AUSTRALIA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 575, 24 March 1870, Page 3

AUSTRALIA.

(From -the ■ Argus, March 8 to March 12, inclusive.) In all parts of the country there is great need of rain, but except in some of tbe northern districts, the dry weather still continues. From telegraphic intelligence we learn that there are very severe floods in New South Wales. At Maitland a large amount of property has been destroyed, and the maize crop in the district will be of but little value. It wiU be fortunate, seeing the rapidity with whfch the river bas risen, if no lives are lost. Sosth Australia is to have ber national flag as well as Victoria. "1 he flag finally approved -by tbe South Australian Government, and recommended for adoption, resembles," the Register says, "that of Victoria, except that in addition to the stars composing the Southern Cross, the pointers which form at all events a means of identification for this stellar sign are displayed. The -adoption of tbis flag ia subject to tbe approval of Her Majesty." A correspondent informs us tbat about 25 .years .ago grasshoppers overran Adelaide aud its neighbourhood. It was noticed that in the vicinity of the scarlet geranium, blue larkapur, and the common castor-oilplant the insects lay dead in heaps. Some property in these plants must be very destructive to this pest, fcr immediately tbe grasshoppers began to feed oh tbem tbey would fall in a dying state. This fact has led many of the inhabitants to grow the plants mentioned, since which Adelaide and its surroundings have been very. little troubled with grasshoppers. Co-operation amongst. the working-classes is generally productive of beneficial results, and we are glad to notice tbat the principle is about to be applied to an important branch of colonial industry. We understand that a combination of operative locomotive engineers, foundrymen, railway carriage and waggon makers and othera, has taken place, with the view of establishing a company on the co-operative principle for the purpose of treating with Mr Williams for the purchase bf his railway carriage works for the manufacture bf locomotives and rolling stock. Meat preserving on a large scale is going on at Echuca. ° The EohucaMeat Preserving Company," says the Riverine Herald oi 9th March, "have nearly finished the extension of their buildings, giving large and increased accommodation to the tinsmiths and others engaged in making cases for the meat; also furnishing storeage fora largequantity of preserved meats. The cattle yards are fast progressing towards completion, and the company will probably commence the slaughtering of cattle about Thursday. We understand thepresent consumption of sheep at these works is 8000 weekly, aud that after to-mor-row it will be increased to nearly 12,000. The bustling activity of the place is quite cheering."

We were shown last night, by a gentleman who left Launceston on Tuesday by the s.s. Tamar, some samples of alluvial gold taken from prospecting ground on the Piper River, near the claim of the Back Creek Company £_he gold was fine and very bright in colour, resembling very closely the alluvial gold obtained in tbe Beecbworth district. In each instance the sample was from a single dish of washdirt, obtained in every case at or near the surface, the lowest depth out of four washings being 4ft. 6in. The results obtained from these washings are considered to be very encouraging, and the prospectors have taken care to mark out their claims. With regard to the quartz reefs at the Waterhouse, tbe Pioneer and Welshman's, we are informed, are making most progress. At Fingal the "Onion Company is just beginning to crush. As tending in a measure to shed some light on a report in circulation a short time ago, of a ship on fire having been seen between Cape Otway and King's Island, the subjoined information from Captain Leggett, of the cutter Alice Rostron, may not be undeserving of attention. Captain Leggett, while at Apollo Bay, endeavouring to land cargo, was driven by stress of weather to King's Island, and while there he communicated with the lighthouse keeper. The latter mentioned to Captain Leggett that during the last two months there had been parties on the island burning the scrub, and keeping up frequent fires, for some purpose or another, and that he had written to the Tasmanian Government, calling attention to the circumstance. Captain Leggett states that he bas before now remonstrated with people on the island for carrying on similar practices. A belief in spiritualism bas not hitherto been supposed to excite to suicide, but it would appear to have had that effect in the case of a yOung man of 28, named Thompson, who poisoned himself yesterday morning. Thompson, who was an assistant to Mr Wragge, the chemist, bad shown no signs of insanity, though a great believer io spiritualism, and be seemed in his usual health and spirits on Sunday night last ; but, after getting up yesterday morning and taking in the milk, he went into his own room and took a dose of pru-sic acid. He was dead when found lying on his bed, and there was a note in bis handwriting on the dressing-table, addressed to a friend, and stating that the writer had attempted suicide last Christmas, when he failed, but tbat be meant to succeed this time. Tbe jury found that the young man poisoned himself while of unsound mind, brought on by reading books on spiritualism. The United States Consul at Sydney has informed the Chamber of Commerce in that city, that after the despatch of the March and April mails for England, via America, he shall be in a position to make such an arrangement of the time-table