AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Press, Volume XXXVI, Issue 5081, 20 December 1881, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

[By Tjbxbqraph.]

[Per s.s. Albion, at the Bluff.] MELBOURNE, December 14, The Bgents of the Botorua have made a claim upon the Harbor Trust for lets the vessel fouling with a obain belonging v one of the dredges in the river. The ftp®* to the vessel cost nearly £4000. At present there is a larger number sf ships than was ever present before in post Twenty vessels are waiting berths at tiepiers. Phylloxera is spreading in the QeAsna di*trict. A large vineyard in the vicinity of Warren Ponds has been found infected. " The University scandal has been dealt nisi |by the Council, who called upon both ft* offending professors to show causa why tbe? should not be suspended, Professor Ellington for three months, and Professor Hanson for two, without emoluments. Prosi eorrej. pnndenoe read relative to the fracas, Profissor Elkington appears to have told Profcjioj; Manaon that those tricks, referring to his putting in blank voting papers ana afterwards giving himself tho casting vote, belongs! to the racecourse, and had but one endPen tr id ge. Manson offered to take hia oa& that he wrote down the name he intended to vote for before the names were called orct, when Elkington said—" Who the denes would believe you on your oath." Mamoa then called Elkington a liar, and Elkington struck Manson. The prosecutions against Pireira, of tho Adamastor Leviathan Sweep, and ¥. 0. Q-oyder, the '•Oracle," for getting up racing sweeps on the Cap, have bean diamisssd. The oases were not satisfactorily proved. Owing to diverse views on the Hsrbor Trust Bill, it is doubtful if the measure tsiU be passed thisssssion. Government is antious to prorogue before Christmas, and botiusu is being pushed rapidly forward. Wheatear is first favorite for the Obampian at 3to 1, Wellington 4, and Progress S. jjta entries for the Champion meeting an sot co large as were expected. An Old English Fsyre opened in thslo«n Hall yesterday, and was a great ence-H, Large numbers of ladies and gentlemen *wre present in Elizabethan oostume. The Ouzoo sailed this morning, taking 5117 packages of frozen meat and 323 of butter. Miss Ada Lester, who was lost in the wmcle of the steamer Clan Macduff, bound to Embay, was a Bhort time ago performing at the Bijou Theatre here with Mr Wybert Besve. In the bicyole tournament just concluded, Bolfe, the winner, performed nine hundred and ten miles, or an average of 130 mflw per day. Nearly two and a half inches of rain tell last week, bringing the rainfall for the yes: to within one inch of tbe average of the bit twenty-three years. The crops in many jar** of the country are looking? well. SYDNEY, December 14, A scandalous affair ooourred at the funeral of the late Michael Fitzpatriok, at one time Colonial Secretary. On the body reaching the grave, no priest was there to perform the service, owing to Fitzpatriok having bold a strong opinion about education in public sohoo'e in opposition to ecclesiastical authorities, and the clerical authorities prevented any priest f attending. The friends present said a few prayers, and the Bey, Br. Forrest, who was present in undress, pronounced the benediction. Another death from smallpox is reported in , Sydney, and the disease has been carried to • Bega by a visitor from Sydney.