AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2042, 20 November 1869, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

A deputation from the Chamber of Com* merce waited on the Chief Secretary, on the 22nd ult., for the purpose of urging the advisability: Ist, of establishing telegraphic communication with Europe ; and 2nd, to recommending the Home Government to forward a supplementary mail, via Brindisi, giving one day’s later advices. Mr Macpherson said that as soon as a scheme was presented to the Government for direct telegraphic communication with Europe, it would receive their consideration, and he would direct that the postal authorities at home be communicated with on the subject of the Brindisi mail.

We learn from the Argus that the Board of Education of Victoria has appointed Mr. S. C. Dixon to be superintendent of its new training establishment, at a salary of L 650 a year. Two other teachers will be appointed to act under his directions, the one to receive L 350 and the other L3OO a year, and the assistant teachers will be licensed by thp Board to keep boarding houses for the accommodation of teachers under instruction. The superintendent wi l teach the art and practice of teaching, and his assistants will be engaged in giving general instruction in the branches of education which are taught under the auspices of the Board, in order that all teachers who pass through its training institution may reach a high standard of qualification and efficiency. The newly-appointed superintendent of training schools has been for twelve or thirteen years at the head of the Church of England training school, having been specially brought out from England to fill that post, and wo are informed that his efforts in the narrower sphere of operations have proved most successful. It would therefore appear that the Board has made a judicious choice in selecting Mr Dixon for the highly important office which has now been entrusted to him.

Some interesting particulars of the breach of promise case heard at the civil sittings of the Wagga Wagga circuit court lately are to hand. Alias jHalley, a milliner, sued Mr Jackson, owner of Borie station for breach of promise of marriage. Damages were laid at L 3 000 ; defendant paid LOO into court in full of all demands. The course of true love seems to have run smooth between the par* ties, neither of whom are in the heyday of their youth, plaintiff having seen some thirty summers, while defendant is said to have had the experience of fifty or sixty years. At the last moment, however, Mr Jackson declared off alleging as his reason for doing so that he had been unmercifully “chaffed.” From the evidence given by two grown-up daughters, it seems they had as much, if not rather more, to do with the courtship than the defendant The wedding breakfast had l}een' prepared, ' the trciifi seau got in readiness, aud defendjpit bad signified his intention ’of proceeding to Albury for the purpose of getting married, in order to escape the bandinage of his friends. This he also failed to do, and never went near the plain* tiff after. One of the witnesses called for the defence, an hotel waiter, stated that defendant was generally intoxicated. He used to drink at least a glass of brandy every half hour, for five or six hours at a time, and was frequently put to bed. His memory was so much impaired by his habits, that he never remembered on the morning what he had said over night. The jury awarded plaintiff L 360 for the loss of a husband.

Telegrams received by Mr Finner from Mr Cook, the manager of the Polynesia Company, Fiji, who arrived in Sydney late on Saturday last, are of a satisfactory nature. A large subscription-list had been opened in Fiji, which had successfully floated the company. Mr Cook is expected to return to Melbourne it: a week or two, when he will be prepared to furnish a report to the shareholders. Over 150,000 acres of land had been conveyed to the company, the business of which was steadily advancing. We understand a large number of the second issue of shares had been subscribed for in Polynesia, the balance of which will be placed on the Australasian markets very shortly. The establishment of the company’s bank is anxiously looked for by the settlers. The islands were generally in a healthy state. The cotton crop was looked forward to as one of the largest and most favorable that had ever occurred. The cultivation of sugar-cane was occupying the serious consideration of the settlers. Regular steam communication between the Colonies and the United States was much desired, and it had been strongly urged on the consideration of the management of the Polynesian Company. There is little doubt that the company’s township of Suva will become the grand commercial entrepdt of the islands, although strictly soeaking it does not pos-ess the centrality of Levuka in the island of Ovalau. An immense cultivation will be carried on in valuable possessions of the company in the Suva district, in sugar and maize. The white population is rapidly increasing, and the necessity for the protection of one of the great powers was becoming more apparent daily. Further advices are looked for in Sydney next week. No official telegraphic information had been made to Mr Finner, in respect to the fate of Mr Norman, of Carlton, who had been missing the past three months, and avas supposed to have been wrecked in passing from one island to another in a whaleboat. We (Southern Cross) have been given to understand that another rich lode of copper has recently been discovered in the banks of a navigable river in the North, and at no great distance from its mouth. The ore is extremely rich, crops out on the surface of the ground, and can be easily worked with very inexpensive appliances. Our informant, who has had some experience in mines of different descriptions, has arrived in town for the purpose of raising a company, and arranging for the purchase or lease of the land ; and expresses it as his opinion that, in a very short space of time, we shall see the copper-mining branch of industry thriving here, and adding materially to our wealth and attractions.