AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3326, 20 August 1879, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

(Pbb s.B. Abawata at the Bittpf.)

(Pee Peess Asso&iation.)

Melboubne, Tuesday

The Budget debate is still proceeding. Mr Berry made an effective reply, denying the attacks on the service, and explained why numbers conceived it their duty to place the political system on auch a basis that their successors could not disturb the franchise. He declared that, under the existing tariff, Government were defrauded of one hundred thousand pounds a-, year on tobacco alone. Warehousemen assert that nearly one hundred and twenty thousand pounds of, the proposed fresh taxation will fall on soft Boods, though upwards of one hundred iousand of that is in no sense protective.

Several, Very disorderly scenes occurred in the Assembly. O'Loughlin (Attorney•;, General) gave the lie direct to Mctntyre (member tor Sandhurst), and challenged Mclntyre to fight in the lobbies, bat afterwards apologised. .•The Orient line will carry the mails for the Australian Colony by their fortnightly service, and from England and Naples for the amount of the postage. Eighty-one horses are accepted for., the Melbourne Cup, being six more than last year. Disappointment is felt at Le Loup being the only non-acceptor. Democrat is backed in Sydney for the Melbourne Cup, for all money obtainable at one hundred to four and five; He has supplanted Le Loup as the favorite. Demonstration is in favor on the strength of a good trial;'he is supposed to win seven thousand at one hundred to two. Dornwell and Monarch are the only others backed. > In the evidence given at the Unemployed Labor Board, it was shewn that the shipping trade has never been so dull for the past twenty years. The trade of the port is fast going to Sydney. Owing to v the repairs to the Union Shipping Company's boats being executed in If ew Zealand, Melbourne lost seventy thousand pounds last year. The steamer Eotomahana, during her trial trip on the Clyde, attained a speed of sixteen knots per hour. She is,expected to reach Melbourne at the end of September.

Remarkable progress is being made at the Exhibition Buildings. Thirteen caws, selected from the best English herds, arrived in the ship Old Kensington, consigned to Mr Stewart, of New Zealand. ' • ,

A miraculous escape from death occurred at Malmesbury. A rifleman named Smith fired at a target, just as Arthur Hawken, the marker, ran in front without hoisting the danger signal. The bullet passed through his right side, inflicting a flesh wound. Smith secured a bull's-eye. The moit notable non-acceptors of the Melbourne Cup are :-—Belladrum, Maid of Honor, Gainsford, Whitker, Nellie, Fishhook, and Templeton. The withdrawal of the two latter was imperative, they being insufficiently described.. When nominated, Fishhook was entered as aged, though only six years old. ; The shareholders of the Commercial Bank approve of the amalgamation: with the Australian and European. - It is estimated there will be a saving in the working expenses equal to 2£ per cent, per annum on the capital of, four hundred thousand pounds. ' '•' * f :- Welcome rains are pretty general.. , Immediate steps be .taken* to encourage instruction in elementary science in the State Schools, special inducements being offered to both pupils and teachers.

I Brother Brennin, Grand Secretary of I the Order of Druids, proceeds to Wellington to open a lodge there. Government propose to compel parents to register their, children of school age at the nearest school. .' The unemployed agitation has. somewhat abated, though private charitable assistance is still large. The Opposition strongly urged the immediate construction of the Lancefield Kailway in order to assist the unemployed; - i.-,... • .-_ Sydxky. The Hanlon Clubi pronto, challenges Trickett to pullHaalOn bn the Paramatta Kiver for £20QO, "arid the championship of the world, during the Exhibition, and the-challenge will be accepted^/ The stakes'willbe raised'by public ishbscriptions. There is very general opposition to the amount of the.slakes. ;'?» •?

