INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4250, 3 November 1874, Page 3

INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

VICTORIA. Mrs. McDonald, widow of the late Mr. McDonald, photographer, in the. position of executrix of her- deceased husband, sued Mrs. Cleeland, a well-known second-hand clothesdealer of Stephen-street, in the County Court, for £42 18s. for photographs supplied. There was a set-off amounting to £l4 for a silk dress and the loan of several fancy dresses, and the statute of limitations was pleaded against another portion of the account. The plaintiff stated that she had sent the account to Mrs. Cleeland every three months since the amounts became due, but this was denied by the defendant, who said that this was the first time she had heard of the account, and that an arrangement was entered into years ago between herself and Mr. McDonald that she should supply fancy costumes for .persons visiting his studio, and that he in exchange should give her copies of the photographs taken. His Honor Judge Cope gave the plaintiff a verdict for £24 Bs. fid. The relations between the directors of the Fulton’s Foundry Company and the men are unfortunately not in a satisfactory condition. The men have been asked to submit to a reduction of 10 per cent, in the amount of their wages, and having refused to do so, the directors have resorted to a “lockout.” The number of men who are thus thrown out of work is, we are informed, about 120. Sometime since it was stated that a butcher named Thomas De Grouchy, residing at Woods Point, had been summoned by the police for keeping a bullock ten days without food or water. The prosecution fell through, when the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals drew the attention of the Chief Commissioner of Police to the seriousness of the case, and further proceedings were instituted against De Grouchy, and the Police Magistrate, Mr. Ogier, inflicted the full penalty of the law—a £2O fine, with costs, or two months in gaol. This decision has been appealed against; but the decision of the Bench was upheld. There are few large landed proprietors in this colony who have shown such an eager desire to promote the agricultural interests of Victoria as Mr. C. B. Fisher. The approaching exhibibition to be given by the Agricultural Society will be characterised by an item of competition that cannot fail to interest masses of people who are cognisant of the doings of squatters during the present season of the year. Wool is the staple export of Victoria, and the process of its preparation for shipment is one of those things that many may know by name, but have never witnessed. With a view to offering an opportunity to the public of witnessing this process from first to last, Mr. Fisher, at his own personal expense, has erected a woolshearing shed in the society's ground, on the St. Hilda road, where, on the 3rd of November next, the business of a squatters’ shed will be carried on in all its various phases, from shearing the sheep to packing the wool in bales for shipment. The shed, which is now in rapid course of construction, is a substantial building of wood, with a corrugated iron roof, and measures 96ft. long by 24ft. wide. A portion of- the shed is devoted to shearing purposes, for which a battened flooring has been laid down, on each side of which is ranged a line of pens for the shehp. The floor will accommodate twenty shearers at a time, who will compote with each other in fleecing three sheep each within an hour. The first batch of sheep, to be shorn will consist of sixty merinos, the prizes for the winning hand being—First, £ls ; second, £lO ; third, £5. After the wool is shorn it will be passed to a sorting table, when it will pass through the process of packing, and finally go into a pressing machine, and .be screwed up into bales for export. , The second competition, which will follow immediately on completion of the first, will be of a similar nature, with prizes of the same amount, the sheep, however, in this instance being long-wool cross-breds. The press and engines supplied for the occasion have been constructed by Messrs. Wilding and Co., and can either bo worked by steam or hand. The shed, the press, the sheep, and the prizes have all been supplied by Mr. Fisher, whose present to the society cannot fail to be appreciated by them, and to be beneficial to their exhibition by attracting a large number of persons to the ground for the purpose of witnessing the object for which they have been given. The resignation of the Rev. Charles Clark, which was forwarded to his congregation more than a week ago, has been finally accepted, the rev. gentleman not seeing his way clear to withdraw it. There has been no quarrel in the Albert-street chapel of any kind, and it seems understood that the rev. gentleman withdrew with a view of bettering his -financial position., His salary, which was £IOOO per annum at one time, has latterly been £750.... The trial of Patrick Shannon, for the Mornington murder, was concluded on Saturday, Oct. 17. Theprincipal witness examined was Mr. Johnson, the Government analytical chemist, who deposed to finding blood on the prisoner’s trousers, which might have been human or dog’s blood. The jury deliberated for nearly an hour and ft half, and then acquitted the prisoner. The great Chinese lottery at Golden Point J>as been brought to standstill by adverse fortune, after having braved the force of law and withstood the onslaught of the police. One night lately the losses of the “ bank ” amounted to upwards of £SOO, and os there were only

