LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 749, 5 November 1870, Page 4

LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Our dates from Melbourne, per s. f . Rangitoto, are to the 2lTth ulfe. The river Murray is so high at present as to render it impossible to cross. Tahiti advices report that French officers are fortifying that island. The Galatia has been undocked, and is being rapidly refitted. The Victorian Parliament was to meet for the despatch of business on the 27th ult. His Royal Highi 633 the Duke of Edinburgh is now payinjf his third visit to Victoria. : The schooner 01 eron, timber laden, has capsized off the Manning River. The crew have been saved. Archibald M'Kay, proprietor of the Terrara Hotel, dropped dead whilst dressing. The flag at Government House was flying half-mast, in consequence of the death of Sir Heniy Young. The Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister Bill has beon disallowed by the Queen. Eighty pounds of quartz from the Industay claim at the Den Diggings, Tasmania, yielded Boz of gold. The chancel arch of the new church of St. Michael in course of erection at Talbot, fell. A workman fell with it, but escaped uninjured. The last but one of the once powerful tribe of Geelong blacks, King Jerry, died in the Geelong Hospital on Saturday forenoon. Edward Manvood Elton was tried at the Melbourne Criminal Sessions for the murder of his step-son, proved guilty and senVonceu to death. The return fancy ball to the Ma3or of Sydney, Mr Rennie, has been fixed to take place on the Ist of November. Mr Decosta Farrecidia, a Brazilian, has committed suicide at Bondi Bay, about four miles from Sydney. He was a clerk to Messrs Cinder, Hawke, and Co. The half-yearly report of the Bank of New Sovth Wales has been printed. It announces heavy losses in Now Zealand, requiring L 33,000 from the reserve fund, and reducing dividend to ten per cent. A fire occurred at the shop of Mr Morris, a draper in George street, Sydney. It was, however, promptly extinguished. The value of the goods destroyed is about LSOO. The body of Thomas Curie, who has been missing from his homo for the past eight days, was discovered ■, by Sergeant HiirkneaSj'uoating in the Barwon river, in the immediate vicinity of the Queen's gardens, Newtown. An inquest has been held at Camperdown on tho human remains found on the coast a few days ago, and the verdict of the jury was, that the skoletons were those of two of the South Sea Islanders wrecked in the Marie Gabrielle, and that death was the result of exposure and starvation. The Governor of, South Australia has received a private letter, stating that the conditions of the Anglo- Australian Telegraph Act, as recently passed, will be quite sufficient to insure the carrying out of the work by the company. The other day, some Justices at Hobart Town sent a young girl to prison for six weeks for stealing from her mistress a penny, which penny she had expended In the purchase of a loaf of bread. The girl had been ten years in the service of the woman who prosecuted her. The man Thomas Johnston, of Belfast, who is charged with brutally ill-treating iris wife, trying to cut her throat, and knocking her head against the fireplace, has been brought before the Police Court and committed for trial. A cooper, 42 years of age, named John Pitt, committed suicide by hanging himself in his verandah, near Ramsden's Paper Mills. The deceased's son stated that his grandfather had also hanged himself. A very sad accident occurred in the claim of the United Albion and Prince of Wales Company, Sebastopol, to a miner

about 32 years of nge, named Bernard M'Cabe. He was in a jump-up, and the board on which he was standing becoming upset, he fell a distance of about 20 foot, touching the ground first with his head. In the fall Ins back was broken, and he was at once taken to the hospital. A man named Alfred White, who had lately arrived from New Zealand, was. found dead in his bed, at the Beehive Hotel, corner of Russel and Lonsdale streets. He had been in the habit of taking chloroform to cure a toothache, and had bought some on the previous da}\ The bottle was found empty by his bedside. The jury found, that he died from inadvertently inhaling, chlorofir.r. For the Melbourne Cup Freetrader is backed to win L 2,000 at 100 to 3 and 4, and Paddy's Land has also found friends