INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 1024, 7 November 1871, Page 2

INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

The Armidah Telegraph "has seen a specimen of a meerschaum pipe, manufactured by a gentleman from a piece of meerschaum got on the Richmond River, where the material is to be found in quantity. Meerschaum is said to be got near Uralla." Fancy symptoms of high Anglicanism in the torrid heats of semi-cannibal Fiji. By private advices the BallaratStar hears that the Rev. Mr Floyd has surpliced assistants in the service at Levuka, a surveyor and a newspaper reporter figuring in that mysterious capacity. A breach of promise case was recently tried at Monaro, in New South Wales, in which the defendant, a storAVo«,r.rc ' ?' 1 , „ j . .«/ uue amount ot JLxZuU. ffiV/he of*his letters to the plaintiff (whom he had seduced), he wrote in this strain : — "The finger of God is in this. Both you and I have complained of the providence of God having having been against us in our passage through life, but I doubt not we shall have reason to conclude that he does all things well. " We have files from the Cape of Good Hope and Natal. From the Cape, the most important news is the rejection of the bill for introducing responsible government, which was lost iv the Legislative Council by a narrow majority, after having passed the Assembly. Both Houses of Parliament carried resolutions in favor of annexing the diamond fields, but the Governor declines to initiate any legislative action in the matter for the present. A bill to annex Basutoland passed. The proposed gratuity of L2OOO to Dr. Lang, formerly a member for PortPhillip in the Legislature of New South Wales, in recognition of his services in securing the separation of this Colony from New South Wales, is to have special consideration. Mr Macgregor, who has tabled the motion, anticipating that if there was any | further delay in bringing it forward it would run a risk of being shelved to make way for the prorogation, obtained yester- 1 day the promise of Mr Duffy that before j the House went into recess an opportunity should be afforded to discuss the motion. In connection with the eclipse expedition, the Royal Society of Victoria have made arrangements to send either the steamer Albion or Alhambra to Cape Sidmouth, about the 20th November, if a sufficient number of passengers come forward. The expedition is expected to occupy a little less than five weeks from starting till its return to Melbourne. The chartering of one of such powerful and commodious steamers gives j a guarantee that the expedition, if started, will be carried out with a full regard to the comfort of the passengers and the en- j joyability of the trip. Some people said there were no "unemployed " in Melbourne. If there were any men out of work, they were "loafers." A rush of nearly 800 able-bodied laborers for work at filling up the Government quarry-holes at 4s 6d per day, or 27s per week without rations, must satisfy them that they were mistaken. Instead of denying the existence of the phenomenon, they will now perhaps proceed to investigate its causes. We must all admit that this Oarlton quarry-holes episode is by no means a pleasant spectacle for us to contemplate. The wages paid by the State are just above starvation level for a small family. Each of the men, we may suppose has on the average three persons depending upon him for support ; so that here we have nearly 2500 persons who must have been actually pinched for want before the work begau, and who are only just above want now, and who will be pinched again when the job is finished. The following accidents are reported in the latest Gympie Times :— •" Last night a serious accident was reported as having happened to a German yesterday morning. It appears he was leaving his home in Walker's Pocket, to go to work, carrying about four pounds of blasting powder not under cover, and (our informant actually states) smoking ! As might have been

