LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 897, 12 June 1871, Page 2

LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS

The statement of a country paper, that the body of Duncan Sutherland, the missing Rokewood carrier, has been found in a creek, is said by a correspondent of the Ballarat Courier to be without foundation. .. Some of the claims at (Jhristmae TTlat, Berlin continue to turn out well. Recently Butler and party got a nugget weighing{3o ounces, besides several smaller ones weighing from one ounce to two ounces. " Three days ago we reported the death in Ballarat," says the Courier, " of a child of the name of Lockhart from diptheria. On Thursday thi9 fatal disease claimed another victim in the same family — a fine little girl, nearly four years of age, dying of diptheria only a few days after being attacked." A boy named O'Connor, son of a farm laborer at Marong, met with a serious accident from a gunshot a few days ago. He was loading one barrel of a double gun, and was ramming down the charge, when the other barrel went off through the hammer catching his leg. The shot tore away one of his arms, and frightfully lacerated his right hand. Mr Edward E. Darvall, of the Bank of Australasia, Ballarat, has received a medal of the Royal Humane Society. ; On the 12th January, 1870, Mr Darvall, then resident in Sydney, saved the lives of two persons from drowning, and Lord Kimberley, in a despatch, forwards to the Earl ,of Belraore the Royal Humane Society's bronze medal, to be presented to Mr Darvall "for his courage and humanity." " There are white aborigines," says the Ballarat Courier, " as well as dark ones in Victoria yet. The other day a bushman entered a hairdresser's shop in this town, who, though nearly 40 years of age, had never seen a looking-glass iv his life. When he entered the shop a gentleman was sitting in one of the chairs, and a conversation was going on in an adjoining room, between which and the sitter hangs a large pier looking-glass. The bushman, seeing the back of the sitter's head reflected in this glass, imagined the owner was engaged in conversation with some one not far away. Hej asked the hairdresser whether it was not 'M'lntyre' whom he saw through the window — i.e., the glass— and an expression of doubt being indulged in, he went near to the glass and addressed the reflected cranium. Rot receiving a reply, he walked out of the shop and entered the room behind, where he was still more mystified by finding half a dozen persons carrying on an animated conversation, but the head had disappeared. Returning with a curious expression in his countenance to the hairdresser's shop, the mystery was explained to him. He spent some fifteen minutes afterwards looking at the glass, and expressing his wonderment at there being such an article of furniture in existence. The rustic said he had been far back in the bush since he was a child, and that was the first time he had come within the bounds of civilised lookingglasses." The Smythesdale correspondent of the Ballarat Star writes ; — " Detective Eason has been in this locality for the last day or two, and I have reason to believe he is engaged in tracing out fuller particulars regarding a case of manslaughter or murder said to have occurred at Mount Misery in the year 1854. , Some of the old residents of Sniythesdale inform that. at the time the first police station was established in the Smythesdale locality, agang of disreputable characters kept a shanty adjacent to the spot chosen for the site of the police station, and that the very night the police arrived with their trappings, the whole shanty-keeping gang disappeared from the locality, and were subsequently heard of in a like line of business at Mount Misery. Shortly afterwards, it seems a stockrider belonging to some of the local stations, was at the shanty, and had his saddle stolen. The stockrider, it seems, accused one of the shanty-keepers, named Joe Dickson, of having stolen the saddle, and Dickson was afterwards found dead, or in a dying state, in some hole, supposed to have come to his end at the stockrider's hands." The West Bourhe and' South - West &mvdtim says : — " We perceive Mr Harbison has. petitioned against tjie return of Dr Dobaori for the South Province, The doctor, if another election be the result of the inquiry, will be elected with a greater majority than on the last occasion. He is very popular with the electors." " A terrible accident," relates the Bal~ larat Star, "occurred at Mr Blake's Ballanee sawmill, to a man named Thos. Foster. It appears that it. was the duty of Foster to track out sawdust, when one of the tree-fellers asked him to put a belt on the grindstone, so that he might grind his axe. Foster, in compliance with the request, left his own work to put on the belt, when by some means hia right foot got entangled. Before the engine could be stopped his leg was carried round the shaft and fractured in three places, and finally torn off near the hip, the sinews being torn from the. shoulder, and re- ! maining on the leg." The unfortunate man, who was attended by Drs Kieser, Robertson, and Mr Black, lingered in the greatest agony until 2 o'clock on . the following Monday, when he expired." " All doubt as to the existence of an extensive gold field at the Corner Inlet," says the Gipps Land Times, ** is now at an end • and as there is a population of fully 600 miners at present on the ground, and the number is increasing daily, we may shortly expect to hear some important tidings as to the results. The newly developed diggings have attracted experienced miners from all parts : of the Colony ; among them not a few of our Walhalla men, so that while the character of the ground is likely to be thoroughly tested, information will be forthcoming as to cost of working, expense of living^ and many other matters scarcely less important, without which no prudent man of limited means would think of leaving dresent employment in search of prospective gains at the new El Dorado. Our correspondent at Stockyard Creek-r^a gentleman upon whom we can place reliance — says that the diggings at that place are assuming a more permanent appearance, and that fewer are leaving now than at any former period." . ■;..■■; ■•_ 1 There will be a rather determined oppnsition to renewing the charter of the Bank of New South Wales for twenty years, as is proposed by the bill to. amend the corporation act of the company which was read a second time in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. Some honorable members 'contended that, in view of the

