AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2119, 19 February 1870, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

At Brisbane, on the 7th, at midnight, ft disastrous flood suddenly swept over Clermont, on the Peak Downs, drowning several persons, and carrying away houses, fences, furniture, and stock. ' Within an hour there was a stream nearly sft. deep running at the rate of eight or nine miles an hour through the township. It was caused by Sandy Creek overflowing. Seven persons are known to have been drowned. The affrighted inhabitants rushed to the trees and housetops for shelter, and the cries of distress from women and children were most heart-rending. When tho water subsided the scene was very appalling. Dr. Benson’s surgery and laboratory, with medicines and instruments, were swept entirely away, not a vestige remaining to mark tho place. One family escapee! by sitting on a cross-beam in a cottage. A kitchen near the Telegraph Office, with three inmates, was carried away, and the bodies were afterwards recovered. Mr Busacotte, the proprietor of the Peak Downs Tehr/ram, with one compositor, escaped drowning by climbing a tree at the end of the printing-office, whilst the typo and plant were carried down the stream. The municipal office and new bridge arc both gone. Mr Keimcr’s cottage was carried across the yard. All the outbuildings in the town are destroyed, and scarcely a rod of fencing is left standing. The total damage to property is estimated at LIO,OOO. The names of the deceased as far as known are William Williams, wife, and children, Lewis Hickey, Rosine Elliott. Another body, name unknown, was seen floating down the creek. In addition to these losses, thousands of sheep have been carried off by the floods. Business is paralysed. The heaviest losers are Messrs Beusou, Palmer, Winter, and Lea aud Lavat. At the Peak Downs station five lives were lost; and at Lilyvalo four children were drowned. At Bowen, a heavy cyclone occurred on the 29th and 30th ult. It commenced at S. E. and veered round to N., with blinding rain. It did a good deal of damage in the town. Four horses were blown down, and many others were unroofed and stripped of verandahs. A man named Jackson was killed by his bouse falling, and his wife Was injured. The Black Prince sailed before the gale, but returned safely. There has been more damage done than in the cyclone of 1867. j

Thirty-five female immigrants offering fchoir labor in the Melbourne labor marke , and about 150 employers attending to compete for the ware! Ought not a fact like this to speak volumes to the people of -England as to the character of this Colony asa field for certain kinds of immigration? Ihe thirty-five single women who had such a choice of employment offered them arrived by the Lady Jocelyn, and were on Monday last “ open for hiring at the depot.” Of the number who came to hire 11G obtained admittance to the building, the rest arriving too late to secure “tickets of admission.” Each young woman had therefore an average of three and two-seventh employers to select from. Lyster's new opera company opened for the season on October 5 to a very brilliant house. The opera was “Ernami,” which appears to have been most successful. At the end of the first act the artistes were twice called before the curtain, and at the conclusion of each act they had to bow their acknowledgments. Of the performers, the A rqus says:— “ The Barratti is young, of good mien and figure, with strongly marked features, instinct with intelligence, somewhat below the middle height for womep. Her voice is a genuine soprano of grand quality. Signor Neri is a tall, personablemau, withevery advantage of stage appearance, and the possessor of a tenor voice of rare excellence, which training has brought under perfect control. Signor Dondi, too, enjoys many physical advantage* which, in an operatic singer, enhance the possession of a fine voice. We intend to hear further of him before pronouncing upon the exact quality of the organ, which at present appears to be of a lighter stamp than we anticipated. We mention Signor Coutinv as being specially excellent for his dramatic ability, and though parhapa unable to please so much as a vocalist as his more, gifted confreren, still he la likely to hold a very favorable position before an audience for the reason we have mentioned. As a quartet thase artists are fit for any capital city in Christendom. The season has opened with groat promise, aud there is every reason to anticipate the performance will amply fulfil it. Herr Bandraann seems to have taken tho Sydney people by storm. The papers are hearty in their approval, and agree in testifying to the enthusiasm of the audience. The Herald says that “four times during tho evening Herr Bandmann was recalled to receive plaudits us heartily bestowed as they were fairly merited.” The Empire is even more emphatic in its laudation, declaring that “never since the days of the early visits of the Keans, Catherine Hayes, and a few others of the old times past, has there been in theatrical circles in Sydney a more unexampled success, or a more legitimate triumph, than was achieved by Herr Bandmann on his first appearance in Sydney.” Writing on tho subject of making gaols reproductive by using convict labour in city improvements, the Argus says ; —“ Our fellow colonists in Otago, much to their credit, have set us an excellent example in this respect, and it is gratifying to observe that the governor of the gaol, Mr James Caldwell, by whom this valuable reform was introduced, was an old officer from Pentridge, ■where a similar system bail been introduced, by Colonel Champ, who, labouring under tho double disadvantage of being a zealous and efficient head of the department and a gentleman, was got rid of by the late Government.