MULTUM IN PARVO.

Colonist, Issue 133, 28 January 1859, Page 3

MULTUM IN PARVO.

The Provident Institute of Victoria has announced its willingness to advance to depositors desirous of selecting land at the Government upset price, half the purchase money, provided the lands are taken up in the names of the trustees of the Institute, and held by them as security for the due payment of such advances.

Two fearful murders have been committed in Tasmania lately. On Christmas Eve, afc Hobart Town, John King shot an old woman, —65 year 3 of age, and who had been living with him for twenty-three years,—through the head with a pistol, and killed her on the spot. Black Frenchy was killed by being struck on the head repeatedly with an axe, and afterwards robbed; two men and a woman are in custody on suspicion. William Brinkley, who had said that he was a Sydney publican and had left home on account of a, disagreement with his family, committed suicide by throwing himself into the Hunter River, afc Raymond Terrace. In order to make death more certain, he tied his left arm to-his thigh previously to throwing himself in. It appears the bridge over the * Murray at Albury is not likely to be commenced for another year after all. The expence of the work is to borne equally by Victoria and New South Wales. The Government of the latter colony voted £10,000; bufc the Inspector-General of roads for Victoria having reported that a sum of 20,000 would be utterly inadequate for the work, the Victorian Government consequently do not propose to undertake the work this year. The Kiama Examiner contains a very indignant article on the conduct of Mr. A Berry, M. L. C. Ifc appears that Dr. Lang had recently visited Shoalhaven, and was offered the use of a church wherein to preach, by the Presbyterian ministers and elders, which circumstance induced Mr. Berry to write an angry note to the Rev. Mr. Garven, threatening to denounce him to the Synod, if Dr. Lang was permitted to preach in the church which had been built upon ground given by him for thafc purpose. Dr. Lang, when fold of the occurrence, declined to preach in the Presbyterian Church. A young man —who states that he has been a lieutenant in the navy, and was about to go home for the purpose of taking possession of £800 a year—is accused of having robbed the mail from Blaney to Bathurst. He was a passenger by the mail-cart, and is supposed to have obtained possession of the bag, appropriated its contents, and then threw it away. The cvi- j dence was very strong against him," and he has been committed for trial.

A permanent circular theatre has been erected at Bailaarat by the Chinese, and is well attended by all classes of the population.

Gold bearing quartz has been found in the railway cuttings in the Black Forest. An inquest was held on the body of Pat. O'Lcary, who met witli his death under the following circumstances. Deceased on tho previous afternoon, was driving an American waggon, having discharged his loading at Dunolly, Victoria. While turning sharpen the road, a short distance beyond Mr. Grant's hotel, he lost his seat and fell upon the pole shaft, nnd from .thenco to the ground. The horses took fright and bolted, but were ultimately stopped by a man who was in the waggon at the time of the accident. At the inquest the medical evidence proved death to have resulted from rupture of the liver, but it was not proved that the wheel went over his body: Verdict—Accidental death. Tlie deceased was intoxicated, and when passing Grant's hotel some person called out to him and asked him where he was driving to? His reply was, "To hell." On his person was found £24 6s 7d, a silver watch and chain, and some minor articles. The property was taken possession of on behalf of the curator of intestate estates. - -

Tlie " unemployed " of Melbourne have recommended to Sir. Duffy as a remedy for the wide spread distress which unfortunately prevails, that £100,000 should be voted for the cultivation of.a farm of ten thousand acre?, upon which the services of all needy persons in Victoria, should be employed.

Coal of good quality has been discovered about two hundred miles north of Adelaide, of a quality: equal to the Newcastle coal. A Valuable collection of books has been presented to the Melbourne Public Library hy Napoleon 111. through the instrumentality of the Conte de Moreton de Chabrillon, His Excellency the Governor was present on the occasion. Tlie " Macdonald Light" was exhibited on Cape Northumberland, Victoria, on New Year's Hay. It stands 131 feet above high water mark, and is visible from 15 to 18 miles.

Mr. Babbage has petitioned the Assembly of,. South Australia to appoint'a committee of inquiry"' into circumstances attending the late expedition into the north.

The British Association have voted £200 to Professor Wilson, of the Universit}*- of Melbourne, for the purchase of a telescope. The arbitrators on the reward claimed by the diver who recovered the gold dropped into the sea from the side of the Morning Light, in Hobson's Bay, Victoria, have fixed the amount at £250.

It is the intention of the Victorian Government to appropriate a portion of the military reserve at the barracks, for the purpose of forming gardens to he cultivated by the soldiers for their own exclusive use and benefit. ,'.

