INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 894, 8 June 1871, Page 2

INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

We take tho following extract from our Melbourne files : —

The inquest upon the body of the late Mr Hugh Glass" was held by Mr Candler, at the residence of the deceased, atFlemington. The witnesses examined were Mr Thomas Glass, the eldest sod, and Drs. Martin and James, the medical attendants of the deceased. The evidence of the former was to the effect that lately his father had been in the habit of taking do3es of hydrate of chloral, which had been ordered him by the doctors for the purpose of producing sleep. He frequently took a rather larger dose than was ordered for him. Upon Sunday evening in place of taking one tablespoonful, as directed, he took two. That was about halrVpast seven, and he was then left to get deep. At half-past eleven some members of his family found that he was excited by the provious do3e, and had not slept. He was restless and unquiet, and insisted upon having more chloral. Mrs Glass and his son tried to dissuade him from taking any more, or, at all events, to have some food first. He persisted, however, and consequently the bottle was brought in, and the usual dose was given to Jura by his son. The deceased had been in the habit of takingthesame dose forsome weeks past. Young Mr Glass sat up with his father, who requested him to read the Bible to him. The deceased went to sleep, and his son, after staying with him until four o'clock in the morning, when he was still asleep, left and went to his ; own room. About eight o'clock in the morning, somebody went into the room, and was alarmed by the appearance and breathing of Mr Glass. Dr Martin was sent for, and "arrived soon after nine o'clock.- Dr Martin found the deceased in a comatose state, with hurried respiration, rapid pulse, and symptoms of effusion on thfe brain. All possible means of relief were administered, but with no avail. Dr Martin returned to townin order to consult with Dr Motherwell, but before he could return he received a message that Mr Glass was dead. Dr Martin had been attending him for some years for disease of the liver. He stated as his opinion, from what he knew of him, the deceased had, at the time of his death, been of sound mind, and had taken an overdose of chloral, not with any suicidal intent, but merely to induce sleep and alleviate 'the pain. X post ttwrfomjexamination was held by Dr fames. There was shown to be great disease of the liver. A verdict was returned that deceased died from an overdose of chloral, taken for the purpose of inducing sleep, A strong feeling exists amongst the districts in favor of the total abolition of the duty on breadstuf&, and they are determined to make united efforts for the purpose of securing that object. As a preliminary step in that direction a deputation from that body waited upon the Chief Secretary lately, to represent their wishes upon the subject. Sir James M'Culloch replied to the effect that if the proposal to abolish the duty were brought forward in the House he would not oppose it. It has beeu publicly stated within the last day or two that an application has been made to the contractors for the new line of railway to the North-east, to knowhow far they are disposed to give employ* went to Chinese labor in the construction of these works. We are not aware how the application has been met, but the circumstance itself is suggestive of very grave consideration. We have already a, sufficiently large Chinese population in this country, unless we are prepared to witness a repetition of the disastrous effect experienced by the admission of hordes of these people into the state of California. There they have invaded nearly every department of trade and unskilled labor. Able to exist on a pittance that to an American means almost starvation, they have driven out of the factories and workshops the native workmen, who find ifc utterly impossible to maintain their wive* families, and compete with Chinese labor. Particulars as to the tendering for the purchase of Mr J. L. Burkes interest in steamers and his coal business have been furnished us, and they show some very close tendering. Of the tenders those of James Paterson and Captain W. . H. Smith were found to be the hignest,fand for the same amount, namely, L24,i)00. The executor, Mr Webster j and the 1 trustees appointed by the creditor in Burkes estate, said that as both tenders were exactly alike, {they were in a difficulty which to accept, as they did not wish to favor either party, and th.ey thought that the fairest plan would be for thef two highest tenderers to tender again, on the distinct understanding that the highest tender would be accepted. When the second tenders were opened it was; found that James Paterson's was L 25,555 lOs, and Captain Smith's L 25,655, or 10s less than Mr Paterson. The executor and trustees decided to accept the lowest tender, because the difference in the amount of the tenders could not affect the dividen#tothe creditors. Mr Paterson protested against this, seeing the estate had benefited LlS6s lOs by his aotnal tender, but could not alter the determuiation of the executor and trustees to accept the tender of Capt. Smith. The business transacted at the Custom House on Tuesday (says the Age) was unusually large, and immense .excitement was prevalent amongst the mercantile community, owing principally toihe expected increase in the new tariff on tea,

