VICTORIA.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 35, 20 August 1864, Page 3

VICTORIA.

THe'-Argus publishes the following Victorian Mining'-.. Statistics, compiled, from the reports of the mining surveyors and registrars. The summary is for the quar-ten-ehding 30th June, 1864 : — "Alluvial ininers — Europeans, 44,802 ; Chinese, 22,803. Quartz miners — European, 15,J90; Chinese, 4; — making a total of 82,799. The following machinery was employed: — In alluvial mining, 424 steamengines, employed in winding, pumping, &c, of 6,42Bi horse-power ; 4,159 puddling machines, 425 whims and pulleys, 149 whips, 118 horse-pumps, 596 sluices and toms, 271 water-wheels, 13 hydraulic hoses, 3,412 sluice-boxes, 5 derricks, 9 crushing machines, and 340 stamp-heads. In quartz mining were employed 411 steam-engines, of 7,441 horse-power ; 60 crushing machines, 252 whims and pulleys, 36 water-wheels, 5 derricks, 53 whips, and 4,403 stamps. The approximate value of all ihe mining plant was £1,449,625. The number of square miles alluvial ground actually worked upon is 723 2-12." It had been determined to invite Capt. Gray, of the Gfreat Britain, to a dejeuner, onfiie 20th inst. Admissions were to be confined to ladies and gentlemen who had been passengers by the Grreat Britain, and their, immediate relatives. ] The Argus has the subj oined acclimatisation mem. : — " Some eighteen months ago, the Acclimatisation Society placed in a suitable reservoir up-country nineteen or twenty English dace. Care has been taken that t'lie fish should not be molested in any way, a^d this, week a shoal of over 200 young fish was seen." The Riverine Herald complains of the disgraceful conduct of the navvies employed in the construction of the railway to the Eiver Murray. Their conduct is described as shameful. William Turner, Esq., secretary to the Post Office, Melbourne, has been gazetted as deputed Postmaster of Victoria. The; Age says: — "At the half-yearly meeting of the Australasian Insurance Compauy, held on Friday, the report and balance-sheet, which represented the affairs of the company to be in a very prosperous condition, was adopted. The Chairman also stated that the life branch, which was opened in April, last, bad been successful to a degree unequalled, he believed, in the case of any company during so short a time after its commencement. For the three A r acancies in the board of directors there were four candidates. The ballotting resulted in the election of the Hon. W. J. T. Cla-ke, M.L.C. ; Mr. E. Cohen, M.L. A. ; and Mr. Joseph Griffiths. The net profit for the half-year amounts to £26,1. /4 7s. 9d., against £22,879 14s. 2d. for a similar period in 1863, making, with the previous undistributed profit, a total of £28,690 3s. 4d. to the credit of profit and loss." The Australian Medical Journal for August publishes a letter from Dr. Rol-eit-son, containing a short account of theillness of the late Hon. B-. Heaves. Speaking of the circumstances which may oe supposed to have giv^n rise to the disease of which Mr. .Heales d <".ed, Dr. Sober tson soys :— " i dxt-also of op'.--uon that h. : .s ri^id habit of total abstinence operated üb favorably in pretending him haviug recourse to a stimulant at times, when its use would have been attended with a salutavy or beneficial effect in counteracting exhaustion, and thereby preserving health." The Tarrengower Times speaks in the following terms of Mr. E. Wilson's proposal for sendmg home espirees : — " Mr. Edward Wilson, an Argus proprietor, and the leading promoter of accl'mai-isation, has contrived to make himself a nine days' wonder. For the nonce he has become the most notorious man in the colonies, and has attracted to hirnse'f general attention by simply announcing that he contemplates something very absurd. An easier method of vau'.tiag into sadden notoriety could hardly have bee a devised, and it has been most successful. Everybody in the metropolis has been struck with Mr. Wilson's ' last,' and all the journals in Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, have joined in turning his novel and eccentric proposal into ridicule. Probably these immediate results will be highly gratifying to this peculiarly constituted gentleman, and will do more to confirm him in his preposterous projects than any other reception they might have met with would have done. We can hardly persuade ourselves to waste our reflections upon the schemes of a man who couM address such a letter to his own paper as that which this gentleman b.p.3 given a prominent place to in the columns of the Argus, and wlr.ch all the staff of that journal and its offshoots appear to have been instructed to applaud and vindicate. As yet we have to admit and to confront the astounding and humiliating fact, that the ' leading ' organ of public opinion, as it assumes to be, in this country, is wholly given up to personal servility, and the advocacy of outre absurdities, and that its most conspicuous proprietor glories in having discovered the most ingenious feat of tomfoolery hitherto attempted among men." A Mrs. Vaugban has been committed for trial on a coroner's warrant for the wilful murder of her husband. The juryreturned a verdict to the effect that death resulted from suffocation while insensible from concussion of the brain, caused by deceased's wife. We learn, says the Age, that H. H. Oust, whose trial for forging the signature of Mr. W. Nash to a cheque for £2,400, for which he has been sentenced to twelve years' hard labor on the roads, has occasioned considerable interest at Sydney — is identical with W. H. Holt, formerly at the Pentridge Stockade, where he served two sentences of eight years, cumulative, for horse-stealing. He received these sentences on the 3rd February, 1855, at Castleinaiae, and was previously occupied as an auctioneer at Bendigo. He was discharged to his ticket-of-leave 16th December, 1862." The same paper is also responsible for the following:— " Mr. Edward Wilson waited on Mr. Samuel Woods, the bank robber, shortly before his execution, and,

