NEW SOUTH WALES.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 280, 26 June 1860, Page 4

NEW SOUTH WALES.

(Erom the Sydney Empire.)

The Public Health. —We heard it stated yesterday by one of the most extensive medical practitioners in Sydney, tbat he never knew so unhealthy a season as the present. Tbe influenza has rarely, if ever, assumed so much of the character of an epidemic; in : many instances patients are simultaneously attacked with the influenza and measles. Numbers of children are dying from the combined attacks of these two mosc debilitating complaints.

The Weather.—The weather during tbe past week has been anything but agreeable. It has been cold and variable. The prevailing winds were southerly and south-westerly. We have had some heavy falls of rain, accompanied by a gale of wind. Death of Major Edmund Lockyer.— We regret to announce the demise of Major Edmund Lockyer, Usher of the Black Rod in the Legislative Oouncil. He bad been suffering from the prevailing epidemic, and his friends thought him just on the eve of recovery. At the time of his death he was seated in his armchair. The transition from life to death was so free from physical suffering, that he was believed to be asleep, when the attention of his relatives was first attracted by what tbey believed to be merely a state of quiescence. Major Lockyer was esteemed by all who knew him for his urbanity and gentlemanly bearing. Cricket.—Pyrfiiont v. Union Cricket Club. Although late in tho season, the return matoh between these two club 3 was played on tho racecourse, on Saturday. Union CrickeS Club —First innings, 55 j second, ditto, with thjee wickets down, for 2 runs.'' Pysmon;s-~First innings, 39 runs, when the stakes were drawn, and the matoh fell to the ground.

The Late Me. W. G. LAMBERT.-~Fhe mortal remains of our worthy felloe-citizen, Mr. W. G. Lambert, ware convoyed to their final resting-place, afc Camperdown Cemetery, on Saturday. The cortege moved from the late residence of the deceased, PalmerstoQ House, Bay-streefc, Y/oolloomooloo, at nootj, The procession, which consisted of upward: of thirty carriages, was one of the largest we have seen for some time. It afforded a gratifying proof of the esteem in which Mr. Lambert was held by a numerous and respectable class of the community. The Masonic Brethren assembled in considerable numbers to do honour to the memory of their deceased brother.

Canine Protection.—-At the sittings of the Criminal Court, which closed on Saturday, a remarkable exemplification of the value of the canine species was afforded. An aboriginal called Jaekey, who, it appears, although a young man is an old offender, was tried on two several charges with offering violence to females, the prosecutrix in neither instance exceeding sixteen years of age. In one instance he was acquitted for want of sufficient evidence, but in the other he was found guilty and is now paying the penalty of his offence by imprisonment and hard labor. What makes the case remarkable is, that in each instance the young women were saved from dire outrage only by the timely intervention of a dog. In one instance the black was scared away by the; barking of the animal, and in tho pther the watchful: and faithful brute preventedr !thie; jin ten dte id violence hy fiercely assailing the aggressor. The cases occurred at different times and places, and under circumstances which all but precluded the intervention of human aid.

In the' course of a recent lecture on phrenology, delivered at Newcastle, Mr. Hamilton said:—" In coming to the subject of Jim Crow, the aboriginal lately executed at Maitland, and of whose head he had been permitted to take a cast, he observed how small the head was as a whole, but still more remarkable and comparatively small in the region of the moral sentiments, constituting such a being a moral idiot, incapable of appreciating, even in an approximate degree, the amount of criminality which we attached to the crime of which he had been guilty. What a fearful exhibition then to see such a creature elevated to the scaffold by the white man (Christian), and surrounding this poor savage with all the sanctimonious lights of a Christian Church, while perpetrating an act of barbarity,'transcending any of which he had been guilty.- Upon exhibiting the backhone like coronal ridge in this bead, the lecturer explained, there never was "a man hanged in England, no? in Europe, with a head like this; no, England is more merciful to her idiots, and it was reserved for New South Wales, aboveall other places in the world, to put to death, in the name of law, a being so irresponsible to the Moral Jaw as this; a being without, hope, Without conscience, or any of,those faculties that light up'and adorn the mind by which to jW&Me jun to estate the enormity of the

