Australian Items.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 779, 18 April 1870, Page 2

Australian Items.

Melbourne astronomers state that most wonderful changes are taking place in the star world. Some extraordinary phenome-? na are looked for, and with results which cannot be calculated on at present. There is intense excitement and speculation among scientific men. A Sandhurst contemporary declares that Draper, who is now under sentence for the Commercial Bank frauds, is subjected to none of the indignities and inconveniences to which other convicts are ; he is allowed to retain his own dress ; he has not been submitted to the tonsorial scissors of the prison barber, but is, as it were, simply a detenu. In the G-oulburn papers we hear of a distressing accident at Waroo on the 24th March. Mrs Beid and two of her sons went to S\ aroo races in a gig. The oldest of the two bovs, who is about twelve years of age, was driving, and when they arriYed in Mr Brassil's fence, he pulled up, and as he did the blinkers came off the horse, The eldest boy immediately jumped out to put them on again, but the horse got restive, and Mrs Beid. commenced to spream, which frightened the animal and caused it to bolt. The boy held on to the reins for seyeral yards, when lie was. knocked down and received a aevere cut two inches long on the head. The horse proceeded along at a galloping pace in the direction of a deep creek. The persons assembled at the course were about the grand stand making preparations forthe start of the first race, and a feeling of terror pervaded the crowd as they heard the screams of Mrs Beid and witnessed the bolting horse. Suddenly the screams had ceased. The wheel of the gig had struck against a stump, raising the other one high up in the air, which, in coming down hit a great log and was dashed to pieces. Just as the wheel was falling, the fork of a tree caught Mrs Beid and her young son and dragged them out, taking with them the whole back of the gig. The boy's head fell against a tree, battering the lower part of his face and leaving him at once senseless, Mrs Esid, who was behmd, the boy,

had the caps of her two kners smashed, and the flesh of her left leg taken clean away for several inches in length, leaving the bone quite visible. Both the mother And son were at once removed to the private apartments of Mr Brassil, and a messenger despatched to Yass for medical assistance. Dr Campbell was speedily in attendance. They stayed at Brassil's that night. On Friday morning they were conveyed home to Yass. The little boy who was about ten years old, lingered on until Saturday morning, when he died, having never spoken from the time of the accident. An inquest was held on his remains at the Kock of Cashel inn on Saturday, before the coroner (Dr Blake), and a jury of five, when a verdict of accidental .death was returned. The blinkers had no throat-strap to them that caused them to come off the horse after it was pulled up. It is stated by the Gundagai Times that, the .other day, Mr J. Leary, of South Gundagai, came upon a flock of twenty ducks down the river, and firing both barrels of his fowling piece in swift succession killed seventeen of them. Some ten weeks ago (a local journal states) a mare belonging to Mr Boat, of Deniliquin, was cruelly maimed, and, with other damage done to her, her tongue was cut off at the root. The poor animal, from loss of blood and being unable to eat or drink, was turned out to die or live. She has now recovered, and become fat, and useful as ever. The Yass Courier reports that some days ago a man named John Gavan, a farmer, residing at Manton's Creek, and his wife, left Yass in a cait drawn by two horses, and on reaching the rise beyond the pound at North Yass, the wheel of the cart came in contact with the stump of a tree, and a capsize took place. The leading horse kept its feet, but the one in the shafts fell over with the cart. Singular to say Gavan and his wife, fell wholly under the cart, and all their efforts to remove their covering were unsuccessful. The horses fortunately remained still. Some hours after the accident occurred, Mr Denis M'Guire .chanced to pass by, and noticing what had happened, released Gavan and his wife from their involuntary imprisonment. We are sorry to learn that Gavan has sustained somewhat serious injury from the fall, and that he has since been confined to his bed. The Cambewarra correspondent of the Kiama Independent writes:—l am sorry to have to record a fatal acaident by burning that happened to Mrs W. Adams, sen., on Monday afternoon. As far as I can learn, Mrs Adams, who was above seventy years old, was engaged in some household duty by the fire, when she stumbled and fell among the ashes, her clothes catching fiie, and as there was no one just at hand to help her, she got severely burned before the fire could be put out. Dr Read was at once sent for, and was very soon in at* tendance, and every means taken for her recovery, and although remaining sensible to the last, she speedily succumbed to the jeffects of the severe injuries she had re ceived and died next morning.

