AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 20, 23 June 1874, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

The " Ballarat Courier " has been informed that a fortune of £30.000 has fallen to the lot of one of the workmen in a Ballarat foundry. He received the news by the mail, and immediately commenced drinking, was found in the gutter, and finished the night in the lock-up. The recent wrecks on King's Island have drawn forth several suggestions as to the prevention of such occurrences in the future. One is the removal of the present lighthouse to New Year's Island. The advantages to be gained are :—First. Vessels would see the light along the most dangerous part of King's Island, and where the most wrecks have occurred. Second. The lighthouse-keepers would be enabled to see along a larger extent of dangerous coast the range of sight from the present one being very limited. Third. The life-boat could be easily launched from New Year's Island, which is very difficult to do in bad weather from Cape Wickham. Fourth. Stores could be landed far easier, at a cheaper rate, and in all weathers. Fifth. A hut and stores could be left opposite the lighthouse, and a hut, stores, flagstaff, and danger signal at the middle of the range of sight from the lighthouse. The present lighthouse could be taken to pieces and rebuilt on the island, while a temporary light could be easily erected during its removal at much less than building new ones. From the above it will also be seen that persons having been received at the lighthouse could be taken from it much easier.

The " Bendigo Advertiser" states that a Chinaman, who has been for the last three years earning a scanty pittance at Kangaroo Gully, came across a handsome nugget in the gully on Tuesday while working in a hole 12ft deep. The mark of the pick is to be seen on the lump of gold, which weighs weighs nearly 14oz.

The " Sydney Morning Herald," of the 30th May, writes :—" Another escaped Communist prisoner arrived yesterday from Noumea, in the steamer Egmont. His name is Coutilet. It is said that while the vessel was lying alongside the wharf he stowed himself away in the afterhold, and remained there until the vessel had been about six hours at sea, when he came on deck. Before the vessel left it was searched, according to the usual custom, by the lieutenant of the port and his officers, who were all armed with long iron spikes, with whieh they prodded the bales of cotton and other cargo in the forehold ; they, however, neglected to go into the afterhold. It is reported that the escapee was a colonel in the Communist army." The " Gipps Land Mercury " reports that on the Ist inst, Superintendent Kabat seized the apparatus of an illicit still under the following circumstances:—He started on horseback, with constables Irwin and Markley in company, for a hut situated on a selection belonging to Mr Frawley, of the Star Hotel, Sale, and known as Pearson's morass, near Wurruk-Wurruk, about nine miles from Sale. The officers proceeded towards the hut, and when forty or fifty yards off it, a shot was fired, and a man just outside exclaimed : "Who goes there?" "Police," replied Mr Kabat, dismounting, and together with his men, he at once entered the hut, and proceeded by virtue of a warrant, to institute a close search of the premises and the ground about it. About forty or fifty yards from the hut, after some delay, they found dug into the ground, and covered with tea-tree scrub, the tunnell of a still, and within a short distance of it a copper worm, also hidden under ground. Looking further, they found sunk in a watcrhole, just under a fence, and secured to it by an iron wire, a boiler capable of holding eighty-seven or eighty-eight gallons of liquid. Inside the hut they found about three hogsheads of stuff, fermenting, and ready for distillation, two bags of sugar and a quautity of hops. The man on the premises, who rendered the police every assistance, and is a servant of Mr Frawley, was arresited and brought to Sale. A miner named Frederick O'Fell has been killed at Gympic by a bucket falling on his head.

At Kockhnrnpton a petition is being prepared for presentation to the Assembly against the Land Bill. A roan has been fined £2O at Maryborough, at the instigation of the Law Society, for making out a lease and receiving a fee for doing so. Mr Wilkie Collins, the celebrated author, in a letter just received by a gentleman in Melbourne, states it to be his intention to arrange by returning by way of Australia after his next sojourn in the United States, which he will soon be revisiting, for the purpose of giving a second series) of readings. The mayor of Sydney has called a public meeting lately to protest against Gardiner's

release. The police records show that Gardiner is an escaped convict from Fentiidge. Mr Roger Kelsall, a gentleman wellknown in sporting circles, has met with a somewhat unpleasant adventure at Geelong. It appears that he obtained a loan of money from Mr William Shepherd, of Geeloug, on the security of a gold chronometer, which is a family relic, ic having formerly been the property of Colonel Kelsall, of the Royal Engineers, the father of Roger. One of the conditions of the loan was that Roger should have the use of the watch at certain times, particularly when he had to meet the trustees of his property, Mr 0. Ibbotson, once a month for the purpose of receiving his allowance out of the estate. He having occasionally called upon Mr Ibbotson without being able to tell the time of day, that gentleman insisted upon Roger being able to say what's o'clock by his father's watch, and failing this he was to receive no money whatever. So on Tuesday last the watch was duly handed over to Mr Roger Kelsall by Mr Shepherd for the usual monthly inspection ; instead of returning the article to Shepherd, Kelsall handed it over to Mr Ibbotson for safe keeping. Shepherd, who was watching Kelsall, soon fouud out the state of affairs, and gave him into the custody of the police, charging him with larceny as a bailee, and he was locked up in the watchhouse. After beiiig in custody about an hour he was bailed out by a friend. At the Geelong Police Court yesterday the case was heard and dismissed.

A young man named John Furaarty, who stuck up the Tamworth mail, was arrested on the 31st May by the Dal by constables, Smith and M'Mahon, in a shepherd's hut, at the Murile creek, on the Cameron station, 180 miles from Dalby. He confessed to the robbery, and inquired if the bags had been recovered. He had a splendid horse, and carried a revolver, and had in his pocket two notes, a cheque, two flash notes, a memorandum regarding the stage to the Palmer, and a pocket-book containing a letter addressed to his father at Tcaterfield, to be forwarded in case of accident to himself. His father was formerly a tailor at Toowoornba. The prisoner was brought before the Ealby Bench, and remanded.

At the meeting of the Villiers hounds on Saturday, sth instant, William Bristow, the master, was killed. His horse jumped at a fence, struck, and then threw him, and after falling the horse rolled over Mr Bristow, crushing his chest. An inquest will be held to-morrow. The deceased ■ was well known as rider of the Deer and other steeplechasers.

The following intelligence respecting New Caledonia is from the "Sydney Morning Herald :—"M; Jorre, Commissary-General of Marine (inspector-in-chicf of the colonies), having terminated his inspection of the colony of New Caledonia, left Noumea on the 2nd May in the Cher to return to France, via Sydney. On the 6th May, M. Hanty, senior inspector of police, was appointed provisionally to be commissary of police at Noumea. In the " Moniteur" of the 13th May is published a joint application of Percy, Kelly, and Company, for a mining grant of nickel, copper, and cobalt, at Mount D'Or, near Noumea. A road is about being constructed to connect the copper mines of Onegoa and Caillon, on tho right bank of the Diahot. The Sibylle left Brest on the Ist of February, to act as convoy to 200 depnrtes about to be taken to New Caledonia. She arrived at Oran on the 16th of February, and left again on the 22nd, to return to Toulon, where she arrived on the 2nd of March. The Alceste takes the place of the Sibylle at New Caledonia as a man-of-war. The Rev \V. B. Clarke having announced his intention to bring the nickel deposits of New Caledonia before the next meeting of the Royal Society, Messrs Percy, Kelly, and Co have presented him with a magnificent specimen of composite ore, taken from their ground. This specimen is said to contain nickel, copper and cobalt, and weighs over 1001 b. The deposits leased by Messrs Higginson, Montefiore, Arid others are being actively worked, and a shipment of 50 tons of ore has been transmitted per barque Island City to Adelaide for smelting."