AUSTRALIAN TELEGRAMS.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1917, 12 December 1874, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN TELEGRAMS.

PEKT &.' CL'AUD HAMILTON.' (Per Anglo-Australian Telegraph Press Agency.) Melbouhne, December 5. Parliament has done some good work in the matter of praetical legislation, but ihe subjects dealt with have been mostly of local interest. The payment of Members Bill has passed the Assembly, and reached the Council, where notice has been given for a call of the House for its consideration. The Judicature Bill pnssed tho Assembly. It cjntains a clause providing for Grand Juries, hu'eertairi. l criminal cases. Attention has recently been aroused to the gross evasions of tho Land Act, and an amendment of the existing law< is' loudlycalled for. A writ has been issued for Bicbraond, and <two candidate's are in- thefield—L. L. Smith and Bosisto. There are rumours as to the probable early resignation of Judge Fellows. The population of the colony at the end of September was 803,000. Ducane,;late Governor of Tasmania, proceeds to England to-day by the steamer 'Northumberland.' He received quite an ovation on leaving HobartTown yesterday. He was present, with Governor Boweh, at the Parliament and Press cricket matoh, and made a most admirable speech. The match was won by the Press easily. A severe shock of earthquake was felt in .the Gippsland district early on the morning of the 30th of November. Mining machinery was stopped, underground workings .displaced, and articles fell from the shelves. The shocks lasted over an hour and a-half. Thes.s. 'MacGrcgor,' with the Oalifornian mails, reached San Francisco on the 26th of November. The s,s.' Normanby,' with the Torres Straits mails,, left Batavia on the 25th November, having been detained five days for the Suez steamer. The Suez mail steamer' Ceylon' is expected to reach here about next Saturday, the 12th instant. The transit of Venus parties have left for their respective stations. Matthews Harvey, Commissioner of Public Works in 1863, and Acting President of the Legislative Council, is dead. Land in Collins-street recently sold for £400 a foot. _ Madame Eistori's agent has engaged the Opera House for next August. Great preparations are being mado by the Catholics for the reception of Archbishop Gould. Measles are very. prevalent all over the colony. Several schools have been closed. A garrison of artillery have been bivouacked, ' The old Grammar School boys intend presenting Dr Bromley, their headmaster, with a testimonial of three hundred sovereigns. A conference of stock inspectors, held at Sydney, recommended the prohibition on the importation of cattle from Europe to be rescinded. ! Commercial.—Breadstuffs are firm, and are likely to rise. Flour is £12 10s; wheat, 5s lOd; oats are inactive at 5s to 5s 4d; Hennessy's brandy is hardening, 8s being asked, but no sales made under that figure; stocks running low of Hennessy's case. Sugars are firm, at an advance of 15s per ton, owing to a telegram of advices from Mauritius of short shipment to the colonies. Teas have improved. Large buyers of. candles. Dried fruit is in good request. ' Sydney, December 5. Owing to an adverse vote on the Governor's minute respecting Gardiner's release, Parliament has, been hastily dissolved, and tho writs have been issued for a new election, all returnable on the 25th of January. Educational reform is to be made tho prominent topic of tho elections, and already a Denominational Defence Society and the Educational League have their candidates. Mr Arnold is unlikely to offer himself for the Speakership, and Mr Allen will probably be nominated. . King Cacobau has arrived in Sydney as the guest of the Governor, and was accorded un official landing. He is very anxious to visit Melbourne. The Governor has. presented him with a yacht in the .Queen's name. F. McCallum, sentenced to death for the Circular Quay murder, has had his sentence commuted to imprisonment for life. Mr Parkes has issued an address, but has announced nothing more than was contained in the Governor's Speech at the opening of Parliament. -;.,,. Adelaidh, December 5. 'Mr Ernest Giles is about'to proceed per' Elder' on an expedition to Perth, proceeding to tho southward of Forrest's route. •