TASMANIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume X, Issue 591, 3 July 1858, Page 4

TASMANIA.

The judgment of the Lords of the judicial committee of the Privy Council on the appeal of Fen ton and Another v. Hampton, delivered Feb. 17th, 1858, is published in the ' Mercury.' This appeal arose out of the Hampton controversy which occasioned so much commotion nearly three years ago. The Supreme Court of Tasmania decided that the Speaker of the Council acting with the authority of that body, had no power to apprehend a contumacious witness, for such the plaintiff in the action had been pronounced, and as such he was arrested under the Speaker's warrant. Against this decision an appeal was carried to the Privy Council, the Speaker and Sergeant-at-Arms being the applicants, and the Controller-General, the respondents. The judicial committee has determined in favor of the latter, affirming the judgment of the Supreme Court with costs.

Afc the last meeting of the Royal Society of Tasmania, the secretary drew special notice to a subject of great importance to horticulturists and to farmers, namely, the Aphis brassica. or cabbage blight, which now indeed is of vital moment to the colony at large, seeing that its ravages are no longer restricted to one tribe of plants, but have been extended to almost every variety of cultivated vegetable, and even to some indigenous plants: it has now attacked Cape barley, and has been seen, it is said, in wheat fields. Mr. Dobson, Dr. Agnew, Mr. Abbot, and others spoke on the subject, when it was moved by the Rev. Archdeacon Davies, seconded by the Rev. R. Maclean, and carried ■—"That it be a recommendation to the Council to offer forthwith a reward of £25 for the discovery of an effectual remedy which may be practically applied so as to eradicate the aphis brassica, which is now extending its ravages to an alarming extent over edible vegetable generally in this colony."

A Native Tigeb,—The body of one of these nearly obsolete animals was forwarded to the Royal Society by Mr. C. S. Henty, M.H.A., having been shot by a settler at the westward. The tiger is marked very beautifully on the sides and tail, with yellow stripes on a mousecolored ground, and is about two feet and a half in height, and rather more than three feet m length. The animal has been forwarded to Mrs. Touch, of Brisbane-street, for the purpose of being properly prepared for a place in the museum, and, in the meantime, Mr. Frith, the photographic artist, is engaged on a portrait. Mercury.