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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4279, 7 December 1874, Page 2

By the screw collier Basby, which is now making rapid trips between Port Chalmers and Newcastle, we have later dates from England and Australia. A message from London, dated the 21th ultimo, intimates that the price of money has advanced to G per cent. The Australian items are of some interest. Prom Maitland a murder is reported. The victim appears to have been a squatter or settler on the River Paterson, and another settle); and his son, residing some distance from Bathurst, have been apprehended on suspicion of being concerned in the crime. Large quantities of gold appear to be coming down from the new diggings in the north of Queensland, Prom Victoria we learn that the Government have accepted tenders for the construction of forty miles of the Melbourne and Sale railway, which will open up a rich country hitherto scarcely accessible from the badness of the roads and the heaviness of tho timber. In South Australia, near Burra Burra, locusts have made their appearance in immense numbers.