AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 18, 27 May 1871, Page 15

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

- [Abgus.] Nothing has yet been determined upon with regard to a successor to Mr Michie as Attorney-General. He is now only holding office in accordance with the express desire of his colleagues, and no negotiations have been entered into in order to provide him with a seat! A decided change for the better has taken place in the state of Mr M‘Kean’s health, and his medical attendant, Dr Tracey, considers that, if no unexpected turn occur, his recovery is only a matter of time, the patient having become quite rational.

“ A case of privilege ! A Ballarat attorney,” says the “ Ballarat Star,” “ at the instance of the Maryborough official agent, caused a summons to be served on Mr W. Clarke, M.L.A., within the precincts of Parliament, for calls alleged to be due in the Korong Quartz-mining Company, whereby it is said the attorney is liable to be summoned before the bar of the House of Assembly. Whether the matter will come to anything remains to be seen.”

The out-door preaching nuisance seems to be found very troublesome at Ballarat. The “ Star” reports :—On Sunday night there was one or more preachers at the Explorers’ monument, and as there were symptoms of popular disturbance, the police induced the holders-forth to desist. We hear that the ill-feeling was created by the distribution of some handbills offering 1 £IO,OOO reward to any Roman Catholic wh® could satisfactorily answer given questions. It is to be hoped that these unseemly out door assemblages on Sunday evenings will be permanently prevented by the police, if the law on the subject is stringent enough for the purpose.” The notorious Leigh, after having a short time since received an additional sentence of 12 months in irons for attempting to escape from Pentridge, made, a similar attempt on Thursday last. It appears that as the overseer was going his rounds on visiting Leigh’s cell, he found him on his hands and knees. This extraordinary and unusual attitude of a prisoner in his cell immediately aroused suspicion on the part of the officer in question, and on a strict examination being made, it was found that he was endeavoring to extract the nails from the floor of his cell, evidently with the intention of carrying out his former plan of escape. It is not known what the authorities intend doing with him, but there is no doubt he will receive further punishment in some shape or other, and also be placed in a cell that will baffle the ingenuity of such a scoundrel to get out of. A determined attempt at suicide was made by a man named John O’Keefee, lodging in a boardinghouse kept in Royal lane by a Mrs Robinson. The landlady found the blood on the floor in the morning, and thefi discovered that the man had bled copiously from a cut in the throat and a stab in the side. Constable Dalton, who was sent for took the man to the hospital. He told Dalton that he had been sick for some time, could get no employment, and that his money was getting nearly run out. The following letter was found written on the back of a tailor's handbill, found on the table, olose to where, the man was sitting":— May 7 1 71 this* is to sertify I killed myself & no person Else 1 am tired of my life I am quite sensible of what I am doing May th 7 1871 John O’Keeffee Boren febry 23 1845. The,weapon used was a penkife. O’Keeffe, is stated to be a dangerous character, accustomed to injure others as well as himself when he gets a mad fit. It was stated by a gentleman who had employed him as a shearer in New South Wales that he >had been in the Albury aud Deniliquin gaols for lunacy. On his recovery he was taken before Mr Stuart, P.M„ on a charge of attempting suicide, and was ordered to find a surety in £25 that he would keep the peace for six months. Being unable to find a surety he went to gaol. “ Little All Right,” or Chikasso, the Japanese boy who performs so cleverly at the Princess’ Theatre, appeared in City Court in his national costume, to prosecute a woman named Powell alias Power for assault. ‘ All Right’ and another Japanese boy, in their own language, described how the former had

been cut on the head with a piece of wood, and both threatened with r-'> by the woman, when thry

tbeir house in consequence ul tel. children having thrown stones and broken a window in the house of the Japanese. They ga-e their evidence rapidly and without hesitation, using a greatdeal of very expressive gesticulation, and were sworn by handing in slips of paper on which they had previously written a declaration that the}' would tell the truth. The agent, of the troupe, who had acted as interpreter, stated that this style of swearing was used in ordinary cases, and in Japan a person could be severely punished for telling an untruth when thus sworn, but in every important case the witnesses were sworn by cutting off a cock’s head, a mode which prevails also in some parts of China. The woman alleged for the defence that * All Right’ w T as chasing her child with a stick, when he fell back and cut his head on the kerb-stone. The Bench find her 10s with 10s costs, or one month's imprisonment.