at the same price. A few bets were made about Croydon at longer odds than the bookmakers offer, for the purpuse of hedging. None of the other Cup horses were backed. The Derby betting remains the same, Florence is at 6 to 4, Keepsake and Pyrrhus at 2 to 1, tho former very firm. The most interesiing news in the papers Aye have received frum the Cape of Good Hope relates to tho diamond diggings. The Friend says that the news from the diamond fields is more encouraging. Looking down the reports given in "that paper we find that they mention 46 diamonds as having been found lately. Amongst the;e are one of 30 carats, one 2G| carats, two of 26 carats each, one of 18 carats, one of 16 carais, one of 11 carats, one of 10^ carats, three of 5 carats, one of 3 carats, and the remainder of weights not stated. The 30-carat diamond is of inferior quality. Another stone has been found worth L 27,000. Fiji advices to th& 12th inst have been received. H.M. war steamer Rosario had arrived from a cruise. Her commander had intensified tho ill feeliugs already existing between Mr March, the British consul, and the settlers, by holding a court, threatening to bring persons before it forcibly, and their forcible deportation fi on the island. The Fiji Times demands Mr Ma cVs recall as the greatest blessing England could confer on the islands"! Nearly L2OO have been subscribed by the settlers for the erection of a Wesleyan Church at Lovuka. Efforts are being made for the establishment of the lighthouse on the hill over the town. " A strange freak of electricity is related by a Beechworth paper, which says : — "During the recent heavy thunderstorms the lightning entered the premises of Mr Strugnell, butcher, Stanley road, near to the Chinese Camp, and completely destroyed a sausage-making machine." We have Mauritius papers to September 10th. They contain little news' of general importance. There had teen violent gales of Port Elizabeth, and a number of vessels suffered, amongst them the following :— The May Queen. 1054 ton 3, from Bombay ; Birmah, 1174 tons, American ship Arabia, 1155 tons, from Rangoon ; Hoghton Tower, 1599 tons, from Bassein ; Dutch barque Estafette, 440 tons, from Java; Alma, 562 tons, from Bussein ; Lena, 1061 tons, from Bimlipatum ; Trent, from Rangoon ; Bulwark, from Rangoon ; Leucothea, 1180 tons, and Jessamine, 1089 tons, from. Rangoon. The captain of the last vessel believed that the Dutch barque Hendricka had foundered. The Dutch ship Netherlands, 600 tons, from Macassar, with a valuable cargo estimated at L 200.000, went ashore at Slang River, and immediately became a total wreck. The captain, second officer, and 11 men were drowned. "The other night," relates the Ararat Advertiser, "as Mr John Watts (who is sf.orem.an at Mr Grano's, and resides on the Port Fairy road,) was preparing for bed, he was alarmed by hearing a succession of fearful shrieks from the neighborhood of some deserted miners' shafts behind his residence, and at once started to ascertain the cause of the din. The yells dir cted his attention to an old ho?e over 20ft deep, which he approached with due caution, and, listening, he discovered that a woman w aa at the bottom. She occupied her time by alternate roars for human aid and prayers for her welfare in the event of such aid arriving too late. 'Deep into the darkness peering,' Mr Watts could see nothing, but lowered himself down as far as he could by his hands, requesting the lady underground to catch his feet ; but the distance was too great, so he clambered out again. From the bottom of the hole the woman implored him not to go away, as he might not find the road back again. He, however, did go, and afterwards returned with assistance. A rope was lowered with a loop on the end of it, which the fair one wrapped round her anything but fragile body, and by dint of a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether, she was raised to the surface,- a little scratched, but not a great deal the worse for her fall. She proved to be a young lady, who, a few weeks ago, was united in the bonds of matrimony to Ah Toon, one of the residents in the Chinese camp. It is shrewdly guessed that she was on her way to fetch some beer at the time she met with the accident, and in her anxiety to lose no time, had taken a short cut across the diggings, when she narrowly escaped being buried alive."