AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1999, 1 October 1869, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

A very useful invention called the selfcoreing morticing chisel, has been lately patented in Victoria by Mr Robert Chamberlain. The new chisel is likely to come into general use by carpenters, cabinetmakers, &c. It can be worked by steam or levep power, and at each stroke the core whether a half mortice or qute through, The chisel* are manufactured in Melbourne at a price but little over the ordinary tools. The invention has been patented in England and California. Despatches were sent yesterday, via Sydney, for the Polynesia Company to their representatives at Fiji, announcing the final settlement of the United States cla : m against Ripg Thakotnliau and the native chiefs of the islands. ’ Tlio company's mansger, whd has been absent the past three months in Fiji >r ranging the negotiation, is daily expected to arrive in Sydney. Mr Finner, the

secretary, informs us that he brings with him King Thakombau’s son for education in Melbourne.

According to the Hobart Town Mercury, there must be some cowardly scoundrels in the southern capital of Tasmania. “We hear,” says that paper, “that several anonymous letters of the most disgusting description have lately been sent to his Excellency the Governor and the Hon. Mrs Du Cane, reflecting upon the characters of several ladies and gentlemen who hold a good position in the Colony, and visit at Government house. His Excellency, like a sensible gentleman, treats such communications with the most thorough contempt, and as far as the intentions of the writers arc concerned, they will be utterly disappointed if they imagine for one moment that they will affect in the slightest degree the social status of the individuals reflected upon. His Excellency, however, recognises it to be his duty as an English gentleman to assist by every means in his power in the attempt to discover the mean and cowardly scounOK-ls who resort to such a mode of attack, and for this purpose the letters have been placed in the hands oi the police, and experts employed, through whose instrumentality wo trust the writers of some of them will be discovered, and awarded their deserts.” r Jhe Legislative Council of Queensland parried on the Bth instant a series of resolutions affirming the expediency of the establishment of a monthly line of mail communication with England by the Torres Straits •route. The only objection made to the resolutions was to the effect that the House should not be called upon to determine what proportion of the cost should be paid by Queensland, but that the responsibi ity of doing so ought to bo taken by Government. From the remarks of the Postmaster-General, the Brisbane Courier gathers that, as there was no longer an opportunity of referring the matter to the Assembly, the Government ■would consider themselves warranted in acting upon this expression of opinion on the part of the Upper House, taking it in connexion with the resolutions passed at a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce in May last, We presume, therefore, that negotiations will at once be entered into for the purpose of establishing the alternate mail service via Torres Straits, The case of a lad named William Adams, who was sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude for a capital offence on his sister, at Ararat, is exciting public attention ; and strong efforts are being made to procure his release from prison. The evidence on which he was convicted was this A neighbor of the Adams’s told the police the offence had been committed ; the girl corroborated the evidence, and charged her brother with being the guilty person ; and what is most extraordinary, the medical man at the Ararat Hospital deposed that the capital crime had been committed. The evidence now appears to be one mass of fiction. The girl says her fears were worked upon by a neighbor, who, by the use of terrible threats, first induced her falsely to confess that she had been outraged, and then to accuse her brother of the offence. Ten medical gentlemen (including Professor Halford, Drs M'Crae, You], Heild, and Gilbee), have demonstrated that it was absolutely impossible the crime could have been committed.

An Albury vinegrower who has lately visited New Zealand, has brought back with him a hundredweight or two of Hew Zealand flax fphormium tenax) to bo used in the tying up of vinrs. The price at which this new material can be imported is said to be cheaper than cither stringy hark or string, while it is at the came time strong and durable.

' The Council of the Sydney Agricultural Society have revived Dyer*? project for prganising a great Intercolonial Exhibition, to be held in Sydney in 1870, in celebration of the centenary of the discovery of Australia by Captain Cool; in 1770- They have appointed a deputation to wait upon the Government to ascertain what assistance the Government will grant towards the s.heme.