AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 841, 25 July 1871, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Two partners at Smythesdale, named M'Lochlan and Byrne, who are contractors in the Reform claim, Haddon,

quarrelled whilst at tea, at Bentley's Hotel, about who did most Work. Byrne struck M'Lochlan in the face, when the latter drew his pocket knife and stabbed Byrne in the abdomen. Two medical men were called in to attend the wounded man, who has since been removed to the Ballarat Hospital. His recovery is doubtful. A lamentable accident (states the " Inglewood Advertiser") happened on the -28 th June, in the Clunes' Company's shaft, by which a miner named KennaWay was killed. It appears that deceased descended to the GOOft level, and it is supposed that before he could -clear the cage, the miners at the 500 ft level gave the signal to haul up, and deceased was dragged between the cage and the side of the shaft for a distance of 70 feet and killed. He has left a wife and five children. The collection of ■duties under the Tariff introduced by the late Victorian Ministry, which was commenced immediately on the introduction of the measure, still goes on, although the new Cabinet assumed office on'the defeat of the Tariff resolutions. Great dissatisfaction prevails, inasmuch as the Assembly had adjourned for a long recess. The present position is, new duties are being levied without having the force of law, during the adjournment of the House, and with a Ministry in office who have declared that with their consent they shall never become law.

Mr H. T. Dwight, whom most people in Melbourne have known during the laßt sixteen years as a respectable and thriving bookseller, has just died; but, unlike a good many thriving Victorians who have gone out of this world, he has left a good name behind him. Not alone for such good qualities as he was known by while living, but for the testamentary act he cannot be thanked for, save in the kindly memories of a grateful posterity. He has left his property to the Melbourne University, subject to a life interest to be enjoyed by his widow. The interest is to be devoted after her death, in certain specified sums, to the founding of prizes, to be given as the Council of the University may determine, to students proficient in the several branches of learning taught in the University. The " Pleasant Creek News " tells the following story : —" Romances in real life are not always to be met with, and the adage that' truth is stranger than fiction' is, after all, not very frequently borne out by every-day experience. One of those cases, however, did occur in the family of a wealthy squatter on the Wimmeraa few days ago a servant engaged to attend on the children having stepped into a title and a property of £40,000 under the name of Lady Elizabeth Morton. It would appear that the lady, while acting as servant in the family, frequently assured those around her of her aristocratic connexions, but no one credited her tale. She came out, it appears, to this country without an education at all adequate to her position, and it is not improbable that but for the efforts of an able lawyer in Melbourne, Lady Elizabeth Morton would have remained in a dependent position until the day of her death."

Among the many colonial manufactures now established in Victoria is Messrs Mount and Co.'s Flint Glass Blowing "Works at Hotham, about two miles from Melbourne, which was established during the present year. At this establishment any description of flint glass is manufactured to order, and the demand for these manufactures has so increased that the orders cannot be executed with the present staff of workmen. An advertisement has been issued here for glass blowers, and we are told the rate of wages offered is £3 per week (of 48 hours), and permanent employment guaranteed.

Thomas Webb, Draper, the late Commercial Bank defaulter, who was some moths ago relegated to the custody of the keeper of the common gaol at Melbourne for his fraudulent transactions, was lately afforded an oppportunity of mixing again with the outer world—though it was only for an hour or so—he being required as a witness in an action brought by Mr William Bushby Jones, the wellknown bonded warehouse keeper, against Mr Alfred George Eisner, another well-citizen, to recover £249 on a bill of exchange. The plaintiff's case was that in November of the year 1869 he accepted two bills, each of £275, for the accommodation of the plaintiff and Draper, who were jointly interested in certain speculative transactions, on certain mining scrip being deposited with him as security, and on the defendant promising to give him a cheque for the money before the bills became due. As the time apEroached for the maturity of the bills, e asked Fisher for the money, when the latter refused to give the cheque as promised, and hence the present action, the amount of the claim being reduced to £249 to bring the case within the County Court Statute. The plaintiff's statement that Fisher promised to give a cheque for the money was corroborated by Draper, but denied by the defendant, who said that Jones well knew the bills were for the accommodation of Draper, although that individual's name did not appear in the matter. The defendant further said that he discounted

the bills and applied the money to the liquidation of an amount due to him by Draper, and that the latter still owed him £BOO. The jury of four before whom the case was after about an hour's consultation, said that they could not agree, upon which his Honour Judge Pohlman remarked that the County Court Act allowed him to take a threefourths verdict. The foreman then intimated that three of the jurymen wero agreed on a verdict for the plaintiff for the amount claimed, and a verdict was returned accordingly.