INTERCOLONIAL EXTRACTS.

Southland Times, Issue 1311, 23 September 1870, Page 3

INTERCOLONIAL EXTRACTS.

Writing under date the 3rd instant, a contemporary says : — The Revival Quartz Company has proved a thorough swindle. Suspicions were rife last evening that the quartz was salted. This morning a party proceeded to the claim, but were refused leave by the prospectors to descend the shaft. Ultimately they went down, and scraped off gold leaf from the face of the drive. They knocked down a lot of stone from the face, and found no gold but that which appeared in the face of the stone. The Acting Warden, the Inspector, and Sergeant of Police proceeded to the claim and arrested the prospectors. Hanna and Lawson have been lodged in gaol on. a charge of salting the reef, and obtaining money under false pretences. The affair of course has caused great excitement among mining men. Fortunately, no money had been paid for shares, but fees to surveyor had been paid by the shareholders. The past floods in the Coliban have had the effect of washing a great number of snakes out of their winter laira and destroying them. Hundreds upon hundreds of young snakes, says a Kyneton journal, sometimes in, clusters, have been, carried down the river, and landed on the banks. The great majority of the reptiles have been killed by the water, but some few seem to have survived the ordeal. The Ararat Advertiser reports that a fresh lead has been discovered in the false bottom at the Lone Star rush, and several miners liave realised very good returns. The new ground is just a little beyond the recent rush, and as only one or two claims have come upon the lead, its extent cannot be estimated. A miner named Busche has obtained about an ounce of gold in a foot of driving. The depth of sinking is about 38 feet. A splendid lot of nuggets were brought into Ingle wood lately by the fortunate finders, and sold at the Bank of Victoria. They weighed altogether G2lbs, and were got during the last fortnight in and near Oatto's paddock, Berlin, within a foot of the surface. The weights of the several nutlets were as follows: — 1770z., lGloz. lOdwfc., 102oz 7dwt. 12gr., 80oz., and soz. These were got by Lorimer and party within the p&ddocfe, and at a depth ofßin. A 40oz. piece was got by Griffith and party in a claim adjoining Lorimer's and 30oz. in a claim a short distance further on the run. M'Tntosh and party, in their road claim outside the paddock fence, got three pieces weighing 710z., 700z., and 360z. 15dwt. Tweeds manufactured by the Albion "Woollen Cloth Company, Geelong, have been awarded the first prize by the jurors at the Sydney Exhibition. The mill has only been in operation for about four months ; and it is said that the goods exhibited were not specially made for that purpose, but were selected from the ordinary stock in the hands of their agents. This is an enterprise which owes nothing either to protective duties or to state bonuses in any shape. The Governor has appointed a .Royal Commission to consider and report on the necessity of a federal union of the Australian Colonies — a question to which recent events has given increased urgency and importance. The commission consists of Sir Francis Murphy, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, the Hon. T. H. Fellows, the Hon. C. G-avan Duffy, the Hon. Captain MacMahon, the Hon. John Macgregor, the Hon. J. F. Sullivan, the Hon. Edward Langton, the Hon. J. J. Casey, the Hon. Gh B. Kerferd, the Hon. Graham Berry, M.L.A.'s, and the Hon. J. Graham, M.L.C. Mr Duffy is chairman of the commission. The chief item of news as to defences is that the signature of the Government has been formally affixed to a memorandum to the effect that the Victorian Naval Brigade is to be absorbed in a Victorian branch of the Eoyal Naval Reserve. The power to do this is granted by the Imperial Colonial Naval Defences Act, which was framed by Mr Childers avowedly to meet the requirements of Victoria, and the Government have now for the first time proposed to place the naval volunteers on this highly superior footing. We learn from the " Maryborough Advertiser" that a party of three puddlers, working at the Hard Hill, outside the Maryborough borough boundary, a few days since discovered a magnificent nugget weighing 141 b. The fiuder3, with a view to keep the locality from being rushed, endeavored to prevent the particulars obtaining publicity, and sold their treasure in a town some miles distant. At yesterday's meeting of the Cabinet (says the "Melbourne Herald" of the 7th inst.), the question of postal arrangements during the war between France and Prussia, more especially as to the forwarding of letters under German addresses via Marseilles, was the subject of considerable discussion. It was thought, however, that the Germans would exercise a wise discretion possibly

by sending; their correspondence either by the dlifomian route or via Southampton, and that no special action ou the part of the Government was necessary. We suppose that those residents in Victoria who are citizens of the North Germanic Confederation will take care that their corresponlen.ee to their home frieuds will not fall iuto the hands of the French. It is tolerably certain that all letters for the Continent, posted with such a fee as would cause them to be placed in the open baar to be sorted between Marseilles and Lyons, would not find their way out of the French territory, if addressed to any place in the Prussian territories. Every chance of letters for the Continent going astray by reason of this war may be met by a sufficient postal fee being paid to insure a transmission of the letters to the United Kingdom, and from thence to be forwarded to their destination.