INTER-COLONIAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 109, 10 March 1870, Page 6

INTER-COLONIAL.

We find the following in the " Australasian " : — A remarkable luncheon was given on Saturday last, at R. U. Miller's dining rooms in Collins-street, by Mr. Robert Caldwell, managing partner of the "Victoria" Meat-pre-serving Company, whose process involves packing the rolled meat in tallow. The object was to give an entertainment which should exactly resemble — being no better and no worse — the famous Australian meat dinners at Norton Folgate, in London. It was a happy thought, and the tables were crowded with guests who had evidently been invited not to give eclat to the entertainment, but with a strict eye to business. The bill of'fare comprised — "Joints — braised beef, boiled mutton and caper sauce, and boiled beef and carrots. Entrees — potatoe pie, curried mutton, and rice, haricot mutton, minced meat and mashed potatoes, croquet rolls and dry hash." The excellence of the various dishes was amply testified to by the rapidity of their disappearance. Mr. Caldwell presided, and his explanations respecting the process employed, the age of the meat, and other particulars illustrative of the object for which the luncheon was given, were listened to with great interest. Upon the table were exhibited two specimens of the new patent cases which it is proposed to use for meat packing in future. They are shaped like the ordinary red gin. cases, only larger, squarer, and more substantial. They are lined with tin, and the two exhibited yesterday aie described as full of " mutton hams free from all bone." While on the subject of meat-preserving we may mention that the new Australian Meat-preserv-ing Company, upon the basis of Mr. Patrick Hayes's works at Footscray, and which is to be under his management, has been successfully floated, and nearly all the shares taken up. Operations are to be commenced in March. Mr. Hayes proposes to abandon the rolling and tallow-processes and pack in tins of sizes from 21b, and xipwards.

The inauguration of the newly-ad-opted ensign for the colony of Yictoiia which was hoisted yesterday morning on board H.M.Y.s.s. Nelson, was duly acknowledged by the shipping in port. The display of bunting on the vessels in the bay and at the different piers, as well as on the numerous flagstaffs at Williamstown and Saudridge, was quite extravagant, and its diffuseness was such as is only to be seen on gala occasions. Several of the ships showed great taste in the mode of their dressing, and not the least conspicuous among them were the Melmerby and the A.S.N. Company's steamers Wonga Wonga and Auckland. — " Argus," February 10.

During the last twenty-five years the port of Sydney and neighbouring colonies have been visited by many clipper ships whose passages, recorded from time to time, have shown the great advancement that has resulted from the improvement in the art of shipbuilding ; but it has fallen to the lot of Captain Pile, of the Patriarch, which arrived yesterday from London, to totally eclipse anything that has hitherto been made between the latter port and Sydney. He has made a passage unprecedented ; not merely taking his date from land to land, but actually bringing London journals to 4th December, which gives his passage as being accomplished in 67 days. The Patriarch is an iron ship, built by Messrs. Walter Hood, of Aberdeen, and is re-

plete with all the newest improvements. Her lines to the shipwright's eye would appear symmetrical in the highest degree, her ends are beautifully fine, and as evidenced by her large cargo, her carrying capacity is proportionate to her tonnage. — " Sydney Herald." The Melbourne " Age," of the latest date, has the following brief but melancholy history of a ruined life : — A rag-gedly-dressed woman of twenty-six, once strikingly handsome, but now in an advanced state of consumption and palsied with drink, although so young, came before the city magistrate yesterday as a disorderly character, and was sent to the hospital for medical treatment. She gave no other name than Agnes Jessie, but her history is well known. A few years ago she came to the colony as a governess, and was qualified with every accomplishment for such a position. Her fate was that of so many others, and she became the mistress of a wealthy profligate, who cast her off penniless. Step by step she sank almost to the lowest depth. The South* Australian Assembly have taken up the matter of commercial confederation, and have adopted a resolution in favour of a " commercial federation with an interchange of commodities " between the Australian colonies, including Tasmania and New Zealand.

On the boarding round the Melbourne Town Hall there is posted a monster bill or poster of the j)opular concerts being given in Weston's Opera House, by the Lascelles-Bailey Company. It contains no less than 120 large sheets of paper.

A frightful accident occurred at Maldon on the 30th January. While six men were descending the shaft of the north block shaft in the Union Company, the winding bai'rel got out of gear, and before the break could be applied, the skip had descended at a fearful rate a distance of about 300 feet, and at the place where there is a bend in the shaft the four men on the skip were jerked off and killed; the two men in the skip escaped comparatively unhurt. — Melbourne "Argus."