LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 997, 6 October 1871, Page 2

LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Sly grog selling is to be put down in the Alexandra shire. A seizure of L4O worth of spirits was made in one house last week. At Geelong sparrows are being exterminated by poisoning. Bread crumbs steeped in strychnine are the means of destruction. A number of legal managers of mining companies, at Sandhurst, whose offices and papers were destroyed in the late fire, have invited shareholders in the companies they managed to forward share certificates, in order that new registers might [be compiled. Melbourne holders of shares fear that if they transmit their scrip, there may be such detention that they may be unable to deal with their property, and thereby suffer loss. At the instance of a large body of shareholders in the various companies, the members subscribing to the brokers' room have addressed a communication to the managers, in which they suggest that they should arrange to allow shareholders an opportunity of presenting their scrip to some properlyauthorised representative of the several companies in Melbourne, on dates to be fixed and duly advertised. A very serious accident happened on the night of the 12th September, about a quarter past 10 o'clock, on the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway. From what can be gathered (for the railway officials refuse to give the slightest information), it Beems that the 10 o'clock train from Windsor was waiting at the usual place, opposite the bottom of Spring street, for the signal to proceed, when an unattached engine, driven by a man named Duncan M'Farland, reputed to be a cautious driver, came up behind at. full speed, and ran into the stationary train. The last carriage was a first-class one, full of passengers, and so great was the force of the collision that the carriage was smashed up, the glass windows being shattered, and the doors broken open, some of them overlapping by nearly six inches. The persons in the carriage were thrown violently all in a heap, and many of them sustained very serious injuries. Among the occupants of the carriage were several ladies, who, besides being injured by the concussion, were nearly all in hysterics from extreme fear when the train arrived at the station. The second carriage from the end was the smoking-carriage, which which was also greatly shattered. A later account says that the injuries sustained by some of the passengers have, turned out 'to be more serious than was at first anticipated. Mr Phillips, a member of the St Kilda Volunteer Artillery, residing in Russell street, has sustained some very severe bruises, and it is feared that he has also sustained some internal injuries, and that his spine is affected. A lady residing at Emerald Hill was also severely bruised and shaken by the shock, from which she had not recovered yesterday. Mr England, who had three of his ribs broken, still remains* at the London Tavern. Elizabeth street, to which house he was taken subsequent to the accident. Mr Garrard was in attendance upon him during the whole of Wednesday, and the fractures being reduced, he was out of pain in the evening. Of course there are numerous conflicting statements as to the cause of the collision, but as a full and searching inquiry is being made into the whole affair by the M. and H. B. Railway Company, the real cause will soon become known. A considerable amount of evidence was taken on Wednesday by Mr Finlayson, the secretary of the company. The evidence already given has proved, that the driver of the unattached engine was in fault, as the tail lamp of the passenger train was alight at the time it passed the semaphore; and before the engine intercepted the view, the usual signals for caution were shown at the semaphore. If the most recent chapter of the Tichborne romance be faithfully written, the claimant has himself left on record in Australia such evidence of his identity with Arthur Orton as no jury could ignore. The Wagga Express publishes extracts from a pocket, book said to have been left in the possession of a person in that township by de Castro. This book bears unmistakable evidence, of having formerly belonged to the claimant. In it, in his own handwriting, is the name of Tom de Castro and Rodger Charles Tichborne. Thus it would appear in the first place that the baronet had forgotten how to spell his own name. Curiously enough, too, in entering the name of his ancestors' family seat he placed it in Surrey instead of Hampshire. Now it may be possible for a man to forget his French, but scarcely to forget his name and where the family roof-tree is situated. There is another entry which indicates that R. C. : Tichborne arrived at Hobart Town on 4th July, 1854. The claimant avowed in his evidence that he had never been in Hobart Town, so that this, presuming the book to have belonged to him, and the entries to be in his handwriting, may throw a little additional light upon de Castro's Colonial antecedents. In the same pocket book the writer has entered the following significant text, " Some men has plenty money and no brains, and some has plenty brains and no money. Some men with plenty money and no brains, were made for men with plenty brains and no money. — R. C. Tichborne, Bart." The last entry in the book is the address of a " Miss' Mary Ann Loder, No. 7 Russell's Buildings, High 3treet, Wapping, London." It will be readily perceived of what value such evidence as this must be to the defendant. The only singular circumstance is the production of the pocket book at this late date, when evidence of Tom de Castro's antecedents is known to be at a premium. The gentleman who discussed so ably with himself the advantage of having "plenty brains," evidently lacks the bump of caution that is indispensable in hunting a fortune, or he would not have left his pocket book at Wagga Wagga to bear testimony against him.