probable introduction of a general banking measure, it would be quite sufficient to extend the privileges of the company for five instead of twenty years, ana others proposed ten years as a compromise. There is a saving clause in the measure, which, provides that all privileges granted under it may be abrogated by any general measure dealing "with the subject, but members seemed to place but -little dependence upon it, as they maintained that, were such a met sure proposed, there would inevitably 'l can appeal made to the House based upon the equities of the case. The bill has to be submitted to a select committee of the House before the Assembly goin 0 ' into committee of the whole upon it. "Intelligence has been receive] from England by last mail," says thy Sydney Morning Herald, " which confirms /in announcement made by Dr Von M'leller that the Russian Government were about to despatch a scientific expedition to Papua, or New Guinea. The steam corvette Witiaz, now on her., passage* from Russia, conveys the expedition in charge of Herr N. Von Miklucho-Maciay. They are to spend seven or eight years in the Pacific, the first two being devoted to the complete examination and survey of New Guinea, a work which was only partially carried out by the Netherlands Scientific Commission in 1858, whose labors were confined to the south-west and northern coast districts, leaving the interior terra incognita. The recent rich discoveries of pearl shell on the coast, and the reported existence of gold there, are likely to induce some adventurous spirits to avail "themselves of the protection offered by the presence of the Russian expedition to test the resources of the second largest island in the world." The Waranga Chronicle reports: — "Things are again looking up at the Buffalo. Some new ground has been opened near the lead at present being worked which is payable, and a large number of claims have been marked out. It is not known whether it is a continuation of the old lead or a new one: The miners seem very sanguine -thai ?^hey have a winter's work. before them which will paypwaires. if not more. . „.,.,: . ; ,; $? "At Sporting Fiat,'? says the lhmotty Express, " the yields continue about the same, and are very uncertain to estimate from prospects obtained in the dish ; even claims that have yielded Bdwt or lOdwt to the load have dropped offto2dwtor 2dwt, and vice versa. We are, however, credibly informed, that there have been a few small bits of loz, 3oz, soz, and 6oz obtained at the rush, which the miners have not included in the report of the yield per load wheu cashed. < That there are poor claims no one doubts ; but the majority of those on the run appear to be worked most hopefully." A display of courage on the part of a woman is thus related by the Bmduip Independent:—"On Wednesday night, during the absence of Mr Jame3 Osbourne, jun., from his jeweller's shop in Ball-street, two men entered the premises. On their entering the shop Mrs Osbourne came out, and accosting her they asked if it was a jeweller's shop, to which she replied yes, and asked "what of that?" They then gave her to understand thai they desired her to hand over to them the watches and valuables. She was somewhat terrified at such a startling demand, and involuntarily started back, but concealing her fear she reached her hand into a safe, which happily was close by, and .snatching up a revolver as quick as thought, she presented it at the intendingburglars. The operation of being brought under cover was performed with such celerity that they were awe-struck. One of them said, 'ByG-ed she is plucky,' or something to that effect, and thinking discretion the better part of valor, they lost no time in beating a hasty retreat, leaving Mrs Osbourne sole master, or rather mistress, of the situation." A mining correspondent of the Alexandra Times, writing from Durham Gully, Spring Creek, says :- "Some little anxiety is at present prevailing amongst the miners here as .to the result of a new shaft &\xn\ in the deep ground on Spring Greek. Swift and party are the prospectors, and the sinking is 45ft, with a little water. They have sunk a well, and are now driving north and south to catch the gutter of the Hope claim, which formerly yielded from adwt to 4dwt to the load, with 3ft of washdirt. I myself saw one washing of nearly sdwt to th.c load from the same ground, This has caused the ground to be taken up again all- down Spring Creek as far as the leased ground, which has been locked up for dyer six ths " - ■' '#

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