AUSTRALIA.

Colonist, Issue 62, 25 May 1858, Page 4

AUSTRALIA.

,'.. I)erith in a. Drive.—Another fatal accident occurred Jately at "..'Ba.lla.arat.\. A fiiari /named Robert ' (jreeye was ; taking: up a length of the rail in the drive/of the Newcastle.claim, Green Hills, when a heap of earth fell and entirely covered .him. He was extricated as speedily as possible, but 'was quite dead, v Dr<; ■Cleridinning held an inquest* on • the body,; and the jury returned1 a verdict of " Accidental death." j The escape1 of the mate of deceased,' John Armstrong, was almost miraculous, some! of; the earth actually reaching; his foot.— •: ~'; 'Gm^rnpe, a 'commu]tiicatiori ? '. v ':.ibr accura'cjr 1 ofi .which.,we cinnot.vouph, as the writer hasj not jsent -•.us his namfe; mformitig a ;nugget ■*. of, ;18 .ounces. -w%&; discovered" ihi shallow.sinliing at *;tfce CampaspeJDiggings' ,on .Monday..- Our informant proceeds toj state that there- are at present from 50; ioi 60 miners at work there; most of whom:are! doing well, and he h&& no doubt that any; industrious man going there couldfoake very fair w&f^~ Bmdigo J^ertfsWh s ! A'Scene in Oourti— ln a chargei of rape investigated at the Police -Couitt, Ballaaratj on Friday, Dr. Sutherland was tinder exf amlnatibn, and the following episode in Gpurt is reported by. The Star £^"At thijj stage tlie witness became unintelligible, and counsel threw up the examination, a browbeating ' cross-examination following by prisoner's counsel, in which counsel, by recurring to an adverse verdict in the i Sessibiis-against the.; witness^ tried td show that hif medical opinion wai riot reliable. claim ; the? protectibn "of the Biench. V Mr. '. BtzpatrickME jthink^ Mr. Dunne, you shouldpnbt ask those questions! Dunne (throwing up is papers, arid; resuming iiis * seat)— Very well, then; '{I have done £' I will go no further:; Here is this man on trial for his lifeV and I am ; to be' told that- I am not to attempt to show that this witness's evidence-is not worth-a snap of X the' fingers. Mr;: Rodier, deprecatin^ly^—l didn't say so, Mr. Dunne. If my ' brother ma^strate says so I can't hejip ,'iit:;' jMiv .Duniae risin^-Ohi verjr well,1 1 vleavb your, Worships ;to.settle it; Mr. r^i^pat^cl?r^-What' I'said I- saidppenlyv: ahd.l repeat iriy opinion,Mr:D^nnel .'Mr.'. ipunn.e—Then P tell you I d 6 not attach mucH value to your opinion,. The crossexamination then proceeded at great length, and die case was ultimately remanded;" ; Committal for Murder.—rOn. the 6th and 7th inst. a Magisterial inquiry, touching the sudden demise of a farmer named Thomas Davis Harvey, of Oakfield, near Mudgee, was held by Mr. T. D. Miller. The deceased came by his death on the night of Easter Monday; and, James Reily, a laborer in the employment of Harvey, was in custody, charged with being the perpetrator of the foul deed, which, like too many others of a similar nature, appears to have been committed while under the ininfluence of unbridled passion, resulting from the improper use of ardent spirits. ; Six witnesses were examined, but the whole facts and circumstances of the case are comprised in the testimony of Charles Gratton and D. Harris. The witness Gratton (whose arm appeared to be broken) stated that he jesided'at Tambaroora, and was a carrier; 'he came to Oakfield on the previous day for a load of pumpkfns: he , arrived about 11 o'clock in the forenoon. Deceased was lying on his bed asleep. .About 1 o'clock Mrs. Harvey, with one Richard Mills, went into Mudgee.. Before leaving she asked witness to stay and mind the place. After Mrs. Harvey left, witness, in company with a man named Jones , and the prisoner, had dinner. After dinI ner'both Jones and the prisoner went out to their work, and witness himself went for. a walk. In about 10 minutes, noticing that the door of the hut had been closed, returned and saw the prisoner and a little girl about eight years old, in such a position as need not be here described. Witness called the prisoner a brute, and told him to go out of the houße. On his refusing ,he kicked him out; The noise occasioned woke up the deceased. About 6 o'clock Mrs. Harvey and Mills returned. Between 8 and 9 o'clock it was proposed to go to bed, when Mrs. Harvey went outside and saw the prisoner in a shed. She told witness and the deceased, and they both went out and ordered him away. Prisoner refused to go, and said it was the onearmed man he wanted, • witness. Witness ran round a shed after the prisoner, when he, picked up a sapling and struck ,witnes t s on the back of the neck and nearly knocked him down. Prisoner made to- J wards witness again, when deceased said if

