Mail News.

Otago Witness, Issue 1417, 18 January 1879, Page 20

Mail News.

. AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Melbourne, January 7th. The sixth annual sale of Messrs Robertson Bros, shorthorn and Hereford cattle was held at Colac, on January 3rd. The competition was small, and many of the beasts were quite sacrificed. The total receipts were L5481 10a 6d. Mr Simpson, of the Northern Island of New Zealand, obtained several grand bargains in heifers, and purchased some lots of high quality. He secured the 11th Earl of Alvie, by the sth Earl of Derrimut, for 50 guineas ; Maid of Oxford by Oxford : Cherry Duke for 125 guineas; Countess of Colac, by Earl of Geneva, for 100 guineas ; and five pure short-

horn heifers for 45 guineaseacb, and four for 30 guineas each. The stock has been shipped by the Ringarooma. A meeting of sixteen persons (chiefly artisans) on the 3rd instant decided to form an AntiChinese League in Melbourne, and to try and extend its influence throughout the Colony. The settlement of the strike in Sydney was strongly condemned as being quite adverse to the seamen. Oue of rhe most magnificent electrical phenomena ever witnessed outside the tropics was visible in the neighbourhood of Melbourne on the evening of the 4th instant. Their Excellencies Sir M. Robinson (Governor of New South Wales), Sir W. F. D. Jervoia (Governor of South Australia), Mr E. A. Weld (Governor of Tasmania), and Sir A. E. Kennedy (Governor of Queensland) have all consented to become patrons of the Intercolonial Juvenile Exhibition to be held in Melbourne in October next. There are many inquiries for information from Sydney, Adelaide, and New Zealand. ww; Edwards, the pedestrian, failed to walk 110 miles in 24 hour 3, at Ballarat, owing to the great heat, He completed 108 miles 997 yards in 24 hours. A proposal has been made to establish a new bank in Melbourne, to be called " The Australian Gold and Estate Bank," to aid in the development of mining, farming, and manufactoriep. The Royal Commission on the Lands Question has reported adversely of Mr Byron Moore, the late Assistant-Surveyor-General, but the animus of the Commissioners is obvious. The Oceania, a barque which lelt Hokianga, Naw Zealand, on the 7th ultimo, met with severe weather on her voyage to Melbourne on the 29th December. The barque was struck by a very heavy pea, which floated all the deck cargo, stove-in the galley, and did other damage. She arrived on January sth. The Pride of England, in her voyage from Quebec to Melbourne, passed along a line of iceberg^ 10 in number, and extending a distance of about 74 miles. This was on December 2nd, in latitude 43.3 S., and longitude 325 W. The position of the vessel was critical in the extreme. An inquiry was commenced on the Gth instant by the Steam Navigation Board into the circumstances attending the collision between the schooner Sfc. Kilda, which was coming from Greymouth, and the barque Seagull, off Babel Wand, on December 27th, but was adjourned till the 9th inst., in order that the master of the Seagull might attend. The evidence showed that every effort was made to save the unfortunate man who fell overboard at the time of the collision. The Seagull was in such a bad state that directly the ships came together there was a stampede of the sailors to get on board the St. Kilda. Amongst the bills to be considered by the Government during the recess are a Land Bill to deal with pastoral leases, a Civil Service Reform Bill, and a bill to regulate the employment of Chinese. 