AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 4065, 7 March 1876, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

f A" stonewall ” demonstration at Ballarat, 1 though attended by Mr Berry and manyleading members of the Opposition, is stated by the * Argus}’ to be a failure. Dr Cairns, of Chalmers* Church, left Melbourne for the old country on the 24th. His successor, the Rev. James Beattie, was expected to arrive about the 7th March.

An explosion took place in the Office in consequence of some detonating ' caps having been put in a letter. No serious injury was done. There is no suspicion of the caps being put there through Professor Andrew, : the head master of Wesley College, has been fined L 5 by the Prahran Police Court for giving a boy named Albert Riley twenty-one strokes with a cane, for lying. The masters of other schools have forwarded the professor ah address of sympathy. Mr David Syme, proprietor of the * Age * newspaper, has been appointed president! of the National Reform League, and Messrs Mirams, M.L.A., Munro, M.L.A., and J. J. Walsh, M.L.A., vice-presidents. An unusually large shoal of fish, said to be a species of Bonita, was fallen* in with by the schooner Eliza Mary on her voyage from Oamaru. The sea was literally alive with them, and a large number were caught. Scarlet fever is decreasing in Melbourne and the suburbs,' but increasing in the country districts.

Mr Gordon, the, Government Water Engineer, has reported in. a very favorable manner of the great North-Western Canal scheme.

The Governor has assented to the Bill abolishing verdicts of fdo de se, passed bv the N. S.: Wales Legislature: * • y A Russian seaman named Golsen has been convicted of the manslaughter of a country, man. It transpired >in the medical evidence that deceased’s' death was accelerated by blood poisoning, owing to contagion in the Infirmary. Nearly four-fifths 6f the amount required to send a shipment of frozen meat to has been collected.

An attempted store robbery at Emuflat, nearYass, took place, at 11 o’clock turday night, 26th ult. Some navvies had settled their store accounts and left for a public-house fifty or sixty: yards off.- :ir: A sub-contractor named Holman entered. the door simultaneously 'with two other men. The latter at once produced' pistols and demanded Holman’s money. A scuffle ensued, when one robber fired at Holman and shot him through the lungs, near the heart. 1 He died at sik o’clock this morning. The other robber fired at Mr M'Oonochiej the owner of the store, and the ball grazed his shoulder, blackening his shirt. Both then prepared to.bolt, when M'Conochie lifted a sheath-knife off the counter lunged at one of the robbers, and is supposed to have seriously wounded him. Both got away. Holman, who is a respectable married man, had just left his wife and six children, to procure a bottle of vinegar. Further particulars from Bowen state that the whirlwind came from the north, with heavy black clouds and fierce lightning, and in a few minutes levelled or damaged many buildings. A child was killed by the falling debris, and several persons are still suffering from injuries received. The Mayor estimates the damage at Llo,oool The ‘Advertiser’ states that a squatter had to pay two members of Parliament LI,OOO each to buy off their opposition in the purchase of a Government well. The ‘Register’ contradicts many cf the statements of the ‘ Advertiser.’ The squatter’s name is Alexander Hay, and the members’ names are Jenkin Coles and James White > Mr Coles denies absplutely any connection with the transaction, and, Mr White also denies having received any money. The Hon. Alexander Hay states. that Mr Coles never called upon him aboiit the sale of the Government well, or obtained ahy

money from lum, or to “*"(8 bring pressurowhear, br promise 6f .money mhi to bid for the>Teaae of the Up. and W&fey, a Plf W. kgainst Coles unde?lhe AuoWP* . T b e . ; commencemmdumes mso lum )tna™^ of LUX) j^share. iwaifefe Sunday afternoon, the 6th inst., Through the careless use of gunpowder. It apiiears ” says the North-eastern Ensign, “that the boy had procured a lemonade bottle nearly full of powder, and went with a little sister to «an- ■oidstump on tiie i flabto*mßfcerw* c ja , eat blow up.” Whether he had laid a train from the bottle is not known, but while‘he still held it in one hand, a match was a'pplied with„the other, .and tha with a tremendous report, bursting the bottle and shattering the poor lad’s hand in a horrible manner.’"

