SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

New Zealander, Volume 2, Issue 86, 23 January 1847, Page 3

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

The harvest commenced on the 20tli November. A gre&t number of hands were at work. The crops are far beyond the usual average, and of better quality, which will in some measure make up for the additional expense caused by the scarcity of labour and exorbitant demands of the reapers : fourteen shillings and rations being paid per acre. Corn is, however, not expected to be lower than 3s. per bushel. A roriespondent of the Adelaide Observer was so much struck with the abundance of the present harvest, that he was desirous to engage his fellow colonists and brother farmers to appoint a day of solemn thanksgiving. The Adelaide races were to come off on the 31st December and Ist January. His Kxcellency Governor Robe, accompanied by Captain Lipson,had taken a trip up Spencer's Gulf, and returned to Adelaide afier having visited Mount Remarkable country. Wo uudeistand a minute inspection of the eastern coast towards the head of Spencer's Gulf, has been made under the superintendence of Captain Lipson, and that good harbours and anchouige abound in that ' direction. New and increasedly rich discoveries have recently been made at the Buna Burra, which a ' leading colonist, fully capable of appreciating that extraordinary properly, is wont to call "the eighth wonder of the world." The newly discovered ore contains imbedded masses of virgin' copper, which substance is otherwise plentifully disseminated in the ore. Specimens of peculiar brilliancy are now being subjected to special anal) sis. We glean from the South Australian press, that should the present influx of Van Diemen's Land expirers and conditional-pardoned men still continue increasing, the question arises whether it would not benefit the interests of the colony and mother-country, in a greater degree, to receive their prisoners direct from home, under ceifain necessary modifications.

A Woman Killed by her ITusband, at her own Request. — The following curious case of murder occurred lately in a small village in Wurtemburg :— Adar/l^ Gayring, shepherd, a man 64 years of age, of honest and upright dealing, loved and respected by all who . knew him, presented himself on the Bth instant, before the authorities at Heidenheim, and stated calmly that he had just killed his wife. His declaration was immediately taken as follows :— " My wife," he said, " auevery one knows, has been suffering for a long time from illness, and at times the pains she had to endure were such as to affect her reason j she latterly gave up all hopes of recovery, and continually repeated that' not only was life a burthen to her, but that she feared if I should die before her, she would be reduced to misery. This morning, after wejiadjread_ together the.4th chap-, ter of Judges (they were devout people and read the Bible every day), she requested me to drive a nail into her temple, as Jael did to Sigera, as such a death seemed" to her short and easy, and would put ftn end to her sufferings ; she said she forgave me beforehand for the act, of which she absolved me before God and man. A nail,' she said, would not cause a great hemorrhage, and would make but a slight wound. 'As soon as lam dead,' she added, • you can close the wound, put me on a clean cap, and no one will know anything at all about it.' After-long resistance, (continued Gayring) I gave way to the wishes of my wife. I took a nail and began to drive it into her left temple with a hammer, *but the 1 nail was too weak, and the point, instead of entering flattened itself on the bone. I then took a 'small drill, but was equally unsuccessful. My wife grew impatient, and requested me to kill her at once with the hammer, which I did accordingly, by knocking in the skull. The body of my wife is at my house, where you can examine it at your leisure." The magistrate immediately proceeded to the house with a medical man', and Gayrhig, under a strong guard. They found the body dressed upon the bed. On the left temple there were two wounds, and the right side of the skull was knocked in as low down as the temple. Beside the bed was a table, on which was a Bible, the nail, drill, and hammer alluded to. On the ground was a basin of water, in which the murderer, according to his own declaration, washed his hands before presenting himself to the authorities. Gayring is now in prison ; he is perfectly calm, and convinced that he acted well in fulfilling the wishes of his wife, by putting an end to her sufferings. Some Wurtemburg papers state, that the inhabitants of the village of Gussenstadt, where the murder was committed, left their work as soon as they heard of the murder, and spent the day in the church, fasting and praying for the soul of the departed. — Liverpool Albion, July 6. The Erring Husband and the Forgiving Wife, — Dickens, in his Mai tin Chuzzlewit, gives an incident between an intoxicated husband and a forgiving wife. She went up lo him, as it seemed, and spoke lovingly, saving she would defer to him in ever} thing, and would' consult his wishes and obey, him, thai they might be happy, if he would be gentle with her. Ho •» ansu ered with an imprecation, and—with a blow ! Yet; stern truth, against the base-soulcd villain, with a blow ! No angiy cry no loud reproaches ! even her weeping and her sobs were stifled by her clinging around him. She only said, repeating it an agony of heart,. 1 How could he ? how could he ? and lost utterance in agony of tears. Oh woman I God's beloved iirJerusalem!" The best among us need deal lightly with thy faults, if only for the punishment thy nature will endure, in bearing heavy evidence against us in the day, of judgement. ' A captain of a vessel was recently called out of a coffee house by a water man, with the following address,—" Please your honor, the tide , is wailing for >ou." We used lo write in our copy-books, " Time and tide waits for no man." A gentleman sat down to write a deed, and began, " Know one woman 'by these presents." "You are wrong," said a bystander ; it should be, "Know all men.'.' "Very well answered the other, "If one woman knowi it, all men will coon know it too, for no woman ever yd kept ft lecret,"