AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 235, 1 August 1872, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

The magnitude of mining fluctuations in Melbourne was vividly illustrated a few days ago, when the oscillation in a valuable and favourite stock showed variation to the extent of L 84,000 in about 48 hours.

From what is stated in the papers there are grounds for believing that there willjnothingfmore be heard of what promised to be the second edition of Clarson v. Blair. It will be remembered that both plaintiff and defendant were curiously forgetful of the day of trial. In all innocence, and probably to spare the public particulars which might not have been either amusing or edifying, Miss Clampitt was furnished with a passage to England and L 220. And as the young lady gave her generous benefactor a full release, there is some guarantee that this unpleasantness has been finally and successfully warded off.

A member of the Sydney Defence Force has repudiated his civil liabilities on the ground that they are only bound- by the Act under which they enlisted. This person, it seems, has had proceedings taken against him for the .maintenance of his wife. He raises the -legal objection that he is, by the Act, placed beyond civil control. .He is a soldier, and by Ins side wears steel, and he is subject only to , the military authorities and the articles of war. These say nothing about the obligation of keeping his wife, which is purely a civil regulation, and not binding on a military gentleman. The principle on which he relies is one that might be much more widely developed, and is capable of a much broader application than he has at the present stage given to it.

Our most genial humorists occasionally affect the advertising columns. For if the following, duly paid for and inserted, be not humor, what is it? — "Notice. — The undersigned deems it expedient, after long trial and experience, to finally alter the name of the Albion-cottage Reefs, Pleasant Creek; of the Colony of Victoria, to ' Moray-house ' Keefs, as Albion is unworthy of commemorative mention to hand down to posterity. Most of her rulers, statesmen, and administrators of the law (if any) are so much degraded in the nineteenth century as they may be compared unto ■weathercocks. Therefore it is publicly notified that the domicile, and all lands at present possessed by me shall be named and styled 'Moray House Beefs, Pleasant Creek, of the Colony of Victoria, in honor of famous memory. — David Constable. As ■witness thereof dated 25th, 1872." There is only one thing left for David Constable to do. Let him telegraph his resolve to Messrs Gladstone and Disraeli, and make them thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

That so few mistakes occur through errors in telegraphy is, on the whole, creditable to /sender, operators, and receivers. Messages are occasionally obscure, but, somehow, the intention of the sender can generally be discerned. In cases of remittance by wire to strange'/s it would be desirable to have messages repeated. A case showing the necessity of this precaution arose lately: A bank in Sydney received a message d-i recting the payment of L6OO to a person named. A gentlemanly stranger called and availed himself of his credit to the extent of L2BO. )3o self- denying was he that he determined to leave Sydney by the mail steamer without farther drawing upon his bank balance. Unfortunately (for him) he got drank and missed its passage. Meantime the Sydney bank 'received its letter of advice per mail, and discovered with dismay that the amount it was directed to pay was L 6 and not L 600 .' The accommodating stranger was found with a' few pounds in his possession, which were duly impounded, and the bank has the solace of having on its hands, as representtng tha' dissipated balance, a gentejnan in an exciting utete of delirium tremlent