AUSTRALIAN SUMMARY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 6072, 16 September 1880, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN SUMMARY.

(UNITED miss ASSOCIATION.) Sydney, September @. The president af the Unitarian Church haa offered Mr. Proctor the use of the church for his lecture on Sunday next. A 4Qoz. nugget has been found in a claim at Lower Teniora. Payable gold has been found at Soldiers' Plat. The schooner Venture, which arrived hero on the Bth from the Solomons, brings the intelligence that the schooner Ariel was wrecked on the coast of Guadaleanar. The crew were safely landed from the boats, and the natives were apparently friendly, but subsequently treacherously poisoned tho mate and a seaman. The rest were unharmed at the latest advices. A teetotal deputation waited on the Hon. Sir. Samuels yesterday, to entrust him with a congratulatory address to Sir Wilfred Lawson on the passage of his Local Option Bill. The address is from the United Temperance Societies of the colony. The Attorney-General declines to file a Bill against Burdett, alias Widow Welsh, and Norris, who were committed on a charge of administering noxious drugs to a young woman. Preliminaries are progressing favorably for the establishment of a Mercantile Provident

Association, the Sydney leading fume havin' donated an aggregate of a thousand pounds The objects are : , Provision for widows anc children of mercantile clerks arid others bein' members, and support during sickness, and i is now proposed to add lending money ti members, who will repay when able by instal menfe. , :. Coal miners* strike in Illawarra district con tinues. The Bulla Company will receive : deputation of miners this week, with view o arriving at settlement. The Mount Pleasan men are likely to resume work at the offerc price, 2s. 3d. per ton for hewing. Many ar daily returning to work, regardless of unioi rules, Victoria, September 9. In the Assembly yesterday it was state that Mr. Ford, who was recently re-appointei Engineer of Construction, was, a few year ago, only a journeyman blacksmith, and hi competence for the position was strong! questioned, although he might be a cleve mechanic. The wreck of the ship Enc the Bed, wa sold to-day, for £llO, to Gerschell, of Carl ton. The cargo is stated to have beei worth £40,000 ; about £2OOO worth were re covered. Mrs. Greer, having been refused a passagf on the Chimborazo, her friends have arranget for her departure per ■ sailing vessel nexl We, The Exhibition Commissioners have deddec to keep the building open on Saturday night? also to issue season tickets. The queatior of opening on other evenings is_ iefl for the decision of the committee Sir H. Sandford, the British Commissionei objected to the night opening, as he thoughl the exhibitors of British pictures would be disposed to cover them up at nights. Ha said he would cable to England on the subject. The Duke of Manchester remains in Melbourne till after the opening, and then proceeds to Sydney and New Zealand, and probably Queensland. The directors of the Australian Frozen Meat Export Company, being unable to obtain definite information from the Orient Company relative to their arrangements for conveyance of meat, have chartered the steamer Prootus, which is now being fitted up with refrigerating apparatus, and will sail to London in October with the first shipment of frozen meat. Sooth Australia, September 9. It is now stated that Bailley, who was arrested for bushranging yesterday, attempted to shoot the arresting trooper. The gun hung fire, and Bailley then threw it down, and it exploded. A Farmers’ Co-operative Society for shipping wheat on the farmers’ account to the English and other markets is projected j capital, £IOO,OOO. The Sorata is the third vessel stranded within a mile of each other during the past fifteen years. Owing to fine weather the transhipment of cargo is nearly completed. All the undamaged portion has been transferred to the hulks, but a quantity is still awash in the holds, and most of this will be thrown overboard to save time, and all the bulkheads and compartments are leaking freely, but as the bottom rests on the rocks the effect could not well ba otherwise. The. centrifugal pnmp is so far a failure. The Chimborazo brings additional pumping appliances. A new swing bridge, stretched for the Port Dock Company by American contractors, was satisfactorily tested to-day. The bridge weighs 2000 tons, length 127 ft., and cost under £3OOO The Marine Board has inspected the Port river, having under consideration a scheme for fitling up the boat channel from the river to Vincent's Gulf, in order to concentrate the tide into the main ’channel, and construct a wharf inside the lighthouse for the accommodation of ocean steamers. No decision has yet been arrived it. A fight occurred at Crowie between two men named Callaghan and Currie, on the 2nd inst., and Callaghan was killed. At the inquest a verdict was given that deceased came by his death through a fall or blow, but there was not sufficient evidence to show how caused. . Becent rains have reached the districts which were suffering drought, and will do immense good. Queensland, September 9. In the Assembly on Wednesday, Mr. Griffiths, the leader of the Opposition, hoped the Government would not persist in ratifying the mail contract without a vote of the House, as he did not consider the honor of the colony bound by a contract so undertaken. The Premier replied that he had the precedent of the House of Commons to guide him.