LATEST AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 761, 3 December 1870, Page 4

LATEST AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

A young man named Graham hanged himself at Glebe. At the Criminal Sessions, Sydney, William Clifbon, charged with murdering a child in a house of ill-fame, was convicted of manslaughtar. All the river claims at Wood's Point have been swamped by the floods. The miners have been mostly occupied for the past six weeks in repairing the damage done by previous floods, and will have now to continue this kind of labor for some time longer. The races and flumes of the spur claims are greatly damaged. The Greswick Advertiser reports a most determined suicide. The body of a Frenchman named Guyot was found suspended by a strap from a beam in deceased's hut, at the rear of Hammon's store. It seems the deceased was in a lunatic asylum in 1885. Bank depositreceipts of the value of L9O were found in the unfortunate man's pocket. The Melbourne Committee of the French Relief Fund formed at the French Consulate forwarded home by last mail, through its treasurer, Mr J. Matheson, a draft for L 260, which, with the amount sent by the former mail, makes a total of L 615. The French Patriotic Association sent by the mail a draft of Ll5O to the treasurer of the general Souseription Patriotique. The amount would have been la'srer, but several lists were not received till too late. The Ballarat Star menntions, that a miner named John Chillew, and his mate, Edmund Buzza, were at work in ttie Park Company's mine, putting in timber, when one of the , cap -pieces gave way, and a large quantity of earth fell into the drive, Edmund Buzza managed to escape, but Chillow was buired alive. The alarm was at once given by Buzza, and after two hours' w.xrk Chillew was dug out. He was, however, dead, having been suffocated. A fatal accident occurred lately in Sydney harbour during a sudden and severe storm, in which the violence of the gale exceeded any experienced here for years past. Messrs Speck and Gruebe, oil and colour men, were out in a boat when the gale caught it sudenly and capsized it, leaving its two occupants struggling in the water. Mr Grnebe was drowned, But Mr Speck was rescued. The Ararat Advertiser learns that Mr Wyselaski, of Narapumelap Station, Wickliffe, has been a severe loser by the storm of Friday. The fine sheepwash clam on this gentleman's station was carried away, together with the whole apparatus used in scouring the sheep. About 600 sheep that were yarded ready for washing in the morning were also borne away by the violence of the flood. The two salt lakes at Lake Boloke have been completely filled by the storm, and are now united . The corps in the neighbourhood look splendid. "An extraordinary feat of endurance," relates the Ballarat Courier, "was performed, at Egerton last Saturday morning at the Coup-de-Main Compauy's shaft. A breakage of some portion of the conj necting rod had rendered the windingengine temporarily useless. A colored nun named Admans was below, and rather than wait until the engine was , repaired or a windlass erected, he deliberately climbed up the flat rope to the surface, a distance of over 4ooft. He was certainly perspiring pretty freely on emerging from the shaft, but otherwise showed small signs of fatigue." The A lexandra Times has the following account of the accident Judge Smyth met with while on his way from Melbourne to Mansfield: — "When near Seymour, at dark, the coach in which his Honor was a passenger suddenly capsized on a steep sideling. Fortunately, beyond a severe I shock, he received r.o material injury, but was nearly smothered between a male and female passenger who wera under him, and a heavy load of mail bags on top. The accident was chiefly due to the overloading of the top of the coach. The passenger, including the judge, were nearly four hours before they managed to right the coach, and continue their journey." . "The strike among the jamters," writes the Ballarat Star, " has led to a novelty in the shape of an advertisement by Mr Fortune for women to paint and hang paper. This advertisement at once led several women to apply for employment, and they were anxious for work, as they and their families were in distress for want of the means of living. ' We be-

