AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 728, 17 September 1870, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Bltjjpf, Sept. 16. The s.s. Claud Hamilton, from Melbourne, arrived this morning shortly after ten o'clock. Melbourne, Sepi. 10. This week will be memorable in connection with the heaviest general floods known throughout the Colony, Gippslaud alone excepted, The Yarra, at Melbourne, was not so high as in the flood of sixtythree, but the Saltwater River was a foot higher, and the Race-course bridge is carried away. Great damage has been done to the factories on the lower Yarra, a 1i $o at Ballarat and Smithesdale. Westward to Warnambool the creeks and rivers rose unprecedently, and eastward, through Avoca, Maryborough, and the entire midland to Oasfclernaine, thence to Seymour, Benalla, Wangaratta, Beechworth, and along the Murray and Campaspe to Echuca. Everywhere there is the same story of bridges, fences, and culverts being carried away. The mails were stopped, cattle and sheep drowned, and crops irreparably injured. Two men were drowned saving property, and there were many narrow escapes. Families are being rescued through roofs of houses. These disasters caused a reaction in the flour market, and sales are reported up to Ll3. Hennessy's pale brandy sold at 293 to 30s. Sugars are a shade higher, and the market is rising, as late Mauritius advices report a short crop and few shipments. The Fawn left Mauritius on July 17th for Lyttelton. New season's teas are selling more freely. Candles are very firm, kerosene steady, oats dull at 3s 4d to 3s 6d. Heymanson and Co, of the clothing factory, have assigned their estate. Forty female immigrants per Western Empire, were engaged in half an hour from the depot at twenty to twenty-five pounds. The annual horse show in Bourke street of draught entires was unequalled ; several animals were sold up to eight hundred and seventy-five pounds.

Wilberforce Stephen is a candidate for St. Kilda, vice Aspinall resigned, and Robert Bennett and others for East Bourke, vice M'Caw resigned.

The Government is taking active measures to reorganise the volunteers, and place the defences on a war footing. Ammunition being short, the Sydney Government has promised a loUp.

The Government has sent Captain Gilmore by mail to Galle, there to await and charter a steamer-express should England be iuvolved in the war.

Mr Rawlings, J.P., honorary treasurer of the Royal Society, having neglected to render accounts, the Society has threatened to dismiss him. He was found in the

Botanical Gardens, suffering from poison, and now lies in the Hospital. Supples case has been argued, and judgment reserved. Accounts from the Malmsbury reservoir state that it had a narrow escape, but the main embankment stood well. A Launceston telegram reports floods, with £reat damage to the railway. Sydney, Sept. 10. The French war steamer Guichen arrived for despatches, and sailed with war news for New Caledonia. A raid. on German shipping is expected at any moment. At the Randwick race meeting, Florence won the Derby easily. Lady Clifden won the Spring Maiden Plate. Croydon won the Great Metropolitan; Tim Whiffler second. Shipping. — Arrived: Alma, from Hokitika. Sailed : Hero, for Auckland via Sydney. The following extracts are from late files of Australian papers : — The friends of Mr Henry Squires and of Madame Escott will be pleased to hear that they have been making a professional tour through the State of New York with marked success. Mr Squires seems to be an especial favorite, and some of his American critics pronounce his j voice to be not at all inferior to that of Brignoli when that celebrated tenor was in his prime. It is stated by persons usually well informed in political matters that Mr M'Caw, M.L.A. for East Bourke, ia on the point of resigning his seat. Politics interfering with business is the alleged reason for this. We understand that His Holiness the Pope has been pleased to recognise the valuable services of Mr Archer, the Registrar-General of Victoria, in the cause of education, by decorating him with the Order of Knighthood of Gregory the Great. A lamentable accident occurred in the mine of the Reform Company, Haddon, whereby a man named James Sanders lost his life. It appears that a miner named Stewart Edgar had been working in the face, and that the deceased, who was a captain in the mine, went to assist, and was driving home some laths, when the timber gave way, and several sets fell, the deceased being overwhelmed, but Edgar escaping.

