AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 839, 20 July 1871, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

The traction engine, which has been busy for the last few days conveying stones to a vacant piece of ground near the Richmond Police Depot appears to have caused quite a panic among drivers of omnibuses, cabs, and other vehicles. The horses becoming frightened at the imusual noise and appearance of the locomotive, become restive, and in some cases make a bolt. One omnibiis team belted recently, and two others took possession of the footpath, in consequence of the passing of the engine. It is suggested that, instead of working in the mornings and evenings, the traction engine should travel at night only. A properly-defined quartz reef about three feet thick has been discovered at Tubba Rubba gold diggings, about eight miles from Schnapper Point, where gold had been got upon the surface for several years. Fine gold is seen in all the stone at present raised, and the reef can be traced a considerabledistance. The discoverers havebeen searching for this off and on for some years having great confidence in the ground from prospects obtained in the alluvia], which showed that the gold had not travelled, its form being sharp and angular, and being attached to small pieces of quartz. The reef lies between sandstone and slate.

Some fine specimens of native grown sugar canes are now on exhibition at the Chamber of Commerce. They were grown on the Kubyana plantation, which is situated about seventy miles nortb of Maryborough, on the Burnett Eiver, (Queensland, and have been forwarded as specimens of the produce of the estate by Mr A. S. Caine> broker, who is engaged in floating a company to work the plantation. There are twelve varieties of the cane, cut at different stages of their growth. Some of twelve and eighteen months' growth are nearly eighteen feet high, and are pronounced by persons competent to judge to be excellent samples of the raw product. Should the company be floated in time to allow operations to be commenced this season, it is estimated that 100 acres can be planted for 1872. An incident connected with the construction of the overland telegraph i s related by Dr Benner, who is stationed on the central sections of the

lino: —On April 29, the doctor reached the junction of the Hugh and Finke. At the depot wore plenty of teams, also a caravan. "My medical assistance," he says, " was required here hy one of the camel drivers, an Anglian, whose life was in danger from the bite of a black snake, which they had kept in the tent as a pet. They state that they never the poisonous teeth, but I scarcely can believe that. A week before my arrival tho man had been bitten, and. nothing had been done to counteract the poison. They bad only walked the man about to prevent his sleeping. The man got very drowsy and weak, had to be carried along the journey, and the arm swelled up to an immense size. The swelling gradually spread, and had reached the neck and face. The man looked wretchedly ill, and his pulse was very weak. Ammonia taken inwardly and injected iuto a vein restored the man in 48 hours. The swelling of the arm disappeared, and on Tuesday he was at work again, although on Saturday his fate was very doubtful."

" A couple of amusing sketches by Du Maurier, which have recently appeared in London " Punch," were paralleled, " says tho " Kyneton Guardian," "in the Malmsbury Police Court on Thursday. A man was charged with vagrancy, and pleaded guilty. Being asked why he did not work, he answered that he could not, because he had got tic-dolereux in his feet. ' Tic-doloreux in the feet!' wonderingly ejaculated the magistrate. ' Tes, your worship,' rejoined the prisoner, ' in the bottoms of the soles of my feet.' Presently it transpired that prisoner had only recently served a sentence in the Melbourne Gaol for vagrancy, and the magistrate was anxious to knew whether the gaol doctor had pronounced any opinion upon the extraordinary disease under which the vagrant was suffering. 'He said, your worship, he couldn't cure me, but it would go away in a few years, unless it mounted.' ' Unless it mounted ?' interrogatively remarked his worship. 'Tes, sir; the doctor said sometimes it mounted till it got to the head, and then it drove people quite mad.' The man was sent to the Melbourne Gaol for another three months so that the doctor will have a further opportunity of diagnosing this rather extraordinary disorder." A new economy was not long Bince established by the late Ministry in Government departments. The following circular was sent last month from the Treasury to those having charge of Government offices :—" Sir, —an arrangement has been entered into with Mr Samuel Bamsden, of the Melbourne Paper-mills, for the purpose of utilising all the waste paper of all the Government departments. I am directed by the hon. the Treasurer, to request that, in accordance with the terms of the above arrangement, you will have the goodness to cause all the waste paper and obsolete forms in your department to be forwarded from time to time to the Government Printing-office, for the purpose of being sorted prior to delivery to Mr Bamsden, &c." Another venture in pearl-shell fishing, promising, if possible, even more successful rei-ults than the speculation noted several months ago in various colonial journals, will be undertaken shortly under the auspices of Captain Edgar, late of the schooner Emma Patterson, which was wrecked a short time ago at Fiji. Captain Edgar, who is (in so far as has yet been ascertained) the sole survivor from the lost vessel, arrived, here from Sydney yesterday, and has brought with him specimens of the pearl-shell alluded to. They are very large, and of fine quality, and are said to be much superior and more valuable than any which have yet been seen here. The precise locality where this shell is to be had is of course known only as yet to Captain Edgar, and it is said there are persons in Sydney ready to take the matter up. The " South Australian Register" has seen " a memorandum from Mr A. G. But, of the Northern Telegraph Party, Section C, beyond MacDonnell Ranges, accompanied by a specimen of spider web, bearing very much the appearance of floss silk, being yellow in colour and of considerable strength. Mr Burt says in the memorandum that the spiders are in great numbers, so much so that in riding through the bush both rider and horse got covered with the webs, which he has seen extended for 20 or 30 feet. The specimen which he sends was taken from a piece six or seven feet in size, and was broken off while the writer was riding through the Mulga Scrub. The fibre is quite as strong as silk, and is very tough when first taken, although he did not know whether it would continue so. If it could be turned to any account, immense quantities could be easily obtained. Mr Burt coHcludes by stating that he had heard that some of the advance parties had made the material into crackers for their whips."