AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1197, 17 February 1880, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

(PEE TE Alx'AU. AT THE BLUFF.) VICTORIA. ; Parliament was prorogued by the : Governor on February 5. Only ■ twenty Acts were passed, few ; being of any -importance, excepting taxation measures. Sir Gavan Duffy was complimented by botli sides of the Assembly on retiring from; the Speakership. He proceeds Home immediately to publish a work on the Irish agitation of 1847-8. The*- general election takes place -on. Saturday, February 28, notwithstanding the strenuous objection of the Jews that it.will disfranchise them. " The Assembly voted L 250 for a bust of Sir George Bowen". • The Te-Anau made the passage from Greenock to Melbourne in fifty days, or only forty-seven and a half days' steaming. She is almost .a duplicate of the Rotomahann,.-

Weiberg, the Avoca gold robber, sent the manager of the. P. and .0. Company information purporting to reveal where the" balance -of the 5000 sovereigns are Concealed." The detectives searched without success. ;

The banks have reduced the interest on deposits 1 per cent. Three men stuck up a trooper in plain .clothes near Maryborough. A desperate struggle ensued, during which one.'of the men was severely cut on the fingers. The trooper -and a constable arrested one. The others were subsequently caught. The ketch Foam; trading between Melbourne and Coutlet Bay, has been wrecked. It is feared that four men and a boy are lost. ' The Irish Distress Fund amounts to over L 15,000. L 14,500 has already been remitted., . ; Mr. B. Smith, of Napieir, imported by the TeAnau several grand greyhounds. : The Assembly, by a narrow majority,, refused to establish a free State education. Sir H. Parkes contends that the stoppage of immigration is unjustifiable while the colony is prosperous. He anuounces that he is arranging for the establishment, of Id postage throughout the colony. The banks have reduced the rate of interest on deposits. A fight occurred in the Sydney City Council between Alderman O'Connor and Mr. M'Elhone. The former claims LIOOO damages. SOUTH AUSTRALIA. A collection of bones of extinct marsupials has; been discovered at Normanville. .. .. . .. . . . ; The' ship "Loch "Marnock, bound to. Lohdony arid loaded with wheat, stranded" on New York Point. After, lightening, she was towed to Adelaide, not much injured. - - During the fortnight ending January 31, 431,124 bushels of wheat were exported from Adelaide to England. ■ The-Geneva papers last year predicted the:"appearance of the comet between *Xantiarjr OT 3?f»V>rna.ry 10. QUEENSLAND. The Government being unable to arrange for the continuance of the present Torres Straits mail service, have requested the Premier to call for tenders in England for a direct service from England to Brisbane, via Torres Straits, combining the conveyance of the mails with immigrants. The rush at Wooloar, on the Hodgkinson, is overdone. All payable ground discovered has been taken up. TASMANIA. ; A distinct shock of earthquake was felt on February 3, the vibration lasting several seconds. It created great alarm, as it was the first shock felt in Tasmania.