Archbishop H'Rhan has issued a second pastoral, contesting principally^thy application to State schools of the system of, Cardinal Newman's, in his recent/declaration against liberalism in Teligion. * The Rev. Jeffries and other fclergy are lecturinsf in opposition to the' Catholic claims. The present pastoral has little effect oh the publio schools in country districts. Parker rejects the last Victorian proppsal for the hprder customs dispute. It is alleged the effect of the Victorian plan woflld jb« toj benefit Victoria at the expense of New South i Wales, the expense to New South Wales being flerenty-six thousand pounds annually, while she would only receive five hundred in returni J < • Wjndeyer, Attorney-General, has-been appointed Acting Judge of the Supreme Court. Boberfc Wisdom, member for Morpetb, succeeds Windeyer. His ac-j cession strengthens, the Ministry. i , ■ > •.■ •,■•.■,-•' .•:• .• -• .-Adblaipe; ■

A Bill has been introduced into the Couneilitvtending to amend the Constitution. It is proposed to empower the Governor to nominate one third of the members of the Council in the event of the Upper House, repealing a bill which had been carried in. the Amenably, thte nominees only retaining their seats until the first batch of members retire.

Froude, a domestic servant in a clergy-* r m*i£f"> family, .asserts .an : extraordinary ■ ' adventure'befel her on Sunday,' August 3. About 10 o'clock at night her former lover named JGrenville accosted her in the street, threw a pocket handkerchief across her face and chloroformed her.; 'When her senses returned,the <irl found herself in an open boat out of sight of land. He insisted that she promised to become his wife, and on refusing he cursed

her, and rose to strike her but fell overboard. The tide drifted the boat ashore, when the girl got out, and fainted, and ; was found insensible next morning. Her

father, who claims to be first cousin of the historian Froude, received a letter the same morning purporting to be signed by Grenville, seating that he carried the girl off. The police have found ho trace of Grenville, and believe the story to be the imagination of an hystericalgirl. Bbisbake.

Mr Griffiths moved a motion of want of confidenCe/condemningthe'pWptiiiStlioan exoenditure of the Government. It ii behaved the latter will obtain a small H.M.S. Beagle has' desltroye^fTnumber of native huts id revenge- ftr the Cloudy Bay massacres. No lives were taken*, Tasmania. A payable alluvial goldfi*ld^ hjfffjeen discovered on Booby Alia Hiver, notnern coast. ''>.'■ - ;,■ t*

(P'iW's;si CiT^"tof':N:M''x^®#%ircK.

' Mblboubne, August 13, eVetling. At a meeting of the literary profession held this afternoon, Sir ArohitiU&'ifiAie and Messrs James Smith and J£. Wil« loughby were appointed by ballot a* the representatives at the Social SeieUee Congress. The representatives of the coachbaitdrag firms waited on the Treasurer thjs-Jpprn- „ ing to obtain^sundjry •Itera^pbf" IHthe^l present .tariff, with .a riejf to increased^* "protection.''„ ■/ •' f ? f" ,X A sum of £171,000 will, be required to complete the' Parliament 'Houses. There was another, fopfbill njatfif by electric light last njjjht. " Lystcr's Ojpera r Companjr, opens at Adelaide'next t|bpn|l|..E?H«^Cguaranteed £3000 for the season. . „.s lr ' The European' Mail' 'states' ths| | Sir Arthur Gordoh f leaves' 6an:*Pranciseo on Atfgust-4, for Fiji. '*■'.?■ - :M-c fJ* *'-.>.«r 'Avmnuan, August 13. The Assembly, by a majority vdf 18, affirmed the opening of ihe-Adehrfde^iud Port Institutes' reading-rooms frote 1 to 6 ,on Sundays, ,and gave aduore^onsry power lio the committee' iof "the 'other i institute's: '**./" -' /"' '. i.T.^^tj. 1 Mr Eees has moved the"' immediate .'establishment ,o( free cdqaatiqn, aad the abolition of payment/by'reaulliijV^'The debate was adjourned, on the motion of the Minister of Education. ,- ? „,