INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Southland Times, Issue 1302, 2 September 1870, Page 3

INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

c By the arrival of the Gothenburg, we are placed in possession of our files to the 27 th ult. The following are a few extracts from the latest dates : — VICTORIA. At 5 o'clock on the 26th, the barque Sussex, from Newcastle, with coals, for Geelong, struck on Point Nepean, and the crew took to the boats. The sea was calm at the time, and all hands had no difficulty in providing for their own safety. It was found, however, impossible to do anything for the vessel, which commenced early to break up, and during the course of the day became a total wreck. About 10 o'clock the barque turned over, with the mast heads in the water, and afterwards broke up, the wreck drifting up the South Channel. His Excellency the Governor was to leave Melbourne for Sydney on the 29th. His absence will in all probability extend over a period of 10 days, and during that time his functions will be discharged by the hon. the Chief Secretary. Parliament is further prorogued to the 30th inst. . Cu3ack was to be hanged on the 30th. Messrs Christopher son, Shakespear, and Woods, engineers, have been dismissed by the Government, from the Victorian Water Supply. Mr L. Ellis, chief clerk and deputy sheriff, is appointed sheriff of Victoria (acting temporarily) vice Mr C. Farie deceased. It is understood that the racing stud of the late Mr Walter Craig, with the exception of Nimblefoot, will be brought to the hammer before the end of the present year. A return ball was given to the Mayor of Melbourne on the 25th, and was in every way a success. Mr Farrell, accountant at the National Bank of Australasia, Geelong, has absconded. He is charged with embezzling £2000. ... A new motive power, which is to supersede steam, is said to have been discovered by Mr Wallwark, an engineer at Stawell. Lake Cooper is rapidly filling, and it is thought that if the present weather continues, the water will be soon flowing through the township. The elections for the Legislative Council are taking place. A series of storms of extraordinary violence occurred in Victoria during August. Of many similar descriptions we take the following from the Daylesford Advertiser: — " A terrific storm broke over Maryborough on Wednesday afternoon, and for a time raged with extraordinary violence. The district, just before the tempest burst, was enveloped in*

almost Egyptim darkness, anl the thick black lowering clowds seemed as if they were bant on descending to within a few feet of the ground, and effecting a total obscuration. The fiunder rolled in loud and successive shocks, and here and there . | the dense atmosphere was lit up with the j fierce gleam of lightning, which played in ' fitful jagged lin9s in the heavens. Then came an immense crash and commotion, i and the contending elements were let loose. Another cannonade of thunder | like the sound of heavy artillery boomed with deafening noij-e, the wind swept by with hurricane velocity, and a prodigious shower of hail, mingled with the forked lightning in the distance, Completed the ' visitation Watched from a secure eminence, the sight was one of unusual i grandeur, and with the driving hail laden with the white aqueous stones as large as marbles, and occasioially bigger, and "the drooping trees bending to the blast, together with the fragmentary rush of matter, blowing hither aud thither, made up a scene that is seldom witnessed."