VICTORIA.

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

VICTORIA.

(From the Sydney Herald.) [FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]

June 7th.

The Argus says:—A meeting of gentlemen interested in * movement for special Sunday services in Melbourne was held on Tuesday afternoon, in the Mechanics' Institute. The chair waa occupied by Mr. David Ogilvie, and a series of resolutions carried, affirming that Sunday services for the masses should be held in some public place, for the purpose of hearing lectures by various ministers, to be conducted in a similar manner to those lately given in Great Britain and America. Laymen representing the various Protestant denominations were present. A large committee of influential gentlemen was formed. A sub-oommittee was also appointed to carry out the resolutions. An arrangement has been made to commence the series on the 17th June, at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, when James Taylor, minister ofthe Collins-street Baptist-Church, will deliver the first address. The theatre bas been placed at tbe disposal of the committee on reasonable terms. A private association was recently formed at Ararat to encourage prospecting parties in that locality, by giving necessary pecuniary and other assistance. Already these efforts have borne fruit—one of the parties so assisted having, discovered gold on the Ararat side of Oliver's Gully. The prospect obtained is desoribed as very good, being 1| oz. to the load, and the sinking is easyi There was an immediate rush to the spot. • . The movement of the journeymen bakers of Melbourne for the reduction of their hoars of labor has been followed up at Ballaarat, where an association has been formed for. the purpose of endeavoring to do away with night-work, Sunday-labor, and the boarding system. The case of Cooper against Dowling, heard on Tuesday in the Fitzroy police court, shows that a system of kidnapping for most nefariouc purposes is in active existence in Melbourne. It appeared that the plaintiff, a most respectable looking woman, lost ber son, a boy of eleven or twelye years of age, several months ago, and that she found him the other day in a marine store in Lonsdale-street, tenanted by defendant. Upon claiming the clothes in which the boy was dressed when he left home, she was assailed with a shower of abuse and threats by Dowling, ahd accordingly sought protection from the bench. The lad, it seemed, had not been actually taught to steal, as yet; but, having passed its matriculation as a "bone-picker," there could be little doubt of taking honors in the higher branches of the professions in due time. The bench fined Dowling £,5.

The Ballaarat Times says:—On Saturday last a party of Chinese made application to Mr. Surveyor Fitzpatrick to be registered for a claim upon a quartz lode on the Eureka. This, we believe, is the first quartz claim that has been taken np by the Chinese, who have shown no small degree of perseverance in working old alluvial ground." A writer at Inglewood, in a private letter dated the 31st ultimo, speaks discouragingly of the state of matters on that gold-field. He Bft ys—" If the people stay here there is a good opening (for a certain business), but they are quite unsettled.- Every one you speak to thinks of going to the Snowy River. I have heard this morning of a new gold-field, opened some sixteen miles distant from here, and if the report is correct there will be a rush away from here immediately. Steps, are'now being takea for the formation of a lluseum ih connection with the Ballaarat Mechanics'lnstitute. *

■ The Argus of the 2nd June says:—-Our obituary of to-day contains the notice of Mr. James M'Eachew, a gentleman connected for many years with the press in this colony, and previously in New South Wales. Mr. M'Eachero was an earnest politician, with strong democratic sympathies, and he made many sacrifices in defence of the principles he jsupported. His connexion with newspaper life bad ceased for some two years before his death, but -he took a part in all political movements of recent date. Those who knew him intimately always found in him an earnest and high-minded friend, somewhat impracticable perhaps, but one who consistently maintained the character he had acquired during a difficult and venal peribdr-* that of an upright gentleman, and a conseien-^ tiouß journalist. John Fry, a private of the 40th regiment, fell down dead oh Monday, at the SpencerAtreet barracks, whilst fastening on his shoes.—? | The following diabolical aot is reported by the Bendigo Advertiser as having oocurred in Watson and Co.'s quartz claim, on Paddy's Gully Reef:—" Two men had been working in a shaft some eighty tVet'deep, and after finishing work onSaturday last, they left; the rope upon the windlass. \On Monday morning,' after being at work some two; hours, during which, time men and buokets had been up and down j upon the rope aa usual,* one of; the: men was led to examine the tope, when to his horror he found that since Saturday night gomemincreantr

had, with a sharp instrument, out the rope un derneath the splice which secured the hook ibo as to be completely out of sight. Thus for two hours the men's lives were suspended upon but a few fibres of the rope which remained uncut."

