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Globe, Volume IV, Issue 367, 16 August 1875, Page 4

The Melbourne University.— We take the following paragraph from the report of the council of this University, having reference to Mr Wilson’s gift of £30,000 It is most gratifying to be able to report that there is no longer any occasion to reiterate the application hitherto unsuccassfully made to different Ministries requesting them to place on the estimates a sum of money to build a hall. The generosity of a gentleman resident in Victoria, Samuel Wilson, of Ercildoun, near Ballarat, has been displayed in favor of the University to an extent which entitles him to the gratitude of all connected with the University, and all interested in its welfare. He has made a gift of the sum of £30,000 to the council, the sole condition annexed being that it be expended in the erection of a hall. The capital is payable in the month of December, 1877, interest at G per cent being paid annually during the interval. Steps have been taken to ascertain what are the materials most suitable for the construction of the building. When that point is determined, and the questions relating to the style, design, proportions, and site shall have been resolved on by the council, instructions will be given to the architect. From the information already received, it is expected that the funds will admit of the erection of a hall IGOft long and 53ft wide, an apartment calculated to impart due solemnity to the ceremonies which wall take place in it from time to time, to prove a conspicuous architectural ornament to the rising city, to serve as a lasting monument of the donor’s enlightened public spirit, and an incentive to other wealthy members of the community to emulate in this or in other modes the example of well-directed liberality.”

_ A statue of great value for the history of French art, and which hitherto had laid unnoticed in the cellar of a chateau near Orleans, will shortly be placed in the Louvre Gallery. It represents a Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus, and is supposed to be the work of the sculptor Justus of Tours. It is also stated that a painting of the “ Madonna and Infant Jesus,” by Albert Durer ; has been discovered in the Castle of Glucksburg.

Information reached the Hokitika police camp on Thursday that an attempt was made to break into the agency of the Bank of New Zealand, at Ross, on Wednesday evening. It appears that the agent of the bank, Mr flamer, on receiving the news of an accident to the Ross coach, whereby Miss Hamer, his sister, got thrown out and received some slight injury, proceeded to Hokitika, making arrangements that a gentleman should stop on the premises that evening during his absence. During the night a noise was heard on the premises, and on going to the room where Mr Hamer was in the habit of sleeping, some one was heard to rush out of the building. Information was immediately lodged at the police camp, and a man named Harry Jones has since been apprehended on suspicion.

A letter from Hong Kong in the Cologne Gazette says that the Chinese Government has ordered steps to be taken for increasing the arsenal and the ship-building establishments at Foo-chow, so as to make them suitable for building ironclads. Meanwhile two iron-plated ships are to be ordered in England, and a frigate is being got ready to proceed to the English coast unde.' the Chim.sc (lag, with four commander i of ships of war and twenty-six naval ollicers and engineers who are to endeavor to obtain a practical knowledge of seamanship in the English naval arsenals. Considerable difficulty is experienced by the Chinese authorities in the administration of Formosa ; the natives, who were very submissive to the Japanese, refuse to obey their new rulers, and some bloodshed has already taken place in const quence. Schen, the Chinese administrator of the island, has sent a memorandum to Pekin, proposing that the governor of the province of Foo-kieu should be stationed at Sai-wan, the capital of Formosa, and have the civil administration of the island under his charge. The regency at Pekin has sent this memorandum to the Ministry with directions to obtain reports on the subject from the officials of Foo-chow, and then to make a recommendation based on those reports. Business at Hong Kong is in a very stagnant condition. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, which was established with (5,000,000 dols as capital, has in the second half year not only paid no dividend, but has had to give up 600,000 dols out of its reserve fund to cover its losses the insurance societies have also suffered so greatly through storms and fires’ that