as will give thirteen mails per annum, each alternating with the four-weekly mail by way of Suez. We shall thus enjoy the advantages of fortnightly communication with Europe and America ; and the intelligence we shall receive from all parts of the United States by tbe new mail service will be lesa than a month old. Between the Californian and the P. and O. Company a wholesome rivalry will be established as regards the speed with which each will effect the transit ; the more especially as it is rumoured that the latter company are now building some boats which are to make the through passage from Southampton to Melbourne, by way of the Suez Canal. The Hon. Mr Grant should have been born a Yankee. He is always startling people with some .wondrous proposition. Having shown his capacity for driving * a coach aud six through acts of Parliament, he now wants to drive a railway train from Melbourne to London, via the Gulf of Carpentaria, the trip being pleasantly varied by a sea excursion of some 750 miles across tbe Straits. We only hope the hou. member will live long enough to do it. He last night gave notice that, on Tuesday, he would ask the Chief Secretary whether he will take into his consideration the desirability of placing himself in communication with tbe Governments of the other Australian colonies, with the v'ew of ascertaining the feasibility of establishing railway communication between the capitals of tbe Australian colonies and Kurope, via the Gulf of Carpentaria, the Dutch and English Straits settlements, and India — there being only 750 miles of navigation on this route ! The Pleasant Creek News says: — "A de* scription of enterprise in connection with farming, wbich should be far more generally followed iv this colony, was completed on Thursday last, at the farm of Messrs Scoular and Brinckman, of the Lakes. We allude to a plan of irrigation, wbich is now beginning to attract much attention amongst those who hold land in country favourably situated for the purpose. Messrs Scoular and Brinckman have just bad tbe erection of a 10-horse power engine completed in conjunction with a centrifugal pump, which throws the water into a cistern 30ft. above the level of the lakes. From thence it is conducted in flumes for a distance of half a mile to an elevated knoll, where it empties into a receptacle from which the water is allowed to flow in channels radiating from this centre. The flumes have appliances along tbe route which will enable tha intervening ground to be freely watered, and thus a large farm will be continually refreshed with an unlimited supply. The effect of this will be to give resources to the land wbich is possessed by none other in the district, and, indeed, surpassed ' by few in the colony. As the ground is naturally of the best quality we may expect to see very choice and very constant production supplied therefrom to this market. '• The threshing of the new crop is being proceeded witb," writes the Strangways correspondent of the Mount Alexander Mail, and the yield is universally considered excel • lent ; so mucb so, that in this immediate neighbourhood the estimates and expectations of growers, which are usually sanguine, are being exceeded by the actual result, so that

an opinion. I ventured lately to express in this journal is likely to be verified, that the colony will this year afford a surplus for exportation. Abundance to a nation is always a blessing, but in our case it is only marred by the consideration that it is achieved at tbe cost of a considerable portion of our national capital — the productive power of the soil. For in the absence of anything like a restora live system of farming, every bushel of corn I grown, like every ounce of gold taken from the earth, leaves less to be extracted ; and in view of this circumstance the question arises, is there a day in store for Victoria like that which appears to have already overtaken the sister colony of South Australia, when her people shall flee from, her exhausted soil ? The question is one which may worthily engage tbe attention, not only of farmers but of legislators." A farmer writes to us from South Australia giving a deplorable picture of the condition of his own class in that colony, owing to a succession of bad harvests ; and he states that the circumstances of many of the farmlabourers are equally desperate, although it is difficult to reconcile such a statement with the scarcity of hands and the high price which bas been paid for harvest work throughout the corn-growing districts of South Australia generally. Our correspondent asserts that if a vessel were chartered from Melbourne to bring away the unemployed from Adelaide, it would be a boon to both colonies. But from the inquiries we have instituted with respect to the unemployed in the latter city, some of whom are professional loafers, while others subsist on the proceeds of their wives' earnings as laundresses, seamstresses, &c, we are of opinion that we should be anything but gainers by the change proposed. We have too many men of this stamp already among us, and if the whole of them could be shipped off to some island in the South Pacific, with the alternative of work or starvation presented to them, we should have much less mendicancy, drunkenness, and crime, greater security for life and property, and diminished employment for the police in this city and its suburbs. The question of the annexation of Tasmania to Victoria, which was first raised in this colony, bas giveu rise from time to time to considerable discussion in the gardenisland. It has been incidentally touched upon again by tbe Hobart T u wn Mercury, and our