AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 16, 13 May 1871, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

[Akgus.] A spirited little fellow named Donelly was a few days since presented, at the Sunday school, Redbank, near Avoca, with a purse containing 955, and a lnmdsome new bible, for his courageous conduct in saving two boys —who were unable to swim—from drowning in the reservoir A woman named Sarah Salsbury has been charged at Wangaratta with making a false statement while registering the birth of a child. She registered a child, giving its surname as Dixon, representing herself as Mrs Dixon, and giving the date of her marriage. The facts were she was not married to Samuel Dixon as she stated, but was living with him, and he was the father of the child. The Bench committed her for trial.

A company is proposed to be formed in Melbourne, under the title of the Victorian Road Steamer and Road and Street Rolling Company (Limited), for the purpose of purchasing and working Thompson’s road steamers, by employing them in metalling and rolling streets and roads in ana around Melbourne. The capital is to be £7,000, in 700 shaaes of £lO each, the proprietors of the engine taking 185 paid-up shares in part payment. It is computed from data afforded by the road and street making works of the city, that the profit above the working expenses would be over 80 per cent, should the calculations be borne out by the results.

Some of the evil effects of the diseased traveling mobs ©f cattle from New South Wales are (says the “ Benalla Ensign”) beginning to be felt in this district, thus showing unfortunately that pleuro-pnuemonia is well established among us. We were yesterday informed that a farmer near Benalla, named Chi vers, who had 15 head of cattle a few days ago discovered they were affected with the fell disease, and next day they all died. This loss will fall very hard upon Chivers, and may lead to his ruin. Again, we learn that the disease was discovered to have broken out on two cattle stations, and the owners, rather than see their herds die on their hands, started them off to the Melbourne market, and before this they have appeased the appetites of many hungry consumers. Mr F. Poeppel, one of the patentees of the “ saccharate of quicksilver process,” has allowed it to be subjected to a very severe test, as the following certificate, which is another proof of the value of the saccharate as a gold-saver if properly used, will show :—Ballarat, April, 1871.—We, the undersigned shareholders in the National Gold Mining Company, Ballarat, do hereby certify that a trial was made at our claim on the 19th inst. of the saccharate of quicksilver process, on ninety pounds of alluvial tailings which had previously been put through the amalgamator, and which had also been gubsequently washed and re-washed until no more gold could be extracted. The proprietors of the saccharate of quicksilver process then undertook to make a tral of it, and the result was highly successfull, they having obtained 9gr of gold, equal to 9dwt 8-9ths of a grain per ton The trial was made in our presence. On the same day another trial was made on 50 pounds of sludge from our claim, the result of which was l-g-gr of gold, equal to 9dwt 18gr 1-sth per ton.” (Here follow 11 signatures). According to the “ Bendigo Independent,” a case of extreme cruelty on the part of a father towards an erring daughter was revealed at the Eaglehawk Police Court on TuesdayA man named

Marr was brought before the court by Sergt. Bradley, and charged, under the Marriage Act, with neglecting to maintain a daughter of his, and refusing to give her shelter, and the facts, as elicited in evidence, fully warrant us in saying it was one of the most terrible and heartrending cases that is on record in the colony. Marr was the father of a daughter about fifteen years of age, and she was a rather wayward and disobedient child. A few months ago she found she was pregnant, and disclosed the unfortunate circumstance to her parents. Then began her misery. She was driven from her home, and lived in the bush until want compelled her to give herself up to the police. As a neglected child she was taken before the police court, but, in consequence of her condition, the bench could not her to any of the reformatories, nor render her any assistance. The police recommended her to go back to her father s house, and she went, but was again repulsed, and it is said she was again obliged to go into the bush. How she lived no one knows. As the time of her confinement approached, she came home and begged to be sheltered and protected, but as a worthless thing she was refused permission to come under the paternal roof. Knowing not what to do, or whither to go, the unhappy creature, on Easter Sunday, sought refuge in a pigstye near her home, and there gave birth to a child. Even then the hard hearts of her parents were unmoved; and they would not take her in. "With only a blanket to cover her and her baby, she was allowed to remain in that wretched place, almost too ‘bad to be called a pigstye, and there she might have stayed until death put an end to her miserable existence had not information got to the police at Eaglehawk. One of the constables came to the place (Derwent Gully) and requested Marr to lake in his daughter, but his entreaties and remonstrances were in vain. Mrs Williams and Mrs Hay, of the Eagle* hawk Ladies’ Benevolent Society, went to Derwent Gully, saw the dreadful state of the young mother, and offered to pay for her maintenance if he would take her in, but still without avail. Then Sergeant Bradley proceeded to the place and ordered the man to receive his child under his roof, threatening to arrest him if he would not, and it was only after considerable difficulty that the Sergeant prevailed upon him to take her in and provide for her. In reply to the Bench, Marr, by way of defence, merely said that “ he had since taken her in.” The police magistrate characterised his conduct as heartless in the extreme, and in discharging him requested the police to keep a sharp eye on him in future.

