LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 661, 14 April 1870, Page 4

LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

The trial of Draper, for embezzlement, will not take place during the present sessions, but will be postponed until the next criminal sittings. The bakers of Ballarat intend to hold shortly a grand picnic, or gathering of some kind, which is proposed to be kept up annually. "Mr James Orr," the Ovens and Mercury Advertiser regrets to state, ''while riding out near the Beechworth Cemetry, was thrown from his horse, and received a painful blow on the face." It is supposed that the two bodies recently found near Williamstown are those of two young men, who about a fortnight ago hired from a boat-builder of Geelong, named Tait, for a fishing excursion, a sailing boat, with 250 fathoms of fishing line. Their mames are stated to be Rushton and Laxton, the latter being from Pleasant Creek. A sample of gold from Piper's River Tasmania, consisting of 12oz has been inspected by crowds of people, and was shown to the Governor, who said it was the largest quantity he had seen here, and he hoped it was the precursor of a large yield. The head waters of the rivers Hunter and Hawkesbury are falling, and further fears of any more floods are for the present at an end. The brig Spec, at Newcastle, reports passing a vessel's side and deck-house off Cape St. George. The deck-house was painted red on the top, and had a boom attached. • Two dead bodies were lashed to the boom. The Government steamer Thetis has been despatched to search for the wreck. Intelligence was brought into Braidwood of the drowning of a man named William Scott, a driver in the employ of Mr" James Sheppard, of Little River. Deceased was crossing the river, and must have beeu washed off his horse and drowned. Another diabolical attempt to destroy the buildings of a mining at Ballarat, is reported to have been made on Sunday morning, 27th ult., and as it is very similar to that recently attempted at the Band and Albion Consols Company, there seems little doubt it has been done by the same gang. Mr Gray, the manager of the St. George and Baud Company, was suddenly roused from his bed between one and two o'clock, and told that the firewood heap at No. 3 Shaft had been ignited. Fortunately the fire was discovered in time, and was got under before any serious damage was done. A severe case of stabbing occurred on the 3rd inst. at the All Nations Hotel, King street, Melbourne, during a drinking bout. A man named Charles Edwards was -in the bar of the hotel, when a drunken broommaker named Win. John Allen, attempted to quarrel with him, and suddenly drawing a large clasp knife, struck him a savage blow in the left breast over the region of the heart, inflicting a severe wound which must have proved fatal had the knife not glanced off from one of his ribs. The would-be assassin was at once arrested and locked up, while the wounded man was taken to the hospital and his injuries attended to. Harris's bold defiance has brought Hewitt's backers to a sense of what is due to him as the so-called " champion of the world," and a three hundred yards' spin has been arranged to come off most probably on the Queen's Birthday, in the Friendly Societies Reserve. Harris has also been backed to rim Bird a quarter of a mile at Ballarat. This will most likely be the first match of the two. Andrew Vere, who murdered a man named Amos Cheale, at St. Arnaud, about a year ago, and was arrested about the middle of last month at Yankalilla, South Australia, arrived in Melbourne on Saturday, 2nd inst., by the s.s. Penola, and was lodged in the city watch-house. The murderer, who is a young man, not at all bad-looking, is said to have confessed his guilt. A project has been mooted during the last few days for 'an omuibus company in Sydney, and certainly not before it was jneeded. The system of unrestricted free trade in omuibuses has been carried out in Sydney to the full, and not with advantage to the public. Wretched vehicles, drawn by still more wretched horser, abound, while the uncertainty as to time and the loitering on their route, often make riding a slower method of locomotion than walking. If it is well managed, an omnibus company will be a great success. A fire occurred at Stuartmill on Tuesday morning 29th ult. , on the premises of; Messrs Teague and Swarison, timber merchants, whereby property was destroyed to the amount of LBOO. There was no insurance either on stock or premises. A boy named Fredrick Mould, aged fifteen, met with a severe accident at Lyndhurst on the 23th ult., by which he sustained a fracture of both arms. He was employed in cutting some branches off a tree, when one of them gave way, and inflicted the injuries. He was at once removed to the hospital, where the fractures were reduced. The man Ronaldson and a woman named Hayes, alias Cavanagh, who were found on Friday evening, April 1, by Constable Cash in a house in Little Bourke street, the man brutally illtreating a woman named Soden, while Hayes looked on and applauded, were brought before the City Bench on Saturday, 3nd inst The constable produced the fragments of some tumblers which had been used as weapons by the man, and which had got broken in beating the woman, and fighting with the constable. Each of the prisoners was sent to gaol for three months. The exodus from South Australia is not over yet. The Register of March 30 says :— "Reports state that about 80 waggons and drays are on the overland road, part going through the Long Desert from Wellington, but the greater number passing Kingston. It is difficult to say where the people will settle, as they are on the move for homes either in the south-eastern district or in Victoria. Some are remaining near Narracoorte, in expectation of reduced rates for land. ' Nu doubt,' , writes a local correspondent, • the emigration tide will turn as soon as the laud laws are amended?" Some little time ago a movement was i started in Sydney, prin cipally by squ atters, to get up an association for reforming the land laws. But Mr Mort, who was made chairman of the provisional committee, brought up a report, deprecating any class action, and recommending that free selectors as well as squatters should be represented in the association. A public meeting to receive and act upon this

report was held yesterday, but whether the small attendance was due to the steady downpour of rain or the diminished interest in the scheme, certain it is that the gathering Avas not at all equal to the importance of the question. A committee, however, was formed to carry forward the movement, though whether it will result in anything practical remains to be seen. Mr Mort stated that he con sidered that the present laws needlessly tied up to the squatter and exposed runs to unnecessary damage. Mr Alderson, who is a leather manufacturer, declared that some clauses of the land law were "the greatest rot" that was ever invented. Many of his men had gone away to be free selectors, and having lost all, were glad to get back to their old employment. This has been true of a great many besides Mr Alderson's workmen, but at the same time it is undeniable that there have been many successful selectors. Bnt we have no means of telling whether the successful selectors are in a majority, for we have never had any such inspection and report on the new holdings as would give us a fair insight into the way in which the law has been working.