Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893), Wednesday 9 June 1847, page 3


«Kolonial Nftos.

PORT PHILLIP.

Port Phillip papers to the 28th May have come to hand. The Town Council had under consideration the provisions of a proposed Building Act, which was much required.

YARRA ABORIGINAL MISSION.—The annual meeting came off on Tuesday evening, at the Scots Church, and was numerously attended. His Worship the Mayor was in the chair. The secretary read the annual report, by which it appeared that the expenses during 1846 had been £386. Government aid in rations to the value of £87 had been received towards this, and private subscriptions and collections had nearly met the remainder, but the institution was about £90 in debt. The children at pre-sent attending school were only ten boys and seven girls, the number of girls in particular being kept low by blackfellows every now and then arriving and claiming a girl as being a lubra affianced by her parents years before. It was found almost impossible to secure the boys remaining any time, the aborigines appearing to take a particular pleasure in enticing them away. The report was adopted, and resolutions passed warmly approving the institution. A sum of £57 was collected during the evening. —Abridged from the P. P. Herald, May 27.

SINGULAR AND FATAL ACCIDENT.-A shep-herd in the employment of Dr. Barker, at the Wannon, has, it is reported, come to his death in the following singular manner. The un-

fortunate man had occasion to climb up a tree I in order to get down a pair of leggings which had been thrown up in the branches ; in his endeavours to get them down his ankle slipped into a forked branch, and he fell over, with his head hanging towards the ground. There was no one present, and being unable to extricate himself, he hung in this position for several hours (from four o'clock in the afternoon till nine in the evening), when an old man on horseback passed ; the unfortunate man, who had not yet lost his senses, called to him, and the old man endeavoured to relieve the sufifprer, but was unable to do so ; he, however, rode to the nearest public-house, where a carpenter «as at work, and whom he brought to the spot. By this time the unfortunate man was appa-rently dead, and it was found impossible to extricate him from his position until the branch was sawn through. This was speedily done, and the body, which was hanging only about a foot from the earth, was taken down, but it displayed no signs of life. Another difficulty here arose, as there were no means of bringing ihe body to the public-bouse without a vehicle of some sort, and another delay was conse-quently incurred in procuring one. Tbe result

was that the unfortunate man never breathed

again. His appearance, from the long-con-tinued determination of blood to the bead, is described" as having been frightful. An ex-amination into the cause of death was instituted by Dr. Barker, but nothing appeared to show that the cause of death was other than the result of accident.-Geelong Advertiser, May 25.

INQUEST.-An inquest was held yesterday upon the body of a man named Bolton, a sup-posed lunatic from Geelong, committed thence for trial, who died in gaol on the morning of the previous day. The man, it appears, had been in a bad state of health, but several wit-nesses were examined, and deposed to his having' been ill-treated by some'of the turnkeys and prisoners in the gaol, one of whom forced him naked into a tub of,water, another kept his boot on his body, whilst a third person scrubbed him with a mop rubbed in gravel. Otheir facts

were also elicited, but as the investigation is rather important, we defer particulars until our supplementary issue of this evening. The jury returned a verdict of death from natural causes, but increased sufferings in consequence of the brutal treatment of the parties alluded to.

Herald, May 27.

FATAL OCCURRENCE.-A distressing and fatal accident has just taken place at Mr. Beilby's station, west of the Glenelg, of which the following are particulars :-About twelve months ago, Mr. Beilby sold to Thomas Ruddi ford a filly, in part payment of which he re-ceived the sum of ten pounds ; the balance of three pounds was to be paid before the removal of tlie filly, and it was agreed that she should be delivered when required, on production of Mr. Beilby's order, endorsed by Ruddiford. It would appear the claim on the filly had been transferred several times. Charles Durrant went to the station on Wednesday evening last, and producing an order from a person unknown to Mr. Beilby in the transaction, claimed the filly. Mr. Beilby declined delivering her till the production of Ruddiford's order and the balance of price. Durrant said he would pro-duce both of these. He then asked leave to lunge the filly and try her action. This per-mission was conceded, and assistance rendered him for the purpose. Mr. Beilby was engaged during Thursday afternoon, and took no further note of his proceedings. On Friday morning it was discovered that Durrant had gone away, taking the filly with him. Mr. Beilby started in pursuit, taking his stockwhip and a double barrelled pocket pistol with him. On seeing Durrant ata distance on the road, Mr. Beilby cracked his whip, but Durrant gallopped off, leading the filly. Mr. B. called to bim to stop, and give up the filly, and as he refused, flogged the filly to make her break away. Durrant dismounted, and his horse and the filly imme-diately broke off, and gallopped along ihe road. Mr. B. fired his pistol in the air to frighten them on, and rode after them to head them towards the station. They got entangled by the leading rope on both sides of a gum sap-ling. Mr. B. dismounted, threw his whip on the ground, and taking the reins of his own horse on hi9 right arm, and still holding the pistol in his hand, endeavoured to free the rope from the filly's head. Darrant ran up and told Mr. B. to stand off, as he would neither give up the filly nor settle for her. He then backed the filly on Mr. B.'s horse, and an im-mediate plunging was the result, and the second barrel of the pistol exploded, and Durrant stag-gered and fell. Mr. B. hastily went towards him, and asked if he was hurt, and receiving no answer, gallopped oil* to the nearest hut (about three miles) for assistance, and having given directions where to find the man, hur-riedly rode oti' to Mr. M'Donald's for surgical aid. Dr. M'Donald lost no time in repairing to the spot, but too late to afford succour. The unfortunate man was dead. Mr. B. imme-diately came into town to report the fatal oc-currence.- Portland Guaidian, May 24.