contemporary, while admitting the probability of such a union being carried out at some future time, raises a novel, but at the same time forcible objection, against it. It describes and denounces the behaviour of the Frazers, the Vales, and tbe G. P. Smiths, and chara tenses the Legislative Assembly of Victoria as "a menagerie containing specimens of every species of the genus homo, socially offensive." It sketches the convivial habits of certain of our legislators, and indicates the nature of the business which they formerly transacted at the Lands Offlce and in other public departments. It details tbe circumstances under which the present Assembly was elected, and draws a full-length portrait of the burly member for, Creswick, " flustered with flowing cups ;" and then the Mercury goes on to ask whether the representatives of Tasmania could be expected to rub shoulders with brawlers and roysterers like these, in a legislative chamber ? Far from being willing to submit to such an indignity, our contemporary declares tbat "annexation to the Fijis, or even to the sable Pomare, would be more tolerable." The formal opening of Messrs P. N. Russell and Co.'s new railway carriage factory in Sydney, on the Ist instant, was celebrated by a banquet which brought together all the political and social notabilities of that city, from the Governor downwards. The event was an important one in many particulars. It marked the advanced stage of growth which has been reached by a great industry. It proved tbe capacity of that industry to maintain its own against all comers; and it was an indirect testimony to the value of the principles of free trade. For this branch of manufacture has not been cockered and coddled by protective duties, and all the state has done for Messrs Russell has been to give them a contract for five years, which will result in a saving to the Government of £30,000 on the estimated quantity of rolling stock required. Instead of being enervated by the hot-house atmosphere of protection, the energies of this manufacturing firm have been braced and stimulated by competition with the railway-carriage builders of Great Britain ; and the result is that Messrs Russell, who in the year 1851 had only 80 men and boys on their wage-list, and disbursed no more than £8800 in labour, now employ 345 men and boys, to whom they pay nearly £35.000 per annum; aud so soon as the new works, which bave just been erected at a cost of £10,0C0, come into full operation, another hundred recruits will be added to the industrial regiment engaged in forging the implements of peace and promoting the triumphs of civilization, in the factory in Barker street, Sydney. [ Some of the banking institutions of the i colony are putting the screw on the building ; societies by calling in the advances which the | latter have hitherto enjoyed. It appears that the banks have discovered that thu building societies ara competing with them for deposits, and can afford to pay seven or eight per cent, for the use of money, while the security they offer is unexceptionable, as it consists wholly of real estate ; and the value of such security goes on increasing from month to month, because the borrowers from a building society commence repaying princij pal aud interest immediately the loan is con- < tracted. To escape the financial pressure to which they are now being subjected, building societies should establish a bank of their own, as well as a mutual fire insurance association. All building societies which are more than four or fire years old have a balance of some thousands of pounds to tbeir credit ; and on the other hand, all societies during the first four or five years of their existence are borrowers, because they can advantageously lend

out more money than they receive from theninvesting shareholders. Old building societies cannot get more than 5 per cent, for their surplus capita), while young ones have to pay 9 per cent, for an overdraft. Now, it is obvious that if th*? financial operations of both classes of societies were conducted by one institution, borrowing societies could obtain the advances they require at 7 per cent , nnd societies with accumulated funds could em ploy them ut the same rate, less a fraction to be deducted for management charges. The present is an opportune occasion for the establishment of an institution of this kind. As the time was approaching for Mr Charles Mathews to leave England, he seems to have become nervous as to the reception he would meet with in Australia, although the irrepressible elasticity of his nature enabled him to rise superior to all misgivings, as will be seen from the following extract from a letter received from him by the last mail : — " Now, I expect you to pet me very much, as it is, as it were, my first appearance in a new world, aud I come to you a spoiled child. I have been for so many years a'lowed to bask in public favour, that one chilling blast would shrivel me up, and send me blubbering back to my disconsolate friends. If I thought the public of Melbourne would not be glad to see me, no money should tempt me there, but I have every reason to hope that with ' a good character from my last place,' I shall be kindly welcomed, and ' give satisfaction iv my new situation.' The voyage once over, I can't tell you tbe pleasure it will give met) visit the colony of which I have received for so many years such glowing reports, and if the Melbourne public is only as well pleased to see me, we cannot fail to be mutually satisfied. If all I hear be true, it is more than likely that, though it has taken years of persuasion to get me to undertake the journey, I shall, when