having obtained an interview, besought that individual. to favor him with his autobiography. Woods/it appears, wanted £20 for the liquidation of some debts, and a bargain was struck, by which Mr. Wilson was to obtain the copyright of the interesting narrative. Accordingly, a gentleman was appointed to attend at the gaol and take down his- history from WoodsY own recital. The task was accomplished; but the manuscript was, for some reason, not allowed to be taken away. The affair came to the knowledge of the Grovernment, and the sheriff was instructed to send the papers to the Executive, by whom they are now detained. We have heard the narrative described as exceedingly coarse, and containing imputations on the characters of well-known persons in Tasmania, which are no doubt false. Mr. Wilson is furious at being cheated out of his purchase, and demands the restitution of his property. The Government has, we believe, very promptly declined to comply, and the disgusting story will be suppressed, to Mr. Wilson's chagrin. The infatuation of this gentleman approaches actual insanity. He professes horror lest by convict contact we should create amongst the rising generation Grardiners and Morgans, and yet he proposed to disseminate through the columns of his journal a pernicious and disgusting narrative, which must have done incalculable mischief. The Gfovernment is entitled to credit for frustrating his intention." The final dividend of 2s. in the pound, for the estate of the ill-starred Provident Institute, is now payable at 53 Temple Court, Melbourne. A most brutal outrage was perpretated on the 4th inst., on the person of Elizabeth Myott, a respectable girl, residing with her parents at Tourello. The Clunes Bench fully committed the prisoner, who is a farm laborer, for trial at Ballaarat, at the same time complimenting Constable Bolger for the promptitude with which he had caused the prisoner's arrest, The Border Post speaks of the death of two Chinamen, through the falling in of a drive in which they were working. On the morning of the 7th, an attempt was made to rob the premises of Mr. James Coffey, residing at 187 Lygonstreet. Mr. Coffey, hearing a noise in the sitting-room, at about three o'clock, got up and entered the room just in time to see a man effecting his escape by the window. A struggle ensued, but the burglar succeeded in making good his retreat, leaving his hat, his boots, and a white handkerchief behind him. He has not yet been captured. No property was stolen. A little girl, nine years of age, was charged at the City Police Court, on the Bth, with entering certain dwelling-houses, and stealing a number of articles. It appeared from the evidence of several witnesses that she was in the habit of entering houses whose usual inmates were absent, and helping herself to anything which happened to take her fancy. The Bench directed that she should remain in custody till she confessed where she had hidden the property stolen. A caution was also given to her father as to his future care of his daughter. The mining interest of Victoria appears on t 7:e whole to be flourishing. The weekly returns of the reefing companies are fully up to the average; and in alluvial workings, the present plentiful supply of water has had a very beneficial effect. The Age has the following: —" In several districts pleuro-pneumonia is said to be spreading, and at Ararat and its vicinity we learn that considerable numbers of cattle have died of this disease. Another new remedy has recently been introduced for the cure of this malady. It is called Abbotts's Patent Specific, and we have heard it well spoken of."

professor contended that "Harrison had left them to him." The sheriff answered that "a felon could make no disposition of his property." He suffered, as a matter of courtesy, the lecture to proceed, and afterwards the brains "were amicably: delivered .up to the charge of Dr. Macadam, who will, we believe, deliver a ; prelection upon them^ -> In the course of Professor Halford's remarks, itjwas admitted, that, no. decided evidence ' of insanity could l be adduced from any appearance observable in the organic condition of the brain. The only peculiarities he noticed were that the right hemisphere was two inches from the anterior, and that on the margin of this lobe there was a depression, not observable on the opposite side, and corresponding with' a depression on the inner side of the frontal bone, said' to be produced by a a blow. There was no such depression perceptible anywhere else on the- upper surface of the brain. He also found that the arachnoid ; membrane , was ■ rather opaque, and not transparent :as in a healthy condition, just on the spot where the depression was found. . The brain was about the average size, smaller if anything ; but in no part was there any indication of morbid action sufficient to cause insanity. The surface was slightly congested. The bone was thin where the depression existed, and semi-transparent. This was the substance of the professor's remarks. — Age.