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Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 199, 20 March 1868, Page 3

A young man who carried a collecting plate after the services, before starting, took from his pocket a shilling, as he supposed, and put it in the; plate, and then passed it around among the congregation, which included many young girls. The girls, as they looked, at the plate, all seemed astonished and amused; and the man, taking a glance at the plate, found that, instead of a shilling, he had put a conversation lozenge on the plate, with the words, " "Will you marry me ?" in red letters, staring everybody in the face." Deodorising Petroleum. That very industrious technical chemist, Dr. B. Wagner, tells us that the disagreeable odor of petroleum oil can be taken away by treating the oil with a solution of plumbate of soda. This is only a solution of oxide of lead in caustic soda, and will certainly remove all such-odor as sulphur compounds might communicate to the oil. How far it may affect other smells we cannot tell without experiment.

Mail Hobberies.—The Armiiah Express gives the following account of two mail robberies: —The mail which left Arutidale on Monday for Tamworth was stopped and robbed on Tuesday morning, at half-past one, about eight, miles above Tamwortb, and seven from Moonby. It appears that a man and a boy, armed, came from behind a large rock at 'the side of the road, and the man called out several times to the driver, William O'Dell, to bail up. The driver said there was a guard in the mail, when the man fired a shot in the air, apparently to induce the guard to show himself, and the boy galloped off. The bushranger accompanied the coach for a short distance, when, finding no guard show himself he obliged the driver to stop, and told him to give him over the bags. O'Dell refused, so the robber took them out himself. O'Dell endeavoured to secrete the bag from Bendemeer, which was heavy, but the obber said he did not think he had got all, so he struck a match, searched the coach and found the-bag mentioned. The only passenger was the Eev. Mr. Sturton, from whom he took three half-sovereigns, and remarked to the driver, "Oh, this is your mail-guard, is it ?" The coach was detained in all about a quarter of an hour. The robber rode off with all the bags, so that both letters and papers went. Fortunately, from Monday being a holiday, there were less letters than usualfrom Armidale. The man was about five feet seven inches in height, had a sore eye, and wore a light tweed coat and Californian "hat. He rode a chesnut horse, with a hind foot white, and like a blotched M on shoulder.' The boy was about twelve, and rode a chesnut horse. The mail which left Armidale on Thursday, with the same driver, was stuck-up the same -fright about 10, sis miles below Bendemeer, by two armed men, one of whom was recognised as the robber of Tuesday morning. On this occasion also all the bags were taken. There were two; passengers ; one had a £1 note and a gun taken from him. From theguarded mail going down on the pre--vious day, it is believed that there were, but few cheques in the letters. The police believe that Thunderbolt, for whose apprehension a reward of £2OO is offered, was one of the robbers.