INTERCOLONIAL.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 221, 23 February 1875, Page 4

INTERCOLONIAL.

AUSTRALIAN NEWS. We extract the following items from our files to hand by the Omeo:— The wreck of the barque Blencathra, on King's Island was sold on the 11th, by auction, and realised £11,300, the purchaser being Mr George Stevenson. Protests against the sale were handed in to the auctioneer from the different insurance offices. The official inquiry into the cause of the loss cf the Biitish barque Blencathra on King's Island, on the night of the 3rd inst, was concluded on the 10th at the Customs office. The members of the Steam Navigation Board present were—Captains Payne, Fullarton, and Devlin; and Mr Stephen. Captain Nicholas attended and plotted out on his chart the position of the vessel—according to the courses steered as set down in the ship's log book for the Wo days previous to the wreck, until the time she struck. The Board then considered the evidence for nearly an hour, and ultimately returned the following decision :—" The official court of enquiry having taken the evidence of the crew of the barque Blencathra, wrecked on King's Island, on the night of the 3rd inst, and also of the master and the mate of the Mary Blair, which vessel was in company with the wrecked vessel at noon of the day of the wreck, is of opinion—That the wreck was caused by the master mistaking the Cape Wickham fixed light for the Cape Otway revolving light, and the Board noticed by the evidence and the position of the ship that there must have been a current, which set the vessel to the south*

ward and westward about forty miles within a period of nineteen hours. The court, however, considered that the evidence taken at the preliminary inquiry does not warrant a charge being brought against the master of any wilful default." A want has long been felt among the Volunteer Corps in the colony of a handy compendium of the unwritten military law as it applies to them, and this want is shortly to be supplied, the commandant of the forces having given orders for the compilation of such a work. The object of the little book is clearly explained by the following extract from the introduction: —" The Imperial regulations being written for the guidance of regular troops, in many cases treat only generally, and pass over—assuming it to be known —much detail which, for the information and instruction of irregular forces, it is expedient should be clearly defined." The book is now in the printer's hands, and will shortly be issued.

Hugh James Vincent O'Ferrall, the defaulting Lands office clerk, was brought up on remand at the City Police Court on the llth, on three charges of embezzling moneys the property of Her Majesty, with which he had been entrusted as a salaried officer in the Lands office. The prosecution was conducted by Mr H. Gurner. The prisoner was defended by Mr Hill. The principal evidence taken was that given by Mr Hodgkinson and Mr Fletcher. From the statements made by these gentlemen it appeared that the prisoner had every facility in carrying on his defalcations. The blank books of licences were furnished to him without any check whatever, and he was thus enabled to retain what money he pleased in his own hands. The defalcations extended over a period of several years, and it was stated yesterday by Mr Gurner that they amounted to about £16,000. Mr Hill appeared to be merely watching the case, and to confine himself to showing the great temptations to which the prisoner was subjected. The prisoner was very self-possessed, and stepped into the dock with a light free motion. He remained perfectly quiet before the Court, but appeared to watch the proceedings very closely. The case was a Ijourned at 5 o'clock until the 15th.

The Ingle wood correspondent of the Bendigo Advertiser says : —"The question as to whether the Inglewood Mechanics' Institute should be opened on Sunday was decided at the adjourned annual meeting of subscribers in the affirmative by an overwhelming majority—l 7to 8. Twenty-six subscribers were present, including the Rev J. F. Dewhurst, incumbent of St Augustine's Church. Queensland files are to the 6th inst. An exhibition of art and industry for the colony is to be held at Brisbane in June or July. On the Ist inst, at Georgetown, the blacks chased two sawyers (Germans) into the township irom their camp, four miles out, and afterwards robbed their hut of everything moveable. A party of volunteers started without delay for the purpose of dispersing them, and after meeting with some resistance, succeeded in driving the blacks for a distance of ten miles down the Etheridge River. The blacks proved very determined, and used their spears freely. A rush, which is likely to be of considerable magnitude, has set in to the head of the Palmer. Men are reported to be getting from half an ounce to an ounce per day. NEW SOUTH WALES MINISTRY. {Sydney Morning Herald.') Mr Robertson has completed his task, and constructed one out of two of the possible Ministries that lay ready to his hand. Of the eight Ministers of whom it is at present the custom to construct a Cabinet, four have been in office before. Mr Robertson, Mr Forster, Mr Dalley, and Mr Docker have all known the responsibilities of sitting round the Executive table; but Mr Garrett, Mr Burns, Mr Lackey, and Mr Lucas have never as yet felt that burden. The four new Ministers, however, are not new men in the Parliamentary sense. Notwithstanding the large infusion of new members into the House, none of them are about at once to spring into the higher responsibilities of Government, though one at least is said to have been asked. It is worth noting that two of the new Ministers occupied the post of Chairman of Committees, while a third h>is been a candidate for that position, and has occasionally acted as a locum tenens. In the late Ministry there were at first only two experienced Ministers, viz, Messrs Parkes and Sutherland. Mr Piddington, Mr Lloyd, Mr Farnell, Mr Butler, Mr Innes, and subsequently Mr Allen and Mr Abbott, were all new in office.

Whether in this fresh Cabinet any of the round pegs are in square holes will be seen by the way they fit when they come to settle down. Mr Robertson will not find himself a stranger in the office of Colonial Secretary, although he has always been more at home in the adjacent building. But if he could not take the Lands himself, the next best thing, in order to keep up a control over it, was to put Mr Garratt there, who will not be suspected of any rebellious disposition towards the chief he has so long and so faithfully served, and who will not develope any new and troublesome theories about free selection. He is not likely to be less loyal in office than he has been out of it. Mr Dalley, whom Mr Robertson has had the art to win back to politics from the seclusion of private life, just as he did Mr Cowper, has previously held one of the Crown Law offices, and will not find much that is unfamiliar to him in that of the AttorneyGeneral. But Mr Lucas's name has always been associated in idea with the department of Works. If ever he got into office at all, that was the seat he was supposed to be looking forward to and working up for. Office has come, but not the Works. All his ideas on roads and railways are thrown away, and he is set to the delightful task of understanding the mining regulations, and giving satisfaction to a class of men who have never yet found the Minister that could satisfy them. The ponderous task of managing all the roads and railways, looking after all the harbors, and seeing that every one has a bridge " agin his own place," is devolved on Mr Lackey, who, it is to be hoped, does not feel nervous under the burden. Mr Burns will, doubtless, find the interior department of the Post-office going like clockwork; but he will find it no light task to arrange satisfactorily the terms ov. the new mail contract. Luckily for him the late Postmaster-General had arranged for a continuance of the service for some months, so that he will have a little time to look about him. Mr Docker has been set to grasp the nettle " Education," and to show how firmness and exquisite courtesy can sooth the angry passions that have been aroused. Mr Forster, oddly enough, is set to deal with

figures, whether by his own request or whether because there was no other place for him is not known. Ledgers and double entry were not generally thought to be his speciality, but there is one comfort, he has no deficit to deal with. He enters into possession of a full box as well as a strong box, and " Money answereth all things."