AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 5230, 9 December 1879, Page 1

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

At Gundagai on the 27th ult, a large and very influential meeting was held in the Court-house for the purpose of taking steps to commemorate the courageous conduct of the police in the recent encounter with bushrangers at Wantabadgery. Mr William Love, police magistrate, occupied the chair, and spoke at length of the courage displayed by the police, and of the skilful manner in which Sergeant Carroll had planned the attack. He said the cheers with which the police were greeted on their return to Gundagai were significant. A subscription towards a testimonial was started, and L2QO was subscribed in the room.—Sir H. Parkes, by direction of Lord Loftus, wrote to Constable Bowen expressing admiration of the way in which the police behaved in the encounter with the bushrangers. It is probable the Government and the public will provide for Bowen’s widow and children.

October I—and not December 1, as telegraphed—has been definitely fixed for the inauguration of the Melbourne Exhibition. It is probable that a premium of fifty guineas will be offered for the words of the inaugural cantata, and 100 guineas for the best musical composition. The Council of the Victorian branch of the British Medical Association, after visiting the Lunatic Asylum, where nearly a thousand patieuts are confined, condemned the institution in sweeping terms. The internal arrangements do little credit to the management, and the cubic space allotted to the dormitories is insulficient for health. The ventilation is extremely defective, and the recreation-room is partly filled with beds. Two patients, owing to over-crowding, were compelled to sleep in the earth-closets. It is alleged that the institution is a disgrace to the community, and is not a place where the insane are likely to recover. The medical officers pointed this out, but the Government took no action, A Bill to legalise the use of the totalisator on racecourses has been introduced into the New South Wales Parliment. Dent, late paymaster for the Sydney City Council, has embezzled LSOO, The sale of exhibits at the Garden Palace is strictly prohibited. The Catholic agitation in Sydney in opposition to the Education Bill is unabated. Tho receipts from the carnage of live stock on the Southern line last year were over 400 per cent, more than the previous year, owing to the Victorian stock tax diverting the live stock traffic from Melbourne to Sydney. Nearly 3,500 tons of sugar were expor f ed from Brisbane between July and November. The Sydney Refining Company purchased the principal crops of white sugars from first hands. An extraordinary attempt at murder was made in the Carapbridge (Tasmania) district. A lad named Johnson, returning home on a Sunday evening, was suddenly attacked by a man armed with a knife, who, after knocking him down and kneeling on his stomach, commenced to stab the lad, driving the knife through the thick collars of two coats, and through his hat repeatedly. Believing the boy dead, he decamped. Johnson was simply unconscious, and not seriously injured. ‘