AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 3668, 24 November 1874, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

At the Mayoral banquet on November 9, Governor Bowen ?ad :— ■“ 1 see from the last return furnished by the Government statist-, that Melbourne and the suburb* now contain 233,0 f 0 inhabitants. It is already, therefore the eighth city of the British Bin pi re, though, as all of yon know’, not forty years have elapsed since the first white man set his fhot here, and many present may remember having seen the blades dance their wid corroborees on rhe very spot on which ibis tine town-ball now stands. You may ask, why enlarge on this topic, which must be familiar to most present ? I will tell you why in a very few words. It is not o-dy because of the well-known and characteristic modesty of the r eople of Victoria in general, and of the city of Melbourne in particular (laughter), which leads them to hide their light under a bushel, that I now refer to this fact, but my real motive is this—that I deem it my duty to impie s upon you, with all the authority of the office which I hold, that the great prosperity and progress which Melbourne enjoys entail with them very heavy responsibilities upon the citizens of Melbourne, and upon the members of the City Council and of the various suburban municipalities. I think that all should strive, not only to make Melbourne —what, indeed, it is already— the commercial metropolis, the London, so to speak, of the Southern Hemisphere, but also to make it the pleasure capital—the Paris of the South. When the French ambassador in England said to Lord Palmerston, “ Paris is the capital of Europe," what was the rejoinder of the English statesman ? “ Yes,” said Lord Palmerston, “Paris may be the capital of Europe, b-it London is the capital of the world." ho I say that you should not only make Melbourne the London, but the Paris of the Southern world —not ocly the commercial is, but the most healthy, tbe moat pleasurable, and most beautiful place to which people can come from ail the neighboring Colonies.” A LITTLE HEROINE. The following incident ia related in the ‘Hobart Town Mercury’ of October 3! : ‘.‘On Friday last, a girl named Margaret Ayre, a nursemaid in’ the family of the Rev. R. Hayward, accidentally fell into the St. Paulis River, Avoca, near its junction with thp South Esk ; and, but for the presence of jpiqd shown by the eldest of her iittle pbaeges, a little girl of six years of age, must have added another to already long list of those who have lost their lives by drowning in the same place. The child, first sending a younger sister home to the parsonage for help, went a little lower down than the scene of the accident, and climbing out into the tea-tree pushed out a branch to her nurse as she drifted down, and whieh she managed to catch. Finding this insufficient to save the girl, she then let herself down into the river, grasping a bough firmly with one hand, while with the united aid of the other and the tea-tree she helped the girl into a place of comparative safety. Meanwhile the help summoned from the parsonage arrived, and the nurse and her brave little preserver were safely landed on the bank and conveyed home, much exhausted from their immersion and efforts. This little narrative shows how much may be accomplished by those valuable qualities—presence of mind and self-control. It mayperhaps be of additional interest t© note that the little girl is grander ce of one who possesssd them in an eminent degree the gallant Sir John Franklin."

ATTEMPTED MURDER OF A WARDER. On Friday morning a very determined attempt to murder a warder, named Jame* Coghlin. in Pentridge Stockade or prison, was made by the most troublesome and dangerous man in the establishment, whose name has been frequently before the public on account of his violent and insubordinate conduct for some years, viz, John Weechurch, a “lifer,” who was sentenced to imprisonment for life some three years ago, for attempting to murder Mr Duncan, impectorgeneral of penal establishments. Weechurcb, some time before stabbing Mr Duncan, set fire to the inspector-general’s house in the stockade, to which he got access by some means, and the destruction of the house was only narrowly averted. After this he set fire to the shoemaker’s shop in the prison When in the Melbourne gaol he nearly killed himself by severing a vein in his arm with a small splinter of glass which he had picked out of the asphalte floor of his cell, and Since he has been sentenced to ljfe imprisonment j»e has heen.’a continual source of annoyance and fear to the prison officials, and has bpen constantly before the visiting justice for misconduct. '(here is a great deal of method in his violence, and he has taken ©are hot to expose hims df to the risk of being shot by any sentry for violence or attempt to escape outside the division walls, knowing probably that if he gave a fair opening very little mercy would be shown him. Complaining lately of ill health, Weechurch, was allowed to work in a cultivation paddock with two other prisoners, imprisoned for serious offences ; and pve? thege tbrge fcofjvicts tygs placed Warden' James'Cpgnlia, a strpng-built man in the prime of life, described as an official who treated the prisoners under his care with all due regard to their comfort, as far as was compatible with his duty. He was armed only with a wooden staff, and was supported by a sentry some RDfty yards ojl ctpryipg loaded firearips. Qn the day in question Weechurch waa en : gaged in pulling up weeds, Shortly after he had set to work, the warder, Coshlin, had occasion to turn his back m on him, and Weechurch, availing himself of the opportunity, and also seeing that be was not observed by the armed sentry, raised the common garden hoe with which he was Wbi-king, and. brfiqgfit ifc dowp ysqth grpat force ftpon Coghlin’s head, laying the warder insensible at his feet. The sentry, on looking again at the spot where he had seen the four moving quietly about a few seconds before, saw Coghlin lying on the ground, and Weechurch going towards the “A ” division. The other two prisoners ran up to Coghlin, and found him unconscious, and bleeding profusely from a wound just below the right temple. Weeepuveh,. meanwhile, walked quietly to a Warder ip f‘A ” division,' and'V a tope qf self satisfaction, and, “J have cooked Warder Coghlin behind the prison ; you had better go apd look after him.” He was at once locked up in a cell, and Coghlin was attended to by the resident surgeon. It was found that the hoe had inflicted a great gash down to the bone on the right cheek, just under the temple, between the eye and the ear; but that, fortunately, as far as could be ascertained by probing and other means, no bones had been fractured, though there appeared to be temporary concussion of the jbram, • There- can be little doubt that Weephufeh struck at the temjile’with murderous iptent, and that it was a mere accident that he did not at once deprive the warder of life by fracturing the skull. As far as cqpld bg ascertained, the injury is not ip itself dangerous, but there is always the fear of erysipelas settjng in, with most serious results, in the case of such a wound. MI|OEtLANEOUg,

