AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2009, 13 October 1869, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

The relative merits of a Milner’s fire re» sisting safe and one manufactured by Mr Dyke of Melbourne, were tested in Ballarat lately, the result being thus described by the Post : —For upwards of two hours the heat to which the safes were subjected was ranch greater than under ordinary circumstances any safe would be exposed to in an accidental fire, the colonial safe certainly having the warmer time of it. la Milner’s there were written papers placed,- and in Dyke’s LBO in notes and a gold watch and chain belonging to the owner, and a silver watch, placed there by Mr M, Dungan, After more than two hours the fire was extinguished by a detachment of the 8.W.P.8., under the guidance of Lieutenant Crampton, and when the safes were c 00l enough to bo handled the result was proven. The lock of the colonial safe had not been injured by the immense heat, but answered to the key with great ease, but there was still some difficulty in opening the door, as the handle had been broken off. The opening being effected, everything was found withm almost exactly as it was before the fire, the notes and papers being nnsinged and the watches still going. Sometime afterwards Milner’s safe was opened, and the paper in it found to be so much damaged that the writing upon it could not be deciphered, and the fabric waa in a crumbling stste. The 400 or 300 people who had waited patiently for the result appeared te be well pleased with the victory of the colonial manufacturer.

The Braklicood Dispatch gives the follow, ing account of the Urge fijjd qt tho LjtsP River, Braidwood, N.S.W. ;—»' Intelligence reached town on Saturday last of a most extraordinary rich find of gold in the Home* ward Bonnd claim, on the Mosquito Reef, little River, fbo parties working in the claim, era coming upon it, were quite beside themselves with expitcwjcßt, as well they mi<*ht be. In not more than a third of tup three bushel bag full of the stone which was raised, it was estimated by some that there was thirty pounds weight of gold, and by some pa; sons it was thought that there was nearer forty pounds weight. For one piece of stone alpup L§o was offered, but this thp claimholders were not incljne4 tq aocppji, seeing that they had sold a piece a few hourp previously for L 7 10s, which on being crushed had yielded lOoe of gold. They ernsh*4 the stone, which weighed about 731bs, in a Btwrt*v, a*4 having done pH they could in this rudo way to separata tho gold from tho stone, they brought it into thp Oriental Bank on Monday, when the residua was found to weigh 3330s 7dwts, Of this between 250 and 30 J ounces is estimated to be gold. At the Ballarat Police Court, a mam named John Bohmer, barber in tho Main road, was brought up by the police for Illegally trading on a Sunday. It appears, says the Courier, that all tho other barbers and hairdressers in Ballarat signed an agreement to close their places of business on Sundays, and Bohmer wa* a leading spirit in bha movement, taking tho petition round to the members of the trade. When all tho other shqps were closed he opened his, and, from the evidence of a witness, was doing a roaring

trade. He wot hrongh bnp at the instance of the associated hairdresser and the case was, going hard against him, when Mr M'Dermott, whom he had engaged for the defence, raised a somewhat novel objection under the 30th section of the Police Offences Statute, shewing that the restrictions affecting traders on the Sabbath did not apply to barbers. His client was not “ trading within the meaning of the Act, and he bad as much liberty to exercise his profession on a Sabbath as a surgeon had ; in fact, a?!the bench well knew, the duties of barber and surgeon were once united, the barber not only shaving boards, curling polls, and cutting com?, but also practising the minor offices of surgery; and, though perhaps reviving a barbarous custom, it would still be within the province of a surgeon, if patients failed him, to adopt the practice and profession of a barber, and lather and shave and clip heads and whiskers, as well on a Sunday as any other day. The bench, though not agreeing with all that Mr M'Dermott had stated, was willing to allow a barber was not " trading” while attending to the wants of his customers on a Sunday. BohTner was therefore dismissed, and was told by Mr M'Dermott, on leaving the court, that he could cut away as long or as short as ho liked on a Sunday without being afraid of transgressing the law. The following extract from the Melbourne Argus chronicles on act, which in the oresent selfish times, fs worthy of record. That Journal says :—" Amidst tho scenes of vice, folly, and destitution laid Imre to the public eye, through the medium of ©ur police eonrt, it is gratifying now and then te find that oven among those classes on whom the ban of society presses most heavily, kindness and generosity exist in a degree seldom given credit for. At the Beechwortb Court, on Saturday, an interesting little child, about throe years of age —paid to be the daughter of a Chinamen now deceased, who at one time acted as interpreter in that district —was brought up by a woman named Anne Parmer, with a view to its being forwarded to the Industrial School, The woman stated that tho child had been left with her for nearly twelve months, during which time she had received nothing for its maintenance, and that even then she would not have sought to part with it, had_ it not been that she intended to leave the district. The clean, healthy appearance of the child, the fondness it showed for the woman who had thus befriended it, spoke volumes in favor ef the manner in which it had been treated, and testified strongly to the kindness of heart shown by one whoso faults and follies had lost her the respect of society. Charity covcrcth a multitude of sins.” A Gympie telegram in the Sydney Herald ©f the 20th, states that twenty tons of quartz from the South Lady Mary yielded 1,1(17 oz. smelted gold.