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Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 1, 12 May 1863, Page 3

Several deaths, caused by the use of crinoline are reported. One case was that of a servant girl at Poplar, whose dress came in contact with the fire, while she was doing her work in the kitchen. Another death was that of a young lady who lived at Maida Hill. She had been waiting upon her mother who was unwell, and was resting on the sofa. When in the act of bending down to attend her, the skirt of the young lady's dress touched the fire, and in the next instant she was enveloped in flames. The shock proved fatal in a very short time. A terrible accident occurred a few mornings ago at the coal station of the Great Western Railway, at Paddington. A wooden platform, on which were eome 30 or 40 tons of coal, and below which a number of men were working, suddenly gave way, and buried the men beneath. Three or four were taken out dead, and many more seriously injured. It is supposed the props of the platform gave way. A shocking murder took place on the night of 17th February, near Hexford, in Oxfordshire, and not far from Bicestar. A iriller named Allon was lound lying dead on the road, with two shot wounds in his head. The horse and gig which he had been driving was tied up by the wayside a few yards off, and on a sack at the bottom of the gig, and on one of the wheels over which the deceased appeared to have fallen, there was blood. Suspicion has fallen upon a young man named Austin, who left Bicester market in the evening along with the old man in his gig. It appeared that Austin was paying his addresses to the murdered man's daughter, of which the father disapproved. The prisoner's story is that when he left the gig, the murdered man was alive and well. The case is undergoing a close investigation.

A lamentable fire took place on the 14th February, in Liverpool, by which six persons were burnt to death, and two more so injured thai they are not expected to survive. The fire commenced in the honse ol a porter named Burke, whose wife and daughters assisted his earnings by picking oakum. On the morning of e above-m ntion.w \ day Turke, who rose early to a :nd the markets, was carrying a lighted can e down stairs, when the flame caught so of e picked oakum that was hung up to dry. The house ■was instantiy enveloped in fla cs, and stifling smoke. Burke hinr If, ■ 'iough aAvake, fell down insei 'Ve ; his amily and some lodgers in I e house were all suffocated. Burke and a ther lodger are now, shockingly scorched, in e hospital. The Acton Police Murder. — The coroner's jury retured a verdict of wilful murder against Joseph and Isaac Brooks, for the murder of the policeman at Acton. Ocean Cckrents. — At a late meeting of the Geographical Society, Captain Maury, of the Confederate navy, in the course of a discusion on the currents of the ocean, remarked that these currents were apparently most capricious, for sometimes they not only did not run forwards, but they even turned, and ran backwards. When he was at Bermuda, on his way hither from South Carolina, he saw an officer of her Majesty's Navy, who had been cruising for some years on the North American station, and he was told by him that, on his passage from Halifax to Bermuda, he had come across this extraordinary phenomenon ; that the Gulf Stream actually ran to the southward and westward, The temperature of the water was all right, but his reckoning was all wro . On go'ng back he tried it again, taking care toverify his instrument, and singular to relate, it happened again that the Gulf Stream was not only not running in its usual course, but was running backwasds. He thought the action of the Gulf Stream accounted for the mild winter now being experienced in England. It operated like hot-air furnace in the sea, mit" a\. ; ng the temperature, and, to whatever eccentricity it might be liable in its course, it reached the shores of this country in the long run, influencing the climate.