crime for which he suffered, and yet with a less amount of positive criminality in him than 'many of those at whose instance he was hanged. This had been to him a siokening spectacle, to behold this poor craven savage dragged to the scaffold by the white man, in company with the priest who taught him to mutter prayers he could not understand, and then to dignify his execution by hanging in company with a white man, whose bearing, as he met his fate, was as calm, as hopeful, and as noble, as the other's was wretched, downcast, ahd. despairing; and yet, withal, he was elevated to the same privilege with his white compeer." The Influenza and the Measles.—The influenza has for some time past been raging in this-city ;as the season wears on it appears to inorease the extent of its ravages as well as its virulence. Scarcely a family in the. city that has not had, or has, one or more of its members laid up with this disagreeable complaint. Nor is it any security to have had- it once during the season; some persons have been attacked twice; and we have heard of one person who caught it the third time, when it proved fatal. "We have heard it said that influenza rarely, if ever, proves fatal. The experience of the present season proves the contrary. We have heard of several cases in wbich it has proved fatal. The instances to which we refer have been those of persons advanced in years and young children. The " measles" have appeared in a virulent form in the neighborhood of Surry Hills. We have Ihe ard of one in which a child two years of age was attacked simultaneously with the influenza and the measles. Under the combined attack of two such distressing complaints, the little sufferer gradually sunk and, died. We do not recollect to have seen so sickly a season for many years past, and only account for it upon the hypothesis of great electrical disturbance, caused by the humidity of the atmosphere. The Government offer a premium of ,£6OO for the best, and for the second best design for new Houses of Parliament and Public Offices for the Colony of New South Wales. Competitive drawings, with specifications and estimates will be received at the office of the Department of Public Works up to the Ist of March, 1861. Tenders are to be addressed to the " Secretary for Public Works, Sydney." Miss Ikonside at Rome.-—Letters have been received from Rome per last mail, by the family of the talented Australian artiste—Miss A. E. Ironside —containing very interesting particulars relative to the young lady's pictures, which are now attracting a very considerable amount of attention in the "Eternal City." Her first painting there was St. Catherine of Alexandria, and the one upon which she is now occupied is her first cartoon—the subject being the Pilgrim of Art at the Feet of Fame. For color, purity of style, and composition, the natives of this colony will be proud to learn that the paintings of their country women are deemed, by competent judges at Rome, to resemble the works of the old masters of the Italian School. Miss Ironside intends, she says, to fresco the Sydney University some day or other; and, fired with that noble ambition, has already made herself mistress of that peculiar method of painting. She can now do it with ease. This young Australian artiste has greatly distinguished herself J>y the amount of labor bestowed by her upon all ber works; which, probably from that cause, bear so strong a resemblance to the old masters'iu workmanship and detail, as well as luminosity of coloring. Miss Ironside was present when Pope Pius, in imitation of our Saviour,, washed the feet of twelvo pilgrims in St. Peter's, &nd afterwards served them at table in the Sala Regia. She heard also the celebrated "Miserere" sung in tho Sistine Chapel in ihe presence of the. Pops and Cardinals, and saw the Prince of Wales there ia his uniform as colonel. Miss Ironside, amidst all the attraction of Italian scenery and art, does not forget New South Wales end her numerous friends here, but looks forward with pleasurable anticipations to her return to theoe shores.

EXTRAORDINARY PRESENCE OF MIND.—A fevr days since,' a party of ladies went out for an evening drive upon the Loddon Plains, when to their intense dismay they suddenly beheld the coachman fall insensible from his seat, and the horsea, which were fresh, galloped off with the rapidity of lightning. Mrs G. y, one.ofthe ladies, without saying a word, let down the carnage window, and eucceeded in scrambling on to the box, whence, much to the astonishment of the screaming prisonersjeside, she nobly managed to seize the reins, just in time to prevent the fiery animals'from precipitating carriage and all into the Loddon. river, and finally "ended by returning triumphantly home. The coachman, it seems, had been with a slight attaok of apoplexy.

The Rev. M. D. Meares.—A most distressing and glaring case of Jmmorality on the part of a clergyman has come to light during the past week. Two gentlemen happened to oall at an hotel in the north end of tbe city, and there accidentally discovered that the Rev. M. D. Meares, M.A., of Enfield,' had been staying two days with a young woman residing in bis parish, and had passed her off as his wife; and that he had done so. on a previous' ■.occasion.. The circumstance was immediately' reported to Dean'Cowper (in the absence of the Bishop""of Sydney), and Mr. Meares, on being communicated with, at once resigned his license and cure. Mr.'Meares is fully sixty years of age; has a wife and large family. He has been for thirty-five years a ■ Colonial Chaplain, and, we believe, his character has hitherto been irreproachable. It has never previously been our duty to record such a melancholy and wretched termination to a long life of usefulness.

South Australian Wines.—B is gratifying to learn that the demand for South AustraHau wines is rapidly on the increase in Victoria, notwithstanding that the best wines of New South Wales are brought into competition with them there, and indeed had jpre-occupied the market to a very considerable extent. The wines of this colony are, however, working themselves iv favor fast; and the only fear We have to entertain is that our growers will not be able to meet the foreign demand, and that home consumera will consequently for a while be compelled to pay a higher price than they ought to give. We have just seen a letter from a leading wine firm in Melbourne, addressed to.Mr. P. Auld, of Adelaide, in which the writer, after naming several kinds of wive which they have sent, add :•—" In fact several houses have written to us for them; please let no time be lost in this. Also be good enough to inform us what quantities you are likely' to be able to send of eaoh sort hi bulk for next. Bummer's season. Wb must begin to make arrangements for bottling." Our readers will

perceive that the writers evidently entertain the notion that they will be able to take all the wine that Mr. Auld will be able to Bend—a pleasant prospect, certainly, for the grower and the merchant, but not quite so delightful to the wine-drinker.—^deZaide Observer.

Aboriginal Population.—"Philanthropist," writing in the Moreton Bay Courier, says:—" So far as extensive travelling and frequent intercourse with the natives havie enabled me to judge, lam of opinion that the number of the aboriginal race, comprised in the whole of Australia, never exceeded one hundred thousand ; and that the present computation might probably be set down in round numbers at fifty thousand. The decrease of our black population has been extremely rapid and surprising. Some twelve or sixteen years ago there was a oeosus taken ofthe aborigines of Victoria, and the number was found to be, I think, between eight and nine thousand; but by a calculation made about five years ago, they had dwindled down to less than half that number. The blacks of our own colony may perhaps be roughly estimated at five or six thousand. The main causes now operating here, as elsewhere, to their speedy extirpation, are. doubtless the following .—-Sanguinary broils; undue exposure of their persons, at one time being thickly clad in Europeatf-clothiiag, and at another appearing in a state of complete nudity; drunkenness; and corrupt, intercourse with the whites. In a comparative brief space of time, unless these fearfully decimating influences are in some way checked or counteracted, there is every reason to believe that the former occupants of the soil will haye wholly and for ever passed away."