TASMANIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 499, 15 August 1857, Page 5

TASMANIA.

By way of Melbourne and Sydney wehavenews from Hobart Town and Launceston to the 4th instant.

The ' Hobart Town Courier' makes the following announcement of an important coal discovery:—'" A communication has been made by Mr. Swift to Messrs. Todd, Coram, and Loinas, of the discovery by him of a seam of coal, which is likely—not only from its position, but from the sample which has been exhibited to these gentlemen —to prove highly important. The place at which the discovery has been made is called Police Point, and is situate immediately opposite to Port Cygnet. It is a four foot seam, and the coal has been pronounced of a splendid bituminous character—very far superior to any which has been hitherto discovered in the Australian. It is stated that a shaft could be sunk within thirty feet of the beach ; whilst by running out a jetty of the length of forty feet, a vessel drawing fourteen feet of water would be enabled to lay alongside and load. Need we say anything more ?" The proceedings in the Police Court at Hobart Town, in the case of Gregson v. Hall (a criminal prosecution for libel,) have resulted in the committal of the defendant for trial at the Supreme Court, bail being accepted for his appearance. The ' Cornwall Chronicle' has the following observatious respecting the treatment of free immigrants by employers in Tasmania : —" The arrival at Hobart Town of another cargo of immigrants has been selected as an auspicious occasion by a few unquiet spirits in the south to revive some old extravagancies in respect to the treatment which free immigrants receive from employers in this country. Were_ the influence of these mischievous incendiaries confined to Tasmania, they might be left to do their worst; but unfortunately their representations obtain currency—they are carried to the neighbouring colonies—they reach England itself, and find a place not only in metropolitan, but in provincial papers, and thus tend, to divert from our shores a healthful and much, required stream of immigration. It is

too well known that in domestic qualifications most of the immigrant women are next to totally ignorant; they are taught their duties here, and yet we venture to say that they find themselves generally translated to a paradise of indulgences (not to include wages trebled or quadrupled) as compared to domestic service in England, Scotland and Ireland. With the men that come out the same is nearly the case. Ploughmen, so called, we may now and again get; but how few who pass under that designation are such, a friend of ours illustrated in respect to an immigrant cargo that arrived some time since; he discovered among the so-called ploughmen, a dozen to twenty weavers, who might, indeed, have held a plough, but that was all! Yet these men even followed into the service in which they had been engaged, and, proving them to be no more than we have stated, were forborne v/ith, and in time became what they professed, enjoying the current wages of the calling they were only learning. The truth is, that the Tasmanian masters are, ninety-nine in a hundred, we may say, indulgent in the highest degree, and the representations made to the contrary by mischievous incendiaries are a gross slander. Whoever has a good will to work, even without much expert-, ness, —whoever has a civil tongue and an honest disposition, will find in this colony good masters and good employment."

Carter, a ticket-of- leave ruffian, received from Mr. Fennell, an elderly farmer at Eossmore, Queen's County, Ireland, food and lodging for a night; next morning he attempted to overpower two servants, that he might rob the house-; a lad presented a gun at him, and he fled ; but meeting Mr. Pennell in the fields, the ruffian struck him on the head with a spade, inflicting a dangerous wound. The courageous farm-lad pursued and ultimately seized the felon, and handed him to the police.

The Madrid correspondent of the ' Time 3' makes assertions not very gratifying to Spanish pride. "To talk of establishing in Spain a constitutional government worthy of the name is quite ridiculous. The whole social system is rotten and corrupt. *S.mong the lower orders only is virtue to be found; the middle and higher are mere profligate egotists and placehunters."

A Mr. Taylor, an American, has had a narrow escape at Niagara. He fell from a rock into the river, and was hurried by the rapids some distance towards the Falls ; there, fortunately, he was driven against some rocks; he clung to them, and was rescued by means of a rope-ladder let down to him from the perpendicular bank a depth of 290 feet. There has been a " food riot" at Parsonstown, in Ireland. Mr. Atkinson of Roscrea purchased at the market meeting, on Monday, a large quantity of potatoes and barley for exportation. The lower classes immediately took the alarm ; they stopped the cars containing the produce ; maltreated the drivers, and, cutting open, the sacks, strewed the potatoes about the streets. A body of women were actively engaged in carrying off the spoil, and got away with the contents of thirty or forty sacks of potatoes. The small number of police present were driven away; but a larger force arrived, routed the rioters without shedding blood, seized five ringleaders, and placed the remainder of the produce in security.

A ship-captain, a native of Bermuda, has been found by a gamekeeper in a wood at Speke, near Liverpool, in a dreadfully exhausted state, with his feet gangrened. According to his statement, he had been lying there without food for a fortnight. He was in pecuniary distress ; unable to pay his rent, he had wandered into the wood, and lain down : he became so exhausted that he could not remove from the place nor even cry for help ; he ate some grass and drank water from a brook occasionally. There are hopes of his recovery.