AUSTRALIA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 660, 5 July 1870, Page 3

AUSTRALIA.

i(JFrom the Argus, June 20 to June 23 inclusive.) Fifty-seven assignments have been made at Adelaide under the Insolvency Act within a fortnight. Bain has fallen on the east coast of Tasmania almost continually since April. The agricultural country is boggy, and farming operations are entirely suspended. ' A report is current of a private letter being received in Adelaide to the effect that Mr and Mrs Bay, old Adelaide colonists, who were supposed to have been lost in the General Grant, are still alive, and may be expected in the colony in a few weeks. The Hobarl Town Mercury says:—" Barely has there been more activity displayed in the shipbuilding yards of Hobart Town than at present, and seldom, at least for many years past, have there been more vessels in course of construction at one time." A census abstract of the population of Tasmania on Feb. 7, 1870, gives a total of 99,328 persons, being an addition to the population of the colony of 9,351 during the last nine years. The proportions of the sexes are — 45,593 males, and 40, 384 females. It would appear from our telegraphic advices that the want of light labour for the Queensland market is being met by. the importation of Chinese coolies in large numbers. A. vessel arrived yesterday from Hong Kong, with 200 Chinese, and other ships are to follow. The Chamber of Commerce are desirous of taking advantage of the present opportunity of the intercolonial Conference to urge forward several matters of more especial mercantile importance. It is intended to write to the Chief Secretary to advocate a reduction and uniformity of postage and telegraphic rates, the general introduction of the cental system of selling grain and flour, and one or two other matters. The number of German and Swiss vignerons and farmers in the neighbourhood of Geelong is very considerable, and as a class they may be ranked amongst the most intelligent and well-conducted in the district. Apropos of the present state of the immigration question, one of them hss written a letter to the Advertiser expressing the reasonable opinion that any surplus from the immigration fuad might well be applied in aid of the bringing out of the friends of his countrymen already here. Some gentlemen from Melbourne have beep in Geelong for a week or two past, with a view to commence operations in the meatpreserving line, as a private company. The stock to be operated on is rabbits, and the seat of operations is to be in the neighbourhood of Colac, where a suitable site for the works is being looked for. The quantity of raw material will be unlimited, and will probably cost next to nothing, as the settlers will be only too glad to have the rabbit pest diminished, even if they have to pay for the killing of them. An industry new to Geelong is about being started on an extensive scale, in the shape of a steam biscuit factory. The premises, which cover a large extent of ground at the corner of Smytbe and Cavendish streets, are almost finished, and the machinery will be at full work in the course of a few days. The opposite corner allotment of the same two streets ib Government land, and was yesterday, for the first time, advertised for sale on the 28th inst. It will no doubt sell all the better from its vicinity to the biscuit factory, where employment will be given to a great number of hands. A custom has long prevailed amongst sellers of dairy stock, of bringing cows to market unmilked for a day or so, in order to improve their appearance in a milk-produc-ing point of view. The attention of the police in Geelong was some weeks since called to this, which appears a piece of cruelty, and three cow dealers were accord* ingly summoned to the Central Court yesterday, charged with being guilty of cruelty to animals in the manner mentioned. The Bench, however, dismissed the cases, as there was no proof adduced that the animals suffered any pain from being so long left without having the milk taken from them. The worn and defaced state of the silver coinage has been brought under the notice of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce by the Chamber of Commerce of Hobart Town, in a letter which, after setting out the steps that had been adopted there for dealing with the matter, recommended that tho subject should be brought under the notice of the Intercolonial Conference now sitting in Melbourne. The letter suggested that the home and colonial Governments should be asked to import new silver coin at their joint expense, and that, after dealing with the worn coin now in currency, any future deterioration of the silver coinage should be met by th« issue of an Australian coinage. The Chamber of Commerce of Melbourne have agreed to assist to carry out tbege recommendations, and will address the Chief Secretary on the subject. A correspondent forwards as a statement of the steaming distance from Melbourne to Southampton by different routes, distances which vary somewhat from the figures given by Mr D'Aguilar Samuda, as quoted in our leading article on Monday. Acsording to Mr Samuda the gain of the voyage via Suez over that via the Cape is, in the case of Melbourne, only 91 miles. According to the figures given by our correspondent/and which he says are the result of computations by a scientific gentleman, the shortest steaming distances stand thus: — Southampton to Melbourne, via the Cape, 11,837 nautical miles ; by the overland route, -via Gibraltar and Suez, 11,154 miles; via Marseilles, 10,139 miles; by the Califorcian route, 13,418 miles, the actual distance between the points "as the crow flies," °179 miles. This statement makes the Gibraltar route 683 miles, and the Marseilles route 1698 miles, shorter than that by the Cape, while the Marseilles route is 3279 miles lesß than the line by California and the Central American Kail way.