AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1593, 12 September 1873, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Three men, named Todd, Manton, and Stewart, quarrelled in an oyster saloon, in Victoria-street, Ballarat East. Todd, who is a scissors grinder, was accused of stabbing the other two, and arrested. He denies that he did so. Stewart is severely, injured, but Manton not so much. Both men are in the hospital. A telegram from Brisbane, in the Sydney Morning Herald, says :— " A horrible and unprovoked outrage by the blacks near Sharp and Williams's machine, on Sunday (August 17), has caused great excitement here. Harry Williams, part proprietor, arid Samuel 'Blake, blacksmith, were kiPed. Rolls Kenley had one horse badly speared. All the miners were unarmed. There was a great turn-out of miners and townspeople on Monday and Tuesday. T lie blacks were encountered, but their force was too strong and their position inaccessible, and the miners and townspeople were obliged to turn back The native police are expected to-day. Hundreds of wild blacks are hovering about defiantly. A strong police-station is. urgently required." ' \ At Penshurst last week a man named Robert Archibald Muir died while chloroform was being administered by Dr. Dickinson, preparatory to the reduction of a dislocation of the shoulder. . LAn inqnest wa3 held, and it appeared from a post-mmierii examination made by Dr. Scott that death had been caused! by paralysis of the heart, that organ being in a sta,te of fatty degeneration. The jiury returned a..verdict to that effect. j „ ? The Lower Lachlan correspondent of the Wagga Wagga Express reports thfit a dreadful accident occurred a few daysjago to a young man named Frederick Smith,, in the employment of Mr George Tout, ; of Humbug Greek. At the time of the ajecident he was employed in felling timber, , when he was struck with a limb of a tree with such force that the bone of his leg was forced clean through his legs and, driven some inches into the ground. The nearest medical advice which ;was toj | be obtained was in Qoung, a 'distance of about 100 miles. Mr Tout lost no time in placing him in a spring-cart and smarting with him, but he never reached his destination. He expired on the road on the second morning after he started: | A narrow escape from drowning ! is | related by the Mount Al&xdnder Mail :—. ,j vOnu On Wednesday afternoon two of ] Mr Carter's children, of Colden Point, Chewton, were playing together in front ofj the house on the diggings ; a new fence bjeing | put up, ; the two little children had got outside. Mary, the eldest, of five years, old, fell into a waterhole 14ft deep. 1 The younger, Matilda, three years of age,; lay down on the edge, and grasped her; sister by the clothes on the. shoulder, holding her fast about ten minutes. Mrs Carter, hearing the child scream, ran but just : in tinio to save the child, she being much; exhausted struggling >to get out." : Diphtheria continues to be prevalent in the country districts. A correspondent of the Ballatat , Star states that the, disease ff is still raging at Morrisoas. Three ■ children died in one family, and two in another, Such of the families as [have means have removed to Geelongjand other places in the hope of escaping the contagion. -It is gratifying to know { that; those families whose necessitous circumstances prevent their following their jmore fortunate brethren to a place of safety, have providentially discovered a remedy which has proved effectual in all'the leases to which it has been applied; The prescription was prepared by Mrs Slad^n^ of Lai Lai, at the urgent request of a friend, and through his agency forwarded to the ' sufferers. The most reliable ingredient in it is tannio acid." The "tSTewstead correspondent of the Mount Alexander }Mail reports that diphtheria has appealed in that district. One family of fiye are all bad with it, but up to the present no ' fatal results have occurred. I .The following extraordinary stdry is related by the Inglewood Advertiser :— ••' We have been informed of an almost " 1 murderous assault, attended by a singular ' train of circumstances: leading up to, the < time of the assault being committee. It 1 appears that some months ago two men J living in a tenement at Burke's-fl.a|t had 1 a dispute 1 oh some 1 question,' the outcomß ] of which was that they agreed never id!

speak to each other again, while at the same time/they decided that both should still live in the same place, and to prevent any further dispute as to space, a notch was cut in the middle of the fireplace, which was situated at one end of the room, and an imaginary line leading from the middle ofthe fireplace to the opposite end of the hut was to separate the space allotted to each man. In this way they lived for several months,, as. stated, neither speaking to the other nor invading each other's territory, :and each man using only half the fireplace, until the other morning, when one of them, while combing his hair, put his head past the boundary, whereupon the other man, who was getting his breakfast, caught up a stick to repel the invasion, but the invader was too quick for him, and, snatching away the stick from the man who was about to strike, belaboured him with the weapon in such a brutal arid unmerciful mauner as to /break several of the unfortunate fellow's ribs and nearly kill him. Op Saturday last the wounded man was brought in to the hospital, where he is now receiving every attention;" j. : A man named Philip Hardy has been sentenced to 10 days' imprisonment at Rockhamptofl for assaulting Mv W. H. L. Bailey, a reporter of the Northern Argus, by striking him with a horsewhip? '-•' A swagsman named Patrick Kennedy hung himself at. the farm of Mr Charles Healy, near Meredith. ;; ; A disgraceful outrage in the neighborhood of Sydney is reported by the Herald: — " At about 1 o'clock in the morning the family of Mr W. J. Smart, residing, in Dowling street, Surrey Hills, was awoke by the crashing of glass:, whereupon Mr Smart arose and inspected the premises. The whole, of the front windows were smashed, and inside the house were found several stones of some 61b or 71b in weight, with which doubtless the damage had been committed, and a chain with' which the front gate had been' fastened on r the previous night, had been broken." The Newcastle Chronicle (N.S.W.) reports that on a Saturday afternoon recently, " a little girl not quite t§n years of. age, the daughter of ;.tHe gatekeeper, Mr Payne, on the Lambton Coliiery^ilway line} met with an accident tlflfeis feared .will .terminate fatally. Thel^irl went, as. she was wont to do on many former occasion's, to' open the gate when she heard ,the. coal train with the empty waggons coming; {i This she did very properly, but forgetful of another train that was following, she stood on the line looking after the one that had passed. At this time the second engine came upon her, and knocked her down.,, The whistle was blown, but there was no time to stop the engine until the girl was knocked down.. One leg was fearfully broken. Her arm was broken also, and her head was dreadfully cut. : Dr Hill was sodn in attendance, tendering all the aid that medical skill could afford, but there is little hope of her recovery."