There are now (says the Gipps Land Mercury) from three to four feet of snow on Mount Useful, and the country adjacentf or miles around is completely covered. In fact, so deep is the snow in that region, that a traveller who lately came down that way informs us that even on horseback it was up to his saddle-flaps, and that it was with the utmost difficulty he could flounder along. All the high mountains are similarly covered, and it is feared that the summer heats will bring down very heavy floods.

A further detention has befallen the mail which left Melbourne on 19th June last in the Malta, and which, in consequence of that vessel's breakdown, was transferred to the Avoca at King George's Sound. The Avoca having missed the Calcutta steamer at Point de Galle, her mail and passengers were sent on to Bombay in the Orissa, and reached that port on 20th July jnst as the China was starting for Suez with the Indian mails. They were accordingly transferred to that vessel, but on 24th July the China returned to Bombay disabled, having broken her screw. The Australian mails and passengers were again transhipped to the Golconda, which proceeded to sea the same afternoon, and would probably reach Suez two days behiud the time fixed for the arrival of the mail at that port. The Australian mails have thus been conveyed to Suez in five different steamers, and may be expected to reach London within nine days of their due date although detained by two serious breakdowns on the journey.

"For some time past," says the Ovens Spectator, " gold-mining has been carried on quietly by a few men at Cndgewa Creek, at a place about equidistant from Yackandandah and Wodcnga, 60 miles to the east. Gold has been found, and some little time back some samples of a darklooking heavy mineral met with in great quantities at the spot were forwarded by Mr Smart, the Yacandandah member of the Mining Board, to Mr B. Brough Smyth, the secretary of the Mining Department, for identification. At the request of Mr Smyth this mineral has been analysed by Mr J. Cosmo Newberry. and turns out to be black sand, the analysis yielding 52.15 per cent, of pure tin. Some iron and a few specks of gold were mechanically associated with the specimen sent. This is the first occasion in which tin in any quantity has been found in the neighborhood mentioned, and we understand tnat in future the miners in the locality will work for it as well as for gold."

The Riverine . Herald says : — " The Ulupna mailman informs us that in consequence of the flooded state of the conntry he was unable to proceed beyond Mr dime's station, Kaarimba, and that he would not have got that far but for the kindness of Mr Rutherford, of Ulupna, who let him have a canoe and a blackfellow. At Kaarimba the water is into the home station, and the station hands have been obliged to leave their huts and remove to the wood-sheds, a distance of five miles. In crossing the Nine-mile Creek the blackfellow 'Michie,' before alluded to, narrowely escaped drowning, having been washed off his horse. We also regret from the same source that another fresh is coming down the Goulburn, and has reached Shepparton. We had hoped that we had done with the floods from the Goulburn for a little, as that river was falling yesterday morning at Wyuna. The flooded state of the Nine-mile Creek may be taken as an indication that afresh is also coming down the Broken River. No losses of stock are reported, as the owners, expecting a heavy flood, had driven them to the high grounds."

In reference to the case of the Queen v. Hugo Levinger, the supercargo of the Young Australia, who was found guilty of manslaughter, and whom the Privy Council have • decided was not properly tried, it may be. as well to state that die point on which the Privy Council decided was never brought before the Melbourne Supreme Court in his case. The point appears to have been that Levinger ought to have been permitted a peremptory challenge of the foreigners summoned for trial. Our Supieme Court did decide in 1866, in the case of the Queen v. Ah Toon, tried for a

criminal assault, that tho ri^ht of peremptory challenge did not exist in the case of foreign jurors. It has been said that the Melbourne judges differed in opinion on the point, but so far from this being the case, all four — Mr Justice Molesworth having presided at the trial — concurred in the decision. As it is now impossible to procure the attendance of the witnesses, the result of the Privy Council's decision will practically be to release Levinger.

