AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3359, 14 January 1879, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

(Per 8.8. Kingarooma, viu the Bluff.) [Br Telegbaph.] MELBOURNE, Jan. 7. The Victorian revenue returns for the quarter ending Dec. 31 have been issued. Tho total sum received during the quarter was £1,138,106, and for the year £3,595,307, an increase, as compared with tho previous twelve months, of £83,0-46. The Treasurer ha 9 now received £2,305,529 for tho financial half-year. According to his estimate of rovenue, ho should have received £2,447,000, so that there is_a deficiency of receipts, when compared with the estimate, of £172,000 for the half-year. The sixth annual sale of Me3srs Robertson Bros. shorthorn|and Hereford cattle wib held at Colac on Jan. 3. The competition was small, and many of tho beasts were quite sacrificed. The total receipts were £5481 10s Gd. Mr Simpson, of the Northern Island of Now Zealand, obtained several grand bargains in heifers, and purchased some lots of nigh quality. He secured tho 11th Earl of Alvie, by fche sfch Earl of Derrimufc, for 50gs ; Maid of Oxford, by Oxford Cherry Duke, for 105gs 5 Oountees of Colac, by Earl of Geneva, for lOOgs ; and five pure uhorthorn heifers afc 45gs each, and five at 30gs each. The atocfc have been shipped by the Eingarooma. . Hiß Excellenoy Sir Hercules Hobinßon arrived in Melbourne on Jan. 3, on a vißit to Mr and Mrs A. K. Finlay, of Glenormiflton. He

travelled overland in twenty-Beven and a half hours, "which is unequalled on record, and only twenty-four hours were actually spent in travelling. The mail takes forty-three houra. Sir W. Jervoise returned to Adelaide on^ Jan 4. The police have arrested a large number of persons in the north-eastern districts under the Outlawry Act, on suspicion of being bttsh telegraphers for the Kelly gang. Most of them are confined in the Beech woith Gaol, and a detachment of the garrison artillery has been sent up to protect the gaol against attack. The deep sea sailors at present in Melbourne have struck for £7 per month for direct home voyages. *. A meeting of sixteen persons, chiefly artisans, held on Jan. 3, decided to form an anti-Clrinese league in Melbourne, and try I and extend its influence throughout the/ Colony. The settlement of the strike inn Sydney was strongly condemned, as beind quite adverse to the seamen. One of the moßt magnificent electrical phenomena ever witnessed outside the tropics, was visible in the neighbourhood of Melbourne on the evening or Jan. 4. Their Excellencies Sir H. Robinson, Governor of New South Wales ; Sir W. J. D. Jervoise, Governor of South Australia ; Mr F. T. Weld. Governor of Tasmania ; and Sir A. E. Kennedy, Governor of Queensland, have all consented to become patrons of the Colonial Juvenile Exhibition to be held in Melbourne in October next. There are many enquiries for information from Sydney, Adelaide, and New Zealand. Sir John Coode has notified the Harbour Trust Commission that he expected to complete his report on the Melbourne harbour works this month. Edwards, the pedestrian, failed to walk 110 miles in 24 hours, at Ballarat, owing to the great heat. He completed 108 miles 997 yards in the time. A proposal has been made to establish a new bank in Melbourne to be called the Australian gold and Estate Bank to aid in the development of mining, farming, and manufactures. Mr W. S. Lyster, the operatic manager, will leave England by the January mail. A portion of his new company will arrive in Melbourne by the Lusitania, the remainder, including Mdlle Rose Hersee, by the Chiinborazo. The Royal Commission in the lands question has reported adversely to Mr Bryan Moore, the late Assistant Surveyor-General, but the animus of the Commission is obvious. The Oceania, a barque, which left Hokianga, N.Z., on Dec. 17, met with severe weather on her voyage to Melbourne. On Dec. 29 the barque mas struck by '& very heavy sea, which floated all the deck cargo, stove in the galley, and did other damage. She arrived on Jan. 5. The Pride of England, on her voyage from Quebec to Melbourne, passed along a line of icebergs, ten in number, but extending a disj tance of about 74 miles. This was on Dec. 2, in lat. <13deg. 3 mm. 8., and long. 3deg. 25min. W. The position of the vessel was critical in the extreme. An inquiry was commenced on Jan. 6 by the Steam Navigation Board into the circumstances attending the collision between the schooner St. Kilda and the barque Seagull off Babel Island on Dec. 27, but was adjourned till Jan. 9, in order thnt the master of the Seagull might attend. The evidence 6howed that every effort was made to save the unfortunate man who fell overboard . at the time of the collision. The Seagull was in such a bad state that directly the ships came together, there was a stampede of the sailors to get on board the St. Kilda. SYDNEY, Jan. 7. The seamen, firemen, and others on strike, by a largo majority endorsed the action of the Committee of the seamen's union in terminating the strike. General satisfaction is felt at the settlement of the difficulty, except on the part of a few agitators, who think the men should not have agreed. Most of the objectors belong to the political reform union and eight hours' conference. The men resumed work on Jan. 6. A public trial of a new brake under Grosses patent has been made on the Newcastle railway, and resulted satisfactorily. A waggon was stopped in 176 ft, against 464 ft by the ordinary break. *> The Bulli coal mine proprietors have locked the miners out, and the lockout is expected to last three months. The supposed, object is to break up the proposed Union. >/ It is stated that there is leprosy among the Chinese employed in a tobacco plantation in h Woolongong. I Robert Purvis and three Solomon Islanders were murdered at Molen, in the Solomon Islands, about Nov 25. Their bodies were /( cut up in small pieces by the Natives, and hung up in tins. ADELAIDE, Jan 7. The South Australian revenue for the quarter amounts to £403,365, and for the half-year to £795,119. A letter has been received in Adelaide from the Southern Rugby Football Union expressing its willingness that an English team should visit Australia if sufficient inducement is offered. HOBARTOWN, Jax 7. The new Tasmanian Ministers have been ro- elected without opposition. The Treasurer, Mr Lewis, has stated that the Government had no scheme of taxation at present. Ho did not think the taxing proposed by the late Government v?aa necessary. BRISBANE, Jan 7. The revenue for the December quarter was £347,550, and for the half year £782,028— a decrease compared with the same period in 1877, of £-41,586.