The inquiry into the working of the Mining Department is making a great sensation in Melbourne. Indeed, it forms the main topic of conversation, and thesytopathy - expresseed with the officerh.is general. Public feeling has indeed taken a practical form, for steps have been taken tp a fund for the purpose; of paying. the> . expenses incurred in connection with tite inquiry. A young .man named Win. Chambers has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, with hard labor, for the abduction of Agnes Blankard, a young gid under sixteen wears of age. , Kenneth Brown, a wdl r lmown settler, has been committed for the murder of his wifeat GeraJd Town, West Australia, where they recently arrived from Melbourne. v * ' A meeting of thp labor leago atMaiywas held. on : the 14th, to wnodSe the employment of Kanakas withmthe town boundary. The police arreted some of the principal organise*) op achalfctfof inciting to hot Afterwards 150 marched in procession through the town. , The Bii.uk of New',, South Wales intehdß extending its operations toPiji. The Pope has forwarded to a bazaar about to be beld At Wagga, in aid of the funds fcf a new convant, a magnificent cameo bust of the Virgin -Mary set in a broobhl The brooch contains fifty-one turquoises add thirty-three si'.pphires in the setting. 1 ; A msn nameaWm. Ling accidentally shot It is Supposed that he was drinSHu waterhole, and, had rested the gun ott a slender wattle behind him; that the gun fell down aihd one barrel went ofL lodging the contents in his shoulder. ' a few minutes afteitwairds. 1 - --

John ■ Huber, caretaker of the Oong&fiitional Church; Victoria Parade, died mthe hospital from injuries received on his by smashing the windows of the church.?He was intoxicated ,at, the time. ■ ; f < In some unaccountable way a child sixteen months old was burned to death at Carlton The father, apparently under, the ,influence of liquor, was lying sound asleep on a sofa, and the mother was sleeping in the bedroom upstairs. How the clothing of the child iimited was a mystery, as the bnly lighfin ■the room, was a candle which had been left burning by the parents. -The parents have been committed. ; A boy under the care of the Revv J. Frank, Castlemaine, having died, as alleged by Dr Bone at the inquest, from neglect* or from being allowed access to alcoholicliquotSi the Crown Law Officers have instituted jui inquiry. ’ ? i Sir Charles Gavan Dufiy is expected arrive in Victoria in March At Hobart Town, John Nbwlan, fohnmfo convicted of a Similar offence, b^i.sentenced to death for a criminal assault on a child of -ten years.

y* rvi* jwiudi ... . At an inquest on the body of. a child that died while under the core of a ,( baby fanner,” a verdict of death from starvation was returned.

At Ballarat a child was running after a 1 puppy, when the animal fell into a wdLand the child after it.. Both were drowned# ‘-Daily Telegraph’s ’ correspondent at . Ghilwell gives particulars of a fimrder and* suicide there. W, Stenton, a, market dener. Who had been in a lunatic asylum, but was released at the request of his family, killed his wife, and afterwards committed suicide. 1 ' ' w ' ' ! Sebastopol, near Ballarat, is being kted so rapidly that it will soon exist only in name.

John: Lynan, said to be a draper but of employment, has been 1 sentenced to sixmonths’ imprisonment, and two loggings of, twenty-five lashes each—one to be tered m the first, and the other in the fifth month of his confinement—for indecent behaviour.* ’I , The Government of New South Wales are ‘ arranging a scheme for cohspUda&u? Jhe whole of the'debt of the Colony.” A goods train from Burra ran off the line at Adelaide. Jonathan Wright, driver, John Warren, stoker, and WilSain Holme, a ganger, were killed. A splendid crashing has just been completed by the Great Hustler’s Ootnpany, Bendigo, taken from their 900 ft level, The stone crushed has yielded oyer 2oz ofgold perton. This is the' deepest point from which quartz has been taken in any quantity fromlSand- - hurst.

. A goods train took fire near Benalla on ■ the 17th. The middle track of the three, loaded with about five tons of general mer- * chandise, consisting, of spirits, groceries, ;oil* men’s stores, ironmongery, and farming in- " plbments, was totally destroyed before'the . fire could be destroyed.: r, : 'S. At the Hobart Town races, the Governor ;i, drove a four-in-hand to the course, nearly a. dozen fours following in line, with numerousVf vehicles in the rear, forming a prrttysight, ■“ Sir Samud Wilsdny receiAly fqr hie donation of I&0,000 to Melbourne versity,.is about to become the cwper of almost the whole traotof country frojh outskirts of Ballarat to Ararat, along 'the * line of railway noW open. ~ It is stated in circle# which paght to* ' know, that Lady Bowen will not return to. ■;*• Victoria at all. People who,think that the f Governor and his lady ought to l&d society, *■' as in New South Wales, are dissatisfied! - Mr E. Trickett, of Sydney, has had his T passage taken for him to Philadelphia, to '*• rompete in wager boats for thechampion- '’ ship of the world. . . ' An account of a shipwreck, ten yean ago ' ? in the neighborhood of the north west Cape* is related by natives, who state that the - crew, and. passengers were slain and eaten. The vessel is supposed to be the bussing schooner Emma, which left, Port' Walcott : with fifty persons in 1867. -