AUSTRALIAN INTELLIGENCE.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 56, 8 October 1864, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN INTELLIGENCE.

By the Gothenburg we have eight days later news from the Australian Colonies. We glean the following items from the files to hand. The Sydney Morning Herald states, by authority, that the Government has not authorised their Customs' officers to demand licenses from small boats, and that they have directed them only to seize dutiable goods landed on the northern bank of the Murray river, and vessels conveying them. The government offer no hindrance whatever to the free navigation of the river on the part of Victoria. The Argus says this intelligence " will be hailed with satisfaction in every count-ing-house in Melbourne." Mr. Roberts, the famous billiard player, after a succession bf billiard triumphs in Victoria, has gone to Sydney, intending to return to Melbourne during the race week in Not, ember. The Theatre Royal , Ballarat, is about to pass into th.c hands of tHe Total A-bstirience Society, and it is reported that tho Charlie Napier Theatre will be converted into a brewery. Thespian temples, it would appear, are not profitable affairs in Ballarat; The Sydney Empire, of 21st September, reports that Gardiner, the bushranger, now confined, in. Darlinghurst gaol, is suffering from disease' of the heart, and is not likely to live many weeks longer. Mr. Edward Wilson has resigned the presidentship of the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria. Peter Virtue, a well known open-air preacher in Melbourne,- was- recently -fined in the penalty of 55., with 2s. 6d.' costs, for causing a crowd to assemble in the„Eastern . market. As he admitted the " offence,' 1 ' the magistrate offered to dismiss the .ease} provided Virtue would promise " not to do so again." This he woiild not promise, and he declared himself ready and willing to go to prison as the martyrs of old had done before him. The fine was to be recovered by distress. Virtue said he was there preaching as the apostles had done, ahd as he had felt himself "called upon t6 do. ! A slate quarry has been discovered on the property .bf^tiieXcOphfr* '.Mining about twenty-five mileß beyond Bathurst. From the ■KJpott* giveo, the .IbWepodai to «ti*t in gwrt

quantities, and the discovery promises to be one of- considerable importance, the samples shown being pronounced of very good quality, and well adapted for flagging, making cisterns, and for " various other purposes. Tho Queensland Parliament have voted the Rev Dr. Lang, who was so instrumental in effecting the separation of that colony from New South Wales, the sum of one thousand pounds. „ Dr. Lang asked for five thousand, - and considered it very j scanty treatment to cut his demaud down to qne 'fifth- He has written a letter to the Brisbane Courier, in which he cares not to disguise his feelings on what he considers the shabby return for his services. We daresay few woidd be aware at the outset that the doctor was to bo recompensed for his services, or perhaps some others might have adopted the same line of business. As Dr. Lang is now, we believe, in Riverina, which is crying for separation, and as he may soon have a job there, we should advise him to have his bargain well secured before he begins his labors, or, perhaps, to insist on payment in advance. At a recent meeting of the Victorian Acclimatisation Society, a letter was read from Mr. F. J. Alderson', hon. secretary to the Otago Acclimatisation So?icty, requesting that some Murray cod fish might be sent down, to stock some of the New Zealand rivers. The secretary was directed to reply, offering to assist the Otago society in procuring the cod, if desired, but suggesting, as within a few years the rivers may be stocked with salmon and trout, whether it would be wise to place in these rivers such a voracious fish as the cod is known to be. The following particulars of a remarkable surgical operation performed last week in the Bendigo Hospital are from a local paper : — " A man named Douglass, from Heathcote, who had been suffering from cancer of the tongue for some months, and for which he had been under treatment at the Melbourne Hospital, without receivinp any relief, was admitted into our local institution a few weeks ago, urgently entreating that something might be done for him. As the only operation which could give any possibility of even temporary relief, it was determined, at his own request, to remove the whole tongue. This was accordingly done on Friday last by Dr. M'Gillivray, assisted by Drs. Atkinson and Cheyne. The patient was placed under the influence of chloroform, a cut was then maed in his throat, and through this opening the tongue was drawn and crushed away at the root. Long before the operation was finished the influence of the chloroform had ceased, but the patient bore up manfully, and walked to his room after all was over. Wo are happy to state that he is progressing favorably, and there is every probability of a successful termination of the case. He assists himself to his food, which consists of liquids — beef-tea, milk, &c. ; and these are conveyed to the stomach by means of a tube placed in the throat." The Hamilton Spectator publishes the following extract from a letter written from Fiji, by a gentleman, the brother ofa squatter in the Western district : — " I have been addressed oh the subject, and have made a rule not to encourage what I feel inclined to consider a capitalist to embark in Polynesia. The sum of what I think I can safely say is — that I would guarantee that any person of no more than ordinary industrious habits, possessed of from, say £200 to £400, can go to the Fiji and become possessed of ten, twenty, or thirty thousand acres ; that he can get a good house built, his coffee, cotton, sugar, and tobacco ground fenced in ; get a good stock of pigs, fowls, goats, kc, and that this sum woidd carry him on, until he has a return from his pigs, fowls, bananas, yams, tans, &c, as will leave him independent of of anybody or anything ; that if he has a wife and family, instead of being ' an incumbrance,' they will bo so much additional capital. The Wesleyans, naturally desirous of enhancing the merit of the privation they undergo, have long been blackening the character of the aborigines, and, to effect this, have circulated the most outrageous falsehoods ; and now, jealous of white people settling on the islands, have left no stone unturned to induce those good-for-nothing people the ' Friendly Islanders," to come and seize the Fiji group. 'Tis now twelve months since seme of us, hearing ot this, wrote to the Emperor of France, calling for his protection. The dread of a French man-of-war put a fml stop to their proceedings. Dr. Leimenn's work on the Fiji will give you ample information on every subject you require information on. West Indians liave told me that they never saw anything like the sugar canes the may see in every Fiji village, and ditto of the tobacco, cotton, and indeed, everything else." «