coffee, sugar, and kerosene. Some idea <^fthe business done can be gained by the ■^Wgpsyt'ot entries passed., The usual Unmbe*, is oh an average about 600 per day> JN&Jon Tuesday there were 1296 paw«l£as under :—lmport entries, 150 ;• JaM^itiffi > and home consumption, 'f|POB.. ; c3phe total amount collected was V LM,£B7 2s Bd, making the total for the ■JtS* day*; L 63,086. Referring to this the Argus writrs :— " In, the cotee of' his Budget speech in ihe evenalluded to the subject, appointed out that the articles on which imj|Uarge amounts of duty had been paid JpUP^feg ihe last few days were not touched QPyihe alterations in the duties. The Hofl'se seemed to regard the manner in whafih the merchants overreached thetnBdw^as a very good joke." [yPfxe/nsiyr tax, termed a tax on property, iai called "« police tax," because Mtherto hjilf the expense of the police force should been "borne by the city of Melbourne, whereas it came out of the genesal revenue. Under the proposed system llelbourne property will have to contribute its ,. portion, which, as before obsrved, is about half of the whole expense, towards the protection afforded it ojr^tne, numerous body of police therein An effort will Ye made by some of the Liberal party in committee to omit the holders of land under 20 acres from the operation of the property tax, and to strike out the vote of L 24,000 placed on the estimates for assisted immigration. The mysterious > disappearance of large quantities of kerosene from one bonded store, and of opium from another, has been a prominent theme of conversation for some days past. Most unpleasant rumors were floated, and a great many, persons felt that it would be excessively ■BaeoT&fcwtable for them till the matter was cleared up. The mystery was solved on Saturday by the discovery of the greater portion of the abstracted goods, under circumstances which could leave little doubt as to who was the thief. Some weeks since it was found that several cases of kerosene and a few of turpentine, some 262 in all, had been stolen from BfEwan's kerosene store ; and a few days ago it was reported that four cases of opium, valued at L6OO, had disappeared from what is known as Teale's bonded store. Daniel Lalor, who has been for many years in the Customs service, and was acting as locker at M'Ewan's bond when the robbery took place, and had beea for some time previously, was suspended, on the ground that he had neglected his charge, but it was not then suspected that he had been guilty of anything worse. During the last week, however, it was ascertained that Lalor had been offering large quantities of kerosene for sale in a private manner, and at very low prices. Acting on information received, Detectives Mainwaring and Foster, accompanied by Mr Downs, of the Customs service, went about noon on Saturday to Daniel Lalor's house, which is situated in Frankling street, near the Flagstaff Gardens, and searched the premises under a writ of assistance. In a chest of drawers in his bedroom they found three canisters of opium that had been stolen from Teale's bond, carefully hidden among some linen, and on further search they discovered, concealed under some hat-boxes and other articles, the remainder of the missing opium, 501 canisters in all. In the yard, they came upon 20 cases of kerosene, carefully covered up in a stack of firewood. Later in the day, they obtained possession of 52 more cases of kerosene, which they found in yards occupied by other persons, with whom Lalor had left it, saying that he had bought it cheap from a merchant. The kerosene thus discovered is a portion of the lot stolen from MTBwen'B bond. Lalor was, it is scarcely necessary to say, arrested on the two charges of stealing the kerosene and opium. It seems that he had been employed as locker at Teale's bond some years ago, and that he knew the building well. Since be was suspended he was occasionally seen about the place, seemingly going there with the object of passing away spare time. His house is only, some 300 yards from the bond, and he could have easily carried away the stuff from the store to his own house without being seen. On Monday morning, a hole was found in the roof of the store in question, one of the sheets of corrugated iron which formed the roof having been removed, and it is believed that Lalor used that hole as a means of ingress and egress. How he could have removed the kerosene from M'Ewan's store, on the other side of the river to his own house, teems less easy of explanation.