LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1269, 23 August 1872, Page 3

LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Some. fine specimens of .copper from Flinders Riyef, Golf of Oat]|»entaria, are being exhibited in Sydney, and it is re:portett ttiat a practical man from Victoria will be sent to examine the country. The. Mary. King has arrived at Port Darwin, all well. Although no definite inforjnatipn ■ ha» arrived respecting the existence" of gold in the Northern Territory^thf j pews received- favors the* idea. Intending prospectors are advised to take with them the means of transport, to the fields, which are distant 160 miles from Palmerston.

A large. cake of gold, which has been exhibited in ffie 1 shop window of Messrs

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Murray and Co., watchmakers, Bourke street east, Melbourne, during the last day or two, has attracted some attention. It weighs 800oz, and was obtained by the New Caledonia Gold-mining Company, of Castlemaino, from 318 tons of quartz. The Bank of Victoria has advanced; 11200 on it, or L 4 per ounce. This com-' sany5 any commenced sinking on the 2nd; anuary of this year, and including this! cake, they have obtained from their claim! 13580z 0f gold. Thereof containing the 1 gold was struck at. 6oft. A correspondent of the Smith Australian Register, writing from the Roper, states : — " Hume, the man who is in search of Leichardt, has gone up the country with Mr Mitchell's party. He still sticks to his statement about the: ' remains,' but says that the ' old whitehaired man,' who is reported to have bean seen on the Albert River in Queensland, is perhaps the identical old man or the man of the mountain whom he (Hume) saw on the western coast, and that therefore something may be heard about the 1 remains ' before long from the very lips of this venerable gentleman, in which case Hume's proposed journey across the continent would not be so necessary as it was when ho left Newcastle. Of course not. In fact, I expect that remains of Leichardt will be found everywhere, now that there is a demand for them." The Bank of New South Wales at; Wadonga was burglariously entered about 7 p.m. on August 5, during the temporary' absence of the clerk in charge, Mr Frank "W. Brown. The would-be robber fired three shots at Brown on his return, one of which grazed his temple. A severe struggle took place, in the course of which Brown threw a heavy plated candlestick at the robber, and then closed with him. The fellow finally escaped without being able to secure any plunder. The information given in the Argus relative to the intention of the British Government to grant a subsidy of L 20,000 per annum towards the establishment of a mail route between the Australian colonies and England via. New Zealand and California, appears to be perfectly correct. Mr Duffy admitted that he had received a communication from Mr Childers, stating that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had informed him that the Imperial Government proposed to take that course. Mr Duffy defended Mr Ohildors from the charge of impropriety in communicating with him personally, because he said he did it under the belief that he was still Chief Secretary, and not as a private individual. We (Argus) have no doubt but this is the actual state of the case, and out of his own month Mr Duffy stands convicted of having suppressed most important information which. the Agent-General intended privately to convey to the Government of Victoria for its guidance. He said last night that he never intended the information should be known, and he then went on to say that the communication was marked private both within and without, and yet, according to Mr Grant, he read the letter to a select circle of a dozen friends in the Opposition- room, an% according to his own statement, to three or four. With regard to the small-pox in the San xwich Islands the Hawaaian Gazette writes.:—'.' Up to tho present time, 3rd July, there have been 30 cases of smallpox reported, seven of which have terminated fatally., We understand one case I to have been reported at Makawao, Maui, which was immediately isolated, together with those with whom the person having the disease had been in contact. Every effort has been made by the Board of Health to protect the people of Honolulu from the disease by .vaccination, and we are happy_ to be 'able 'to. state that the office of nearly, every physician in town has been thronged with applicants. The Board of Health have made the most urgent appeals to the people to embrace the present opportunity to protect themselves from the terrible disease and also to report all cases of a decided or doubtful nature which may occur." According to the Bendigo Advertiser, there is not much reality in the Roper River movement : —%l The number of Sandhurst people who are 'really going' to. the Roper is increasing every day, while. the number of persons who are * thinking about it ' is very great. ' Parties ' are formed easily enough, consisting of * six young fellows,' or • ten of us,' or *a lot of us chaps,' contributing at the late of L 25 per head each, for the purpose of, chartering a vessel 'to go round.' IJThen the time comes for ' action ' in this; 'going round' business, somehow or other the bottled-up enthusiasm — or the L2s— has vanished into thin air. The party does not go to the Roper after all, and the. members of it are found very soon excusing themselves for stopping in Sand' hunt in various fashions. One says, plainly enough, 'Oh, hang the Roper.' Another says, 'I'd go if I was sure that one would not have to carry a pistol to shoot those enormous mosquitoes.' There was a meeting yesterday again,, of „ * genk tlemen anxious to fit out,' &c. It was held in the Bath Hotel, and the numbe} of gentlemen ' anxious to fit out ' — with the view of setting out;— was almost aa great as on the occasion. Bufi nothing definitp came of the meeting, and we think it is pretty certain that nothing definite will come of it, or of any similar meetings at the present time. We understand that Mr James Ross and a Bmall party of three or four others will start Boon from Sandhurst for Port Darwin, and with this expedition we think we, have to content ourselves, for the present at least." The Ballarat Conner has been favored with an extract from a letter which has just been received from Mr Simpson, at Perth, relative to the. pearl fisheries of West Australia. Mr Simpson writes very favorably of these fisheries. He says a vessel had just returned from New Zealand, every man on board of which cleared from LSOO to LIOOO according to the share held in the venture, by the sale of the pearl shells obtained during the present trip of the vessel, which only lasted altogether seven months. The natives are employed as divers, and they work for a mere subsistence ; but to avoid desertion some of the vessels bring natives from the Coromandel coast and Java, and these men are paid two rupees a month and fed free; These men never knd on account of the hostility of the natives to them. Mr Simpson says a ton and a half of shells ; will pay the whole expense of the trip, and that it is not at all uncommon for a direr up to the boat 301 bof shells ] after one dip. The value of the shells ig 1 from L7 toL9 l7s Cd per cwt. . Sometimes t pearls are alighted upon, and in that case the profits of the v season are very materially bwreajwd.