AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4669, 31 October 1876, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

MELBOURNE, October 16. His Excellency the Governor, accompanied by Sir William Manning, presented the boat's crew of the Dandenong with purses containing £37 10s. each. At the Town-hall on Saturday Count de Zaba lectured on education, the Minister for Education presiding. There was a large attendance.

It io expected tbe hospital contributions will fall short of last year by £1000. The cargo of the James Service, from Mauritius, 300 tons of the Grasmere's cargo, and the whole of the cargo of the Fanny, to arrive, has changed hands. 5000 cases Devoe's oil have been taken up by one buyer. Raisins and currants are much wanted. Onethird of the Catharine Marsden's teas have been sold, fine teas at full rates ; inferior at public sale rates, the medium was withdrawn. October 17. A bill has been introduced and read a first time to prohibit the sale of obscene prints. Mark Lyons, for the jewel robbery, has been remanded for seven days ; if no further evidence is then tendered he will be discharged. October 20. The second reading of the Harbour Trust Bill has been carried without division. Some progress was th®'j. uiitda with the Estimates. The Uovernmajit will proposers conference to consider the cable propositions, A chemist's assistant, residing in Collingwood, was found dead in bed from an overdose of chloroform. October 22. The Colonial Bank gives a dividend at the rate of 8 per cent, per annum, and £4000 is carried to the reserve fund. The National Bank report shews a dividend of 10 per cent., and a bonus of 2 per cent., with £76,000 carried forward. ADELAIDE, October 17. The public expenditure for the quarter ending 30th September amounts to £399,347, being £87,C00 more than the corresponding quarter of last year. A deputation waited upon the Chief Secretary as to importing better descriptions of arms and ammunition for the defence of the colony. October 22. The Government have promised to place a sum on the Estimates next year for the discovery of coal. It is understood that good coal prospects have been discovered in the north. A telegram has been received from London, stating that the Lochee has been chartered, to saU in November with 475 emigrants. Altogether, there are now over 2000 immigrants on their way to this colony. LAUNCESTON, October 20. Commander Augustus Frederick Bowen died suddenly at West Tamar; he leaves a wife and twelve children. The bones of some crew lately wrecked on the north-west coast were washed up on Wright's Island. A woman named Ellington was convicted of deliberately drowning her child, three years old, in the river Tamar, and was sentenced to be hanged.