AUSTRALIAN . (PROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Evening Post, Volume XVIII, Issue 4, 4 July 1879, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN . (PROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

THE METROPOLITAN HANDICAP. THE VICTORIARpUNEM PLOYED. SERIOUS FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY IN ! VICTORIA. Sidney, This Day. Chester and Democrat have been scratched for the Metropolitan Handicap. Considerable depression prevails in Victoria, and large uumbors of the unemployed are flocking into this colony, attracted by the employment offered in connection with tbe International Exhibition and other important works being carried out here. 3rd July. Hot debates are taking place in the Victorian Cabinet in reference to the revenue for tbe past quarter and year having fallen; so far short of what was anticipated. Additional taxation to the extent of £400,000 is stated to be urgently necessary, and further property taxes, of a character likely to prove highly dangerous in their effect on tbe colony at large, are proposed. The Assembly has passed votes amounting to nearly six millions sterling for the public services during the ensuing financial year. The Government have restored the tolls which were previously taken off, and indicate the inauguration of new taxation. H.M.S. Wolverene has severely castigated the inhabitants of Brooker 's Island for tbe murder ot Ingham and other Europeans. A boat from the ship had an exciting chase after a native war canoe for a distance ot seven miles. Brooker's Island was captured by the corvette, the principal villages were burnt, and a chief, supposed to be the leading instigator of the outrages, was brought to Sydney for trial by the High Commissioner. Chester, the favorite, has been scratched for the Metropolitan Handicap, and the public has been severely victimised in consequence.