AUSTRALIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1630, 26 August 1871, Page 3

AUSTRALIA.

In Adelaide the Church Education Board has prepared a scheme for the establishment of church schools throughout the colony.

Efforts are being made at Sandhurst to establish a school of mines. The sum of £350 is on hand, the City Council promises £250, and the Government £500.

The Sydney Government Gazette contains a notice of an insolvent making an offer of composition to his creditors of one farthing in the pound, and its acceptance by the creditors.

At Sydney a prisoner named Kennedy, while at work in the gaol yard, attacked M'Lennan, the overseer of the masons, with a sfrme hammer, and inflicted such frightful injuries on his head that his recovery is considered hopeless.

The proposal of the Victorian Government to pay a bonus of £5000 to the successful planters of the beet-root sugar Manufacture has already had some effect. A directory is in course of formation in Melbourne for a company to be called the Victorian Beet-root Sugar Company.

Vignerons and fanners in the Geelong district continue to complain much of the rapid increase of hares, and of their destructive propensities, Mr Hanson, of the Colac-rojul, has lost 300 young trees from this cause alone, and along the valley of the Moorabool the \ignerons and farmers are all more or less sufferers from the same cause.

" A discovery has been made by several farmers on the Loddon River," says the Jiendigo Independent, "that kangaroo rats arc good thistle eradicators. Tt has been found that these animals dig down under the roots of the plants, which thus necessarily die, One farmer has issued orders that no kangaroo rats are to be killed on his land, in consequence of their having been of much service to him in deh troy ing the obnoxio\is thistles."

It is stated that the annual expenditure cif the Warrnambool Company is at the yatc of about £100,000, of which £5000 is for tin alone. Over 200 men and boys are employed, independent of other labour, and weekly there are slaughtered, for preserving purposes, 300 cattle, or kheep in proportion. The company are executing a contract for the Admiralty for the supply of 200,0001bs of beef, and a large quantity of mutton.

The leading features of the new South Australian Land Bill are as follows :—: — All countiy lands may be sold upon credit lit £l per acre ; 10 per cent, to bo paid on application, 10 per cent, at the end of the third, fifth, and seven years ; and the balance at the end of the ninth year. The selector may complete his purchase at the end of the fifth year. No selector is allowed more than G4.0 acres. Residence is rccmired either of the selector, his son, stepson, or son-in-law. The selector must spend 2s Cd per acre during the first year, 5s per acre before the end of the second, 10s before the end of the third, and 15s before the end of the fourth year.

The half-yearly meeting of the Australian Fire and Marine and Life Insurance Company was held in Melbourne on the 7th inst. In the tire and marine branch, it was shoAvn that the balance of £7!), 000, standing at the debit of profit and loss on the 31 st December last, as well as bad debts and loss, and depreciation in property, had been more than fully provided by the opening of a special account with a transfer (if £125,000 from the capital. There was a balance in hand to meet outstanding risks, amounting to £'12,4-15. The transactions of the last half-year showed a credit balance of £25,u08, but the directors thought it too soon to reckon any portion of the sum as realised profits. The reports were adopted. In the life branch, it was shown that the profits of the half-year allowed of the payment of interest at the rate of 10 per cent, per annum on the paid-up capital. A short discussion took place on the ijucstion of entirely separating the life branch from the rire and marine branch, but it was stated that for all practical purposes the two branches were quite distinct from each other already. The reports were adopted. The Hon. A. Fraser and Mr .James Gatehouse were re-elected directors in each branch.

A letter received by a correspondent of the Northern Argus, from a member of the construction party of the central portion of the overland telegraph, dated •Juno 1(5, says: — ■"'All the cattle and horses, which are daily working, look as fresh as colts, and are in good condition — many of them very fat, which is a proof of the suitable nature of the feed in the country in which their stations might be. A ilock of sheep has also passed through the country, and is stationed at the second depot, for breeding and present use. They are in good condition, and look well, considering that this is not a sheep country, being more tit for cattle. There have been mi signs of drought seen as yet."' Some of the party had heard of some native remains, and went to the place to investigate.

"On arriving at the spot, to their astonishment they discovered that they bid stepped into ;i native burial-ground, with no less than 02 graves, taking a spread of about one acre, beautifully situated upon a piece of ground rising some 50 or GO feet above the bed of the Finke, with a splendid view all round. Trenches had been cut in and around the graves, leading into a large dam six feet deep, with a layer of sand on the bottom, which had lately been carefully levelled, and edged around the top -with stones which had been laid in to form a border, through and around the graves. In fact, the whole of the burial-ground had apparently but a short time since been cleanly swept out, and everything replaced which might by accident have been misplaced."

The stability of the earth's crust at and around Mount Gambier has been from time to time questioned in a way likely to cause uneasiness to nervous residents of that neighbourhood. Judging from the following paragraph from the Border Watch, there seems reason to apprehend that the whole district will "cave in" altogether some day. Land ought to be cheap in that locality. "An extraordinary opening lias-, we are informed, appeared on Mr Neil M 'Arthur' .section, O. B. Flat. At a short distance from the stockyard, a few days ago, the earth fell in, leaving a chasm about flOft. deep, and about 30 in width, in which water now lies as in a large well. At first the water ascended to within a short distance of the top, but after a few r hours subsided. Another hole on Sunday night appeared at the back of the telegraph office in Mount Gambier, wheie several loads of firewood have partly disappeared, The opening is of a circular form, about 12ft. or 15ft. in diameter, and some five or six feet deep, There are cracks, however, in the earth for two or three feet all round the hole, which probably indicate a future sinking of the ground in the same place. Some years ago, it will probably be remembered, a portion of Commercial street sank for several yards, and the opening required many loads of earth to fill it. Still more recently, a large hole showed itself in Evelyn street, in a hollow place, so that it is impossible to say where these freaks are likely to occur. One or two residents in the town also state that there are localities in their properties that have such a tendency to subside that they are compelled to fill them up with a large quantity of earth every winter. The whole district for some six or seven miks around Mount Gambier seems to be resting over subterraneous chasms. It has been noticed that the earth falls in the way we have mentioned more generally after very rainy weather, such as has been experienced here for the last three weeks."