AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1566, 12 August 1873, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

■'[akgds, jTJiT-26.] ; --9" "<A terrible accident- occurred: ia the New Caledonia! iinine, ;^iqtoria Gully, on Tuesday afternoon." TheMount Alexander Mail. * "reports,- : : : ", whereby c - a ;,man jiamed Hake has .lost one of his eyes and'seriously injured the other. It seems that a little after two 'o'clock the' ihen^belbw were engaged in blasting operations, and Halse, 'with his mate, had charged a shot in one of the drives f having lighted' -t he 1 Ifjfise, they went into another drive -to. get otit?of the way. At the'satne time another party of men had put in a shot in a drive close by, and lit the "fuse. " f Tnis second blast went off, when the unfortunate Halse and his mate, thinking it -was' their charge had exploded, proceeded to the drive for the purpose of clearing away the debris. "Halse; .had the pick in his ~ handy when, just as'he approached the spot, the -wKole exploded, and he received a good portion of the blast in 'his facei The alarm was given, and assistance procured, when it was discovered that "• he was - terribly shattered about' the head arid: face, r one of his eyes being completely blown out. He , was , at once, conveyed to the hospital, and placed under treatment by the resident surgeon. The .unfortunate man is married and has a family." . "One of the most daring robberies which has been perpetrated in.Sandhurst •for some time was," the Bendigo Advertiser reports, "committed ooru r Thursday , morning' at Mr J.. C. Hadleyfs City Family Hotel, Charing Cross. It .appears' that ■'about four o'clock in the morning the ! man engaged as' / boots ' ;was 'getting; ' bufcHpf bed to attend to his work, when he heard a noise downstairs, which he thought was rather unusual, and on looking down he observed a man striking a match. He asKed'th'e intruder whoever he '-was^what business-he had there at that jtimeof the morning, but receiving no answer he ;fdused Mr 'Hadley'a stepson/ a and r they proceeded downstairs, but there was then no sign of any person about theipremises. Upon examination it was 'found a quantity of jewelry had been stolen 'from the bedroom^ of the Misses Hadley, >ahd that a. sum of money had also. been stolen out 'of Mr ■ Hartley's coat ( and trousers :pockets,~ which were hanging -up. in his bedroom. The, police, were at once communicated with, and the matter is now in the, hands of Detectives, Alexander and Duncan, who -will,' no doubt ere long! be successful' in tracing the burglar "or burgiarl; By what means' the ; h'ouse^was entered remains a mystery." The following disagreeable, adventure, which happened recently to Mr Foster, police magistrate at Sale, is related by the Gipps Land Times : — "■ It appears that jusfc before daylight onSunday. morning, Mr Foster was awoke by. a : noise in the house, and on proceeding to search found a man, whose name was ascertained: to: be Fairweather, standing ia a small passage near; the: nursery. On ; being , i^ietly interrogated as to his business there, Fairweather replied only with abuse, arid on Mr Foster attempting to lead- him to'the door, he struck' at him; at the] same time using 1 very abusive language^ A struggle then \ ensued, which' lasted.Mor' !I soine minutes, arid at last Mr Poster found the ruffian" gaining an advantage; ~*having grasped his. opponent by the throat, with both.handa. Mrs Foster then came with a light, and pn a contiuuance o£ s the struggle both men fell. 'On rising j|Mr Foster, ejected the,, fellow through" s the door," but he , persisted, ' in fiis" efforts to regain admission^ arid/attempted to smash •Mr Foster's hand with a piece of * Wood. By this time one of the boys had come with assistance from Mr, Bjack^s, a house some little distance' a w'a^,in<i the unwelcome intruder; was, secured' and ; bound whilst information was sent to the police. During v the . struggle., Fairweather, used most 1 disgusting language, and attempted to draw his knife, swearing to Mr Foster that he .-*» would; rip him open with it,' &c. ; that 'he had a pistol outside and would put a bullet through his.^-- : -;head;' Fairweather was brought up .at the. Sale Police Court and sentenced to two months' imprisbnment.' Mr Foster "bears' several .unpleasant^marks of his struggle, having been kicked seyerely." . . . r 1 Oh Tuesday,' the \ fidyteford MeHtiry states, "a shocking 'case' of- proflgacy, cruelty, and parental neglect was revealed in the Daylesf ord Police Court. During the hearing of a charge against Giovanni Giani, of committing a criminal assault on his step-daughter Katey the child, who 1 is about 13 years old,- swore positively that the offence had been committed on twq 1 occasions, ; and that she had been forced into compliance by fear of Ijer step-father. ,^he, however, admitted that shejSadbwn criminally intimate with and another

