AUSTRALIAN CLIPPINGS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4579, 23 November 1875, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN CLIPPINGS.

A certain Clerk of Petty Sessions in the neighborhood of Yass, who was also acting agent for the sale of Crown lands, is said to have absconded with the entire proceeds of a recent land sale.

The people of Gundagai have subscribed £4OO towards a fund for rewarding the discoverer of the incendiary who fired buildings in that town.

At Albury recently, the mechanics employed in the erection of a church were invited to a dinner on the completion of the building, and each of them was presented with a Bible. An offer has been made by a pilot at Port Adelaide to take the Stephen lifeboat from Melbourne to Sydney in any weather. The inventor is not likely to accept the offer, as he considers that Ms boat has already been fully tested. An Amateur Turf Club has been started in Ballarat for the encouragement of amateur steeplechaaing on an extensive scale. The S. M. IJerald speaks hopefully of a plan for dealing with the sewerage of the city by means of fire. It is mentioned also that a freezing room at the month of every drain, to convert the sewage into blocks of ice, has been suggested by Mr. Mort; hut this, it is thought, would prove too costly. A systematic theft and destruction of sheep for the sake of their skins has been discovered near Sebastopol, Victoria. A number of the carcases were discovered in a disused shaft, 200 feet deep. A telegram in the South Australian Advertiser states that there are no hopes of recovering the box containing the 23200za. of gold, which was lost at Port Darwin when being placed on board the Claud Hamilton. The Melbourne police authorities have initiated conversational lectures on police duty for the benefit of the younger members of the force. At a recent inquiry it transpired that a night attendant at the Adelaide Lunatic Asylum had 150 patients in charge at one time. Compulsory elementary education has been brought into operation in Perth, with good effect. Sir Charles Cowper was a good man in all the relations of life (say the Evening News.) His private character was without a stain. He is known to have been a dutiful son, a kind father, a good husband, and a faithful friend. Eleven navvies employed on the railway near Deniliquin challenged eleven townsmen to a match at cricket. The navvies lost by 29 to 79. They have since challenged any eleven men in Deniliquin to cut and pitch twenty-two cubic yards of earth on the railway works. The challenge is respectfully declined. A number of hoys, between 16 and 18 years of age, are to be sent from the Madras Asylum for the Orphans of British Soldiers, to Albany, Western Australia, at the expense of the Madras Government. Whales are very plentiful off Enderby Island, Western Australia. One vessel secured 22 tuns of oil in a month. The only exMbits sent to Melbourne from Western Australia were a number of different kinds of leather. A Miss Baker is about to erect a school at Moaralta, S.A., at a cost of £9OOO, She will also endow it with £SO per annum. Ten thousand pounds’ worth of work is said to he going a-begging in Tamwerth and the surrounding districts. The Tamworth Times coaid name one person alone who has under offer £25,000 worth of contracts. Two members of the Ristori Company are engaged to Mr. Bennett, of the Victoria Theatre, Sydney, and are studying English with a view to appear in Shakesperian characters.

A very smart trick of dishonesty, perpetrated under the cloak of innocency, with a CMnaman in the “ title rOle" happened a few days since at a railway station not a hundred miles from Newcastle. The Pilot says that a number of Chinamen (sixteen in all) were going by rail to Murrurundi, and one of their number, acting as head man, applied for the requisite number of second-class tickets. The ticket clerk took the correct amount for sixteen tickets, but, in the hurry of business, issued twenty-two. Before the train started, a CMnaman presumably the man to whom the twenty-two tickets had been given—returned to the ticketoffice, and, holding up six tickets, said, “Friends no go ; me want money back.” The clerk, unconscious of having issued more tickets than had been paid for, simply objected on commercial grounds to return the money ; but the Chinaman was dull of comprehension except on one point—“Me want money hack,” and it was “no savey” to anything else ; so at last the clerk gave way, and returned (as he thought) some £6 odd, the price of six tickets. Just as the time was up, and the train about starting, the swindle was discovered, and the clerk attempted to find the culprit, but in vain, for the train was full of passengers, and the Chinamen were spread about in different carriages ; besides, the faces of the Chinamen were so much alike that the rogue could not he identified, and of course it was “ no savey” all round. The train had to leave at last, and one Chinaman at least must have felt jubilant. The horse attached to an omnibus travelling between Lamhton and Waratah, N.S.W., refused to go forward or backward, just when he had the ’bus directly over the railway line at a level crossing. At this time a train of twenty loaded waggons was seen approaching, at less than a hundred yards distant. The engine-driver made every effort to stop the train, hut only succeeded in reducing the speed sufficiently to give the passengers time to alight and drag the vehicle over the line, in spite of the horse. It has been resolved by the committee of the Melbourne Boys’ Trading Brigade to abandon the efforts which they have been making to reform the city Arabs, and teach them self-dependence. They complain that many of the lads arc incorrigibly dishonest, and all are very dirty.