LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume III, Issue 186, 23 March 1867, Page 3

LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

The Rev. T. Main, 'of the Wesleyan Church, Newcastle, has been suspended from his duties for immorality. The Ranwick Races promise to be the most successful ever held in New South Wales. L. L. Smith, Fisher, and -Keighran, have horses entered for fifteen races. .Sixteen horses have been entered for the Queen's Plate, seventeen for the Grand Handicap, and twenty-one for the Maiden Plate. No further authentic information has been received from the alleged gold field at the Barrier Ranges. The Pastoral Times j writing on the subject, says :— A reliable correspondent informs us that gdld has been found from time to time at these vast ranges, extending from about eighty miles north of the Darling to the neighborhood of Cooper's Creek. The ranges crop out in a;segmental form, vast quantities of slate and quartz of every color and age being strewn over the surface ; some of the ranges are like the famed White Hills of Bendigo. While there can be no doubt, we think, of there being 'all the indications of a vast gold field, we recommend caution to parties ere they j>roceed to that distant country, tit only for the present for being explored by experienced bushmen. Whoever proceeds thither must bear in mind that they may experience all the evils connected with a country more or less destitute of water. If gold is found in remunerate ng quantities, in all probability there is room enough for 50,000 diggers ; so that parties need not start. before they are ready. In less tliana month we ought to have reliable particulars ; and. we must not forget' that the Lower and Middle Darling are infested with gangs of some of the greatest rascals in Australia. .The same journal adds— We understand that on Monday Mr Souttar received intelligence that the gold commissioner at Willcannia, Mount Murchison, has satisfied himself of the correctness of the intelligence as to the gold discovery in the Barrier Ranges. The G-ipps Land Times reports that the party of mounted police (including men from Rosedale, Sale,, and Bairnsdale, under the leadership* of Senior-constable Hoptinson), which went out in pursuit of Clark's gang of bushrangers, have returned to Bairnsdale, after travelling about 400 or 500 miles of some of the roughest country in the Colony. They followed up both tracks right to the New South* Wales border, but found no trace of the gang, of desperadoes who were reported to have >c6me over the boundary. The service performed by these men cannot, however, be regarded as useless ; for as soon as it. became known, by means of the press, throughout New South Wales, that even in wide-spreading Gipps Land the public are fully prepared for any ugly customers who intrude into our territory, and that upon a mere report of the appearance of Clark's gang a party of experienced and determined men was at once formed and equipped for a 500 mile search— these facts c innot fail to have a deterring effect upon any ruffians who may have contemplated a visit to Victoria. The assault case, Blair v. Goujon, came before the District Court,^at Ballara{;,,dh the 10th instant, when Mr Goujon surrendered to his bail to answer to two charges of having assaulted Mr David Blair, editor of the Mvenimj Post. The difference between the plaintiff and defendant arose out of an article which appeared in the JEvening Post, commenting on the case of Noall v. Goujon; recently heard in the Supreme Court. To-day the defendant Goujon was fined L 6 for the assaults. There was great excitement in the court, which was crowded. A case of sinoking out took place on Sunday morning, the 9th instant, at Batlarat, on the occasion of the meeting underground Cof the drives put in by the Southern Freehold and the Great Western Companies. It appears that the Southern Freehold men broke into a drive of the other company.about; eight o'clock in the morning; but as to what followed, or by whom hostilities were commenced, total contradiction' exists in "the, accounts given by the men of the two companies. Putting their narratives together, each is charged by. the.otlier with lighting fires in their respective r workings, and with turning streams of water down their shafts, with the view of sending the smoke upwards. However, the shaft of the Great Western Aompany became the up-cast, and fora time the mcii? working there were? obliged to remainon the surface. A body of police was: sent to the spot; but as the attempt mjade to effect a peaceable arrangement failed,, and .there seemed no reason to apprehend actual violence, the police were ordered back again, taking, before they left, the names of the persons concerned. No further collision has, it appears, yet taken place, and at a late hour on Sunday night smoke was issuing fronv the Great Western shaft, and the shaft of the other company was being ■worked.' ■■■■.■-. .-■■■■■:-■ . ; : . ■.-'■ , : ■. •, : •'" :■■