AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5599, 4 February 1879, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

[By Telegbaph.] [TIMES' SPECIAL WIRE.] Per b.s. Arawata, vi 4 the Bluff, MELBOURNE, JAN. 29. i The Commissioner of Customs has gone to Sydney to confer regarding the Murray border duties. Government will cordially co-operate with New South Wales to render the Exhibition a success, and will place £2OOO on the Estimates for expenses. The Press have been requested by Government not to publish the movements of the Gk Bowen sails for the Mauritius on Feb. 22, Lord Normanby arriving Feb. 26. No administrator of Government will be appointed daring the interregnum. The Customs’ wharfage rates on returned empty packages have been considerably reduced. The Rev J. Eggleston, Wesleyan minister, Brighton, died on Jan. 23. He has laboured in Australia since 1839. The shock killed Ms widow three days later. The certificate of Capt. Gay, of the ship Seagull, has been suspended for 12 months, for causing the collision with the schooner St. Kilda on Dec. 27, The police are proceeding against Mm also. The Union Bank has declared a dividend at the rate of 16 per cent for the last halfyear. £20,000 has been added to the Reserve Fund, and £7465 carried forward.

Government will remit 30s rent for eaoh£l expended by Crown tenants on the destruction of rabbits.

Captain Bolton, of the Imperial Penal Department, is visiting the Colonies. Fourteen persons are still under arrest as suspected confederates of the Kellys. Mr David Blair has written a Mstory of Australasia from the earliest discovery to the establishment of self-government. The Argus accuses Mm of plagiarising the historical accounts of Victoria published in its columns. An engine ran into a passenger train on the Gippsland line on Jan. 26, but no one was seriously injured, though the passengers were much shaken. *

A tender has been accepted for the erection of the Melbourne Exhibition buildings at a little over £60,000. Cecilia Brett, a widow, was crushed to death by a train at the Eootscray railway station. There is a great accumulation of wheat in the North Western district awaiting transit. Governor Bowen, on behalf of the Government, sends a handsome address to the King of Tonga, acknowledging his generous conduct in rescuing the Victorian seamen wrecked on the island of Kao. The railway freights for agricultural produce are to be rearranged for the benefit of distant settlers. Arrangements are in progress to save 12 hours in the transit of mails from Melbourne to Adelaide and vice vend. The barque Veritas, from Gefle, with deals, went ashore on Point Nepean, but was got off and towed to Hobson’s Bay. SYDNEY, Jan. 26. The Assembly has passed a Supply Bill of £905,993, including £60,000 for the Exhibition. A Bill to regulate and restrict Chinese immigration was introduced by Sir H. Farkes. It resembles the Queensland laws. It is estimated that there are now 8000 Chinese in the Colony. ADELAIDE, Jan. 26. An order has been sent to the War Office for 6000 Snider carbines, for the use of boys learning drill in the public schools. A branch of the Loudon Shippers' Society has been formed in Adelaide. Unusually dry weather prevails. BRISBANE, Jan. 26. The wool ship Scottish Bard struck the Barrier Beef, but regained Keppel Bay without muoh injury to cargo or vessel. The Premier states that the deficiency amounts £170,000. No one . living is blamed for the recent artillery accident. The state of the stock market is alarming stock owners. The Victorian expedition to New Gaines ira& a total failure. The schooner Dove was

abandoned because she leaked; four of the party died of fever, and the others were conveyed by a passing ship to Yokohama. News has arrived of a terrific fire at Hong Kong on Christmas Day. £200,000 is the estimated loss. The British Insurance Companies suffer little. (Per s.s. Wakatipu viH Wellington) SYDNEY, Jan, 29. Attention is being called to the Hon Mr Watson, Colonial Treasurer, retaining the directorship of the City Bank now that he is Premier, as when in Opposition he tabled a motion against such a thing. He now urges that the house negatived his motion, but it is generally considered that as Premier he should carry out the principles which he pressed bitterly as affecting a member of a previous Government.

