AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2023, 29 October 1869, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Bohmer, the Sunday-sbaving barber, at Ballarat, has been subdued by the associated hair-dressers. Says the Courier “It will he remembered that on Monday last he was ordered to pay a fine and costs, or be incarcerated in the slocks (and we have no doubt the barbers would have got the stocks made he resisted the fine) for shaving on the Sunday, and that this decision by Mr Gaunt was given in consequence of Mr Lewis having prosecuted under an o!d Act of Charges the Second’s day. Bohmer, finding that he could be brought up and punished in this way at least once a week, has surrendered at discretion, and on Monday evening attended a meeting of the Barber's Association at the Eglinton Hotel, ani apologised to the association for the trouble »nd expense ha had caused them. He also agreed to resolutions, which were carrried, that ho should pay to the association all law costs which had been actually incurred, and to sign a bond to the effeot that ho would forfeit a sum of ten guineas if he ever practised his calling again on a Sunday. Should either of these pledges ho broken he will be sued for the costs of an appeal to the Supreme Court, when he would be mulcted in a sum of not less than L 60.”

Tho Melbourne correspondent of the Bidlarat Star writes The Argus is just now an exemplification of the perils which surround newspapers. During the recent failures at Launceston in Tasmania, it publi-hed a telegram to ihe effect that Louis Cohen of that city, bad failed, but on discovering that the statement was incorrect, at once did its best to vindicate Mr Cohen. It appears however, that he is not satisfied, and has taken tho initiatory steps to bring a libel action against your contemporary. It is well (says the Herald) the Sydney authorities have forbidden the contemplated Fenian gathering which was to have taken place to-morrow at Ciontarf, as the Orangemen having prepared for a counter-demon-stration at the same time and place, there can be no doubt that the result would have been a bloody and perhaps fatal collision. There is something unspeakably disreputable, not to say rash, in the conduct of those who projected such a display under the pretence of exhibiting sympathy with the pardoned Fenians. Taking into account the association of the locality chosen, it seems to have been nothing short of a design to glory over one of the most cowardly and infamous outrages ever attempted—an outrage of which we did believe that even Fenians were ashamed, and we are confident that every respectable Irishman will be glad to dissociate himself from such an abominable scheme. Even those who disapproved of the mild course taken by the Victorian Government in putting the law in motion so as to prevent the liberated Fenians from remaining here, must now see the wisdom of ridding our shores of such elements of discord, who seem to be as much wanting in self-respect as in respect for the law which has dealt so leniently wi hj their folly and fanaticism. Unfortunately we have sufficient sources of trouble among ourselves without acclimatising another whose miserable characteristic it is to have confounded patriotism wit‘a assassination Having been prevented from pic-nicing at Ciontarf. it appears they have selected some other locality for their exhibition. Tbe sooner they are cast out from Australian soil altogether, the better for those who have to blush at the consciousness of b ing their fellow-countrymen. The movement was discountenanced by the Roman Catholic clergy of Sydney. An important meeting of persons interested in the London wool sales was held in Sydney lately. Tbe present method of disposing of our staple produce is unsatisfactory, and the low price of wool makes everyone anxious to effect the smallest saving. The complaints made are that the sales are held too infrequently, that the full weight is not allowed for, that a double brokerage is levied, and that the warehousing is inefficient and expensive. A committee was appointed to take the matter into consideration, and to • o-opnrate with a committee of colonists in London. A circular was read from the Mihvall Docks Company, offering to lease a sufficient area of their laud to receive and display all the wool imported into London, and to let the whole management of the wool business be in the hands of those interested in it. This is an offer which obviously deserves cons : derntion, and though, of course, in the interest of the Dock Company, may also bo in the interest of the colonial wool grower. It is not only this Colony, however, that is interested in this matter, and the movement started in Sydney may probably be followed in the other colonies.

In commenting on the possible visit of Signor Tambcrlik and other celebrated artists to Australia, the Melbourne Daily Telegraph observes:—Opera having died a kind of natural death in Melbourne nearly two years ago, may soon be resuscitated. Two gentlemen, one the Vi omte de la Chapelle, the otoer Mr W. S. Lyster, are actively en <aged in recruiting England, France, and Italy, for such artists as maybe prevailed upon to cross the deep sea to delight the eyes and ears of the people of Australia. It seems a pity to use any other than congratnlary language under the circumstances, but our appr hensions are less for ourselves than for the speculators and the artists. First, unless Mr Lyster and the Vicomte can agree to combine their forces, both are likely to be ruined by desperate and homeless competition; and, next, unless the people of Melbourne become more liberal, and some of the ‘ critics ’ less critical, the artists are likely to collapse with terror. Even Tamberlik may not be good enough for many who have never heard a singer of his quality before, and Madame St. Lrbain, who we are informed, was the Martha who made famous Flotow’s opera, may be voted obsolete. It really is a monstrous thing that r-spectablo artists should come 16,000 miles to bo informed that they do not understand the first rudiments of their profession and that they must go to school agam before venturing an appearance before a select audience of, say, some twenty or thirty individuals who claim to be the ‘ most critical audience in the world,’and even so constitute that audience themselves. Tamlnriik is not in his prime, neither, no doubt, is Madame St. L'rbain. Shall we be civil to them, and be thankful that wc c cn get anything like opera amongst us, or shall we begiu by grossly insulting them, and send opera packing for years, to come 7”