INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 747, 1 November 1870, Page 2

INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

By the courtesy of the owners of the Ceres, we have dates from Melbourne to the 19th nit., from which we make the following exkaots : — Hewitt, the pedestrian, makes his last appearance in the colony at Ballarat on the 9th November next. A somewhat singular death occurred near Avoca. A miner named Reghetto, while trying a dish of washdirt at a waterImle, ruptured an artery in the neighborhood of the heart. He staggered for a moment, and then fell into the water, and was drowned. An attorney named Stephen Nicolson was arrested by Detective Parker, on a charge of stealing a quantity of. books, the property of a deceased bibliomaniac named William Storey, who formerly ! resided at Richmond. A man named Cu turning has been in custody for some time past for being concerned in this robbery, and is at present under remand. Tho total value of the books stolen is about LSO, and a, portion of the property has been traced to the possession, of both prisoner-3. The opening scene at the meeting of the Ballarat East Borough Council last night, says the Star of the 18th instant, was of rather a melodramatic character, Councillor Rodier playing the principal part. Councillor Rodier exhibited a good' Sized glass ink bottle, which he had brought with him aijd placed ou the table. The bottle was labelled as follows :— "Councillor Rodier's ammunition for self-defence against sanctimonious ruffianism." Councillor Curtis objected to Councillor Rodier sitting at tho table with a weapon in front of him, but the Mayor ruled Councillor Curtis out of order. Councillor Rodier informed the reporter that the bottje was filled with printing ink. He had a heavy walkingstick down below, which he fully intended to use on the head of the first councillor who ins-.ilted him. After some further disputing, a motion was carried to the effect that the next business should be pr>)ceede,cl with. In the qourse of an aftor discussion, Councillor Rodier informed the Qouncil that he wa3 ■ ' the last man in the, world to say a/.iy thing that might be unpleasant to a brother councillor." A smart thing, says the Courier of the lfth inst., waa done at Ballarat Weat

terminus last Tuesday morning. A little before ten o'clock it was discovered that a bag containing a portion it the supplementary mail for Europe had been "left behind, the mail having been despatched by the early train that morning for Geeloug. A message was at once sent to.the stationmaster, with a request that a special train be put on to carry the bag to Geelong. Mr Troup, in charge of the locomotive department, received his orders at ten minutes to ten, and five . minutes later the special, with the bag, had started" for its destination. The engine driver was as smart as his superior officer, for, though he had to atop tmgpon tne road to get the line cleared "of " trucks, he ran into the Geelong station at a quarter-past eleven, and the mail bag was accordingly delivered at the Geelong post office just before the whole of the mails started for Queenscliff to be put on board the mail steamer. A shocking death, caused by a headlong fall of sixty feet, occurred at the new Town-hall yesterday to a girl thiiteen years old, named Rachel Johnston. The girl, who was in the employment of Mr Byrne, caretaker of the hall, wa3 seen, at tbe top of the building at about two o'clock in the afternoon, when she waa spoken to by Mrs Byrne. A few minutes afterwards the clerks on the ground-floor sixty feet below heard a heavy fall/and running out, fonud the unfortunate child a bruised and dislocated corpse lying in a pool of blood. Death must have been instantaneous, as, on examination byja medical gentleman, it was found that, besides numerous bruises, the vertebras of the neck were broken, and the skull j fractured. The force with which, the girl I fell may be guessed from the fact thai; two rails of the intervening banisters: were broken by her having fallen upon them in the descent. It is supposed that she was sliding down the banister of the winding staircase, when she : lost her balance and fell down the open spade between the windings exteuding from top to bottom. ' ' The following are details of the disastrous fire which occurred ' on Sunday morning in Great Ryrie street, Geelong. It broke out in Mr Davies' furniture store, next the Queen's Head Hotel, the flames being first observed in a wooden building used as a store-room at the back of the shop. The roof of the hotel caught fire, and the conflagration was with difficulty prevented from spreading in this direction. The exertions of the fire brigade could not preserve the premises in which the fire first broke out. A good deal of unnecessary damage was caused by the way the crowd behaved, breaking into t!;e place and breaking furniture, : &c, in the moat reckless manner. Mr Davks estimates the value of his furniture stock at LI6OO, which was insured for L 759. The main building was insured for LSOO, and the outbuildings for LSO. A member of the fire brigade, named Wilcox, had a serious fall from the ledge in front of Mr Davies' shop to the pavement below. The gear of the fire brigades was found very defective, and the want of a proper supply of water also much impeded the efforts of the firemen. We feel pleasure in recording the following praiseworthy deed, from the Wagga Wa;jga Express :— " On Wednesday last, a man named James Dillon was admitted into the Wagga Wagga Hospital, suffering from a severe burn on the thigh, which he had sustained in rescuing a child from a burning hut near Walla Walla, a fewdays before. While travelling between Round Hill and Dr Stitt's Walla Walla station, and when within about t\ro miles of the latter place, he passed a splitter's hut in flames. The owner of the hut was hastily removing such of his property as the could get out of it, and, in doing' so had been considerably scorched, and hi 3 wife, who had been similarly engaged, had also badly burnt one of her feet. When Dillon came up, she had just discovered, and was cryiug out in an agony of alarm, that her infant child was still in the hut, and Dillon immediately rushed through the flan c; to save it. He found the little one ljing on the bed, laughing at the fire, which fortunately had not reached it, and snatching it up, rushed through the fire again, and succeeded in restoring it to its mother unbnrnt, though in doing so himself he got very badly burnfc upon one of hi* thighs. Dillon did not know at the time that he had been injured so S3i:ou-;ly, but afterwards, feeling great pain, and falling in with a bullock-dray, he solicited a lift, and so was brought into Wagga Wagga, and lodged in the hospital, where his hurts were dressed, and are now slowly healing. Ballarat was thrown into a great -state : of excitement about ten a.m. on the 19th, by a report that a man and his wife, in the employ of Mr Logan, watchmaker, Bridgestreet, had poisoned themselves. A mau named John Malachi Proctorwas.working at his toade for Mr Logan, and also haol aa interest in the business, and both himself and Mrs Pi-octor lived on the premises. About last Friday or Satiirday Mr Proctor found a letter in his, wife's possession which, it was stated to ourreportar, compromised her with some mau in New Zealand, and he was very violent on., the occasion, and threatened to put her out of the place. There had been more than one painful scene in consequence since the affair, and ie is stated that Proctor and his wife were quarrelling all las.b night long, until about ten o'clock, thjq morning ma,tteß3 reached a. climax. Mr Logan states that he was sitting at his work about 10 a.m. when he heard a great disturbance in the back apartment, and on going to see what was the matter, found Mrs Proctor, who, as he says, seemed io be mad with drink at the time,nourishing a pair of pistols wildly about her head, and shouting out, " I have done it, t have done it." It was found that n&n Proctor had tak;en a do.se of strychnine^ which Mr Logan keeps in the house for medical purposes, and the usual efforts, to save life in such cases having been made, she was taken off in a cab to the hospital Proctor, finding what had happened, at pnee took a dose of muriatic acid, aud It is believed tßat his life was saved by the prompt action of Mr Logan, who, happening fortunately to have water at hand, r orced him qn his back; and poured ft lown his throat to combat the. corrosive iction of the poison. Proctor was also, ivith as much despatch as possible, piit nto a cab, and, accompanied by $tr Bryce, driven to the hospital. The Proctora have one little girl, and it is laid that Mrs Proctor endeavored tq ndnce the child to d.rink s,oraa of th© itrychnine in milk, ao that they might )oth die together, but the child luckily lid not do so, and Mr John Little, the