£3OO available, a great commotion ensued, and •the whole affair was broken up, - The local management of the London Chartered Bank were surprised, says the Melbourne Daily Telegraph, at the announcement made in our columns lately, that their institution had declined to co-operate with the other associated banks in taking up the balance of the i per cent. loan. They have received no private telegram on the subject, Inthecourse of the day the management notified to the Treasurer their willingness to take up, if required, the whole of the unsold portion of the debentures at 90, on certain terms, or to share in the distribution of the same with the other associated banks. The Mortlake Despatch states that at Penshurst a wager was made between two men as to the quantity of whisky that each could drink. The trial took place some time during last Sunday week, Mullens, a publican, and one Welsh being the parties to the affair. The former drank off three tumblers of whisky, after which Welsh did the same. The effect of the whisky upon Mullens was that he shortly afterwards died. Welsh adopted the precaution of taking a quantity of butter before contesting for the wager, and the result was that the dangerous effects of the whisky upon him were to some extent nullified. He is, however, reported to he in a very had state. A body was washed up ashore at Geelong on Friday, which is believed to be the remains of a man who jumped overboard from the steamer Express. The Evening Times says ; —“ A faircomplexioued young man went on board the steamer in Melbourne on Friday afternoon, seemingly in a state of mental excitement. At first he was thought to be the worse for liquor, but from mutterings which dropped from time to time in the hearing of the passengers and crew, it was concluded the man had a deeper sorrow than that supplied by alcohol. He was seen to clap his hand to his bosom as if in pain, and heard, to munner, 1 Oh, Louey ! I shall see her no more.’ Afterwards the same person overheard him say, ‘ Oh, God ! she makes me do, it.’ ” The poor suicide is believed to be the son of a fanner, whose place is near Ondit. Mr. Vale, late Commissioner of Customs—who proceeds to England, to make the old land his home for the future—has been appointed a member of the Board of Advice, in room of Mr. Cashel Hoey. The Ballarat Star has been shown, by Mr. L. Marks, two bars of fine gold, one weighing 2000z5., and the other 750z5., the proceeds of four nuggets found by a solitary digger in Ballarat East. The money will be very welcome to him, as [the poor follow was scarcely earning food for his family prior to his lucky Lit, yielding over £IOOO for a day’s work. The Melbourne journals report the first case of sunstroke of the season. The‘sufferer was a man named Ikin, fifty-two years of age. Diphtheria has broken out with groat violence in the district of Yea. The fatal epidemic is attributed to defective drainage. No one probably will ever know, says the Leader, the real story of the poor girl (Miss Pettett) whose body has just been recovered, after nearly five mouths’ immersion in the Yarra. All or nearly all that may be said of the dismal relics now consigned to the tomb is that they belonged to one who, under happier circumstances in life, might have been the light of some good man’s home. The girl’s early education had been somewhat neglected for some reason or other, and she was sent to a Melbourne boarding school at an age when most young women in this colony are looking out to form marital relations. At school she seems to have not been an apt scholar, and as lady teachers do not as a mid trouble themselves to study mental weaknesses in their. pupils, Miss Pettett was corrected precisely upon the same system as was adopted with younger children. The high-spirited girl possibly felt keenly what appeared to her to be a degradation, and this,, acting upon a mind perhaps already brooding upon imaginary injuries, induced her to contemplate suicide. Certain it is that boyond this there is nothing of romance attaching to her untimely end. The presumption is that she walked direct from the school to the Ynrra and plunged headlong into the dark waters of the river, no other thought possessing her than her isolation. Miss Frances Hodgson, well known to the legal gentlemen of Melbourne as an indefatigable litigant, has filed her schedule for £10,161. Her assets are set down at £31,000, leaving a nominal surplus of more than £20,000 odd. This of course looks very well, but on exarai : natipn it is found that the Fitzroy Town Council is set down as Miss Hodgson’s debtor for £25,000, a debt which Miss Hodgson regards as collectable. There is a charming simplicity in this when it is remembered that Miss Hodgson has been for years engaged in a fruitless endeavor to recover from the Fitzroy Council the land she claims as hers. Professor Schott—a well-known teacher of music—has left Melbourne for England suddenly, leaving behind him a wife and nine children unprovided for. An extraordinary and melancholy death is recorded by the Bendigo Advertiser ; —“The deceased, a young man named Vincent Courtney, arrived from England some two years ago. As soon as he had become settled he wrote to a lady, a Miss Hyde, to whom he was engaged before he left England, to join him here. The lady arrived by the steamship Durham, and the pair were married by the Rev. Father O’Cornell. On Thursday morning the deceased rose, about six o’clock, and, whilst dressing, he was attacked with a violent fit of shivering, and became speechless. He pointed Lis wife to a neighbor’s house; and, by his gestures, evidently wished her to send for him. This she accordingly did, but