MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 25, 3 February 1863, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

ExTUA.ORDINA.KY ESCAPE FeOM StAUVAVION. A. most extraordinary escape from death by starvation occurred last week. A little girl, about tuo years of age, daughter of a blacksmith named Kelly residing at tlie .Alia Mia Fiat, was taken by Kellv, on Sunday evening, to sleep at n neighbor's tent." Mrs. Oallaghan, the neighbor, put her to bod nt an parly hour, and on retiring herself found that the child' had left tho place. Acquainting the father and others with the circumstance, a strict search was at one instituted and maintained throughout the night, but no tidings of the missing child were ascertained. Tho following day the search was continued with the same result. Information was then communicated to the police, who also, day after dav, aided by Kelly and most of the miners cm the Mia Mia, searched the ranges, gullies and holes about the neighbourhood, but up to Ihursday morning without tho least result. Then a miner named Grilh'n,who was "fossiking" tho holes near Mr. Dunn's paddock, a distance of two miles from Kelly's tent, passed one, and heard a feeble moan proceed therefrom. On looking down he perceived a small child lying nt the hi >t torn, and apparently in a very exhausted coudition. To raise her to (he surfnee was tho work of «\ moment, tho hole not being more than five feet deep, and on Griliin removing the mud from her face, ho recognised Kelly's child The poor little thing was at once carried to Mr Mmnford's store, where she was attended to with that kindness and solicitude for which Mr Mum ford is proverbial in this district. She was very weak, however, and appeared to be much swollen ab?ut tho body, while her flesh was of a blue colour, nnd her limbs were very cold. A glass of wine and some biscuit, administered to her by Mr Mumford seemed to revive her to some extent, and she was then carried home and pinned in a warm bod, where, it is tobe hoped, slk- will recover her former strength. — Talbot (Victoria) Leader, Abomisabi/b Sir aeb i Sifts. — A gentleman sent by the Times into the cotton districts of Lancashire, analyses the relief given to the L&ticnsliire workpeople in a sense anything but complimentary to the generosity of the magnates of cottonocracy. In answer to the question, " ITowhave the millowners behaved r" ho says, " There is but one answer to the question here, ' Very shabbily;' and, looking through the list of subscriptions, 1 believe that, as j a ru l e — though (here are some honorable exeep(ions — this -summary verdict eceoas to be it true one. £10,8'J(3 is the total amount contributed to the fund. Of this £4-',X>G comes from persons euI t iri.lv disconnected with J're-tmi. nnd £ol:20 irom I the inhabitants of Preston itseJf. There are 71 j mills in Preston. :ind the proprietors of these have given exactly £]S-fc2 15s for the relief of the people who arc hearing the burthen of their improvidence ; that is to say, the whole body of millowners hero have given rather less than was contributed by a single house in Liverpool. I suppose it would only be a moderate estimate to any that the millowiiers of I his town are worth nearer £5,000,000 than £4,000,000, and yet £1812 is the sum at whrch they themselves assess this vast amount of property to the charitable rate-in-aid. Theirs is, indeed, 'a charity which does not begin at home. The list is headed by a gentleman who, probably, for any other purpose than this, would consider it an impertinent. dispnrngcmentVo value him nt h;df a million. lie has been heard to say at one time thnt a penny per pound in cottcn would ptit £M,OOO into" his pocket; he htrs five mills and ompli.ys three thousand two hundred hand.-. Jl figures for £300. about a con rile of shillings a head on all his people. They themselves, while they were yet working full time, c lllectrd £200 for the reliet'of their less fortunate follows. A gentleman, who \.i siid to have made one hundred thousand pounds by cotton speculations within the last two years, figures for £70. Another, whom the Bank 'of England, it is said, a few years ago. were ready to back for £100.000, has the magnificent sum of £25 opposite his imum 1 . A third, who -owns one of the finest mil Is in town, which cost eighty thousand pounds, is content to appear for £10, and thesa'uc sum exhausts the benevolence of a neighbor who owns another fine mill, worth at least thirty thousand pounds. Still another gentleman, who has two large mills, gave two ten pound notes. 7 ' Yet the Mnr.n'ng filar, the special -organ of thew self-snnte gentlemen, took occasion to taunt with meanness Lord Derby and others who gave their thousand each at their first call. II o ußnu.t; Tragedy ox the Kvk'.vxs Coast. — The following (says the Liverpool 31 ercurt/} is an extract from a letter received by a gentleman in Liverpool from Mr John Finlay, of the ship Faith, which at the time of the horrible •occurrence below detailed was lying in the Bonny llivcr :— " Wa had a fearful tragedy here last •freek ; Cne -of the natives killed whnt they call a creckman (that is, a man who lives some ciirbt or ten miles from Bonny, and who was at Bonny selling yams, as the creckmen are I'irnYers in a way). The Bonny men. wanted to kill this native, 'and at a running it was agreed they should kill him.. But 'first Catch your hare' is an old maxim. When the man heard that sentenre of death V^as passed upon him, he shut himself tip in his house with all his slaves, wives, and children, loaded his guns, large and small-, then dug a trench round and about, and filled it with small kegs of gunpowder, and set the chiefs at defiance. Things remained in this state for two or three days, nobody darins to vpnture near the house with hostile intentions. At last the chiefs ordered two puncheons of oil to any one who would fire his- house. A slave took ihe offer, fired the house to windward, and the sparks falling upon the house of the besieged soon set it on fire. When the murderer of the creekmati saw this he gathered all his slaves, wives, and bairns within the trench, applied the match, and in a second more nothing was to be seen but mangled bodies amid the ruins of their former home. They were ?/> in number altogether. They lay exposed for three days and were put into sacks and thrown into the river."