetid with another dealer named Hay, and ho employed some men—“droves” one witness described them as—to punch Ray’s head. Ray, however succeeded in keeping his head from being punched, ■and then Nesbitt engaged a commission agent to find a man to fight Ray. Tho agent was successful in his commission, and obtained the services of a man named Dufty. A match was made up for 50/, a side, Nesbitt to find Dufty’s money. The fight came off in due course at the Saltwater River, but tho combatants would appear to have come to some understanding—“amalgamiscd,” one of the witnesses said—that Ray was to win. Scotch Jock thus lost his money, and was very wroth at losing 50/, without even seeing a black eye for it. Another dealer, named William Jones, was Ray’s bottleholder on the occasion of the fight and Nesbitt, discovering how he had been betrayed, was angry with Jones as with others. This led to some strong language, and on tho 19th December last, in the course of one of their altercations Jones called Nesbitt “a thief.” Nesbitt then brought an action for slander. The defence was that the language was mild for horsedealers to use to one another. The jury solaced tho plaintiff’s injured feelings by giving him 50/, the amount he lost over the prize-fight.