The 'Victorian Government will, early next cession, introduce a Bill having for its object the establishment of Courts of Arbitration, to decide disputes between masters and men. with a view to putting an end to strikes.— Mrs M'Uwraith, the retiring Mayoress of Melbourne, was presented with a handsome diamond bracelet and brooch, and a gold chain negligee, with a pendant locket set fldtb la'rgc diamonds, and a firie portrait o£

her husband, the whole costing Lsoo.—The Thames steamer Golden Crown has been purchased to rnn excursion trips in Hobson’s Bay. She can carry 1,200 people —Another clergyman has been convicted of plaaiar-i-m. At the Wesleyan District Meeting at Ballarat, the Rev. Mr Ingham 10-,t a year’s standing for appropriating one of Talmage’a printed sermons,— Government House, Toorak, has been purchased tor a ladies’ college.—At Hobart Town a bind man, sixty-two years of age, nearly murdered his -aife, seventy-one years old, and her dying deposbions have beeu taken. There was no provocation, and the cause of the outrage is unknown. FUNERAL REFORM AT SYDNEY, • The Sydney Association, in which are enrolled. amongst others, the Hon, Thoa. Holt, the Hon, J. B. Wils.u, the Rev. Canon Stephen, and the Rev A. Webb, have adopted a declaration to the eff- ct that the members of the as ociation would, as far as may be possible, dispense with all decorations upon coffins, excepting the inscription plate and emblems of faith ; discontinue the employment of mutes, abolish the use of palls, scarfs, and bands, and discontinue the providing of gloves ; that the hearses shall not carry plumes ; that the horses shall neither wear clothes, plumes, or trappings ; that funerals shall not move at the present slow pace; that processions shall no longer be formed at the residences of the deceased, and that the friends of the departed shall join the procession at the mortuary or cemetery instead; that ordinary attire only should be worn, with a black band across the arm of males in the case of a friend, two black bands in the case of a relation, and three black bunds upon the loss of a wife, a hu-baud, or a parent; and that women should also wear their ordinal y attire at funerals, with hauls as above, and with or Without a black veil, with one, two, or three falls, so as to show their relation to the deceased. BELIEVE IT IF YOU L KE. A correspondent, who has a friend of the usual “unimpeachable veracity,” supported by the usual witnesses of “undoubted ciedibility,” sends to the ‘Argus’ the following story about a wonderful dog. The dog belongs to the verac pus friend, who has made use of him during tbe last three years to find out the winner of the Melbourne Cup. A number of slips of paper ate prepared, and the names of the Cup horses are written on them. The slips are then ranged in a row before the dog, who takes them ud one by one in his mouth, dropping all ‘but our, which he holds on to with great vigor. The sagacious anim d has gone through this performance three tunes, and on each occasion the retained slip has proved to contain the name of the Cup winner—the Quack, Don Juan, and Haricot having been “ tipped ” in succession. This year, we are informed, the proud proprietor of this canine prophet won LSOO by backing the dog’s tip our readers will, of course, understand that wo do not vouch for the strict accuracy of this story but we have no doubt that the veracious friend’s way of finding out the winner of the Cup is quite as good us any other.