An accident occurred to the Penshurst coach when coming through Croxton to Hamilton. It appears that on the journey from Terang the stay-irons of the pole broke, and the driver secured them as well as he was able. At Mount Rouse he again examined the fixings and found them all right. Coming to the heavy roads now being prepared at Croxton, the lashings gave way, and while the driver (Ben Ball) got down to fix them the horses started off with the bar at their heels. The driver, who stuck to the reins, managed to pull up the horses, but not before one wheel got into a hole, and the other passed over a stump, causing the coach to upset on the top of the unlucky driver. Poor Ben Ball remained in this uncomfortable position all night, cooeying loudly at intervals, his strength being inadequate to lift the coach off him. He grasped the reins nearly the whole time, thereby preventing the horses from starting, and truly it seems almost a miracle that the horses should have stood still nearly twelve hours. At daylight in the morning parties were sent out to see if they could learn any tidings of the missing coach, and found the " situation " to be as described above. Ben Ball was got out suffering only from cold and a severe shaking, and neither coach nor harness were damaged in any way." In the telegraphic summary of Australian news recently published, it was stated that, since the receipt of the war intelligence from Europe, the Victorian Government had held several Cabinet meetings ; that they had decided to reorganise the volunteers by placing them in barracks three hundred at a time ; that the workshops were busy getting guncarriages in order ; and that it was in contemplation to send a despatch boat to Galle for the purpose of bringing intelligence direct, ir case England should be involved in the conflict. Taken either singly or together, these statements, which are fully borne out by the more detailed information since received, imply that our Victorian neighbors attach a very grave importance to the news from Europe in its bearing on the position of the Australian colonies. It is quite evident that the Victorian Government, and, as far as we can judge, the Victorian public have come to the conclusion that, should the war unhappily continue, Great Britain can hardly remain neutral. And, having arrived at this conclusion, both Government and people appear to be at one in recognising the paramount importance of doing all that can be done for the defence of the colony against the possible attacks of an enemy's cruisers.

Every week furnishes additional instances of the loss of life that has occurred during the late season in attempting to get across the rivers of the interior. Four men, travellers from Grafton, came to the Manu River, opposite Shannon Vale Station, and, after some consultation amongst them, though warned by Mr Rusden and his party against crossing, two started. When in the stream, Hughes was suddenly passed by his mate Thomas Windeyor, who said " All right !" He landed on a big stone, and in trying to reach the next one he fell into the river, and was earned away by the enrrent into a hole 20ft or 30ft deep. He rose, and tried to swim, when one of the young men left the bank, and struck out manfully, at the risk of his life, to save him. But although he tried hard for it, Windeyer, on rising the last time, escaped his grasp, and he saw him sink. The body was recovered in about an hour afterwards. On Saturday week, a man named James Williams was, there is every reason to believe, swept off the Company's bridge at Wagga while attempting to cross it with a horse which he had been asked to take over for a miner residing at the Sebastopol diggings. As the water had been rising, and a flood was anticipated, the balustrading had been removed from the approach to avoid the risk of losing it, and when the unfortunate man got upon the approach, it is believed that the horse got too near the edge, and the balustrading being down and the flooring covered with water, toppled over into the river, and was swept down the stream. No one witnessed the catastrophe, but as the horse has since been secured in the police paddock, and the man has never since been heard of, it is only too reasonable to suppose that the worst fears of his anxious friends have been realised.

