AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 732, 4 November 1869, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

The Melbourne correspondent of the Otago Daily Times mentions that "an alarm of fire was given at the Theatre Koyal the other night, and the people made a rush for the doors and " escapes." One of the latter opened out into the Waxwork exhibition, which had closed and was in darkness. An excited crowd amongst the lay figures made a heavy list of casualties. The Siamese Twins were dissevered without surgical aid—the monster Jones (not the political one) met retributive justice in having his neck knocked off; and, in fact, there was general chaos done in wax next morning. It is a moot question whom the wax show man can go against—Whether the people who actually broke lr's images; the proprietors of the Theatre whence thev came ; or the Chinese who, it is said, by letting off crackers caused the alarm ? " The following extract from the Mel bourne Argus chronicles an act which in the present selfish times is worthy of record. That journal says:—" Amidst the scenes of vice, folly, and destitution laid bare to the public eye, through the medium of our police court, it is gratifying now and then to find that even among those classes on whom the ban of society presses most heavily, kindness and generosity exist in a degree seldom given credit for. At the Beechworth Court on Saturday, an interesting little child, about three years of a g e _said to be the daughter of a Chinaman now deceased, who at one time acted as interpreter in that district—was brought up by a woman named Anne Farmer, with a view to its being forwarded to the Industrial {School. The woman stated that the child had been left with her for nearly twelve months, during which time she had received nothing for its maintenance, and that even then she would not have sought to part with it, had it not been that she intended to leave the district. The clean, healthy appearance of the child, the fondness it showed for the woman who had thus befriended it, spoke volumes in favor of the manner in which it had been treated, and testified strongly to the kindness of heart shown by one whose faults and follies had lost her the resp ct of society. Charity eovereth a multitude of sins." Considerable astonishment (says the Ar gus) was manifested in St Francis's Church, Melbourne, about 4 o'clock on the afternoon of the 15th October, by the discovery uf what is described as " a very fine boy," about 6 month old, lying on the floor of the church. A woman named Mary ilogan went into the church a short time previously, and having finished her devotions, was leaving, when she found the child, in full health and vigor. The infant was dressed in a red frock, two white flannel petticoats, ribbons, &c, and apparently had been well cared for since its birth.

In Sydney it has lately been proposed by the local committee for the relief of the released Fenians to hold a grand demonstration at Clontarf. The proposed step lias, however, been denounced by the Roman Cutholic clergy as beirtf abhorrent to the. feelings and faith of every intelligent Catholic, and they have declared that those who per-ist in promoting meetings of this kind are acting in detiance of the:? Archbishop, and of the spirit of their

Church. The Sydney Morning Herald, referring to the proposed demonstration, says:—"The pilgrimage to Clontarf pro- ' posed by the admirers of the latelyliberatod Fenians is ono of those insolent outI'ages on public decency of which this colony has seen too many. The Queen's son was shot at Clontarf—perhaps by a madman. He was giving the sanction of his presence to a Home erected for seamen of all nations. He was taking part in the festivities of men of every country and shade of honest opinion. He fell by a shot in the back, which only a merciful Providence could have prevented from being fatal. The Fenians had threatened this vengeance in the form of predictions. There was one newspaper here that by inflammatory incitement stirred up the malignant spirit of its supporters which taught without disguise that murderers were patriots, whose death might be avenged. We remember the indignant horror of many countrymen of the assassin. He belonged to the clerical order; he was a man of education, and he devoted himself to this dreadful deed. In the spirit of equity, the Press and people of this country refused to make responsible for his crime even those who avowed his opinions. They distinguished the violence of misguided partisanship from the wickedness, the cruelty, the fanaticism of this crime. What can have inspired the promoters of this pilgrimage to Clontarf? The very association of names is calculated to stir up the most bitter recollections. These Fenians, released by the clemency of the Sovereign from a part of the punishment which, by the mildest construction, of law, they merited, are called to visit the spot where one of those dreadful acts was perpetrated which, in the eyes of just men, have for eyer rendered Fenianism infamous."