The Chief Secretary has given notice that he will at an early day move that the House resolve itself into a committee, to consider the propriety of empowering the Government to purchase the the Geelong and Melbourne Railway, so that all the main trunk lines shall be the property of the State, in accordance with the policy already determined on by the Parliament of Victoria. )

A curious story is told, by a Victorian paper, of a Beech worth jury, who, unable to agree, and dreading a lock up, determined to settle the matter in a sportsmanlike manner. A coin was produced the formula decided—head, guilty; tail, not guilty. ;The coin was spun up in the air, and descending with the head uppermost, the jury returned into court with a verdict of guilty. The labor market, particularly that of unskilled labor, afc Melbourne, is in a very depressed cortditioa at the present time. Great des-itution is represented as existing in that city. , y " ' ■. A somewhat singular accident has occurred on the Murray. A man named Watson was sitting in his cabin, when a loaf of bread fell off a shelf and struck the hammer of a loaded gun, which discharged its contents into the upper joint of one of his arms.

The Hpbart Town Advertiser gives, in a late issue, Mr. Justice Home's cure for drunkenness, in his address to a prisoner:—"If .1 had my will I would send you drunkards to the mad-house for a couple of years, and make you drink water;"—a sentiment which has obtaiued extensive favor, wo believe, in Scotland, within the last few years. On Christmas night, about nine o'clock, a man named Griffiths, his wife, and child, were accidentally drowned whilst attempting to cross the Paterson River, New South Wales. Six orphans are left to mourn the loss of their parents. A pair of full-sized and full-plumed golden pheasants are on view at Sydney. were recently brought from France, and are valued at £15.. The. exhibitors state that tliey brought out a pair to Melbourne a year £go, and the -first setting of seven' eggs has been put under a common hen for hatching. William Morgan has been acquitted on the charge of riotously assembling his mates and destroying an engine at Clunes, Victoria, on the 20th October last.

Mr. M. M'Jannett, recently retired from the position of Chief Constable at Yass, N.S.W, on which occasion an address was presented him, commencing in the following plain, straightforward and honest manner:—" Dear Sir,—-Testimonials have become a nuisance, and we will not commit an insult by offering one to you." A little girl, named Brownhead, aged ] 8 months, fell overboard from a boat whicli was being pulled by her sister and another girl, into the Hunter River. She rose again to the surface, and stretching out her little hands cried '" Tally, Tally" meaning Sally or Sarah, her sister. She rose 'a second time to the surface, and then sank to rise no more.

The Maitland Mercury saj's—" By the use of a reaping and thrashing machine, Mr. Yeo, of Luskintyre, one day last week, reaped and threshed 112 bushels of wheat, and delivered ifc next day at Messrs. Solomon Vindin and Co.'s mill, where before night it had been ground into flour. One man and a boy were engaged in working the machine. £300 has been voted by the Corporation of Sydney for the erection of fountains for drinking purposes throughout the city. The Wesleyan Methodist Bazaar, at Maitland, N.S.W., in four days, realised the sum of £1000. Taking the 'bank returns of deposits as a test, it is estimated that the people of New South Wales are richer than the people of Victoria by £1 per head of the whole population. During the progress of a drunken quarrel on a station at Darling Downs, lately, between a German and a man named Dolan, the latter seized an adze, with which he inflicted a fearful wound on his antagonist's left side. The blow broke two of the poor fellow's ribs, and the weapon was driven so far into his bowels that his entrails protruded. No time was lost ih procuring medical assistance, but the German died. .

The value, of the exports from Moreton Bay, for the quarter ending" on the Slst December, is £72,583 4s. lid. This, added to the exports of the three previous quarters, makes the total value of exports for the year, £363,515 17s. lid., being an increase of £8278 2s. 4d.

An old man, named Dunn, was burnt to death at Windsor, N. S. W., on the 12fch instant. It appears that he had been drinking at the Windsor Hotel for two or three days previously, and.was in the habit of sleeping In-the hayloft. A spark from his pipe is supposed to have set tlie stables on five. The damage done to the building was trifling; but the old man was burnt to cinders, nothing but his mere skeleton remaining. Mr. D. Masterton, a merchant at Melbourne, failed for £80,000. Mr. C. Cruikshank was involved as a partner, and has given bills for the whole amount.

yhe Mayor of Adelaide, W. S. Sabben, has been committed on a charge of forging a bill of exchange for £60. The case is said to be a very weak oiie against the accused.

The Adelaide Register sa3'6 :—Our correspondents' letters from various parts of the country all concur in representing the prospective yield of wheat to be larger than-was expected, fror% 12 to 15 bushels per acre being generally spoken of. ■

After eluding the search of the police for several weeks, Mary Connell, charged with murdering a little boy, the son of a man with whom she had been living, in the Richmond Paddock, near Melbourne, has, at last, been apprehend* d in Melbourne. r