he struck witness he would strike him. Mrs. Harvey pushed witness towards the house, when immediately afterwards he heard her cry out—"Oh! you've killed my husband." Witness turned round, and saw the deceased on the ground. "Mills and Mrs. Harvey carried him into the house and laid him upon his bed; * he groaned very heavily, and repeated" the words—"Oh, my poor headT' Witness lay down on the floor of the kitchen, but did not sleep. Between three and four o'clock.in the morning Mrs. Harvey called out that Harvey was dying. Mills lit a candle, and both he and witness went into the bedroom, and found that the deceased was scarcely breathing." Witness went for Dr. Harris, and when they returned he was dead. Previous to the time when Mrs. Harvey and Mills returned there was no grog of any kind on the premises. When Mrs. Harvey came home she brought a pint of brandy with her, which was divided amongst them. The little girl spoken of was a daughter of the deceased. Dr. Harris stated that about five that morning (Tuesday) he was called to see the deceased. He knew him as Thomas Davis Harvey. He was dead on his arrival. From in- ; quiries he made as to the symptoms attending, his death he'was of-opinion that deceased died from effusion of brood On the brain. He had made a post mortem exami-. nation on the body of the deceased, and, on cutting into the scalp, he found a contusion over the left ear, extending from the temple towards the crown of the head; he discovered a fracture of the skull, extending the temporal and parietal bones. ' On raising the cranium, from four to six ounces of blood flowed out; the brain' and its 1 membranes, were all in a healthy state. IHe was of opinion that death ensued from a blow inflicted on' the' left side of the head, by a heavy instrument, such' as the sapling produced. Prisoner protested his innocence, and was fully committed to take his trial for wilful murder, at the Bathurst Assizes on the 7th of June next.—Sydney Herald. Sticking up on the DtirJiah. —Another case of sticking-up in the above locality took place on Saturday evening, above midway between the Durham Lead and Buningyong, in 3, hollow part of the road, where two men suddenly rushed upon a gentleman on horseback, and < held the bridle on either side; getting a little scared, however, at the presentation of a six-barrelled revolver, they let go their hold, when the rider endeavored to make out of their way as fast as his horse could speed; he liad only, however, advanced a few yards, when two shots were fired from some other Btickers-up in, a bush close by, but neither took effect. It is evident that this affair must have been deliberately premeditated, as, about half an 1 hour before* the gentleman, who is bookkeeper to Messrs. Tom, Gray, and Co., of the township, recognised the ,two men who had caught ,his bridle to be the men I who had seen him receiving money at the I Durham Lead.— Ballaarat Star. !

i Fishing for Pkh-pocMs. —l remeriiber , a country friend of mine* had his pocket picked of a handkerchief, and was grievously, annoyed. He regarded it as a species of' reflection upon his own vigilance. Determined- to be revenged upon some of the pickpocket tribe, he procured fish-hooks and had them fastened into, the pocket of an old coat with the barbs downwards. He, thus accoutred, sallied forth into the Strand in the dusk of the evening. a crowd, at Charing-*rosslie felt a hand, in his pocket, arid giving' himself a jerk, as Jie said, to get the hooks well into the rogue's flesh he moved on with th§ prey closely following. He then quickened his pace, every now, and then another jer^. In this mode, affecting not to feel the flesh he had , hooked, he led the knave clear of the crowd to a by-street. '' Now- my finefellow I have you, don't fish in my pockets again." j He unbuttoned his coat to siaken the pocket, but in vain did the thief endeavour to extricate himself, the Jboofcs were too deep in the hand, so my acquaintance took out his knife, and whipped off the skirt of the old coat he had used for the trap, and bade the pickpocket walk off to a surgeon, as he thought he had been tolerably well punished.— Cyrus Redding's Recollections. The demand for fibrous material for commerbial purposes has led to the utilisation pf a product of which hugh bonfires have been and still are made every autumn in Herefordshire, Kent, and Surrey. We mean the hopbine. Excellent wrappingpaper is now manufactured of that climber; and hop-growers may comfort. themselves for a bad season by the sale of what they have heretoforth wasted. A»^ Besides, this, -experiments^ have lbeet^4srfed'» frith success to make millboards out''cif the spent hops, of which the gfeat breweries yiejd.so abundant a supply. - " . . i A Scene at Luchiow. —A captain H the 64th regiment, writing on the 26th of j November, and describing the march tp the relief of Lucknow, says:—" We first' met the enemy at a large college; called the Martiniere, and after a sharp little fight drove them out, capturing two .guns. Here we halted for the night, andjnext day marched to a large building and'garden, with a wall about twenty feet high, where the rebels'had made a great stand. , Outside their were eight bodies of the 93rd Highlanders, who had been killed, and inside I never saw such a sight. There were about 1200" Sepoys killed and burning. i The first exclamation of every one was, , * Here is. retribution for Cawnpore.' In ' some places they were heaped as high as i my head, and as we remained there a week jwe had the worst of it, as the smell was I terrible. In two other places the slaughter 'was just'as bad One day a native was ! standing close to me, speaking to me,: when , a 24 pounder hit his turban, and knocked 'it off without. touching his head. * This I I coulcl not have believed if I had not seen it. , When Sir Colin Campbell went intp the' Residency'he dined there,1 and they offered him champagne, which he refused."