LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 616, 28 December 1869, Page 2

LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

♦ ' By the s.s. Rangitoto, which arrived here on Sunday evening from Melbourne, we have dates to the 20th inst,, from which we extract the following items : — Arrived.— Zephyr and Gothenburg from Hoitit.ka 5 Nil Deaperandnm, from Riverton ; Magnet, from Greymouth ; Sarah and Mary, from Hokitika. Sailed;— For Hokitika : Waterman and Hector. For Auckland : Eliza Firth. 4 project is on foot to test quart* lodes one thousand feet deep at Ballarat, and is attracting atteution. A grand fancy bazaar in aid of thefunds of the Benevolent Asylum was opened by the Governor on the 14fch. Mr Downinan, Manager of the National Bank at Taradale, has been arrested on a charge of embezzlement. Tlie Government has voted L 2500 to the children of the late Rev. Mr Hill. Philip Davies, manager of the Prince of Wales Mining Company, has been found guilty of stealing gold, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment. A shanty-keeper named Blakey, living near Daylesford, has been murdered by his wife, who stabbed him in the heart in the presence of two men. The inquest on the body ended on Friday evening in a verdict of " Wilful Murder" against the wife, Elizabeth Blakey. The unhappy woman endeavored to persuade the police that the fatal wound was inflicted by deceased on himself duriug a scuffle with her, hut the evidence negatived this testimony. The knife, such as butchers use, must ha\e been driven home with fearful force, for the blade, after penetrating two thick shirts, actually passed through the. breast* bone into the heart. The surgical testimony was to the effect that, deceased would have barely time to utter an exclamation before life was extinct. The corpse, lying stretched before the fireplace of the kitchen, with a gaping incision in the breast two inches wide, from which the blood had poured and saturated the clothing and the floor, presented a ghastly spectacle. The man who is dead, and the woman who will probably expiate her crime on the scaffold, kept a small alehouse of four or five rooms, on the top of the dividing range beyond Sailor's Creek. The place had a cleanly appearance, was neatly painted outside, and enclosed with a fence. At the rear is some stabling and outhouses, near which the knife was found. The pair have lived miserably, quarrelling so violently that existence; must almost have been a burden. On more than one occasion the woman has been known to run out, showing marks of extreme punishment, and it would seem that, incensed with this treatment, she at length resolved to get rid of him. She is apparently about 40 years old, very stout, with a heavy expression of face. She evidently does not realise the danger of her position, for the verdiot did not disturb her self-possession, and her chief anxiety seemed to be respecting payment of some pigs she had sold and the safety of her property. Money and deposit receipts to the value of L 56 were found in her possession. The trial will take place at the Castlemaiue Circuit Court, on the 12th February. A destructive tire occurred 'shortly after midnight on Saturday, the 18th inst., at No. 191 King street, Melbourne. It originated in a one-storeyed brick building of Mr J. Wilkinson, draper and outfitter, who occupies the next building, No. 189 ; this is also a one-storeyed building, there being an open communication between the two shops, one shop being used for the outfitting the other for the drapery business. It appears that at a quarter to 12 on Saturday night both shops were .closed, when Mr Wilkinson, with his two assistants, went into the kitchen, leaving the gas burning at one of the burners. : They had been there about 20 minutes, when Mrs Wilkinson felt a strong smell of something burning, and on going 'outside it was discovered that the premises were on fire. Mr Wilkinson tried to get into the shop, with a view of saving the books, but was driven back by 'the flames. The alarm was at once sent to the fire station in Bourke street, and the flames having burst out were seen by the fire look-out, who at once gave the alarm, and the metropolitan brigade was speedily on the spot. The shutters were broken open by the bystanders, cau iig the flames to break out in front, and the intense heat set fire to the woodwork of a portion of Mr Nathan's house, occupied by Mr Wilkinson, who sustained considerable damage by the hasty removal of his furniture. The stock contained in the two shops, which was nearly all destroyed, was insured to the extent of L 2600, the amount of estimated damage being about L3OOO altogether. Mr Nathan's premises and the furniture thereon were uninsured. There was a good supply of water, and the fire was quickly got under. Mr Inspector Burton kept the place with a posse of constables. A few weeks since an alarm was raised that typhus fever had broken out in Richmond, that two persons had died of that complaint, and the health officer of the J borough was instructed to investigate the rumor. Where do the grasshoppers come from ? Myriads of them have for the past fortnight been streaming from the southward across the Murray. We hear that in the western districts and about St. Arnaud clouds of them are coming from the north. Are our friends making a tour of the colony after visiting Riverina ?— Herald. During the past few days the extraordinary heat has dreadfully affected and played havoc on poor suffering humanity iii the Sandhurst hospital, says the Independent. On Wednesday two deaths occurred, the first being John Knell, admitted on the Gth March from Echuca, suffering from disease of the brain ; and the s«oond, Richard Dickinson, admitted on 20th November from Tipperary Gully, suffering from consumption. The schooner David and Jessie brings three elks from Colombo for the Acclimatisation Society of Tasmania. A fatal accident occurred on board the cutter Ljoclia while en route from Belfast to this port, to one of the seamen named

Keith Mackie, a native of Aberdeen. It appears the mainsail was being jibbed over, when the man was knocked overboard. Every exertion was made to recover him, and, although it was blowing very hard and a high sea running at the time, a boat was lowered and hovering for some time round the spot, but- without beinsf able to see anything of him. It happened; on the 9th inst., seven mileg from Cap» Otway. Deceased was about 40 years o* age and was married, his wife residing iis Melbourne. Mr Sullivan, late editor of the Freeman's: Journal, Sydney, who is about leaving for California, has received a handsometestimonial from political sympathisers. The Lincolnshire has arrived with th& English pedestrians— via., Bird, Hewitt, Topley, and George Ledger, The Government is anxious to prorogueParliament. Determined opposition to* the Appropriation Bill is mentioned. Messrs Lennon and Cape, brokers,, have sold L 79,000 worth of the New Zea^, land Consolidated Loan at par, the; Mutual Provident Society having taken L64»00Q t The same firm also offer L150,0Q0 in New Zealand Treasury Bills t payable, in November, 1874, at 44 per day interest*