LATEST INTER-COLONIAL ITEMS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 782, 28 February 1871, Page 2

LATEST INTER-COLONIAL ITEMS.

A cargo of pearl shells, recently received in New South Wales, from Torres Straits, has been sold, and realised £14,000. The Catholic church for the Marist Fathers has been consecrated with great pomp at Sydney. Bishop Eloy officiated. A new goldfield has been discovered in New South Wales, 27 miles from Forbes. The sinking is 47ft. at present, and the gold is coarse and nuggetty. There is every indication of an extensive and important goldfield. The G-ulgong lead continues to yield well, and the holes last bottomed produced 2oz to the load. The Boomerang has brought 6,000 ozs of gold from the northern goldfields of Queensland. One million two-hundred and twenty thousand sovereigns were issued from the mint last year. A collision occurred to-day (Feb. 13,) on the Western Railway, near Launceston, between a train of empty carriages and a ballast train. The tender and engine of the latter were much damaged, but no persons sustained any injury. Amongst the signs of the march of civilisation in Fiji, we notice that a project is on foot for the establishment at Levuka of a theatre. In again calling '.attention to the absence of a properly-constituted court of law in Fiji, the " Times " observes: " Every week we have instances of the crying want of some means of settling business disputes, except by an appeal to arms, and that is doing a great injury to Fiji and will materially mar our progress. It is simply the absence of all protection that hinders some of the colonial banks from establishing a branch in Levuka, and the want of a bank is crippling trad* to a fearful extent. The Melbourne G-aol not affording a sufficient number of warders to overlook the convicts engaged in constructing the batteries at Sandridge, members of

the colonial defence force, to the numbei of eight, have been usefully employed during the past week in performing thai duty. An audacious assault, with intent to rob, took place in broad daylight on Saturday. At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, a coachman fronvthe country named Edward Bulger, was in Little Bourke-street, when a young man came up and asked him the time. Bulger gave the hour, but the questioner, who had only desired to ascertain whether he carried a watch,, answered, " You're a liar," and struck Bulger a violent blow in the face. The thief, on being arrested, gave the name o! Joseph Hannam. The low price at which large mobs of horses may at times be purchased in the interior, has induced Messrs Mae. meikan and Reid, of the bone-mills at Footscray, to try the experiment 0 f turning them to account in a way some, what new to Victorians. A mob of 150 have been passed through the mill, and an account taken of the quantity of hides, tallow, oil, bonedust, and manure produced. Should the experiment turn out remunerative, the firm will moat likely close with offers they have received for about 2,000 head from squatters in New South Wales. The Acclimatisation Society lately presented the people of North Gipps Land with some Barasingha deer, to liberate on the ranges of that district.