AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1441, 14 March 1873, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

An Adelaide telegram from the Roper says that the inspector of police has returned from Tarn Creek, bringing" with him some magnificent quartz— specimens from the Priscilla, Nelson, Winn's, and Neall's claims ; also from Pine . Creek. The inspector washed 3dwt of gold from two dishes at Nelson's. It is stated by the Gipps Land Times that the value of the gold taken from the Prospecting claim at Turton's Creek, during a little over a week, was LIO,OOO, giving the handsome dividend of over LI2OO per share. A large number of miners have left Ballarat for the Peak Downs copper mine, under engagement with Captain Dennis. Many of them had come from dunes and the •neighbouring district. Swarms of locusts paid the centre of Sturt street. Ballarat,' a visit on Thursday week. Some of these unwelcome visitors flew steadily over the street at least 200 ft above the earth, whilst the great bulk of them sought what refuge the dusty street could afford. A traveller informed us (Courier) that he drove for three miles under a dense cloud of them. fl The City Council, Sandhurat, was lately the defendant in an action brought by Mrs Galvin to recover L 250 damages for neglect to repair a box drain across the High street footpath, into which Mrs Galvin fell on Bth June last, and sustained a compound dislocation of her left ankle. The only defence was the suggestion that Mrs Galvin fell over the kerbstone. The jury gave a verdict for the plaintiff for L 75. A telegram from Tamworth says an extraordinary discovery of diamonds has been made at Bingera. Messrs M'Caul and Westcott have just arrived in town from Bingera, bringing with them 375 diamonds. They range in size from four to eight grains. A mineralogist certifies that they are of the' first water. The account which the Herald publishes of the late heavy rains in Sydney shows that a large amount of damsge was done in all parts of the city. One of the shopkeepers in George street suffered to the extent of LIOOO, through the water breaking into the cellar ; others. have lost LSOO and L 250 worth of goods. In the lower parts of the city, where drainage was impeded or insufficient, property sustained much injury, and life itself was endangered. Although they frequently have heavy rains in Sydney, it is but seldom that the results have been so disastrous. Mr Charles Moore, of the Botanical Gardens, estimates that it will take 12 months to place the gardens in the same condition that they were in before the recent downpour of rain. A telegram, which anuounces the establishment of the Torres Straits maU service, has been received from the Colonial Secretary of , Quesnsland by the Chief Secretary at Adelaide. The Adelaide Express of Saturday was furnished with the following memorandum :— " The Colonial Secretary of Queensland has this day telegraphed to me that he has received a telegram from their Agent-General in London, stating that Messrs M'Taggart, Tidmon, and Co. have closed for the Torres Straits mail service, calling at Card well, Bowen, Gladstone,- Brisbane, and Sydney, for L 20.000 per annum, the agreement to be on the same basis as the conditional on 6 with Mr Frazer, a copy of which is among the Intercolonial Conference papers. This is very satisfactory, aq it was considered that the service might possibly cost L 25,000." A girl named Mary Anne Caroline Downing, who was carried off from her parents in Melbourne some weeks ago, was apprehended in Sydney last FrHay night, disguised in men's clothes. " She was abducted," says the Empire, " by two old men, one of them known as Eves, who took her to Cook's River. The disc6nso» late parents, on missing her from home, telegraphed to the _. polios authorities or Sydney, and subsequently sent her likeness,- and the police actively searched for her. When found in Pitt street she was attired in a fashionable youth's light tweed suit, a Californian hat, and she wore elastic boots ; she also had a false moustache, and her hair was cut short like a boy's. She carried,* smart ridingwhip in her hand. The constable apprehended sher under the provisions of the Industrial Schools Act, for rambling, in the streets, wheu utider 16 years, without having any lawful abode. Miss Downing was brought up at the Central . Police Court, but as she appeared to be 18 years old, the Bench were reluctantly compelled to dismiss the case. She admitted that she had L2O when she arrived, but had spent LlO ot it in .'Sydney. She promised to return home to Melbourne in the City of Adelaide, her mother having made arrangements to pay her passage." A squabble between two horsede.alera in, Bourke street gave some employment to the lawyers in the Supreme Court last week. A celebrated character named David Nesbitt, better known under the sobriquet of " Scotch Jock," had a feud with another dealer named Ray, and he employed some men — "droves" one witness described, therit as—to punch Ray's head. Ray, however, succeeded in keeping his head from being punched, and then Nesbitt engaged a commission agent to find a man to fight Hay. The agent was successful in his commission, and obtained the services of a man named Dufty. A ruatcli was made up fdir LSO a-sidei Nesbitt to find Dufty's money. The fight came, off in due course > at the* Saltwater River, but the combatants would 'appear to have; come to some: uqderstaridini~ "amalgamatised,* one of the witnesses said— that Ray was to win. Sootoh 0 ook

thus lost his money, and was very wroth at losing LSO without seeing a black eye for it. Another dealer, named William Jones, was Ray's bottleholder on the occasion of the fight ; and Nesbitt, discovering how he had been betrayed, was as angry with Jones as with the others. This led to some Strong language, and on the 19th December last, in the course of one of their ; altercations, Jones called Nesbitt "a thief." Nesbitt then brought an action for slander. The de* fence was that the language was mild for horsedealers to use to one another. The jury solaced the plaintiff's injured feelings by giving him LSO, the amount he lost over the prize-fight.