man. The girl, who is an illegitimate' daughter of the prisoner's wife, wasj alleged by two witnesses to bear a very, bad character, though they admitted she' had complained to them of the step-! father's conduct, and had refused to gd .back to his house. > Dr Massy, who had ( * examined prosecutrix, deposed that the capital offence could not have been com-i •mitted, and that both legs and the right arm of the unfortunate child had been broken at different times. As the leg bones had never been set, they had united themselves, but so much out of position that she was permanently deformed. He also discovered that a portion of the frontal bone had been driven in on some previous occasion. There was no evidence to show how the girl had received these injuries, but as it was stated the mother, 1 when drunk, was in ihe habit of fearfully beating her daughter, it is probable the unnatural parent had hurt the wretched • child as described. To complete this reyolting story, we may add that the mother was only the other day locked up as a lunatic, anti that the house was previous to her marriage with the prisoner, nothing .better than; a brothel. Giani was committed for trial." . From Tasmania a correspondent reports:—" Commercially and industrialy we are getting on much better. Our local and intercolonial trade is increasing, and • enlarged Custom returns, irrespective of recently-added duties, are the one solitary bright spot in the firmament of our Treasurer. Iron and slate are daily receiving more attention in the north, and tin is decidedly looking up. Here an ironworks have: been commenced on the barks , of the river, between the wharves and Battery Point. New coal mines are being opened. The stock of the Hobart Town - Woollen Manufactory, though increased, has been taken up, and a telegram sent to England to seDd out the machinery that was selected by Mr Overell, the draper, when recently in England. Another small company is being got np for a similar enterprise atßothwell, on "the banks of the Clyde, so that altogether pur main line railway, that so many said \ would prove so. far in advance of our re'.ijuirements, is likely to : find us fully ' prepared to give it a fair amount of patronage." The KUmore Guardian reports that a Tfman named Richard Trenham, but more generally known as " Dick the Hawker," has committed suicide by hanging himself in his house, a short distance beyond the Plough Inn, on the Lancefield road. Some of the neighbors having noticed that his horses were confined in the yard for .some days, suspected, that there was something wrong, and went and looked into the house, when they saw, as they supposed, the deceased standing against the table, but quite dead. They left hurredly, without examining him, and ■ gave information to the police. Constable Connor proceeded to the place, and found that the deceased was hanging about "half a foot from the ground, and had been dead for some time. The constable cut him down, and on examin- ;• ing his clothes found about Ll4 in his- ■:'■, trousers' pockets. In answer to a statement that very little • ■ diphtheria prevails in Ballarat, the Courier 'says :•>-■" The truth, however, is, that a large number of cases exist about us; in several instances two or three of a family being down with the disease. One under.taker in this town alone has buried eight children during the last two months who .succumbed to the diphtheritic poison. The fact is that cases are kept concealed from ■vithe public to prevent the loss of situations, or a falling off in business." - The Ballarat Star relates the following:: . _^» Twelve years and two'months ago a '•clerk in a manufacturing firm here had a 1 ( sum of money handed to him with which • to pay the workmen in the establishment. 'He reported himself a half-sovereign ; Bhort, and told his employers he had lost !.. it in the office. Search was made, but the ..coin could riot be found. The clerk has been dead some years. Nine days ago a partner in the firm gave orders that the office should be cleared out and renovated, ■ .aM in doing this one of the men found a -^half-sovereign behind the skirting. This is very 'romantic,' but it is also true.