lieve the advertisement was issued as much in fun as anything, or rather to 'prod' the strikers ; but the women were so earnest, and offered to work for what they were worth only, that Mv Fortune says he had some difficulty in dealing with them. One was a person of considerable artistic talent, he says, and showed proofs of her ability as a colorist. Her he employed in art coloring, and if the strike continues, it is probable Aye shall hear of several women being engaged in paperhangingancl painting house interiors." " In no portion of the colony," says the Kyneton Guardian, "has the heavy and long-continued rain been productive of J more disastrous effects than in the Lake I Cooper district. As a rule the crops are totally ruined. Mr Joseph Watson, who has two selections in this neighborhood, informs us that upon one of them there is a depth of from 20 to 25ft of water, and as there is no outlet, he does not expect to see his land again for another three years. He has aoout 300 bags of wheat stored upon an eminence, but it is quite impossible to get at it. The land of Mr Stephen Prowse is in a similar condition, and Mr M'Kissock's selection is | also under water to a depth of 10ft." " Every report," says the Ararat Advertiser, " that reaches U3 from the Wimmera conveys glowing accounts of the richness of the feed and the fatness of the stock, and the farmers look forward to a bountiful harvest. All round Ararat the country looks magnificent, the various agricultural areas being covered with a thick carpet of grass, amongst which the cattle and newly-shorn sheep luxuriate 5 The growth of the grass is go rapid as to be almost visible, and if we have no scorching clays before it gains strength, the forthcoming season will be a splendid one for stock. The same favorable account may be given of the crops, which are springing up rapidly and strong ; of course the usual reservation is necessary that on low-lying and badly-drained foims many crops have been destroyed. These cases are fortunately exceptional in this district, and generally speaking the prospects of the next harvest are of the brightest description." A singular phenomenon has, according to the Bendujo Advertiser, been witnessed at Lower Huntly. The underground miners of the Annabella claim, have, on several occasions during the last ten days, been rather startled at an unusual and very peculiar appearance of a body of light showing itself in a drive. Many have seen it when the place has been lit up with their candles, and also in the dark. It has been followed, but it always retreats before the miners when they have advanced towards it. It is said to have an unearthly appearance, and does not cause the locality it appears in to be illuminated, as no light radiates from it. The size is, on all occasions it has been seen, about 3ft by 2£ft. This peculiar phenomenon has produced a consternation amongst the miners in the claim and the adjoining one. Many are the conjectures as to the nature of the nocturnal visitor, for it makes its appearance at night only. One miner declared his intention of firing a pistol at it, but he did not. Spiritualists assert in a most positive manner that it is one of the many modes in which disembodied spirits have so often of late years manifested themselves on earth, and that a medium might, by the usual recognise:! course, learn the object of its visit. Scientific people may give a different explanation. A sad story of suicide in the bush is I given by the Hay correspondent of the Pastoral Times. The deceased, a man of name unknown, was found hanging to a small scrubby buslf by a worsted cravat. A day or two before he had visited the station of Mr Melrose, and asked Mrs Melrose if he might camp for the night in one of the huts. Mrs Melrose (quoting her evidence given at the inquest) " said he could. He Avent away, and came back about sundown. Then he asked me if I could give him a pipe. I told him I had not one in the place. He asked me if I could give him a piece of clean paper, and he tried to make one out of a piece I gave him. He could not pronounce the woi'd paper — he had a slight hesitation or stutter in his speech; and said he had been that way ever since he had been in the hospital. I asked what had caused it. He said, 'Drink, I suppose.' I asked him if he had been drinking, and he said, 'Yes, very hard.' I asked him where he came from, and he said, ' I cannot give any account of myself — I think lam jnst going mad at the present time.' He looked very wild, and I was frightened, j When he was smoking the paper with tobacco rolled in it, he said, ' This will be the last smoke I'll perhaps need.' He said he left his pipe with his swag. I told him to go to his swag for it. He said he had lost it. He left here a little after sundown, and I saw no more of him." The unfortunate man was found wearing a string of beads with a crucifix next his skin, but there was nothing upon him by which he could be identified. The Denili-quin Chronicle reports : — " On Saturday last the protracted inquest before Mr Noyes, coroner, occupying portions of three days, terminated in the committal of four persons for the murder of Elizabeth Voucher, aged about 40 years, who on the previous Wednesday was found dead in a closet at Steavenson's public-house, known as the Eight-mile Hotel, on the Wanganella road. The persons committed are Mr and Mrs Steavenson, Joseph Neal, and a man named Macdonald. The deceased woman had been about the public-house mentioned eight or ten days, saying she came from Hay. According to the post mortem, by Dr Wren, death, death resulted from concussion, arising from a blow or a fall, and on her body were many bruises. The difficulty was to discover how these injuries really occurred. On Tuesday three shearers, in one party, Neal, Kelly, and Harry Barling, arrived at the Eight-mile, and the next morning early proceeded on their journey to the Murrumbidgee. The body being discovered, these three men were brought back, and most contradictory evidence was given by them as to where Neal slept on the night of Tuesday. He said he slept in a paddock with his mates, in consequence of a row occurring in the house, but while he was corroborated by one, the other said he believed Neal was left at the hotel when they went to sleep in the paddock. This was not all. Steavenson, the landlord, said that Neal helped him to carry the woman, who had been creating a disturbance, out, and put her in the closet. Neal said he never saw the woman ' dead or alive !' And so throughout. The jury had therefore no resource but to send the case to trial."