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Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 83, 11 September 1869, Page 3

The total number of aboriginal inhabitants now contained, within tho colony of Victoria has dwindled down to 1834. The district in which they are most numerous is the North- Western, which comprises the stations of Mount Talbot, Apsley, Wiinmera, Mildura, Boort, G-unbower, &c. There they aro estimated at 79-1. The next most numerously inhabited district is the South- Western, where they amount to 426. About one hundred of the total number are set down as wanderers.

Amchstgst the Chinese in this colony, the possession of a pig-tail is regarded as incontrovertible proof of honesty, and prized accordingly. An instance of this was given at the Beechworth Police Court, yesterday. A Chinaman, on being arrested for larceny, informed the detective that he was a good man, and as evidence, exhibited an extremely long and bushy pig-tail. The detective, suspicious of its not boing genuine, jerked John's hat when off came a complete wig, aud the much prized appendage. Some amusement was created in Court by the production of this triumph of the coiffeur's art, and it was suggested that it would

make an admirable chignon. The countenance of the unfortunate owner formed a complete study of shame struggling for the mastery with an assumed expression of injured innocence. — " Ovens Spectator."