NEWS OF THE DAY.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 477, 28 December 1875, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Excursion.—The s.s. Halcyon proceeded to Pigeon Bay with a number of excursionists yesterday. The vessel returned in good time for the 6 p.m. train, the voyagers having spent a most enjoyable day, the sea being very calm.

Lecture. —A lecture will be delivered in St Paul's Presbyterian Church this evening, by the Rev J. W. Cree, on •' Oratory in Relation to the British Parliament and Pulpit." The chair will be taken at 7.30 p.m.

Lecture.—The Rev P. P. Agnew, late Government chaplain of Botany Bay, will deliver a free lecture on Wednesday evening, at the Music Hall, on " The Early Sufferers and Martyrs of Botany Bay." The lecture has been delivered by Mr Agnew in the Northern cities, and has been spoken of as both able and interesting. Supreme Court.-—The criminal session of the Supreme Court will open on Monday next before His Honor Mr Justice Johnston at JO a.m. We would desire to call the attention of jurors and witnesses to the fact that the hour of the Court opening has been fixed for ten o'clock instead of eleven as formerly. Captain Hayes.—The Argus says : A short time ago the Spanish authorities at the Ladrone or Marianne Islands arrested Captain Hayes, of the brig Leonora, an American shipmaster, on a charge of kidnapping, and he has been, it is believed, removed to Manila, to await his trial. The Hong Kong Times learns that two or three years ago a Captain Hayes, also of the brig Leonora, was arrested by the British Consul at Samoa, in the Pacific, on a serious charge of kidnapping, but before he could be sent to Australia to take his trial, he escaped on parole. Mr Hume Rothery, to whom the case was referred by the Home Government, strongly expressed the opinion that if ever Captain Hayes came again within British jurisdiction he ought to be tried for the grave offences imputed to him. The committee of the Aborigines Protection Society, it is said, have represented the above facts to Lord Derby, and his lordship has directed the British Consul at Manila to endeavor to ascertain whether the Captain Hayes who has been arrested by the Spaniards is identical with the person of that name whose alleged piratical career in the Pacific occupies no inconsiderable space in recent blue-books.

Mr Giles's Explorations.—A telegram from Adelaide says :—Mr Ernest Giles, the explorer, reached Victoria Plains on November 6th, and Perth a few days later, with ten men and sixteen camels. Mr Giles gives the following information regarding his trip : " The expedition has been successful, yet the country traversed for more than a thousand miles in a straight line was simply an undulating bed of dense scrub, except between the 125th and 127th meridians, the latitude being nearly the 30th parallel. Here an arm of the great Southern plain ran up and crossed our track, which, though grassy, was quite waterless. The waters were indeed few and far between throughout. On one occasion a stretch of desert was encountered in which no water was obtainable for 325 miles, which only the marvellous sustaining powers of Mr Elder's all-enduring beasts enabled us to cross. The next desert was only 180 miles to a mass of granite, where I saw natives for the first time on the expedition. They attacked us there, but we managed to drive them off. Mount Churchman was now only 160 miles distant, and we found water again before reaching it. We struck in at Tootra, an out-Btation of Messrs Clunes, where their shepherd was very hospitable. At Mr Clark's homestead we were most kindly welcomed, and we are now enjoying at Walebig the hospitality of young Mr Lefroy, whose residence appears an earthly paradise to us." At Perth the party had a grand reception, and Mr Elder, at whose expense the expedition was undertaken, haß been greatly eulogised Mr Tietkens, the second in command and Mr Young, the naturalist, arrived by the Sumatra, and confirm Mr Giles's account. Mr Young has collected nearly 800 botanical and geological specimens, many of the former being quite new ; and Mr Elder intends sending them to the Baron von Mueller.