AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 4312, 21 December 1876, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

A diamond, valued at £lO, has been found at Echunga nigging:?, South Australia. The Governor of South Australia has received official notification of his appointment to Jamaica, and leaves Adelaide by the January mail steamer. A man, whose name could not be ascertained, committed suicide in the Royai Park, Sydney, on December 8, by blowing out his brains with an old 4oubJe-barrelled holster pistol.

JohanuQS Odwhan,,a naturalist, has poisoned himself at Gawler. • The Governor of New South Wales, in opening the Parliament, alluded to the continued prosperity of the Colony. Among the measures promised was a Bill lor the consolidation of the criminal law. A lad, in the employment of Messrs Lloyd Brothers, Broadford, Victoria, was bitten on the left finger by a black snake, while engaged in bringing in firewood. He at once cut the finger off with an axe. He is now quite out of danger. Orders have been given by the Victorian Government to purchase 26,000 tons of railway iron in consequence of the low rates now ruling. The .JEngineer-in-Chief of Victoria condemns the railway engines of colonial construction as damaging the permanent way. Among the passengers who have returned to the colony by the mail steamer Assam are Mrs Bladen Neill and Mr Fitzgibbon, the Town Clerk of Melbourne.

The dispute between Lillywhite, the captain of the All-England Eleven, and the East Melbourne Cricket Club, as to a breach of contract, has been referred unconditionally to arbitration. The Cup Cricket match between East Melbourne and Richmond has been won by the latter by 139 runs, and the cup has accordingly been handed over by the previous holders, in whose possesion it has been for a year and eight mouths. Mr Steavenson, the Secretary of Railways, landed in England on November 25th. The Agent-General in London has received the statement of charges made by the Government against Mr Steavenson, and has promised to deliver them at once.

The 'Hobart Town Mereury' states that salmon is now regularly sold by all the fishmongers in that city at Gd per lb. Two fishermen caught sixteen salmon in one night by a single net. Some of the fish weighed upwards of 151bs each. This is most complete and conclusive proof of the success of the attempt to acclimatise this prince of fishes in Australian wateis.

The sentence on Kelly for murder at Deniliquin, N.S.W., Ims been commuted to seven years ; the sentence of death on Whelton, of Tarn worth, to fifteen years ; and the sentence of death on Patrick Hennessy, for murder at Wagga Wagga, to life imprisonment, the first three years in irons. The Victorian Treasurer received by the mail communications from high financial authorities in London concerning the brilliant success of the Victorian loan of three millions, which is described as one of the rnost successful financial operations floated on the money market for many years. In the New South Wales Parliament, Mr Baker moved an address in reply, upon which Mr Parkes moved an amendment in effect censuring the Government for the delay in calling Parliament together, and for their conduct of public business generally during the recess. The debate is proceeding. The Victorian Treasurer has been in communication with the Government of New South Wales with the view of arranging for a joint request to be preferred to the Home Government to grant the services of an engineer officer of high standing, who should visit these colonies and devise a scheme of defences necessary for their protection.

The committee of the South Australian Total Abstinence Society purpose offering two prizes, of LIOO and L 25 respectively, for the two best essays on the fruit of the vine, with a view to exposing what is styled the "fallacy that alcoholic wines possess any claim to be regarded as an article of diet, and detailing the most profitable uses to which the fruit of the vine can be applied, and its purity preserved, based upon scientific, historical, and experimental facts."

Basilio Bondietti, whose reprieve had been asked for on the ground that he had been convicted on insufficient and wholly circumstantial evidence, was executed within the Melbourne gaol on December 11. Ashe was in the act of fainting, the bol* was drawn, and he died without pain. The condemned man left no confession nor any clue, except it may have been to his piiest, to tell whether he was really guilty of the murder, as to the facts of which considerable difference of opinion prevails. In 1858 or 1850 a Swiss charcoal burner was murdered in the Jim Crow Ranges, near Daylesford. The murderer was never discovered, but within the last few days the police have received information indicating that Bondietto, who was executed a few days ago, was concerned in this crime. A Swiss, now residing at Mudgee, but who at that time was resident in Victoria, and acted as interpreter in the case, has written lately to his brother at Seymour, stating that he has ' reasons for believing that Bondietto [ was concerned in the murder ot tjmt man. A serious charge was made agaiust the master of the brig Doietta during the hearing of a case at the Williamstown Court. Six of the crew wore charged with refusing duty, and the men excused their refusal by saying that the violent conduct of the captain rendered it unsafe for them to remain on board. As an instance of his violence, one of the seamen swore that when at sea a boy named Wright was taken ill through eating bad fish. The naxt day the master had him up on deck, and triced him up by the

thumbs, with his hands hauled up so high that only his toes rested on the deck. The boy was kept in that position for two hours, and when he was cut down he was carried forward in a stiite of unconciousness, and remained insensible for two days. It was said the boy w,as taken from a London Eeformatory. The case of Mr Brough Smyth, who was removed from his post as Chief Officer of the Mining Department for his overbearing conduct, was recently brought under the notice of the Victorian Parliament by the Hon. A. Mackay, who pleaded that Mr Smyth's services—despite his faults—entitled him to merciful consideration. Sir James M'Culloeh remarked that the whole case had received the most thorough investigation, and the result was that it became impossible to retain Mr Smyth in the position he had occupied. Further than that, he did not consider Mr Smyth was a man fit to be over others, arid he would certainly be no party to put him in any position at all similar to the one he had occupied. He had received employment from the Government since his resignation, and should any suitable appointment present itself, his case might be considered.