INTERCOLONIAL BREVITIES

Evening Post, Volume LV, Issue 125, 28 May 1898, Page 3 (Supplement)

INTERCOLONIAL BREVITIES

— «, i A scheme is on foot for diverfciug the * k waters of the Murray Jiiver into the Mallee, s Victoria, on an extensive scale. The Goi vernment has sent a party of surveyor* to make a careful survey and ascertain the ; practicability of the plan. Present eati- , mates put the cost at about £300,000. The recent importation into New South . Wales of 30 head of Ayrsbires from New i Zealand has caused much adverse comment in Sydney. 'Sylvan,' in the Sydney Mail, i says of them : ' Cattle of this olass may be just as useful for eating grass on St&to farms as any others, but cattlemen will fail to see why the Government should have gone all the way to New Zealand for Buoh stock.' In reply to a deputation, the New South Wales Minister of Labour and Industry has promised to bring before the Cabinet the subject of introducing a compulsory Con- ' ciliation and Arbitration Bill into Parliai ment next session. An offer has been made to the Western •■ Australian Government, on behalf of the , Hon. Audley Coote, for the construction of ■ a railway to Esperance by private enteri prise. ! . A Chinaman named Wah Leo at Adelaide. , has been found to be suffering from leprosy, > "and has been placed in quarantine. He > has been in South Australia for eighteen. i months. The Western Australian Minister for Lands has arranged with the new Agent- • General to report on the condition of the i Agency with the view of extending its > Bphere of usefulness. ) Experts report that the Queensland [ tobacco taken to London by the s.s. Duke i of Argyll was coarse in texture and deficient , in flavour. It was worth from 3d to 3£d : per lb. I The lawyers' costs rendered in the great > Harold bankruptcy case at Adelaide have amounted to an aggregate of £10,000. One firm of lawyers accepted £580 in payment for a costs bill originally amounting to over £3000. It is proposed in Melbourne to form an association to exploit Borneo. It is rumoured that, owing to the New South Wales tick quarantine regulations, 1 the Ramornie Meat Works, near Grafton, ■ are to be transferred across the border to > Toowoomba. } A N.S.W. selector named Elliott has k been severely burned whilst mixing phos3 phorus with pollard, for poisoning rabbits. The gold yield of Victoria shows a com- | parative increase for the first four months f of the present year of 79270z. i Codhn moth has been found in a case of 1 apples grown at Guildford, near Perth, i W.A. t The Victorian Parliament opens towards k the end of June, when the Treasurer will propose a big scheme of loan conversion. > Owing to the limited space, the Governfc ment intends to restrict the New South r Wales exhibits at the Paris Exhibition to t wool, minerals, and woods. A fight under prize ring conditions took place in the vicinity of the Sans Souci • School, N.S.W., a few days ago. / 1 Mr. Dickson, Colonial Treasurer of 3 Queensland, expresses the opinion that 3 Australia should request permission from 1 the Imperial authorities to mint silver. • A committee has been appointed by the » Sydney Public Service Board to make enquiries with respect to applicants for tern' pornry employment by the State. 3 The booking clerk at the Goulburn . railway station was lately struck by a • train, and a long lead pencil whioh he was > carrying in his mouth wan driven through ■ the roof, piercing nearly to the brain. The Mayor of Sydney has been making a | pilgrimage through the slums, and oonf demning the worst houses. Unfortunately, ' it is nobody's business to provide fresh and ■ better houses for the unfortunates who are ' ordered out, and they cry complainingly, • ' Where are we to go ?' » The value of exhausted beet slices, a byy product of the beet sugar industry, for the ' fattening of cattle has led to the Victorian 3 Railways carrying the slices at the reduced 3 rates charged for fodder, and during times of scaroity at the 'bad winter ' reduction of b 33i per cent. ' *, 5 Farmers generally, says the Sydney ' Herald, welcome the Commonwealth Bill, which will secure to them overwhelming ■ advantages, including intercolonial free3 trade, and securing for them markets for • produce previously closed by protective I barriers. 1 It is estimated that the recent rough weather caused a loss of over £5000 to the > Clifton district, N.S.W. At Wollongong J coal-loading operations had to be almost i entirely suspended. j On the 3rd inst. Lord Lamington, Gover- „" nor of Queensland, landed at the head of Mallens Harbour, New Guinea, to march 5 thence to Maiware, at the head of Milne Bay. Every place of interest between | Port Moresby and Samarai was visited by r the Viceregal party. c South Australian farmers are beginning, f it is said, to be a little downhearted at the [ light and patchy nature of the rainfall, but j they are not slackening their efforts to get 5 all their land under crop. It is a case of 3 ' sink or swim ' with them this year, and 3 there will probably be more land under 3 wheat this season than ever previously in r South Australia. J The Colonial Sugar Company, Brisbane, ■ has notified manufacturers of sugars that it : is prepared to buy on the same terms as last ) year provided the manufacturers of whites i and yellowH at certain centres only place f 35,000 tons of sugar on the Australian ■ markets, exporting the balance of their • manufactures to foreign markets. An American tender han been accepted for the building of two sample engines for the narrow gauge lines in Victoria. It is interesting to note that the American tender was £300 below the next lowest English or Continental offer, and that the time ' required to complete tie order was seventeen 1 weeks in Ainerioa and fifteen months in | England. News has been received that one of the | members of the Anglican mission to the ( aborigines in the Forest River district, r W.A., has bean speared in the forearm by natives. His injuries are stated to be i serious. Four or five spears were thrown, i- but the other members of the mission escaped unhurt. , The general manager in Australia of the [ Eastern Extension Telegraph Company says that the company has decided to lay an entirely new cable between Victoria and Tasmania, and will despatch the steamer Sherard Osborn from Singapore shortly to carry out the work. A most interesting find io antiquarians has been made in the Parramatta district (says the Sydney Daily Telegraph). A resident of Carlingford, while clearing some land, had to remove the remains of an old 'humpy,' and in so doing discovered a 1 number of silver coins in most excellent preservation. Amongst them were over a ' dozen of that exceedingly rare and valuable coin the New South Wales ' holey ' dollar, 1 or five- shilling piece, and a few ' dumps,' 1 or fifteen -penny "bits. These coins are 1 relics of the almost forgotton Australian \ mint of 1 8 1 3, which was suppressed by order ' of tho Home Government. Experiments made at the instance of the [ Commandant in the vicinity of Lytton 5 Fort, at the mouth of the Brisbane River, [ to test the system of telegraphy without wires, by Mr. W. H. Proece's method, , gave better results than those by Marconi's . system. Mr. Preece's system will be em- . ployed at the encampment to be held next r month. 1 Apropos of the New Guinea land trans- ) action, Mr. Carruthers, thu New South v Wales Minister for Lands, is of opinion that the time is opportune to secure Ger- . man New Guinea, either by purchase or by i the exchange of some African or other i possession more convenient to German y and IeBS valuable to England,