The Premier stated on the authority of the Colonial Architect that £50,000 would be sufficient for the Exhibition. Preliminary work on the buildings is being rapidly pushed on and over 400 men are engaged. The City Omnibus Company have offered to lay a tramway from Redfem railway terminus about a mile from the site to the heart of the town if the necessary rights are secured them by legislation,and also a separate line to Woolharra. Tue contractor has telegraphed to London for the electric light, in order to enable the work to be carried on at night. In the meantime experiments are being made with the oxyhydrogen light. Applications for space continue to pour in, and probably the buddings after all will be too smalL

An association has. been formed among the station owners in Kiverina, ostensibly for the suppression of stock thefts, defence against vexations trespassers, etc.; but it is believed that there is a secret understanding placing the disbursement of the funds in certain lands for other purposes. The popular idea of this was expressed by Mr Barbour, M.L.A., Chairman of the Electors’ Conference, who stated that the revenue of £200,000, obtained by the payment of £l per annum for every 100 sheep, and entrance fee, would be used for influencing elections, corrupting members of Parliament and officials, to the detriment of free selection. A horse thief named Bill Gardiner has been captured by the police, after an exciting chase of 100 miles.

At the regatta, the Magic, 28 tons, beat the Waitangi, 22 tens, by 12 minutes. The champion outrigger race was a surprise. The start was good. Trickett took the water first, and near Dawes’ battery was leading by half a length. Here he fculed a boat moored off the point, which lost him several lengths, and Laycock kept the lead he thus got till the finish. Trickett was not in condition, and gave ap, coming in 100 yards behind. Next day he issued a challenge to row over the champion course for £2OO, and on the following day Bush accepted the challenge previously issued by Laycock. The inquest on the fire at Grossman and Harding’s lasted over a fortnight. The jury were locked up nine hours, and were unable to agree.

A young woman named Eliza Hayman was run over by a train near Stanmore. No evidence was given at the inquest to show how she got on the line. The Bulli look-out is ended. The Conference showed that the employers had misconceived the action of the men. The latter retain their union, independent of the Newcastle Union, and 14 days’ notice is, in future, to be given on either side of permission to werk or discharge. Goldie, the New Guinea explorer, is here lecturing on the country. He has a native with him. He advises no one to go there who is not thoroughly prepared to meet death.

The Diamond drilling machine is working very satisfactorily at depths varying from 900 ft to 1312 ft.

BRISBANE, Jan. 29. The Queensland Parliament does not meet again till May. The late Treasurer, when moving a Tote of £300,000, said this left an available balance in the Treasury of £IOO,OOO. Mr M'llraith has since stated that no such balance exists, and instead there was a deficit of £470,000.

Mr Dickson now sajs it was not an available balance, but an unappropriated one, and that the apparent deficit is owing to the delay of revenue returns from northern parts. An attempt to float a Compressed Meat Company failed. The Wesleyan Chapel at Paddington has been struck by lightning, and burned in less than an hour.

The Government geologist reports the Burrum Coal Field is capable of yielding 1000 tons per week, equal in quality to Newcastle. He recommended the construction of a cheap railway to the field. A number of immigrants landed here are reported to have gone to New South Wales. The newspapers demand the despatch of a war vessel to avenge the murder of Ingram by the Natives of Brooker Island, Calradoes Group. MELBOURNE, Jan. 29. The indignation meeting against M’Laren was held at the corner of Xing and Flinders streets. He hid in a public house watching the proceedings from a window. He was, however, seen and brought out, and after being announced by the chairman a rush was made for him, but the chairman sheltered him from harm. Mrs Charlotte Collins, a young widow in easy circumstances at Carlton, suddenly left her friends on Dec. 21. It seems she went to the establishment of a Mrs Evans in Fitzroy, where she engaged a room at £2 per week, and said she was suffering from an internal abscess. Mr W. Cook, surgeon, arrived to attend on her on Jan. 22. She died, and it was rumoured that violent means had been used to procure abortion, resulting in her death. The Coroner has ordered an exhumation of the body to hold an inquest.