A few days since (says the Wagga Wagga Express) as Mr B. Best was riding through the bush in the neighborhood of Sandy Creek, he observed a monster iguana blundering in alarm somewhat slowly up a tree. Bememberjng that one of the men upon the station wished to procure a supply of th 4 noted bush remedy for rheumatism—iguana oil —he dismounted from his horse, and by a well-directed shot with a stone, succeeded in bringing the reptile to earth, and then put an end to its existence with a stick. Throwing it over the saddle, he remounted and set out for home, but after riding a short distapce observed with no little alarm that the long form of a snake was gradually dropping out from the mouth of the iguana. He lost no time in casting off both from the saddle, and upon atter-exarpination discovered that the snake ■was quite dead, and indeed had most probably been killed before the process of swallowing had been commenced. The iguana measured from nose to tail five feet, and the snake, which was of the black spe cies, three feet one inch in length. The Melbourne correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald writes as follows under date 26th March;—The somewhat too hasty introduction of the eight hours' system at the works carried on by the Government where day labor was employed, has complicated the relations between contractors and laborers in other places, and bo we have had waterworks stopped, the graving dock brought to a standstill, and other publio works retarded by the strikes which have been got up, and some hun»

dreds oi men are now out of employment

on this account. The men refuse.to submit to any abatement of their wages, although they demand a reduction of one fifth of their hours of labor. The tenderers for the construction of the north-eastern railway have been representing to the Government the necessity for an extension of time proposed to be allowed for the completion of the works, partly on account of the adoption of the eight hours' systern, and an extension of three months has accordingly been allowed. A huge amphibious animal (says the Queanbeyan Age) has lately been seen on the banks and in the waters of the Murrumbidgee, a short distance below the confluence of the Queanbeyan with that river. From all accounts, it appears to be exceedingly wary, and dives to the bottom of the river on the least alarm. Whatever the animal is, it is evidently making its way up the river, as last year it was seen in the vicinity of Yeumberra. One person who saw it, described it as about eighteen feet long, and said it was accompanied by another, a smaller one —apparently its calf.

The Yictorian Parliament appears to be of one mind in reference to its duty towards the widow and children of the late Governor of that colony, Sir Charles Darling. An annuity of £IOOO is to be settled on Lady Darling for her life, and £SOOO will be invested in trust for her children, to be applied to their education during minority, and to their advancement in the world afterwards.

The Brisbane Courier, 23rd March, says:—The second trial trip of Thompson's " road steamer," the property of Mr Dalrymple, which took place on Monday afternoon, was not so successful as the previous experiment led us to expect. The tires of the wagon wheels which did not exceed three inches cut deep into the ground. In the difficulties which occurred in starting, the steering apparatus did not not seem to control the " steamer." An Adelaide telegram, March 26, says that an important discovery of quicksilver has been made on Mount Barker road, in the ranges near AdelaideAn estimate of the probable results of the late wheat crop of South Australia, founded upon the reports of intelligent correspondents in eighty different districts, has been arrived at by the Kegister, after a careful analysis of the returns, is that the general average for the colony will be quite six bushels per acre. Taking it that there wa9 no increase in land under cultivation last year, as compared with 1868, this average will be spread over fully 530,000 acres. In other words, the aggregate wheat produce of last year was equalto 3,180,000 bushels. This is aboutr 2,000,000 bushels less than last year, when the ex portable surplus of flour was close upon 80,000 tons. Allowing forty-five bushels to the ton, the surplus for this year will be nearly 45,000 tons less than for its predecessor. The deductions to be made for seed and for consumption will not be far different from the deduction last year, so that the quantity of flour available for export during 1870 will be, as nearly as can be ascertained at present, 30,000 to 34,000 tons. All things considered, the result of the wheat harvest is not so unsatisfactory as it was at one time feared it would be. The average last year, it is true, was nine and two-thirds bushels, but the year before it was only four and two-thirds bushels,