1 At Gardiner's sale, a colt, by The Peer out of Luvline. brought 400 guineas. A chestnut colt, by The Peer out of Lurline, brought 375 guineas ; it was bought by De Mestre. A brown colt, by Angler out of Coquette, brought 220 guineas. At an inquest held on the body of a child fouud on the Falls Bridge on Sunday, a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown was returned! An accident occurred oe the Victorian Railway near Spencer street ' Station on Wednesday. An engine and tender ran off the line into a short blind siding, and tipped over. The. engine driver escaped unhurt, but the fireman was removed to the Hospital insensible. A train also ran off the North-Eastern line, blocking the line to the Racecourse, and traffic was suspended for sometime till- the line was cleared, causing a great deal of delay. ! On Boxing Day, a selector— Edward Turnbull—residing iiear^ Lake Macquarrie, took his family out for a sail on thelaks. Attev being away a little time soioke was observed pro ceeding from the direction of their house. They immediately returned, and found the whole homestead in ruins. No clue remains as to how tbe fire originated. A fearful fire occurred at about 20 minutes past midnight on January Ist. Ifc is supposed to bave originated at Moss' Hotel, and tha flames spread with incredible rapidity, so that the inmates had to make their escape in their night-dresses. All Kelly's block in Forbes street was dssfcroyed, comprising the Post Office Hotel and four other premises, also Mrs Houghton'd store and the Commercial Bank, as wHI as the premises of Joshua CJaruige, stationer, AW.inker's shops, Mill's cabinet stove, and Nicholas and Raymond's large ftore. The total loss is considerably over L 30,000. No lives were lo3t. As yet the cause of the fire has not been ascertained. Kolly was insured in the Standard, North German, aud Mutual Insurance, forLllOO; Clark, in the Standard, for L 35 0; Gilcbrist, in the Mutual, tpr LIOO ; the Commercial Bank, in the Victoria, for L 70 0; Highstocke, in the Mutual, for L3OO. Peter Tyson, the millionaire squatter, has married Mrs Crawford, the plaintiff in tho recent action against David Henry, the moneylender, now under sentence for embracery. Wheat is lower, onlylarge deliveries being from the country. There is quite a lull in politics, and most of the Ministers are absent from Melbourne. The, Governor is at Golac, on a visil to Messrs' Robertson Bros. The revenue returns, which have been issued, Bhow a surplus both on the quarter and on the year ; there is a great falling off in the Customs, especially in spirits and articles of general consumption, as well" as wharfage rates; but there is an increase on railways, owing to the increased mileage open j and the land tax swells out the surplus, which on this quarter amounts to L 37.284, the total for the quarter j being L 1,138,106. So far as the Kellys are concerned, there is no information ; neither is there any tidings of Wieberg, who escaped from the police in the Gippsland district At a sale of thoroughbred horses recently held, the well known brood mare Rose de Florence was sold for 1000 guineas, and Wellesley, full brother to the Champion and Derby winner, was sold for 325 guineas. The termination of the seamen's^ strike in Sydney is a cause for congratulation. The A.S.N. Company have now resumed their regular trade. $ye* 10,000 bushels of wheat have *ecently eeme forward. The failure of the wheat crop in some districts of the Colony is reported, and many selectors are in consequence unable to meet their pecuniary liabilities. The question will probably have' to be dealt with by the Cabinet. Stdnet, January 7th. The seamen, firemen, and others on strike, by a large majority endorsed the action of the Committee of the Seamen's Union in terminating the strike. General satisfaction is felt at the settlement of the difficulty, except on the part of a few agitators, who think the men should not have agreed. Most of the objectors belong to the Political Reform Union and

