This Australian news in another column will be found of considerable interest. It will be seen that the Legislative Assembly has supported the Government with a decided majority on tho Bill to Amend tho Constitution Act. There appears to be no anticipation, however, that tho Upper Houso will do moro than consider tho measure " with due courtesy" to " another place ;" and then, with proper regard fog tho law and themselves, kick it out. Frauds on the Customs, by tho "salting" of invoices, have been reported and aro under investigation. It is not quite understandable
how a merchant could benefit himself by wilfully exposing his firm to the payment of higher duties on goods they imported than, those fairly claimable under the protectionist tariff of Victoria; but probably those " salted" documents referred to goods intended for reshipment on which a drawback was to be claimed. If so, the trick was sharp, and exposure will be well deserved. An effort to obtain another trial of Harrison's patent process of preserving meat in bulk on a voyage from Australasia to England has failed, a sufficient amount of subscriptions not having been obtained. The expenditure of Victoria for the financial year 1874-5 is calculated at £2,343,794. This must mean the ordinary expenditure, and will not include the amounts to be spent on public works from loans. It included, however, a sum of £400,000 for educational purposes—salaries, new schools, enlargement of buildings, &c. The Canterbury people will learn with surprise that all vessels from Lyttelton which arrived in Port Phillip Bay are to be exposed to the operation of the Quarantine Act —we suppose because small-pox was found on board an immigrant ship that lately arrived there ! The Victorians must have much beauty to spoil, that they should be so acutely sensitive to the possibility—which amounts to improbability— of that disease being carried from Port Cooper to Hobson's Bay. Is the regulation—"hang the regulation"—to apply to the mail and other steamers from New Zealand ports ? If so, there will be some work betimes for the Recording Angel on board of these fine ships. The Assembly of Queensland has followed the example of that of South Australia, and passed a Bill to legalise marriage with a deceased wife's sister. There seems now a strong probability that tho disability of a man to marry the sister of a dead wife will not long remain on the Statute Book of the Mother Country. ? A Bill to permit free interchange of colonial produce has been introduced in the Parliament of South Australia, and will probably soon become law there. Victoria is now the great stumbling block in the way.
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4141, 29 June 1874, Page 2
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440Untitled New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4141, 29 June 1874, Page 2
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