The audience in •' the Emerald-hill police court were kept amused for over an hour on Saturdayduring a neighbors’ quarrel. Mrs Doran and Mrs Whitehead—for, as usual, the parties in the quarrel were women—lived close to one another in Market street, but from some unexplained cause they had been for some time back on very bed terms. In one of their rather frequent disputes, ■Doran was said to have threatened to “ cook” Mrs Whitehead. This horrid threat the latter appealed to think justified in proceeding to any extremity. Accordingly, on Wednesday last, after indulging in a few very indelicate remarks, she rushed at Mrs Doran, and twining her hands in that lady’s back hair proceeded very vigorously to tear it out by the roots. A of course ensued, in which Mrs "Whitehead got the worst, though she still clung to her grip, and it was with considerable difficulty that the two women could be separated. The law was at once appealed to; Mrs Doran was summoned for an unlawful assault, and Mrs Whitehead for using abusive language. The latter, when before the court, attempted ta excite the sympathy of the magistrates, by informing them that she was in an interesting condition ; on which Mrs Doran, not to be outdone, stated with pardonable pride that she was a little more so than her opponenent. The Bench thought Mrs Whitehead to blame, and fined her 30s, with 30s costs; the charge against was dismissed.

A few weeks back we promised the report of Sub-Inspector Gilmour, of the Queensland native police, who had gone out to the country lying to the westward of Cooper’s Creek in search of a white man, supposed to be one of the lost Leichardt party. Mr Gilmour reported that he obtained the assistance of a black, who said that a vinie vinie (white man) was in the ground at a waterhole called "Wantata, many miles beyond Cooper’s Creek, and arriving at the locality next day, the search party discovered what they believed to be the remains of a while man. It was in this district that an aged white man was reported to be living; but the discoveries of Mr Gilmour were supposed to have set at rest all anticipations as to Ending him alive. However, we learn sfrom the “ Dubbo Dispatch” of the 58th ult., that the correspondent of that journal at Bourke “ saw a letter from Mount Margaret, in which the writer, a regular pioneer, and a terror of all blacks, states his certainty of a white man being with the blacks beyond where Gilmour and his troopers went, and of the determination of the tribe not to part with him. At any rate, he states that there will have to be a little more daring displayed before he is taken.” As connected with this subject, it is worth mentioning that a letter from Dr Von Mueller is printed in a Queensland journal, in which, after pointing out the steps that should be. taken to follow up Mr Gilmour’s discovery the writer says : —“ The public mind will not be satisfied until the whole mystery of Leichardt’s death is more fully cleared up, and the rumor of a white insane man being yet. alive is fully disproved.” In referring to the Ladies’ Leichardt Search Expedition, Dr Von Mueller mentioned I the fact that “ a Bristol lady (a Mrs | Robertson) has continued writing year after year to the ladies’ committee to

urge the continuation of the search after Leichardt’s party, because she hoped. to see yet again a brother who accompanied Leichardt in his last disastrous expedition.” At length the meat-preserving companies of Victoria have obtained a full and fair reversal of that verdict of the London Society of Arts which, while highly commending the colonial preserved meat (in the shape of some canisters forwarded to them by the Melbourne Meat-preserving Company), ranked it as inferior to the meat preserved under Admiralty auspices at the Deptford Dockyard, and assumed to represent preserved meat in its very best form. To that verdict the Melbourne Meat-preserving Company demurred at once, because their tins had been taken at random from the London stock in hand, while the Society of Arts in sending to Deptford for meat with which to compare the colonial tins, had stated their object, and allowed time for the Deptford authorities —who were necessarily anxious to preserve their credit—to prepare special samples for competition. The end was that our agentgeneral procured from Deptford six sample tins of “ boiled beef ” (fresh) which were sent to the Victorian Government, who invited the various meatpreserving companies of Victoria to compete with it. Samples were sent in from six companies, and they and the Deptfoi’d meat were forthwith consigned for six months to the “ Queen’s warehouse,” where they were kept under lock and key. They were recently opened, in the presence of a committee appointed by the Government, and consisting of scientific men of known attainments, of Melbourne merchants, and also of several captains of passenger ships belonging to the most respectable shipowning companies. The lin9 were opened without any of the judges knowing which was which, and the decision was as follows :—The meats of the Melbourne, Ecbuca, and Warrnambool Companies were pronounced excellent at all points, that of the Melbourne Meat preserving Company being held to he slightly superior. Next in precedence came the meat of the Metropolitan Company, which was declared to be of good quality. The Ballarat Company’s meat (manufactured according to the Deptford process) was pronounced slightly overcooked, but otherwise good Lastly, the Deptford meat was declared decidedly overcooked, although the meat was sound.