(For c?nUmi<ition of JSeios see 4dh P«jfe.)

fancy warehouseman nexfc door, got the little thing away. Mra Proctor died two or three minutes after her admission co j the hospital. Between one and two p.m. , Proctor, Avho had been stomach-pumped and had emetics given him, was still delirious, but considered out of danger. From the Fiji Times of 24th September, we learn that a fire had occurred at Bau ; a dwelling and storehouse were destroyed. The rebels have this placed to their account. Six white men and six minor chiefs were to form a local government at Taviun. Messrs Logan, Armstrong and Holmes have been elected magistrates for Vuna. A census is being taken of the Windward group. Under date Suva, 19th September, the correspondent of the Times says that "the affairs of the Polynesia Company are at last assuming a vitality which even its best friends feared that it would never possess. The bona fide sbareliolders, as contra-distinguished from the mere speculator, bull and. bear, believing in the prospects and unlimited capabilities of Fiji, are now flocking in to settle upon the lands of the company with a view to develop Fijiau resources, and improve their own fortunes. Sava is at present most undoubtedly the favorite place for settlement. The harbor is the nearest in Fiji to tho Australasian Colonies, and must shortly become the poTt of call for the San Francisco mail steamers en route to New Zealand. The only thing which a setier in Suva can complain of is common to all parts of Fiji, namely, the difficulty of obtaining labor, not in consequence of its dearness, but in consequence of its unreliability as far as the Fiji native is concerned. The growing desire to settle on the lauds of Suva, and the uncertainty as to the legally constituted authority or body to enable them to do so, was brought into question on last Sunday, by the arrival and deliverance in public of Mr Butters and some demonstrative friends from Levuka, per the Auckland. The result was that a public meeting was convened to-day, in Johnson's Hotel, and a sharp discussion ensued, Dr. Macartney for the committee of management of the company's affairs in Fiji, and Mr Butters for himself, being the chief speakers. Both parties produced their credentials, from which it was made clear that the committee was the only and the legally constituted body to deal with all applicant selectors. Mr Butters acknowledged this. He has, besides, been instructed by the directors, per the Auckland, to hand over to the committee, as soon as convenient, all the property o£ ihe company which may be in his charge. So the public mind is now satisfied, and everything will go on vigorously." An accident occurred at the Guiding Star Shaft of the St. George United Company, Ballarat, to a man named George Nugent, sixty-one years of age, who was working at one of the faces with his mate, when two or three sets of timber gave way, letting several tons of earth fall. Nugeut was partly covered, but his mate escaped and gave the alarm, when several men set to work and released Nugeut, •who was removed to the district hospital. It was found that he had sustained a fracture of the vertebras.