anticipated, some sparks from his pipe exploded the powder. He is badly hurt about the face and hands. — An accident happened to the Maryborough coach, recently, by which • Fred,' the driver, had his arm broken. It took place on a slope of a hill near Palmer's ; whilst the driver was attending to some part of the harness, the horses moved on and the coach went over him. — We learn that a German, employed on No. 1 south, Smithfield, was lately injured by a blow from the horsearm of the whim on the claim ; it struct him on the head, causing profuse bleeding from the ear." The following news with respect to the overland telegraph has been received by Mr Tood, the superintendent of South Australian Telegraphs :— " Mr Knuckey (says the Register), writing from Charlotte Waters — the main camp on section A — states on the 2Jst September he, had 120 miles of the line erected, having about 43 miles more to wire, and then he would have finished. Mr Blood arrived that day from the northern section, bringing news of nice rains on section B, where Mr M'Minn expected to finish by the end of October, and he had reason to believe Messrs Mills and Woods, on sections C and D, would not be far behind. Some difficulty was experienced in finding limestone for building the station within a reasonable distance. The weather had been hot, with frequent heavy thunder and ightning, but only a small quantity of rain. With regard to section B, Mr Blood, who had arrived at the Peak on the Ist October, said Mr M'Minn was just laying out and planting the last portion of his line, which required about 50 miles of wiring at the south end to complete it. Mr Ray Boucaut, with . the operators, arrived at the Gums on Tuesday, the 10th October. •The trial of James Quin, charged with murdering Ah Woo, at Myrtleford, took place at the Beechworth Circuit Court on Friday, 20th ultimo, before his Honor Mr Sir Redmond Barry. A number of witnesses were examined connecting the prisoner with the deed, one of the most conclusive bits of evidence being that a Mrs Paul, a storekeeper, sold Quin on the day of the murder a clay pipe branded "Davidson, Glasgow," and that the broken clay pipe found in the cart in which the murder was committed corresponded with the description of the pipe purchased by the prisoner. The jury found the prisoner guilty. Quin, when asked if he had anything to say, said, " I consider I haven't had fair play. I got a sheet of paper to make private statement to my solicitor, and it was taken from me by the governor, who, I believe, showed it to the prosecutor. I am an innocent man, and I shall never ask for a reprieve." Mr Bowman, who appeared for the defence, said such a statement was never made to him. The Judge then passed sentence of death in the usual manner. Ballarat for a long time bore the odium of sharp practice in the promoting of mining companies. It is problematical, however (says the Courier), whether such a trick was ever played by a Ballarat speculator as the one successfully worked by some Sandhurst men the other day in Melbourne. A wealthy resident of that city was interviewed by a self-constituted deputation from Quartzopolis, and asked to go into a "really good thing." The figure was a mere bagatelle, only a couple of hundred. „ He went into, the "good thing" on tneir.repi.wwufawbiu'uo' j-'iniaot, i^-ped before he looked. Subsequently, upon making inquiries, the purchaser ascertained that the claim he had bought into was about the size of an ordinary tablecloth. Of course he was very wroth, and remonstrated with his tempters in no measured terms. His expostulations finally had the effect of causing them to disgorge LSO of their ill-gotten plunder. The next attempt upon metropolitan credulity will most likely take the form of shares in a claim that has no existence except upon paper. The Whipstick Scrub would be a convenient locality for a mire of this kind. A very neat trick was played on a Sandhurst dealer — not a very able one— ;on Friday, 20th ult., who has a stall in the market. He was cordially accosted by an individual, and after a preliminary conversation, was induced to repair over the way to the Royal Duke Hotel. Arrived there (sayo the Bendigo Advertiser) the stranger proposed a throw with the dice, betting half-a-crown that he would throw under eleven. After the marketman had been fleeced of over LI he relinquished the game, and his suspicions being awakened, he gave information to Detective Alexander, who, producing a warrant and accompandied by Detective Brown, arrested the owner of the dice under the Vagrant Act. The man, it appears, who is named Mitchell, and was before the Bench the other day, is well-known in Melbourne as a clievaliev d'industrie. On being searched Detective Alexander found on him a die of a peculiar formation, which could only be made to throw " three," thus rendering his chance of throwing less than eleven with three dice almost a certainty. The smoking-out embroglio between the Defiant and the Independent companies at Buninyong still, continues. There has been no collision between the parties since Thursday night or Friday morning, but the smoking-out has been thorough and effectual, in so far that the smokers are being smoked.. The Independent party do not disclaim that they were the first to resort to the suffocating process, but the Defiance men are now keeping the game alive by supplying feed to the truck of burning charcoal from which the choking fumes are emitted. "Two hundred feet of the disputed drive have thus been rendered unapproachable to either party; and the Independent men have been forced to block it up at their end and make an exit for the smoke, so as to carry on work in the other parts of their mine. The Defiance are still lifting waßhdirfc'Bnd will probably commence washing to-morrow. Mr James, the manager of the Independent, states that on Saturday morning he laid before the Defiance CX a proposal that each party should cease working in the disputed ground until it had been surveyed, and the ownership proved in a court of law ; but the Defiance Company refused to entertain the suggestion, and the Independents have therefore resolved on initiating proceedings. Mr James also refutes the statement that he attempted to put his head through the hole in the well of the drive, or that his hair was anointed with Rowland's Macassar. He says that he was standing near the hole, when some one on the other side grasped him by the hair, to which, he had not applied pomade of any description for the past twelve months. He also states that

the men in his claim refuse to allow him to go below, on account of the threats which have been used against by his opponents, and that the Defiance men are suspected of having laid trains of gun-, powder in the drives, and that a blow-up is to be feared at any moment. If all this is to be regarded as sound information, and the additional fact that the Defiance men have been seen taking firearms below, it is pretty certain that they intend to carry measures to an extreme, and that violence may be anticipated if the disputed ground is again invaded.