AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Star (Christchurch), Issue 380, 2 August 1869, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

{From the Argus, July 14 to July 19, inclusive.) The Tasmanian quartz reefs are turning out better than was expected. A good deal of attention is being given in South Australia to the culture and manufacture of flax, and it is estimated that about 100 acres have been sown this season in the southern district. Another parcel of diamonds has been received from Mudgee, found on Mr Rouse's property, who refuses an offer of £20,000 made to him by a company wishing to search for diamonds thereon. An Imperial despatch has been received at Sydney discountenancing consuls or commanders of war vessels interfering iu Fijian affairs. It holds out no hopes of England accepting either the sovereignty or protectorate of the islands. Our Sandhurst correspondent writes : — " The crops around here never looked better than they do at the present time, and if nothing occurs to spoil the wheat crop before harvest, tho Bendigo farmers anticipate a perfect glut of that grain." Lovers of the shellfish known to the good folks north of the Tweed as "buckies," and to Englishmen as " whelks," will have their proclivities for this description of mollusc amply gratified at present, no fewer than 40,000 having been brought over from New Zealand on Saturday hy the s.s. Alhambra. Some information regarding tbe position of our railways is given in a report of the Board of Land and Works for 1868, recently presented in Parliament. The debenture capital bearing interest, irrespeetive of the new loan, is £8,618,100, and the net revenue of the lines for the past year was £298,4*26 5s sd, or 4.46 per cent upon the capital ; while the gross receipts were £581,402 19s Bd, being an increase of £30,000 on the revenue from the same sources last year. A decrease is observable in the passenger, and an increase in the goods traffic. . . " It is not perhaps generally known," says the Ararat Advertiser, ." that the man who discovered the Sutherlandshire goldfield, which is creating such a stir in the old country, was a former resident of Ararat. Robert Gillchrist was working as a mate with Messrs Veitch and Syq^es, at Slaughter-yard-hill, Cathcart, some four years ago, but did not succeed in making any very brilliant stroke of fortune. Shortly after this he removed to Beaufort, where matters became more favourable for him, and there he managed to accumulate a sufficient sum upon