Eight Hours' Conference. The men resumed work on January 6fch. A public trial of a n6w brake under Grosses patent has been made on the Newcastle Railway, and resulted satisfactorily. A waggon was stopped in 176 feat, against 4G4 feet by tha^ ordinary brake. The Eulli Coal Mine proprietor-! have locked the miner 3 out, and the lock-out is expected to last three months. The supposed object is to break up the proposed union. It is stated that there is leprosy among the - Chinese employed in a tobacco plantation in Wollongong. Robert Purvis and three Solomon Inlanders were murdered at Malambin, in the Solomon lalandrf, about November 25th. Their bodies were cut into small pieces by the natives, and hung up. A great fire occurred at Parkes on December 31st. The damage is estimated at L3OOO. The series of lectures and counter-lectures provoked by the ex-priest Chiniquy's charges against the Catholic clergy, although abated, are not yet at an end. Mrs Dillon and a con- . vert from Catholicism, who recently lectured in support of Chiniquy's statements about the confessional, again lectured last night. Adelaide, January 7th. The South Australian revenue for the quarter amounts to L 463,365, and for the half-year to L 795.119. A letter has been received in Adelaide from the Southern Rugby Football Union, expressing its willingness that an English team should ' visit Australia, if sufficient inducement is offered. Hobart Town, January 7th. The new Tasmanian Ministers have been re» elected without opposition. The Treasurer, Mr Lewis, has stated that the Government had no scheme of taxation at present. He did not think the taxation proposed by the late Government necessary. Brisbane, January 7th. The revenue for tbe December quarter waeL347,5:>6, and for the half-year L782,028— a decrease, compared with same period of 1877, of L 41.586. Politics are at a standstill, anticipatory of the meeting of Parliament, when it is expected that a no-confideuoe motiou will at once bebrought forward. Tbe Opposition is led by Mt~ Thomas H'llwraith, brother of the ex-Mayor of Melbourne, and for marly Minister for Works ' in the M' Abater Administration. It is generally considered probable that the Opposition will have a majority of two or three, but Ministers are bidding hard for popularity by placing ' themselves at the head of the existing antiChinese agitation. The Opposition party are regarded as not safe on this question, in consequence of their having advocated the introduction of Polynesian labourers, which is regarded as a parallel affair. 8 Several parties of miners have gone out to prospect the country in Wide Bay district, in the auriferous tract of which G-ympie is thebest known centre. They have not yet returned, and as some have been out more than a month, this would lead one to infer > that success must have attended their efforts, orT some of them would have been turning up again before this time. One party haß Bent ' down a parcel of auriferous surface quart*, ■ obtained in the Bunga Ranges, near theboundaries *of Wide Bay, in the StanleyBurnett districts. The gold is fairly distn-* > buted through the quartz, and would lead tothe belief that a good gold-bearing reef must be pot far from the neighbourhood. A new alluvial rush ha 3 taken place at Übi. A prospector just returned gives an encouraging account ot the ground, and is very well satisfied with the prospects. He returns in a few days with proper equipments for working the ground. A good few European miners are now upon the ground, The exact locality of tie rush ia distant seven mileg from Übi station, A special reporter of the G-isborne Courier,, who is visiting the Palmer, writes that the river itself at the present time is occupied by none but Chinese, and a3 there is a limit to thealluvial workings, the ground bids fair to becomo again the wild sterile place it appeared previous to its discovery by Mulligan and party. The reefs, however, are worked by Europeans, and in several instances are so rich as to make it profitable to work them, despite enormous expenses in the way of material, rations, wage 3, &c. The gold is of excellent quality— worth L 4 2s per ounce. The Queen of the North chim has crushed 646 tons for 34040z3, and different claims on the same line crushed 1236 tons for 35420z3. On the Hit and Miss line, 1194 tons have been crushed for 23990z<3. A brutal outrage was committed by two | Europeans on a Chinaman at South Brisbane on Christinas Day. The men first beat the unfortunate Chinaman in a most unmerciful ' manner with theiv fiats, and afterwards forced his lower extremities into a vessel of boiling wa.fcer, scalding him severely. The fate of Messrs Woollev and Paiie, of Melbourne, who were lost in the West Australian bush, seems to be certain. The camp has been found at which they turned their horses loose and abandoned their saddles, equipments, and stores. They seem to have wandered from the camp on foot, and theirr case, it is feared, is hopeless. [Per Pbess Agency.] A Brisbane telegram says Mr Goldie has discovered men with tails in New Guinea. Hesaw a whole tribe with horns and tails of cassowary feathers and grass. The Queenslander and Courier offices had a narrow escape through a gas explosion. "Four Chinamen have been arrested at Yam Creek, charged with murder. The two principals were leaders in the Palmer riots. An attempt has been made to blow up a bakery at Colac by placing a quantity of gunpowder in an oven. A boy was a good deal injured, and it is feared he will lose his sight. It is reported from Alexandra that the Kellys have been located in a hut in the Switzerland ranges, and that the police have been travelling a few miles from them. It ist said this ia confirmed by the fact that foue horsemen have been seen galloping before daylight towards Alexandra and within eight miless of the township. The female attire sometimes referred to is accounted for as having been worn by Steve Hart, who is in the habit of coming into the township so attired. At Adelaide a man named Callagher has been committed for trial for setting fire'to a house. The evidence showed that ho made improper proposals to a woman while he» husband was away, and being refused, set to the house out of revenge. A disturbance occurred at the Catholic picnic at Wallaroo owing to an Irish harp being carried in front of the Union Jack. The Mayor of Kadina, thinking the act illegal, remonstrated. The police subsequently interfered, and roughly used one Casford, who lost the use of speech for some time afterwards. He ia again dnmb— it is supposed from diink and excitement. One Augustus Scott, a half-caste, shot a man in a drunken quarrel at tiie Shipwrights' Arms, Newcastle. N.S.W. The crew of the La Werouse— seven im BJ"°* ber — were picked up in an open boat. Tn°5 l were barely able to save their clothes wben tbd vessel foundered*