COLONIAL INTELLIGENCE. [Extracted from the Australian Papers by the Sydney Herald.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 499, 15 May 1850, Page 3

COLONIAL INTELLIGENCE. [Extracted from the Australian Papers by the Sydney Herald.]

The convicts who arrived in the Eliza were to be forwarded to Norfolk Island ; they were all twice and thrice convicted men. A controversy is being carried on in the Van Diemen's Land papers respecting the injustice the clerks of the Union Bank are subject to by having persons not belonging to the establishments made local managers, instead of a system of promotion by seniority being carried oat. Oar attention, says the Swan River Independent, bas of late been called by several communications respecting the administration of justice in this colony. One of these details a case recently decided in a certain Resident Magistrate's court in one of the inland districts, where it ia complained that the lady of the worthy justice transacts all the business — hears the cases, decides them, makes out the judgments, &c, and then hands the documents for her husband to sign, who has been all the time sitting by without taking any part in the affair. Another communication animadverts upon the Court of Requests at Perth, representing that the Judge of the Court is not unfrequently also the solicitor

of the plaintiff or defendant of a case brought before him for decision. Lodes of copper ore of a superior description are said to have been discovered near Swan River. 0 The Right Rev. Dr. Serra, R. C. Bishop, gives notice to all whom it may concern, that | His Excellency Governor Fitzgerald had been pleased most graciously to recognise him as Bishop Coadjutor to the R.C. Bishop of Perth, Dr. Brady, who has lately departed from the colony to Europe, while Dominic Urquhart, O.C. and Vicar General of Perth, declares that Dr. Serra's notice is uncanonical, and warns persons that if they interfere with property belonging to Dr. Brady, or the mission, they will be prosecuted. The whole of the law appointments made by Sir William Deniton — Mr. Home, ns Judge, Mr. Fleming, Attorney-General, Mr. Stoner, Solicitor-General, and Mr. Smith, Crown Solicitor and Clerk of the Peace, have been confirmed. Intelligence had reached Melbourne of a sad accident which had occurred at Gipps' Land, by the long grass upon some plains taking fire in consequence of the intense beat of the weather ; seven hundred sheep were entirely consumed by the flames ; as many more were severely burnt, and two shepherds lost their lives. The splendid estate of Trefusis, on the Macquarie river, Van Diemen's Land, comprising 11,140 acres, the property of Captain Bunster, was submitted to the hammer by Mr. T. Y. Lowes. The biddings, which commenced at Bs. per acre, rose somewhat languidly to 135., at which price it was finally knocked down to Mr. San.uel Page. The estate, which was sold according to the grant for the number of acres as above stated, measures in point of fact 500 more, making a total of 11,640. Eleven gentlemen have headed a subscription list with £100 each, as the commencement of a Melbourne Cathedral Building Fund. Of the Resident Magistrates in the district of Port Fairy, one has been removed from the commission of the peace, for alleged misconduct ; three have resigned from dissatisfaction with the mode in which the bench buS'ness is conducted ; two are under bond to keep the peace ; and Mr. W. Rutledge is the only one left to do the duty. The committee entrusted with the formation of an Adelaide Gas Company "had given up their task from want of support. A German newspaper was to be established at Adelaide during the present month. The government of South Australia has consented to pay one-half of the expense of a survey of a line of railway from Adelaide to the Burra Burra mines. The Rev. Mr. Huie was presented with a purse of £129, on leaving Geelong for Scotland, having been forced by ill health to give up his charge as a minister cf the Free Church of Scotland. The Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land, like the Australasian Botanic and Horticultural Society of Sydney, is taking measures for bringing the products of Van Diemen's Land under notice at the grand Industrial Exhibition of the works of all nations, to be held in London in 1851, under the patronage of Prince Albert. The subject was brought forward at the last meeting, by Dr. Douglass, who proposed that measures be taken for bringing under the notice of the British public in the Grand National Exhibition, in London, in 1851, the natural productions of the island, instancing amongst other objects of interest and economical importance, its highly ornamental cabinet woods, and valu ible shiptimbers — its gums, balsams, and drugs, &c.