New South Wales

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 8, Issue 391, 20 April 1864, Page 4

New South Wales

Sydney papers to the 25th are to hand Vv'e extract the following

The Diocese of Goulbourn.-— ln the Queen's letter patent for creating the new bishopric .of Goulburn and appointing the first bishop (published in the Government Gazette), among other things appear the allowing:—“And we do further, by these presents, constitute and appoint the mwn of GouHmm, within the colony of Now South Wales, to be a bishop’s seeitrid the seat of the said bishop. Aud we i rdain that the said town of Goulburn .-.hall h nceforth be a city, and be called ‘ The City of Goulburn.’ And we do hereby further ordain aud declare that the church called St. Saviour’s in the said city of Goulburn, shall henceforth be the cathedral church and see of the said Mesac Thomas and his successors, Bishops of Goulburn.”— S. M. Herald.

The country in the neighbourhood of the Barwon and the Lower Nemoi has been greatly flooded. Tiie Herald of the 24th has the following telegram from Drayton :—“ The heaviest flood know’ll for years lias just visited these districts. The rain has lasted for twenty-one days. The creeks and rivers are all bank high, and in most instances have overflowed, inundating miles of country, and causing immense destruction of property and loss of life. No communication with Brisbane for the last eight days. Sheep by thousands have been destroyed, and one station (Eliangowan) is reported to have lost 20,000. Bridges have been swept away on most of the roads, and Gatton Bridge, one of the finest structures of the kind in the colon}’, and-- which cost 3000/, is a complete wreck. The township of Roma, Maranoa district, is completely submer gcd.

According to the following statement which appeared recently in the Sydney Morning Herald, it would seem that the volunteer movement in New South Wales is in danger of collapsing : “ The volunteer movement in this colony has recently passed through a most important crisis. When the present Ministry came into office a great deal of excitement prevailed regarding an alleged deficiency in the public finances, caused so it wms asserted, by unauthorised expenditure by the late Government, and thence there was a large outcry for entrenchment. When the vote came on for discussion, jMr. Forster stated that the Government had no intention to disband the force, but that they wanted to “ reorganize ” it, and as the first step towords reorganization they cut down the vote from 10,000/ to 3,000/, 2,000/ of which has already been spent. As a result of this attempt at { reorganization,’ the w’hole of the staff, with the exception of two or three drill instructors will be discharged. One of the improvements which the present Government expressed an intention to effect was to get rid of the military portion of the staff, and place the force under the control of some efficient man who had had a military training, but who at present was entirely unconnected with the army. The accomplishment of this desirable change would be a source of gratification to every member of the force. As an illustration of the inconsiderateness of military commanders in regal’d to the volunteers we may remark that the last parade was called for a Thursday afternoon, when not one out of ten volunteers could have attended. Fortunately the weather was wet, the parade did not take place, and what would have been a most humiliating exhibition was avoided.” The return match between New South Wales and the All England Eleven has been declared a drawn match.

The All England Eleven will not play at Maitland, and it has been decided to begin a new match here on April 1. The weather is now clearing up. A public meeting was held at Sydney to consider the propriety of seeking assistance from the Government to farmers who have sustained heavy losses by the late floods. The meeting appointed a deputation to wait upon the Governor on the subject, and to solicit his co-operation. The Presumed Scarcity of Flour. —The Sydney Empire , speaking about the presumed scarcity of flour, says : “In the first place, most of our millers have, at least, six mouths’ supply secured at a cost to them of about 12/, which will pay them well to sell at 14 1; again, all mir principal bakers have some tln’ee and some six, and, in some cases, nine months’ supply secure, so lint they will lot be in the market to buy at high rates, how we come to the quantity required 'for general consumption. Say we have to provide nine months’ supply, for at most 150,000 of the population (and that is above the mark), we only require about 20,000 tons. South Australia has for exportation about 80,000 tons ; Victoria will require about 20,000 tons ; New Zealand about 15,000 - a tons, in addition to what she will receive from Tasmania

and other places, say 25,000 tons. We have, then, the 20,000 tons that we may require, left. Independent of the above, we are sure of having at least 10,000 tons from San Francisco, which will leave shippers a good margin, if sold here at 14/ per ton ; so. that, instead of allowing ourselves to be imposed upon by a few unscrupulous men, we ought to mark them well, and positively refuse to buy until some of them return to their proper senses, when they will have to submit to what is just. They may rest as sured that but a very small quantity will be required in the country districts, as other substitutes will be resorted to such as maize meal, potatoes, etc., all of which are, and are likely to be too low this season.”