Ifc appears, from the narrative of a tourist through Bullarook forest, that the hidden recesses of that densely-timbered district have of late been chosen as the abode of persons whose calling, past and present, renders it inadvisable for them to come in close contact with the officers of the detective force. The qniet inhabitants of the forilt are beginning to entertain some dread that the danger of roaming far from their lurkiog-places may cause' these predatory gangs to levy black-mail on them.—Ballaarat Times.

Yesterday morniog, the friends of; a young man named Harvey, residing in this town, were horrified to hear that he bad just committed suicide. The circumstances of this act of selfdestruction are peculiarly distressing. It appears that the deceased, who was a sober, and, moreover, a religious man, was only married, on Thursday last. In the evening a party of friends met at the house of the newly-married couple, and something peculiar was noticed in the deceased's manner and appearance^ Early ou Friday morning he rose, went into another rgom^and,, taking up a common-handsaw, in-, flicted a number of frightful gashes on* ? his--throat, injuring ; himself to such^an^^fent that he did not long survive, Mediqal Bt was ■ of course obtained, but the injuries.wero of siich a nature that all help was useless. No motive can be assigned for the commission of the deed. —Castlemain Advertiser. . The Experimental Farm of Victoria.— Just now there is not very much to be seen at the Experimental Farm; but some of the crops yet in the ground, and- the works going on, are not without interest to the farmw. Draining has been commenced, and it will shortly be ascertained exactly what is the cost here of drains of different depths, and filled in with the different materials. A piece of natural pasture has been sacrificed, to be sown with English grasses, and preparations are being made for tbe experiments with those recommended by the Farm Committee of the Board of Agriculture. It will be remembered that tbe produce of portions of ground sown with the Italian and perennial rye grasses was weighed at tbe first cutting of these in the summer, and a second cutting will soon be made. Tbe result then was in favor of the latter, coatrary to general expectation, from the character gained by these two graß3es in. the old country; and the second country will tell quite as much, if not more, against the Italian. In short, this experiment, as wall as others previously tried, and the experienca of several years in the neighboring colonies, especially Tasmania, go far to prove that the perennial rye-grass is one of the best we cau have, whether for soiling or grazing. The mangold wiirtzel crops partially failed, in consequence of this seed having been bad; but even where plants of a bastard kind grow without forming roots of any size, the tops will pay the cost of cultivation, green stuff is in ; such request by the dairymen about town. Where the«*ed was good and the roots have been well developed, this Crop will be most profitable. Cowkeepers readily purchase all tbey can get at from (; <£4. to, |£5 per tonj and the produce from the best parts ofthe field should average 30 tons to theacra. Oae thing Mr. Skilling has learned tnia year, and this ia that it is not desirable to sow cropo of this kiDd too early. Where thsy did not run away to seed, the roots appeared to become set during th» summer, and did not expand with the autumn rains, as did those of the late sown plants, which appeared scarcely to survive the hot whether; when, however, the rain came these took a fresh start, and soon left the others behind, and especially with the mangolds, which at first promising to to be tha worst part of the crop, is now far the beat. Where tho land is naturally deep and rich, or the needful outlay can be incurred iv tillage and manuring, and during the growth of the crop in hand labor, mangolds will he found most profitable near town, but without these concomitant circumstances it is useless to sow the seed. One field of oats on the farm has also been manured,witb the colonial and Peruvian guanos, and a portion left without manure .at all. The braid is now well up, scarcely forward enough as yet to sho* any marked difference in the several portions, but from tbis time forth the effect will become daily more noticeable; and it will be interesting to watch the progress of the different parts of the field until maturity is arrived at.— Argus,