West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER ] J. 1866.

West Coast Times, Issue 357, 14 November 1866, Page 2

West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER ] J. 1866.

By the Otago we are placed in pu.-- •- sion of Australian news to tho sth ii..-:. The absorbing topic for some days prior to the departure of the steamer was undoubtedly the Spring Meeting of the Victoria Racing Club, which seems to have been a remarkable success, and a full report of which we have considered worth transferring to our columns. Sydney carried off the Melbourne Cup. to the mortification of the Victorian sportsmen ; but in the running for the Queen's Plate, which caused unusual excitement,

the New South Wales favorite had to succumb, a son of Fisherman securing first place after a hard struggle, in which considerable skill was shown by his jockey, Morrison, who was afterwards seized by an admiring multitude, and cheered and "chaired" with remarkable enthusiasm. "Seldom," says the j *' Leader," " has a meeting of the Victoria Racing Club excited speculation more wild or extensive ; and perhaps there has never beeu better sport upon the Melbourne ground." There appears to be a chance that the Panama route will yet receive the support of Victoria ; for we learn that, in reply to the authorities of New Zealand and New South Wales, Mr M'Culloch has stated his willingness to enter into an arrangement for placing this route on a permanent footing, but not to the prejudice of the present contract with the P. and O. Company. He advocates the maintenance of both services, at least for some time, in order to keep up the competition of the companies, the advantage of which has already been perceptible in the unwonted punctuality of the recent mails via Point de Galle. The Melbourne papers are in favor of a conference of the colonies, in order that the whole matter may be amicably arranged to their mutual accommodation. The Border Duties question is not 3'et settled, and will probably cause consisiderable trouble to the colonies. Resolutions have been adopted in the South Australian Parliament on the motion of Mr Reynolds, which recommend negotiations between the Governments of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and South Australia, with a view to establishing a free interchange of colonial produce ; and suggest the adoption of a uniform tariff for the Riverina trad?. The Victorian journals state that Riverina is drifting into another agitation, the consequence of which may be disastrous if peaccfid negotiations do not intervene. A Border Customs Abolition League has been inaugurated at Albury, and rapidly extended to the other Riverine towns ; and although its programme is necessarily of the constitutional and law-aud-order stamp, the local journals significantly allude to the possibility of sterner means. They say that although the Ballarat and Lambing Flat riots were very illegal, thej 7 resulted in securing popular rights, when all moral agitation had failed. The league has appointed deputations to press their interests upon the authorities at Melbourne and Sydney. The " unemployed " agitation seems to have died out, and appears more than ever to have been an unscrupulous political dodge, for nothing like real distress is shown to exist in Victoria, though loafers and idle vagabonds are plentiful enough. A strike has taken place among the men at the waterworks, Stony Rises, which is said to have been brought about by " the lazy loafers who have been hanging on there without condescending to work except upon their own terms," which appears to be " that the contractor should satisfy them about wages, and be satisfied with their notion of what constitutes work." It is certain that the strike is continued through their means, as numbers of men who were employed were assaulted and driven from the works. We observe, by the recent report of tho directors of the Bank of Now Zealand, that a dividend is declared at the rate of ten per cent, pev annum, besides a bonus of seven shillings per share, equal to seven per cent, per annum. Judging from tho above, and also that the New South Wales bank has declared a dividend equal to eighteen per cent, per annum, it is our firm conviction that banking is a paying speculation in these colonies. Two miners, named respectively Shotluw and Lowe, who are working at the foot of a terrace half-a-mile from the Ballarat Hotel, on the north bank of the Araluira river,' reported at the Police-camp on the 9th inst. the sudden disappearance of one of their mates. It appears from their statement that about six o'clock on the evening of the previous Sunday (the 4th inst ) the missing man, who is named Sydney Mills, left the tent, accompanied by a kangaroo dog, for the purpose of going down to tha lagoon to look for a place to fish for eels, and has never been heard of since. His \ mates suppose that lie fell into tho lagoon and was drowned, as all their efforts to find him elsewhere have been unsuccessful ; and they account for the non-return of tho dog by supposing that she had returned to her previous home on the Blue Spur lead, they having only recently acquired her, and she having attempted once before to escape from the tent. It is impossible that Mills could have been lost in the bush, as the lagoon ' is bounded on two sides by the Six-mile ! track, and on another by a high terrace; j while a voluntary absence is likewise out of 1 the question, as the missing man was only partially dressed. He is 26 years of age, sft. 7in. in height, and was habited at tho time of his disappearance in yellow cloth pants, check shirt, lace-up boots, and a small black hat. Last night at eight p.m. the Cafe do Paris presented a somewhat busy appearance, caused | by the paying over of the sweep lately drawn on the Melbourne Cup event. Tho siun of L 25, less the usual per centago, was paid to Mr Roscow, as the winner of the first prize, and LlO and L 5 respectively were paid to Messrs T. and S. Harris, as the winners of the second aud third prizes. After a few bottles of champagne had been discussed, tho assembly dispersed.' The usually peaceful neighborhood of Reveil street north was yesterday afternoon disturbed from its happy coudition by an affair which, after apparently affording considerable amusement to those living in the locality and all who happened to be on tho spot, was terminated by the timely interference of the police. It appears that for some time past a woman of notorious character has occupied one of a block of small cottages opposite the Nag's Head Hotel, and as her dissolute habits were of course highly objectionable to her neighbors, the landlord deemed it very desirable and determined to get rid of her, but for some time this wns not so easily done as contemplated, inusmuch as the tenant, although undoubtedly a most degraded character, and to

judge by her appearance a lunatic, was always prompt in paying her rent until a few days ago when she became a defaulter, and afforded tho landlord, or rather his agent, tho excuse lie had so long wanted for getting rid of his fair but frail tenant. Tho action taken by the agent, which in this instunco was certainly not remarkable for that want of feeling and roughness for which bailiffs and brokors' men are invariably characterised in " sensational ' dramas and on the stage generally, was, wo need hardly say, regarded with anything but favor by the assembled crowd, the majority of whom, of course, know little or nothing about tho matter ; and when that stern official had performed his duty by ejecting both the tenant and her property from tho house, he was furiously assailed by one of the crowd, .who proceeded in defence of tho illused female to break an empty porter bottle over his head, and a regular battle ensued. The affair, however, did not terminate here, for the cause and subject of this little diversion having, during the proceedings refreshed herself at a neighboring hostelry, became rather excited, and after giving vent to her feelings in a shower of abuse on the unhappy agent, proceeded to smash all the windows of tho cottage. At this climax the police arrived, and the ex-tenant was, with much difficulty, conveyed to the lock-up in a state of seminudity, by two constables, tho wholo of her furniture, clothes, and effects, personal and otherwise, being left in the streets.