It is reported by a correspondent of the Armidale Telegraph, 13th inst., that on the 22nd ult. two persons were brought up at the Glen Innes Police Court, charged with highway robbery. The facts of the " sticking-np" are as follows : — From the evidence of the principal witness, O'Brien, who is a paralytic old man, and follows the occupation of teacher at an outstation on the Clarevaulx run, it appeared that he had lost his way one wet evening whilst out riding, and had thereupon turned out his horse, and camped for the night, when he was accosted by the prisouers, who were tramping along the road from Ranger's Valley to Wellingrove. After exchanging good evening with them, O'Brien muttied himself up in his blanket, and sat on his saddle at his camp fire. At about 9 o'clock p.m. he was suddenly seized, and thrown a couple of yards from where he was sitting. By the light of his lire he recognised the parties as those he had been lalking to early in the evening. The male prisoner then got on him and said, " I'm a bushranger, mate ; give me your money," and whilst appropriating that, he called ont to the woman, " Now, Jim, pack up those things and be off." The pair then made good their retreat, leaving poor O'Brien minus his purse, saddle, and clothes, except what he stood up in. All these articles were produced, having be.m found on the prisoners, and were fully identified by the witness. The Bench committed tho " happy couple" to Armidale gaol, to await their trial at the Quarter Sessions. The man's name is Hunt, ami his appearance in many respects tallies with that formerly given of Thunderbolt. The woman is named Bet Neen, and by all accounts is a notorious character in these parts.

One of the men reported to have been murdered by the blacks (says the Rockhampton Bulletin) has called upon us,

and gives us an account of the occurrence which recently caused a sensation in the quiet town of Banana. It appears that a party of seven men were employed on the telegraph line about eighteen miles on the Rockhampton side of Banana. About three-quarters of a mile from their encampment was a camp of about 200 blacks, and on the night the alarm was given, four of the telegraph men, named Walker, Larkin, Nevison, and M'Quade, went to see the corroboree, concealing themselvs in the scrub. In the midst of the performance one of the blackfellows was suddenly taken ill,and at once the gins began a moat unearthly, yell. By some means one of the men, M'Quade, was at this time a short distance away from his comrades, and supposing the yelling to be caused by their discovery, he ran off to the encampment and aroused the overseer and two other men who were there sleeping, telling them that Walker, Larkin, and Nevison had been murdered. The four then gallantly took the only gun, and the axes and bill-hooks, and beat a hasty retreat towards the township, leaving behind them a large quantity of rations. By-and-bye Walker and his friends returned and were not a little astonished to find their mates and their weapons gone. They were afterwards joined by a traveller, and he next morning rode on towards Banana, meeting the police a few miles from the township. We have been requested by Walker to I publish this statement, as he is much disgusted at the conduct of his cowardlymates, who, by taking away the .gun from the camp, placed him and ..the other two men in actual danger.

The event of the day on 23rd August in the departure of vessels from flobson's Bay, was unmistakeably the sailing of the screw steamship Alhambra from Sandridge for Fiji, with upwards of 100 saloon and second cabin passengers. The Alhambra, after her recent extensive overhaul and refit, was placed on the berth for Fiji, and filled up rapidly, and so well has the venture Ihus far succeeded that it is intended to despatch her again in October next. In her extensive list of passengers were to be found several names well known in commercial and other circles in Melbourne, and not a few of these intend settling in Fiji — at all events for the present. A number of those proceeding by her, however, have only gone for an excursion trip on the score of health, and others, as they themselves flippantly phrase it, "for the fun of the thing." We understand from Messrs. B. R. Mathewa and Son, of the Fiji Land and Shipping Office, that most of the passengers booked by them are shareholders in the Polynesia Company, and are going down to settle upon the lands they have become entitled to by the company's charter, for which they hold land warrants for country and towH lots to select from on their arrival in the islands. Amongst the passengers were Dr Macartney, M.L.A., and Messrs W. H. Brewer and Henry, the committee appointed to act on the company's behalf in Fiji. From noon until the time the Alhambra hauled off, quite a crowd of visitors had gatheied, not only on the vessel, but also on the pier in her vicinity, and the enthusiastic waving of hats and square cambric, accompanied with the exciting and inevitable, three cheers, as she moved slowly away from the pier, was something surprising. The Alhambra, in addition to her living freight, took a general cargo. It may be mentioned that she left here in charge of her popular commander, Capt. John M'Lean.