LONDON.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3549, 23 November 1882, Page 3

LONDON.

November 21. The November-December series of colonial wool auctions opened to-day. The catalogue comprised 6000 bales. There was a good attendance of home and foreign buyers, but biddings were hesitating, and prices generally were rather weaker. The total quantity to be offered during the series is 103,000 bales, The auctions close on December 13. The trials of the prisoners charged with the murder of the Joyce family at Maantrasna on the 11th of August last have been concluded to-day. The jury in each instance found a verdict of guilty, and sentence of death was passed. The prisoners have confessed their crime, and appealed to the clemency of the Court. Her Majesty the Queen bestowed the medals for distinguished service in Egypt upon the troops who have recently returned from that country at Windsor today. November 22. At a meeting of the Oolonial Institute last evening Sir Francis Dillon Bell read a paper in which he admitted that the growth of the public debts of the Australian Colonies, in proportion to the population, was abnormal. He maintained, however, that the various loans which have been contracted bad been spent in reproductive public works, that the statistics of commerce of the various colonies were surprising, and that it was to England's interest to help them with her surplus capital. Sir Saul Samuel, the Agent-General for New South Wales, said that it was clear that the colonies were well able to pay the interest on the loans they had contracted.