which to return to Scotland. It was, no doubt, the experience gained in this neighbourhood that enabled him to detect the presence of gold in the locality now attracting so much attention across tbe water." We have papers from New Caledonia to the 4th inst. The Mbniteur of the 20th ult. contains a proclamation by the Governor confiscating the lands heretofore held by the Tchapohico tribe of natives, on account of their having killed and eaten some French sailors. In the same number we find a letter from M. Buette, who has just returned to New Caledonia after visiting Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and Ballarat. He contrasts the activity and progress of Australia with the somnolence and lethargy of the French colony, and reminds his compatriots of the abundant and diversified resources of that island. He points out that the mean annual product of sugar in Bourbon is 60,000 tons, while Now Caledonia comprehends an area available for the growth of the sugarcane three times as great as that of the former island. The select committee of the Legislative Assembly, appointed to consider the subject of railway extension, has brought up its report. The report disputes the propriety of constructing our railways on the English model, and enters into au analytical examination of the cost of the principal lines in Europe and America; from which it concludes that in a new country with a limited population, sparsely settled, and with a limited borrowing power, the most advantageous system of railway construction is that which will provide the inhabitants with sufficient ordinary accommodation, at moderate speed and moderate fares; and in this opinion the committee state they are supported by the opinions of the great majority of eminent English engineers, as recorded in the English Royal Commission Report of 1867. It is believed that such railways, including rollingstock and stations, can be constructed for £6000 per mile in Victoria, suitable for all purposes of traffic for many years to come. The report of the directors of the Victorian Woollen and Cloth Manufacturing Company, to be presented at the seventh half-yearly meeting of the shareholders, to be held at Geelong to-day, shows that the profits on the manufactures for the half-year have beeu £322 13s 9d, and that a dividend at the rate of ten per cent will be declared. The directors, in presenting their report to the shareholders for the six months ending 31st May, 1869, last, have the pleasure to report tbat in the manufacture of tweeds considerable improvement has been effected, additional skilled labour having been obtained, and increased proficiency acquired by the older hands; many imperfections which were apparent in the first manufactures are thu3 overcome, and further improvement in style and finish is still anticipated. The quantity manufactured during the half-year was 86,934 yards. The sales during the same period are 35,583 yards, being an increase, as compared with the previous half-year, of nearly 15,000 yards. This satisfactory result shows that the tweeds are finding favour in the market, and is also attributable to the employment of a traveller, which the directors found to be necessary, the stock having increased to nearly 23,000 yards, but which at the end of the half-year was reduced to 16,700 yards, and has since been further diminished. Dr Muecke, in a letter to the South Australian Register, thus describes a native plant yielding caoutchouc, which he has recently discovered near Salt Creek: — " The ground is closely covered with it, and it grows in patches near each other. It belong* to the extensive family of plants in Australia generally called grass-trees, to which the Taltners grass also belongs, and to which it is somewhat similar. In its stalks it is much stronger, but more narrow than that, grows out of a knottyroot, and has always five fan-like growing leaves. The damp yellow juice exudes from the knot and the bottom stalks during the summer heat and flows on the sand, where It becomes hard, as every caoutchouc does, and turns into a well-known substance. Although it was winter, I found this substance, as it is produced , dried, out of the fan-clefts. The whole plant is in all its parts filled with the juices of this elastic rubber, for every fresh green leaf burns like the caoutchouc itself, with a gas-producing flame and black smoke, which immediately reminds one of burning caoutchouc." The schooner Sea Bird, from Tasmania, had Wrought over a cargo of coal from a place in Port Seymour, called Long Point. This coal must not be confounded with what is known as Seymour coal, and which waa only taken from the surface. It is a superior mineral, and is taken from a bed worked some 200 feet underground. The coal from this pit at Long Point has been tested for steaming purposes, aud has been found to answer well, being highly inflammable, and producing a powerful heat, which is retained for a considerable time. The opening up of the seam and the prosecution of the working is mainly due to the exertions of Mr Joseph Snowball. The Sea Bird is the first craft to bring a freight of this coal here, and she will be followed by the schooner Seymour and another vessel, all of them being engaged for this trade.. While carrying out the arrangements for the working of the coal deposit, Mr Snowball was also fortunate in finding the requisite materials for the manufacture of firebricks. A small quantity of these bricks have been sent over in the Sea Bird as a sample, and, from their composition and make, they are said to be very durable. In consequence of reports received from London by the last mail commenting unfavourably on some of tbe Australian preserved meat exposed for sale in that city, Mr Caldwell, the secretary of the Victoria Meat-preserving Company, has forwarded to us some samples of beef and mutton preserved by his company, with a request that we would report upon them. The process of curiHg adopted by Mr Caldwell's company appears to be a modified system of Halting, and the meat thus prepared, though some-

what too salt for our taste, was found to be perfectly sound and sweet. The mutton, which had been kept four months, and might, therefore, if exported, have been now selling in England, had not the slightest taint, and on being cooked was found to be both palatable and wholesome. The beef, which was only a month old, was as fresh as a nosegay, and with the exception of a slight hardness, which may have been attributable to the cooking, was in every way excellent. In fact, if Mr Caldwell can place meat on the London market in as good condition as the samples we experimented upon, the purchasers of it at 6d per lb, have no right whatever to complain. A New York paper of the Ist of March contains the following announcement : — " Monsieur A. Chevalier, the Swiss aeronaut, who proposes to make a balloon voyage across tbe Atlantic, has recently arrived in thi3 country, and is now making preparations for his perilous voyage. He is only thirty years of age, but has spent a large fortune in experiments in navigating the air, and ia the inventor of a flying-machine which was constructed after the model of a bird, but which persistently refused to asceud. By the common mode of ballooning Chevalier has made hundreds of ascents in every country in Europe, and also in Australia. Once he sailed in his balloon from Paris beyond the boundaries of Russia. On another occasion he crossed tho St. George's Channel from Dublin to England. In one of his trips he made the extraordinary flight of seven hundred miles in four hours ; and in another ascent, made just before coming to this country, he was driven forty-five miles in an hour." The M. A. Chevalier referred to above was for some time a resident in this city, and is brother to Mr N. Chevalier, the well-known artist. We believe the aSronaut has broken both his legs in ballooning, but nothing seems capable of jnitigating the ardour of his passion for this pursuit.