AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5281, 15 January 1879, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

[Per Kingarooaia, at the Bluff.] Melbourne, January 1. The Victorian revenue returns for the quarter ending December 31, amount to £1 , 1 38, 106 ; and for the year, £5,595,307. : The latter is an increase, as compared . with the previous year, of £83,046.- The Treasurer has now received £3,305,329 for the financial half-year, while according to the estimates he should have received £3,477,000. -..' At the annual sale of Messrs Kobertson's shorthorns at Colac the competition was small, and many lots were sacrificed. The total proceeds were £5481 10s 6d. ; Mr Sampson, of New Zealand, obtained . several great bargains in heifers. Sir John Coode has informed the Harbor Commissioners that he expects to . : finish his report on the Melbourne harbor works this month. Edwards, the pedestrian, failed to walk . 110 miles in 24 hours at Ballarat owing^ t to the great heat, but he did 108 miles , ? and 997 yards in the time. , - { Sir W. Jervois returned to Adelaide on I the 4th instant. The deep sea sailors of Melbourne have ( struck for £7 a month for the direct ? home voyage. -, ! A meeting of 16 persons, chiefly cilfcir I zens, decided to form an anti-ChineSo | league in Melbourne, and to try to ex- } tend its influence throughout the colony. ] The Sydney strike is strongly "Condemned as adverse to seamen. ~ Some magnificent electoral phenomena j were witnessed in the neighbourhood of i Melbourne on the evening of the 4th in-m stant. . I The Governors of New South* "Wales> ■I South Australia, Tasmania, and Queens- I land, have consented to become patrons g of the International Juvenile Exhibitior, 1 to take place here in October next. :M Many enquiries have been received Oft M

— — — — —^— — — — n I ■ II L«P— — MM the subject from tlio neighbouring colonies. A proposal has been made to establish, a new bank in Melbourne, to be called the Australian Gold and Estate Bank, to aid in the development of mmmg 1 , fanning, and manufactures. Mr W. S. Lyster will leave England by the January mail. A portion of his new company will arrive in Melbourne by the Lusitania ; the remainder, including Mdle Rose Herserboz, in the Chimboraza. The Royal Commission on the lands question has reported adversely to Mr Bryan Moor the last Assistant SurveyorGeneral, but the animus of the commission is obvious. The Oceana, barque, which left Hokianga, New Zealand, on the 17th ultimo, met with severe weather on her voyage to Melbourne. On the 19th December the barque was struck by a very heavy ' sea, which floated all the deck cargo, stove in the galley, and did other damage. She arrived on January o»' The Pride, from Quebec to Melbourne, passed along a line of icebergs, ten in number, bat extending a distance of 7-1 miles. This was on December 2, in latiiv'is i3dog. 3inin., and longitude Sdeg. 25min. The position of the, vessel was critical in the extreme. An inquiry was commenced on the 6th instant by the Steam Navigation Board into the circumstances attending the collision between the schooner St. Hilda, which was coming from Greymouth, and the barque Sea Gull, off Brabel Island, on the 27th December ; but the inquiry was adjourned till the 9th, in order that the master of the Sea Gull might attend. The evidence showed that every effort Was made to save the unfortunate man who fell overboard. At the time of the collision the Sea Gull was in such a bad state that directly the ships came together there was a stampede of the sailors to get on board the St. Kilda. The New South Wales seaman, firemen, and others on strike, by a large majority endorsed the action of the committee of. the Seamen's Union in terminating the strike. Great satisfaction is felt in the settlement of the difficulty, except on the part of a few agitators, who think the men should not have agreed. Most of the objectors belong to the Political Eeform Union and Eight Hours Conference. The men resumed work on January 6. A public trial of a new brake under Grose's patent has been made on the Newcastle railway, and resulted satisfactorily. A waggon was stopped in 176 feet, against 461 feet by the ordinary brake. " It is stated that there is leprosy among the men employed on a tobacco plantation in Wollongong. Eobert Purvis and three Solomou Islanders were murdered at Melem, in the Solomon Islands, about November 25. Their bodies were cut into small pieces by the natives, and hung up in tins. __«_