NEW ESTABLISHMENTS.-A brewery is about being commenced at the Surry or First River, and livery stables opened in our township. Both are much required, and will no doubt suc-ceed if properly managed.-Portland paper.

GOLD.-A paragraph appeared in our Tues-day's number, copied from a Van Diemen's Land paper, announcing that gold had been recently discovered in this district, and that Captain Clinch, of the Flying Fish, had brought over to that colony a sample of it. As we had heard nothing of the subject before, we stated that this valuable discovery " was news to us ;" and so it undoubtedly is, bat it is nevertheless true! The circumstances are these, as detailed to us by Mr. Forrester, the jeweller, Collins-street, in the presence of several gentlemen :--About two months ago, a shepherd (unknown to him) came into his shop and shewed him some metal, which the shep-herd thought was copper, and asked Mr. For-rester to tost it for him. The sample produced was about the size of an apple, and the shepherd said there was plenty more of it where that carne from, but he would give no particular in-formation as to the locality, further than he had found it under the roots of a large tree, which had recently been blown down, the ground being thereby much torn up. The station he said was about sixty miles from town. Mr. Forrester tried the metal by the usual tests, and found it to contain sixty-five per cent, of virgin gold ; and he has at the present moment in his possession a sample of it in its pure, and another in its impure state. The shepherd is expected in town in the course of a few days, j with a much larger quantity of the metal than ' he first brought ; but as the utmost secrecy is

observed by him in his movements respecting his discovery, we do not expect to learn any fresh information on the subject for some time to come.-Herald, May 27.

THREE TOADS ENCLOSED IN A TREE.— About the beginning of the week, a Mr. Mun-dell, who lives on the Eastern Hill, was cutting up a large log of red gum for firewood ; the log was about eighteen inches in diameter, and on breaking it up, three toads were found em-bedded in the solid wood, without the smallest access on either side for either nourishment or air. One of them died immediately. The other two lay in a torpid state for about twenty minutes, and it being a fine day, the heat of the sun revived them so much, that one of them actually leapt away for a good distance, with as much agility as if it had just come out of a ditch. The two toads were put into a large bottle by Mr. Mundell, and any one curious in these matters may see them by applying to that gentleman. Query—-We have often heard of toad-eaters. What do the toads eat?—Ga-zette, May 22.

VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.

We have received Van Diemen's Land papers to the 28th May. The Governor, Sir William Denison, had been seriously unwell, but was recovering. At u general meeting of the subscribers to the London Agency Fund, it had been decided to forward the petitions against transportation to the care of Mr. Jackson, agent in London for Van Diemen's Land, to whom the committee had prepared a long and very able letter on the subject.

TUB GOVERNOR.-On Tuesday, his Excel-lency proceeded to New Norfolk for change of air. By the accounts received yesterday, we are happy to learn that be is rapidly recovering. -H.T. Advertiser, May 28.

HER MA JESTT'S BIRTHDAY.-Yesterday being her Majesty's birthday, it was observed as a general holiday throughout the town. The flag-staff, and many of the vessels in the har-bour, were gaily decorated with flags which " fluttered in the breeze." A few minutes before twelve the military were marched into the paddock for parade, and fired a feu de-joie ; at the same time the gun3 at the Prince of Wales's battery boomed forth their thunder in a royal salute.-H. T. Advertiser, May 28.

