AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

West Coast Times, Issue 3707, 21 February 1881, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Only six candidates out of 771 passed the Melbourne matriculation with credit, and of these exactly one half were women, A nugget weighing 201oz 16dwt, worth over £800, has been found near Inglewood, Victoria. Mrs Bowen, widow ef the brave Con* stable Bowen, who fell in the encounter with the Moonlite gang, has taken the Bay View Hotel, ' Double Bay, Victoria. The revolver mania, hitherto considered a peculiarity of America, is fast spreading in Victoria. It is claimed that the diamond drill at Kingston, Victoria, has developed the largest goltffield ev^r known in the colony. A novel race is shortly to come off at Bulli, New South Wales, for £20 a side between a draper and a shoemaker. The latter will ride an intractable old mule, while the former will take his seat on an ancient black black cow, 5 to lon the draper. Fires have been raging in various parts of Victoria, and have destroyed property between Windermere and Smytheadale valued at £10,000. The total assessed value of city property ' in Adelaide is £354,000, being an increase of £29,500. Chief Justice Way of South Australia, is on a visit to Melbourne. Some larrikins in Sydney brutally and cruelly amused themselves try log to kill a milch cow with a morticing axe, chopping it about the skull and back, and finally leaving the axe stuck in the back, near the tail. They have not yet been caught. A young man, William Tucker, 18 years old, in the employ of Mr Field, near Cau^field, Victoria, fell in love with his employer's daughter, aged 15 ; and because of a slight tiff wrote her a lovesick note,

and then went into his room and shot himself dead. Mr David Lee, in making his report on the Melbourne Exhibition organ, aays it is a splendid instrument, but absurdly deficient in power. Near Albury, N.S-W. four little children were playing about their father's stacks ; one, a boy of six years, struck a match, and on its burning his fingers threw it down. The straw quickly caught, and hurrying the younger children to some distance he ran screaming to alarm his mother. On returning with his mother it was found that the baby, a boy of 2 years, had been caught by the flames and was burnt to a cinder. The facts connected with the shocking fatal accident in. the Great Southern Company's mine at Sandhurst, on January 20, have received the consideration of the Victorian Minister of Mines. As it appeared from the evidence given at the inquest held on the bodies of the two men who were killed in the mine, that a breach of the regulations of the Mines Statute had been committed, instructions have been forwarded to the local inspector to institute a criminal prosecution against the responsible management. The Government of West Australia is taking steps to promote Chinese immigration. In a Gazette extraordinary issued on December 29th the Government an* nounce that they are prepared to receive applications from settlers who may be desirous of employing Chinese immigrants as farm labourers, {■hepherds, gardeners, mechanics, or domestic servants. Mr H. H. Hayter, the Victorian statist, classifies the denominations in that colony as follows:— Religious belief. Total — Church of England. 319,922; Presbyterian, 140,216; Wesleyans, 116,966; other Protestants, 65,151 ; Roman Catholic, 211,820; Jews, 4429; Pagans, 21,874 ; other sect?, 8202. Total, 888,500. A terrific thunderstorm passed over Echuca, in Victoria, recently, and during its course the lightning was very vivid and the thunder deafening. About half-past three o'clock a ball of fire struck the Catholic Church, carrying away a large cross on the northern gable; from there it descended obliquely to the Herald office, running aloDg the wall to the ground ; it entered the office by the door and then burst with intense splendour. The frightened compositors ran in all directions for safety, but beyond burning a few papers no other damage was done. It passed out apparently and buried itself in the ground near the fence. There are considerable heart burnings among the Australians in England. Alderman M'Arthur, who made all his mocev in Australia, was raided to the Lord Mayorship of the chief city of the world. The Australians were in estacies, and more than once pointed out to the city magnate what a grand chance of cementing the union between the colonies ahd England. The Right Worshipful gave a graud opening banquet; hundreds were invited, hut not a single Australian — not even the Agent-Generals — was asked. The Comptoir d'Escompte de Paris, known throughout India and China as the French Bank, has opened a branch in Melbourne, its object being to facilitate the establishment of direct commercial relations with France and the Continent, and to obviate the transaction of such business through London, as at present The capital and reserve of the bank amount to £4,000,000 fully paid-up, and its £20 fully paid-up shares were last quoted at £39 15s. The bank was founded in Paris in 1848, and is the National Discount Bank of Paiis, and afterwards became a public company. The Carandinis drew a big house on Boxing Night at the Town Hall, Melbourne. The milk- preserving factory at Kiama, New South Wales, has been started, and the machinery found to work satisfactorily. The Sydney bootmakers continue out on strike, in consequence of a change in the mode of manufacture which involves a loss on the average of 10s a week to the workmen, while the article when made ia a very inferior one. A well known galvanist at Ballarat, aged 71, wap the other day married to a buxom bride of 70.

Country Doctor— "Did you take that bottle of medicine to old Mrs Cambridge's ? —because it was very import " Surgery Boy — " Oh, yes sir. And I'm pretty sure ehe took it, sir 1 " Country Doctor (after a pause)—" What do you mean by that, sir ? " Surgery Boy — " Well, I see the shutters np at the 'ouse as I passed this mornin', eir I" The following keen repartee, though rather rough on the "canny Scot," is worthy of insertion :— A Scotchman asked an Irishman— " Why were half-farthings coined in England ?" Pat's answer was, <( T« give Scotchmen an opportunity of subscribing to charitable institutions." Exit gcotlie to slow music. Trained bull dogs are becoming a favorit show in the United States.