At Campbell’s Creek last week an old gentleman, Mr Seemer, died at the ripe old age of 92. He was 36 years old when the battle of Waterloo was fought, and retained a vivid recollection of that stirring period. The number of persons who arrived in Victoria by sea in the month of February was 9,979. The number who left during the same period was 9,105. As an instance of longevity, a correspondent of the “ Ballarat Star” mentions a couple named Fyland, living at Lai Lai. The husband is now in his 91st year, enjoying physical strength unusual for his age ; and the wife, now in her 80th year, is hale and hearty. She milks a cow every morning, and also discharges other domestic duties.

The “ Clunes Gazette” mentions; “ As Cobb’s 4 o’clock coach from Ballarat came in on Monday opposite Mr Godenzi’s store, a little child belonging to him fell before the leaders, when the sagacious animals opened out and left the child seatchless. The polers not being able to extend themselves as fully, yet, with astonishing care., picked up their feet and passed over the little creature without harming it; the coach also passed over without touching it.” The “Daylesford Mercury” states that on Wednesday a peculiar and fearful accident happened to Mr Patterson, one of the proprietors of the Telegraph Saw-mills. While standing beside the circular saw, a splinter, three feet long, broke off the log on the bench, and struck the unfortunate gentleman full in the chest. Such was the force of the blow that the wood passed through the ribs near the clavicle, and very nearly came out of his back. The

sufferer drew out tbe splinter himself, leaving, however, it is said, a piece in the wound. Mr Patterson lies in a critical state from internal hsemorrhage. “ Potatoes are so cheap in Creswick,” writes the “ Creswick Advertiser,” “ that on a farmer asking a produce merchant lately what he would give him for a load of ‘ spuds,’ coolly told him if he liked to leave them there he would return him civility and the bags in a few days, but they were worth nothing more.”

One of the collectors of the census, whose district was an outlying one, assures the “ Yass Courier” that during his travels he witnessed more abject poverty amongst the settlers than he had ever seen in the poorest portions of Ireland during famine time. He describes the feeling existing in many localities in the bush as unneighborly in the extreme.

“ Only a drunken spree.” Such, says the “ Kilmore Guardian,” is the exclamation of a witness at the adjourned inquest on the body of James Charles, who died in the hospital from injuries received at the hands of three or four drunken rowdies at the Dry Creek. Of course the disturbance occurred at one of those iniquitious colonial institutions —“ a shanty;” and the result is that one poor fellow lost his life while defending liis neighbor’s property. These “ shanties” are like so many plague-spots along the railway line, and every means should be used to do away with them, and thus prevent strife and murder.

Our readers, says the “ Yass Courier,” may remember that on the 26th May, 1869, bushrangers attempted to stick up the mail from this place to Goulburn, and on that occasion Mr J. Longfield, dentist, of Goulburn, who was a passenger on the box, was badly wounded and lost the sight of one eye. On Friday last a man named Peter Gray, residing at Woodhouseleigh, about 20 miles from Goulburn, was committed for trial, together with another man, for the armed robbery of John White’s place at Pejar, also in the Goulburn district. Mr Longfield had occasion to go into court while the case was proceeding, and he then recognised Gray as the man who shot him. Gray was accordingly brought before the police magistrate on Saturday, and, after the evidence of Mr Longfield had been taken, was remanded.

The two pastoral journals, the “ Guardian” and the “ Western Times,” stand in anything but harmonious relationship to each other. They are, perhaps, superior to all other Victorian journals in their command of the expletive and vituperative resources of the English language. The last issue of the “ Guardian,” in treating the subject of the wreck of the Barwon, and replying at once to remarks of its rival contemporary and to some observations published by Captain Shoobert, writes in this strain “ The mistake of Captain Shoobert in the character of the « Guardian’ is perhaps pardonable, but if he were better acquainted with its editor, he would know the policy is to speak the truth irrespective of smiles or frowns, and that in the whole course of his career he was never carried home drunk in a wheelbarrow. But the captain in continuation says :— * I have been in and sailed for years out of a country where a strip of well-seasoned cowhide would,’ and his bottleholder in the ‘ Western Times’ says ‘ There are those who would regard the provocation as a sufficient justification. Now, we (Argus) can only say as regards the captain, that it is a great pity he ever left the delightful country to which he refers, and that if he would ship himself back at once—that is, if he gets the opportunity —and take the editor of the * Western Times’ as ffirst mate, both would be sure to do themselves credit where cowhiding, not as the awarders but the deserving recipients, is practised, and we can assure both there are parties who would say, ‘ sarved them right.’ ” To show that the captain is well able to hold his own in a contest of this kind, it is only necessary to quote the last paragraph of his letter to which the above is a reply. Says Captain Shoobert, “ I repeat that a more mean and cowardly attack was never made by any man, and could have only been devised by one who possessed more of Satan than salvation.”