LATEST AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2370, 5 November 1870, Page 2

LATEST AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

The Mayor of Carisbrook has been fined 40a in his own Court, for selling liquor on a Sunday. A Chinaman, a few days ago, stole a bedstead from under a leper, a fellow eo aitryman, at Ballarat. A lower depth than this it is scarcely possible to find in thievery. A witness, whose name is Mr Sehm de Saxo, in the City Court at Ballarat, stated that he had spent L4OOO in mining, but had never received so much as a single sixpence from any mine in the Colony. The Monnou elder, Beauchamp, from Salt Lake and New Zealand, has arrived in Melbourne, and is busy malt mg converts. He was formerly a doorkeeper in the llaymarkot Theatre in Melbourne Mr Lock, one of the irate magistrates of Ballarat, in giving expression to his utter indignation at being insulted ■ by the Liter of the Solicitor General, measures the degradation to which he has been subject, in the following words; —“I am indignant at the gratuitous piece of impertinence by which it was sought to degrade honorary magistrates to the level of members of Parliament.” The German tailor, traveller, and “little fool,” Schafer, has left the Benevolent Asylum, Melbourne, because the officers of that institution, in which he had found refuge, would not give him permission to spend the proceeds of a small cheque scat to him from Adelaide. It has since transpired that from June laat Schafer has received LI a week from the Odd Fellows of Adelaide. As showing the high prices that can be realised for. pure-bred stock at Home, we {Geelong Advertiser) publish the following extract from a letter received by a gentleqjan residing at Teesdalo, from a friend who visited the Wakefield Cattle Show, via, “ M'Pougall returns iu the same ship as

M'Lauchlan, having given two thousand guineas f>r a cow. Two that fetched two thousand live hundred guineas go to the States ; and fancy prices have been given for others.” Judge Forbes, in a recent decision at Geelong, determined that, as an old Act of George 21. was still in force, no person could obtain a verdict for liquors sold in quantities less in value th.au 20s at a time. The Sydney Agricultural Exhibition was visited by 184,0111) people, and realised a profit of several thousand pounds. In addressing the audience assembled at tile Theatre Royal, Adelaide, on tlie occasion of a benefit performiuci a few evenings since, Mr Mathews observe 1, “ These is one thing I have to compl dn of, and that applies to Australia generally. I allude to the listlesmess of the audience, which makes them like at the end of each act to g-t to the door. The stage seems to be subsidiary—a kind of appendage to the bar, I don’t object to it, for its a warm climate, but it is objectionable. At the commencement of every piece there is generally an explanation, and as all the audience do not hear it. most of the people do not know what it is about. Besides it is a bad compliment to the ladies for the gentlemen to go out and indulge in a brandy and soda, a cigar, and a chat. That is the only complaint I have to make, and that refers to the colonies generally.” The auditors took the rebuke very good-humouredly, and we should be glad to believe that xt was capab'e of making a permanent impression upon them.” The Victoria revenue returns for the quarter ending the 30th of September last, were published on the 7th inst. They showjtfae receipts to have been L 545,141 4s Id for the three months, and L 3,186 274 lls 5d for the year. This statement exhibits a decrease of 1.86.508 15s Id upon the founer, and of L 186.924 17a 2d upon Ihe latter period. The items are pretty equally distributed over the whole of our chief sources of income. Customs, excise, territorial, and public works all show a deficiency both upon the quarter and the year, and this in the face of the natural increase of our population. With a failing revenue, increasing poverty, and diminished employment, the advocates of protection must by tlrs time perceive the necessity of recanting their fiscal errors and retracing their steps. At a recent meeting of the Tasmanian Royal Society, Sir Robert Officer reported that he had received a letter from Mr You], in which he stated he was obliged to concur with Professor Gunther in his opinion, that the fish sent home was nothing more than a salmon trout.

At the annual distribution of prizes and award of distinctions by the Council of Education in Tasmania, held on the Gth inst, Professor Irving, as examiner, read a report which is deserving of attention as indicative of some of the defects of our modern modes of instruction. The lads who were examined may be regarded as the elite of the various public and pdvate schools in Tasmania, and therefore the faults with which they are chargeable must be visited upon the general system of education pursued in that island, but by no means peculiar to it. While in Latin one candidate, and in Greek and French three candidates, passsed with credit, not one passed with credit in English. They could name the roots and explain the construction of words derived from the dead languages, but knew nothing of the history and origin of such as were of Saxon growth. In reading, not one candidate possessed the whole of the essentials of good reading. In analysis and parsing an excusable ignorance was displayed. In arithmetic, “no single candidate succeeded in doing correctly all the six easy sums setand in history, Professor Irving tells us “ the smallest amount of knowledge was displayed about events and persons near to our own days. Nearly all knew the date and the objects of the treaty of Troyes in the loth century, but scarce one could tell anything about the peace of Amiens in the 19th. Chaucer was generally referred to the period at which he lived ; but the dates assigned to Scott varied from the reign of Elizabeth to that of Victoria ; the date of 1815, which it might be supposed every Englishman would at once assign to Waterloo, was given to the Crimean war ; and most wonderful of all, the Duke of Wellington was dec'ared by one candidate to have commenced life as Lord Cobhani and to have been afterwards created Earl of St. Vincent before obtaining his dukedom.” The following despatch from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Governor of South Australia, relative to intercolonial free trade, has recently been laid before the 1 egislature of the neighboring Colony ; “ Downing street, July 15, 1870. Sir, —I think it important to ensure that the Governors of the Australian Colonies should not misunderstand the views of Her Majesty's Government with regard to intercolonial free trade. The different Colonies of Australia are at present, in respect to their Customs duties, in the position of separate and independent countries. So Ion" as they' remain in that relation, a law whk-Ti authorised the importation of goads from one Colony into another, on any other terms than those applicable to the imports from any foreign country, would be open, in the view of Her Majesty’s Govcrnm*nt, to the objection of principle which attaches to differential duties. But Her Majesty’s Government would not object to the establishment of a complete Customs Union between the Australian Colonies, whether embracing two or more contiguous Colonies, or (which would be preferable) the whole Australian continent, with its adjacent islands. If any negotiations should he set on foot with this object, you are at liberty to give them your cordial support.—l have &c.. Kimberley.” The working of the Bmkruptcy law appears to give dissatisfaction in Tasmania as well as in New Zealand. On hearing a recent application for a discharge, Chief Justice Sir Francis Smith is reported to have spoken as follows :—“Since the abolition o( imprisonment for debt, there was no excuse for the present Insolvency Act not being done away. Along with hjs lato colleague he had always felt ashamed of the functions the Court was called on to exercise there. In the great majority of cases it was like bringing a s’ato into that room with an account of liabilities, and by the medium of the Court having them wiped out with a sponge, and where there had been no opposition, the discharge had generally been granted, in most cases with considerable doubt.”

French placed hors do comhat represent the valor of the carnage. MacMahou had horses killed under him, an epaulette carried away, hia field-glass smashed by a ball, and his tunic riddled with bullets. He sought death, but death did not come. In Grecian or Roman history what more pathetic or touching than the final charge of his cuirassiers, to cut down the enemy’s gunners, that massacred his retreating troops. When the Colonel of the regiment received, the order to charge he said, “Marsha’, it is certain death” “1 know it Colonel—let us embrace.” Not a man returned ! During the combat the Marshal headed his troops, using a carbine as well as a sword. He failed to win, but ho checked t 1 e advance of the Crown Prince for a few days, and allowed Franco to concentrate her troops, a:«l put the right commanders in the right place. Well docs he deserve the “Sword of He north at the people are subscribing to present to him, as the “ glorious conquered.”