THE LIGHT HOUSES IN THE STRAITS.- Cap-tain Moriarty has proceeded on a visit to the light-houses in the Straits, and we trust that on his return he will interest himself in amending the present system of their management. We state from personal observations, as well as from representations made, to us, that the conduct of the probation men stationed at the light-houses is, most ¡outrageous and unbearable ; debarred from punishing insubordination on the spot, and at.a,great distance from authority to hear com-plaints, the' superintendents are in fact entirely under^tbe. control of .their men, and are com-pelled to submit to the most degrading insults and contumely.-Cornwall Ghrpiiicle.y t .

HoPjB ,'raoM »ENQtAND.'-^We. are. sorry- to bear that BO¡000 hop plants, of the best varieties,

shipped for this colony per Navarino, by Mr. Epps, of the Bowen Nursery,Kent, were fouud on inspection to have all perished on the voy-age, haying been injudiciously packed in large cases, mixed with straw, and put down into the very bottom of the hold of the vessel« The hop is a tender plant, and ought to have been planted in earth, carefully enclosed in cases having glass lids, and exposed to the light during the voyage, the sides being fastened down so as to exclude the wet and damp from the plants.

H- T. Advertiser.

THE BALL.-On Monday the first birth-day ball since their arrival was presided over by his Excellency and Lady Denison. The invitations were numerous, and responded to by the prin-cipal portion of the elite of our colonial society. - H. T. Advertiser, May 28.

IMPORTANT TO OFFICIALS.-His Excellency Sir William Denison has issued a circular to the heads of the different departments, for the information of themselves and their subordinates, intimating that in consequence of the complaints made to his Excellency of the insolvencies and non-payment of debts, by officials in the employ of tlie government, for the future, upon any declaration of insolvency the individual is to consider himself ipse facto superseded. This regulation his Excellency hopes will have the effect of raising the character and standing of his officers. The order is peremptory, and Í3 understood to apply to the highest as well as to the lowest officers receiving pay from the government.-H. T. Advertiser.

BURGLARIES.-On Tuesday evening the Waterman's Arms, Liverpool-street, was entered by the skylight on the roof, and about £70 in cash, a gold watch, and several other articles of jewellery stolen. A man named William Beckam is in custody on suspicion of being the thief. On Wednesday morning, about three o'clock, the house of Mr. M'Saunders, tailor, Collins street, was broken open by three men in the emyloy of Mr. M'Coy, who resides in the next house but one. They were seen by two of Mr. M'Saunders's men, by whom they were recog "nised, when they immediately beat a retreat. They were apprehended and are now in custudy on the charge.- H. T. Advertiser, May 28.

SYDNEY TWEED.-There is a considerable

demand here for tweed manufactured at Sydney or Parramatta: it is highly prized, and, being fabricated entirely of wool, is superior to that generally imported from the mother country. We hear that the manufacturers are unable to supply the large demand upon them. Who will be the first to establish a similar manu-factory in Van Diemen's Land?-Launceston

Examiner.

TRANSPORTATION.-At a meeting of the prin-cipal inhabitants of the district at Port Sorell, held at Sorell Town House, on the 14th instant, Jocelyn Thomas Esq., sen., being requested to take the chair-the Chairman commenced by stating the objects of the meeting and reading the circular of his Excellency, also, the cor-respondence with the Private Secretary, as stated in the public journals. This important subject was fully discussed, the majority was opposed to transportation, and the meeting broke up.-H. T. Advertiser, May 28.

IMPUDENT ROBBERY.-A few evenings ago Mr. Farrington, the grocer, was relating to a friend, that some three or four years ago a man had run oil' with his till, and while in the midst of his story, he heard a noise in the shop, and looking through the window saw a man run off with the till again .' He immediately gave chase, and the man dropped the till, and ran, and no doubt he would iiave got away but for his having tripped over a stone, when he was caught by some constables and taken in charge. His feet were cased in sheepskin mocassins with the wool outside, thus enabling him to walk without the slightest noise. it is rather singular that at the moment Mr. Farrington was relating a circumstance that happened some years ago the same thing should happen again.

- H. 'J'. Hdvertiser.

THE MARKETS.-Wheat has shown an up-ward tendency, and though without an actual rise for some days, has at length taken a start, and is now 4.s. 9d. to 4s. lOd. per bushel. Flour too has risen 20s. per ton. Other produce is nearly as last quoted.-H. 'J'. Advertiser, May 28.