GENERAL NEWS SUMMARY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 33, 26 September 1868, Page 2

GENERAL NEWS SUMMARY.

I The silver mines recently opened in South Australia aro reported to be doing well. . , G-old, it is rumored, has been discovered in Eapa, one of the SocietyIslands. It is said that meerschaum has been discovered near Wallongong, in New South "Wales. Glad tidings for smokerß ! It is proposed to make New Zea- ; land mean timo the standard for the colony. > A valuable discovery is reported to ; have taken place on the Cudgegong, I New South wales, red oxide of meri cury having been , found in large quantities. A shoal of whales was recently seen off the beach at Newcastle, New South Wales. Estimates of the Californian wheat crop this year place it at 20,000,000 bushels. In June the. population of Victoria was returned as 670,148, an increase of 5578 on the previous quarter. A share in a claim at the Auckland Q-oldfields bought some months ago for £100, has been sold for £14,000. The oldest man in the Province died recently at Saddle Hill. He was 93 years old, and leaves a large family of sons, daughters, grandchildren, and great grandchildren behind him. At a rocent sale of town property at Ballarat, a frontage of 40 ft. was sold at £50 10s. per foot. A curious circumstance in connection with this sale was the fact that the purchasers of it sold it ten years ago for £1 per foot. A Ballarat miner writes to the "Star" to complain of the want of employment in that district. He asserts that not one-half of the Ballarat miners are employed, and that many of those who are employed do not earn more than thirty shillings a week. Tais fact, he adds, explains the rush to Gympio. H. C. Kimball, the distinguishedsaint and second president of the .Mormon Church, died at Salt Lake City, Utah, on Sunday, June 21. He was a native of Vermont, in wjbich State he was born on the 14th of June, 1801. In 1832 he became a convert to Mormonism, and followed the fortunes of Joseph Smith, the "prophet," with marked fidelity. He soon attained to bigii position, and was sent to England on the first mission. Here he met with considerable success, making many converts, and influencing them to emigrate to the United States. After holding various positions in the " Ghurch,", he eventjiatfy became one of its three presidents, Brigham Young and JX- H7 Wells being the other two. We must not< omit to mention that bis- family is quite large, his wives and children numbering, at last accounts, sixty persons. In the " Colonial Monthly " wo find tho following allusion to-taepreoious Hjfcones found-in wo would recommend our 'miners to be more eraininlllttf the. contents of the tin dish beforo throwing them away. It is. possible, nay probable, that many precious gems may afop be found in the washings in Otago :— -" In Victoria, the diamond has been found *^or- certain only in tb« neighbophootl

of Beechworth, and mainly on the Woolshed Creek and streamlets flowing into it. It was frequently associated with black sand, sapphires, zircons — and in a neighborhood yielding many fine cairngorms and agates. The whole iof this country, from Beechworth and Yackandandah, round by the Indigo Creek, Chfltern, and Butherglen seems most likely to yield diamonds. Whenever a claim is bot* tomed on the bed rock in these localities — especially if either sapphire or black sand be present, or have been observed in the course of sinking — one would be justified in keeping a sharp look out for diamonds when washing for a prospect of gold. In fact, any whitish or yellowish little stones, as well as any of a blue or red color, which have held back with the gold, should be put aside and carefully examined ; for, on account of their sped, fie gravity being higher than quartz or such like rubbish, they may be at least suspected of being something precious, though perhaps not diamonds. Owing to this obstinate pertinacity ia sticking to the tin dish in the last operation of washing out the gold, we possesß all, or nearly all, the diamonds yet discovered in Victoria." Trebizond was the scene of a horrible tragedy on June 7. No less than seventeen persons fell victims to the attack of a madman in a few minutes. Of the attacked, four died instrntaneouslv, „ ten are mortally and three slightly wounded. Each person received but one blow in the chest, and that near the region of the heart. The assassin had been domiciled in Trebizond for about three months, where he sold old iron in a stall in one of tlie most populous streets of the town. He commenced his butchery in the open day, about eight o'clock in the morning, using at his instrument a knife sharpened at both sides. Having fastened the knife to his wrist, the blade turning inwards, he walked the street in which ho lived, striking at all who came within his reach, taking care, after each stab, to conceal the knife, bo that his victims were at the moment in doubt who attacked them. He would have killed many moro if he had not received a blow of a stone on the head from a young man who perceived what he was at. This so stunned him that the bystanders were able to seize him and hand him over to the police At a meeting of the Edinburgh Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor, held recently, the Eev. Dr. Hanna gave -the follow- ! ing account of what he called a, "acene i of horror," which lately occurred in Edinburgh :— " A father dies, leaving three grown-up sons. By' membership in two friendly societies they become entitled to receive £IQ, which was spent in drink before the burial.* The sons then took their father's clothes, pawned them, and spent what they got for them in drink. The mother having remonstrated, she ' was told that if she did not hold her tongue they would do with her as they had done with *he dead ; and they did it. They took off her clothes, and pawned them, and sent her to bed. Next came the pawning of the furniture, which they disputed about ; and in order to settle the dispute, what did these, .men do P They dragged the dead body from the coffin, set it up against the. wall, having previously agreed that when it was shaken, if the head fell in this way the one was to gain, and if it fell that way the other would be the gainer I" On Monday, June 29, the workmen at the Oaks Colliery had a narrow escape from another dreadful explosion. It is the duty of a man named Gomerson to grease the fan by which the workings are ventilated. He had been cautioned on all occasions when performing this duty to.use a Stephenson safety lamp. At about six o'clock he was caught by another workman* actually oiling the fan with a naked lamp ; and how the pit escaped another fearful explosion is a marvel, at the foul gas escapes from the workings at" the same point. The wind was in a favorable direction, or there would probably have been another great sacrifice of human life. The man was, of course, at once discharged, and will be taken before tho magistrates for fcha offence. The following appears in an Ade« laide paper: — An individual at*Williamstown, bearing, the outward semblance of a man, but having evidently a large proportion of the hog in bia composition, recently undertook to eat two juvenile relations in the shape of sucking pigs, for a wager of £1. The little grunters weighed before being cooked ten and a half pounds, and tho old hog demolished them in an hour and twenty^ minutes, being ten minuten within the stipulated time, fairly clean, ing the bones. As they were fat and rather rich, our hero found it necessary to take a great deal of vine, gar towards the close of his meal, and, we are informed, used a bottle full As for other fluid, we understand h» j- only drank a single nobbier of brandy. He soon after was seized with pain, and continued ill for «ome hours. We are informed that he offered, after having succeeded bo admirably with this gastronomic- feat, to devour a whole kangaroo dog for wager of £5. We should . recommend this individual to secure -a passage as soon as possible for the Cannibal Islands. It will be seen from our local column, that a relation of this gentleman with a large swallow, *PP«*ra to hare visited 1 WVMMUVUNMMi ' ' - """ - '**