upon the arrival of the neighbor he had expired. We are informed that the grief of the lady on finding herself a widow in a strange land was indescribable, so much so that she has become almost insane. The deceased, who was twenty-four years of age, was well connected, his father being a merchant in Drogheda, Ireland, and he has a brother a surgeon in the Indian army.” The same paper reports that the jury, in accordance with the medical evidence, returned a verdict that the deceased died suddenly in syncope, from enlargement and dilation of the heart. The deceased was a very sober'and steady man. SOUTH AUSTRALIA. The Government have received a message from' Port Darwin that the cutter Louisa had arrived from Camden Harbor with Commander Ross, the manager of a large English pearlfishing expedition. He reports that troubles had occurred with the natives, and, in consequence, the sailors had left for Port Darwin in an open boat, and were expected to arrive soon. The Victoria Regia in the Botanic Gardens has been destroyed by larrikins. The Palmerston Pearling v Company’s schooner Enchantress has been wrecked at Camden • Harbor. The, party whilst ashore lost a man, who was speared by the natives. There is a dearth of labor at the claims in the Northern Territory, and it is reported that men are not to be obtained.in the country at £5 a week, and several good claims are idle. ■ The motion for payment of members has been negatived. The Treasurer contemplates adopting the Melbourne system of passing a supplementary appropriation account, by which .salaries paid out of loan funds would be subjected to the vote of Parliament. The Bonara estate at Mount Gambier was passed at £2 15s. per acre, the reserve being £3 10s. The House of Assembly was counted out on the Intercolonial.Free Trade Bill. Mr. Boucaut has given notice of motion for the borrowing of £2,200,000 for the following works Murray railway. from the northern line, £350,000 ; railway fifty miles north of the Burra, £150,000 ; railway 200 miles north of Port Augusta, £600,000-; tramway towards Barrier Range, £IOO,OOO ; breakwater, Port Victor, £500,000 ; Goolwa Canal, and to levy taxation to meet the interest by probate duties, stamp legacy, and increased Customs duties. The schooner Triumph is ashore opposite the Johnson Lakes, a few miles east of the Glenelg River. The vessel is in three pieces, with a chain cable rolled round and round. The masts are gone, and all the oara broken except one. The wreck is said to have been ashore three weeks. It is yet impossible to say whether there are any dead bodies, as the wreck is bottom up.

The final arrangements have been completed for the amalgamation of the Jockey Club and Jockey Club Company. Between £4OOO and £JOOO is to be spent on the new ground, which haa been named “ The South Australian Racecourse.” The club pays the company 6 per cent, on the outlay,. and possession is to be given in March next. - NEW SOUTH WALES.' The Wagga Express relates the following occurrence at the Circuit Court ; ■An old lady, who pleaded guilty to a charge of larceny, created a little amusement when brought up for sentence. When asked the usual question why sentence should not be passed, she showed a, singular knowledge of the circumstances usually urged for mitigation cf punishment. “Thirty-nine years, my lord, I’ve been in the colony, and never a, charge brought against mo.” “I’ve been two months in gaol, my lord," &c., &c. Nothing was known of her, although it was pretty evident to the experienced eye that the ancient dame had occupied a dock at some time or another previously. A sentence of three months having been passed, the gratitude of the prisoner could not keep within bounds. “ God bless ye, Judge Cheekfe,' and all of ye, gentlemen ; God bless ye,” she said, with wonderful fluency, “I was sent out to this country for seven years, but I never deserved it.” The increasing coal trade of New South Wales, says the Illawarra Mercury, is*something almost astonishing. The harbor accommodation of Newcastle has proved quite inadequate to afford facilities for shipping coal there in anything like tire requirements of the demand. The Government and private individuals connected with the shipping trade at Newcastle, are put to their wit’s end to make the best of the difficulty, and hence Ministers are being besieged almost continually by deputations and applications of one kind and another, m'ging for increased facilities for the shipment of coal at Newcastle. In , Saturday’s issue of, the Sydney Morning Herald, several influential firms are advertising to charter vessels to carry coals from Newcastle or Sydney to San Francisco, Honolulu, Batavia, Singapore, Manilla, Hong Hong, Shanghai, Madras, Calcutta, Mauritius, Bombay, Java, Japan, Rangoon, Galle, Coconada, and other foreign ports, not speaking of intercolonial places. In the face of this increasing demand for colonial coal, it is pleasing to know that the survey of the Metropolitan and Illawarra railway is progressing favorably towards this’ coal-bearing district. Let a good line of railway be constructed between Sydney and the coal-bearing ranges of-Illawarra, and then the largest coal trade in the world may be carried on with the greatest possible despatch in Port Jackson. The Government have received a telegram from London stating that Sir Charles Cowper, the Agent-General, is seriously ill. A shipowners’ mutual insurance company is in course of formation. Captain Aldren,, of Newcastle, was found dead in his garden, having burst a blood vessel. A despatch has been telegraphed to the Imperial Government, announcing the cession of Fiji.