Mail News.

Otago Witness, Issue 1461, 15 November 1879, Page 10

Mail News.

AUSTRALIAN. (Peb s.s. Abawata, at the Bluff.) VICTORIA.

The Agent-General telegraphs that the Imperial Government are determined to abolish the ocean mail service between Suez and Southampton, which will oblige Australian letterj to pay Brindisi rate 3 for all correspondence sent across the Continent.

Mr Berry thinks the intention of the Imperial authorities may be to destroy the competition of the San Francisco mail service by offering all the Colonies of the Australian group the advantage of more rapid transit via Suez and Brindisi.

It is calculated by tbe Postmaster-General that the Victorian loss would amount to about L 14,000 per annum. It is believed the Sandhurst strike will shortly terminate. The Great Southern Company has resumed w,prk |at the old wages, and other mine-owners will probably follow this example. This is the result of the threat of the Government to forfeit the leases if the labour covenants were not strictly fulfilled. Some mine-owners threaten only to put on sufficient hands to comply with the labour covenants.

It is recognised that Parliament has become thoroughly demoralised. Mr Berry states his willingness to go to the country as soon as tariff reform questions are sufficiently advanced 'to submit definite issues to the electors.

The Age attributes the position of the Liberals to Mr Berry's 'incapacity as leader, and urges a reconstruction of the Ministry. Many rumours are current respecting the provision Ministers are making for themselves in the event of retirement from office.

Mr Bent's motion that the Government instead of increasing taxation should reduce public expenditure, raises tbe question whether the unpopular tariff Bhould not ba set aside. It is underetord that Mr Bent has been promised nearly 40 votes. Tha proprietors of the North- Western Canal Company prcprse to establish a temperance townehip on the backs of the Murray, if the Government allow them to take up over 60,000 acres at LI per acre. The Minißter of Lands said be would consider the sent me favourably.

The Minister of Lands states that the selectors are L 320,000 in arrears for rent. Three men, promoters of .totalise tor companies, were arrested as keepers of common gaming 'houses. > . The National Bank has declared a 12| per cent, dividend* R. Nichols, of Christchurch, won the LIOCO prize in Bridges' art .union. , ,The second prize was won by an Ararat barber with the very last ticket drawn. ■ . The Government allege that it is impossible that Mr M'Culloch's splendid imported stcck could have died from, the water drunk at the Quarantine-ground. Mr M'Culloch lost about LIO.OOO worth of stock. The Ercildoune sheep sale yielded nearly LBOOO, in spite of the low prices realised.

NEW SOUTH WALES.

A Lands Act Amendment Bill similar to that of last session has been introduced.

A telegram has been received from the agents of Kenn and Knotts; of the dry-air system of meat-preserving, stating a steamer is about to be sent Sydney specially fitted' up with machinery and appliances to take Home a cargo of meat, in order to fully teat the nurits of the invention.

The special grold meclal for sheep was awarded to the French Commissioner by the Exhibition Live Stock Committee.

The frigate Loire will 1 leave Noumea on November Ist with 400 amnestied Communists. As many more will return by the transport Creuse.

A clerk to an engineering firm has inherited L 70,000. ' ' Returned diggtra from Mekcel, near Glenfrel, state that tho important gold discovery reported ia a hoax.

The proposed network of metropolitan tramways will incjude tbe suburb of Balmain. The regatta list is well filled. There are six entries for the all comt-rs' race, including two from Melbourne and one from New Zealand.

The Bank of New South Wales' dividend and bonus equals 17^ por cent.

SOtjTH AUSTRALIA.

Thoinsect in the Ro.-efield vineyards is pronounced a comparatively harmless member of the aplus tribe, and not the true phylloxera. The harvest prospects are brilliant, and the yield will probably be unusually good. There is a larger area under cultivation than during any previous season. It is estimated that there will be a surplus' of nearly 400,000 tons for export. - W. E. Downer, commissioner of Insolvency, was charged with indecently assaulting the wife of Joseph -Rogers, in a private room at the Adelaide • Court of Insolvency. The wife went to beg the Commissioner to release Rogers, who had been imprisoned for fraudulent insolvency. It was alleged that tho Commissioner directed his release, and that during this interview he twice kissed Mrs Rogers, and sought to make another appointment. The Bench dismissed the ca'ie without calling evidence for the defence. Villeneuve Smith, who wa9 recently imprisoned for libelling the Commissioner, was counsel for the prosecution. The counsel for the defence contended that the charge was an impudent conspiracy.

QUEENSLAND.

Local government will shortly be extended to the whole Colony.

A 400-ton iron dredge barge has been built for the Government. It is the largest yet built in the Colony. The massacre of the Pride of Logan's crew is confirmed. H.M.S, Beagle will punish the murderers.

TASMANIA.

The Ministry propose to meet Parliament on the 13thof January, with measures proposing a reduction in tho expenditure, revision of Customs duties, and direct taxation in a modified form. The Government obtained supplies for the remainder of the current year. The Hobart Town Tribune is again defunct.

The greater parb of the land in what was originally the kingdomof Prussia in cultivated by the owners themselves. While the number of tenants wholly engaged in agriculture was only 30,000, there were no less than 1,000,000 proprietors similarly occupied.

The Danish Government has given orders for a number of 55 centimetre guns, with the necessary equipment, for gunboats intended for coast defence ; and Sweden, too, desires to add another battery of field-guna to her artillery armaments.