AUSTRALIA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5656, 29 August 1896, Page 5

AUSTRALIA.

TPer Pkes6 Association.] WELCOME RAIN. MELBOURNE, August 29. Good rain has fallen throughout the colony, and has greatly improved the prospects of wheat and other crops. CITY OF MELBOURNE BANK. The Supreme Court has granted an application fixing the dates of the return of summonses for an unpaid call of 25s per share in the City of Melbourne Bank. The liquidators state that the debts due by the bank amount to £2,156,000, and the assets, apart from money due by contributories, do not exceed .£1,245,000. The total uncalled capital is .£245,700, of which it is not expected to get more than .£BO,OOO. THE DEFAULTING SOLICITOR. The officer who was despatched to Monte Video has fully identified Geake, the defaulting Daylesford solicitor. WASTED MONEY. The Commission appointed to enquire into the position of the local bodies who obtained Government loans to construct watet* and irrigation works finds that the Water Trusts, and particularly the Irrigation Trusts, have proved a failure, and that the Government sanctioned irrigation works without any regard whatever to the question whether the schemes were likely to prove payable. Money was prodigally thrust upon the Trusts, and expended without any regard to repayment. The total expenditure out of loan money on irrigation has been .£1,636,000, on which the State pays over .£65,000 interest annually, receiving in return only <£5700. THE SPARROW PEST. SYDNEY, August 29. The sparrows, which during the last few years have enormously spread throughout the colony, have become a serious pest in the fruit and grain-growing districts. So extensive are their depredations in the metropolitan areas, that the raising of soft fruits with any chance of a profitable return is almost impossible. The fruitgrowers are urging that similar action should be taken as in Victoria and South Atistralia, where the sparrows have been placed under the ban of the law as a pest, and a bonus paid for ■ their destruction. ! MR GILRUTH. BRISBANE, August 29. Mr Gilruth is paying a short visit to Queensland, inspecting the meat works I and acquainting himself with the character of the tick pest, in the interests of the New Zealand Government. MANSLAUGHTER. HOBART, August 29. Horsley was found guilty of the manslaughter of his wife, who was found in a water-race with her head battered in, and sentenced to five years' imprisonment.