once with you, be equally unwilling to come back again. Well, we shall see. At all events, let every body know that I intend to do my best to please them, ard if in the same health and spirits I am now, it Bhall go hard but I succeed in gaining their goodwill, even if they find my professional talents below their expectation. lam not ' a sensation actor,' and they must take me as I am, but I have every confidence, and shall boldly make my bow, as if among old friends." By a letter received at the same time from his son, we learn that half an hour after the box-office was opened for bis father's farewell benefit in Covent Garden Theatre, every seat was sold at double its ordinary price, and tbe place was fairly besieged. As Mr Mathews was to leave England on the Ist February we may expect his arrival by the mail steamer next week. "An important discovery of tin stone, or oxide of tin, has just been made in the vicinity of Beechwortb," writes the Ovens and Murray Advertiser. " For years past stream tin (or black sand) in considerable j quantities has been procured at Eldorado,! Wooragee, and in the beds of several smaller watercourses which take their rise in the ranges surrounding Beechwortb. Until recently no attempt was ever made to trace the sources from which this mineral had been washed, and the consequence is that Until now no tin lode bas ever been discovered iv the district, or, we believe, in the colony. A party of prospectors, under the superintendence of Mr Green, formerly of Myrtleford — a gentleman who has done good service to the mining interest in this portion of the colony — has for some time past been out in the ranges in the vioinity of Beechworth, and the result is the discovery of a tin lode within half a mile of the town. On Saturday, we were shown, at the office of Mr Turner, Camp street, a number of specimens taken from the place wbere the discovery was made. These specimens consist of large pieces of granite, in which the oxide of tin is distinctly visible; some portions of the stone are studded with the prisms, while in J othera small veins of the mineral run through the stone. The granite is of a hard close texture, slightly intermixed with quartz, and in addition to the tin a clear metallic substance is also visible in portions of the stone. The discovery as yet, from what we can learn, is of more importance from what it is likely to lead to than on account of any actual results obtained. In the specimens shown tbe tin ore is not sufficiently rich to pay for the working, but it is the opinion, not only ot those engaged in tbe work of prospecting, but of eminent mineralogists like Mr Brough Smith, that payable tin lodes exist in the vicinity of Beechworth, and that they only require looking for. We have good reason to believe that tbis is now being carefully done under Mr Green's superintendence, and before long we hope to be able to report that a lode tbat will pay for the working has been struck." When our Flying Squadron visitors took stock of our city and its architectural characteristics, they did not fail to remark that the principal private edifices were either banks or soft-goods warehouses. It is always desirable to see ourselves as others see us, and especially so when our observers are men of education | and experience, who have had frequent opportunities of comparing foreign countries, cities and communities. The obvious deduction from the splendid appearance of the buildings aforesaid was that the interests they represented were paramountly thriving. Money-dealers and milliners appear to be the most uniformly successful among our commercial men. The showiest carriages, the smartest liveries, the moat sumptuously appointed suburban villas, are pretty geuerally seen to belong to some prosperous representative of the banking interest, or luxurious dea'er in drapery. All this was remarked with more or less attention by our visitors, and it did not escape the reflections of at least one ingenious gentleman, that if the business of money-lending, and the importation of ladies' finery, were the most profitable occupations in Victoria, we must be regarded as a very unthrifty community. From time to time, as some joyous temple of Mammon or stupendous tabernacle for tbe habiliments of the fair sex towers

newly above the. house- tops,, we recur to the opinion of onr late guest. In connection with this subject, we 1 must notice the widely differing views of bank proprietors as to the style of structure most appropriate for banking purposes. The building now erecting for the National Bank, with its massive severity of elevation, is almost in grotesque contrast with the ornate architecture of itneighbour, the Victoria. The showy front of the Bank of New South Wales is overburdened with unfinished ornamentation. There is an austerity of expression about the face of the London Chartered, as if it disdained any gewgawism of outside show. The Oriental has appropriated the British lion and unicorn in a most emphatic and pretentious manner, though some fancy that an elephant and a <iger, with a banyan tree in tbe background, would be more in character. The Knglish and Scottish is a common-sense looking establishment ; and the Australasian and the Union remind one of a man so notoriously rich that he can afford to wear a patched pair of boots, or a shabby hat. Perhaps the Commercial Bank and the Colonial will in time be disposed to find more dignified and suitable premises for the conduct of their prosperous operations. In such event, the proprietors will certainly be enabled to improve largely on the design of any bankinghouse that Melbourne at present possesses.