AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 456, 23 January 1869, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

It appears that some difficulty has arisen about bringing to justice H. A. Bruce, who was lately apprehended in Wellington. The persons at whose instance he was apprehended intimated to the Melbourne police that they will not be responsible for the expenses of his conveyance from iNew Zealand to Sydney. It is not at all likely, bowever, that the ends of justice will be defeated, as the Government will, without doubt, make immediate provision for having tbe prisoner brought on to Melbourne. Lately, a fire broke out on the premises of the Evening Post office, Mair street, Ballarat. The Enstern and Wester-i brigades were soon on the spot, and both bodies worked with great zeal. Owing to the abundant supply of water and the calmness of the weather, they soon succeeded in getting the fire under. The whole office, however, excepting the steampress, the boiler, and tbe jobbing rooms, was destroyed. The publishing offices, the wrapping room and paper store, the editor's aud reporters' rooms, and all their papers and books, and the composing room, were burnt, and the jobbing piesses and the type of the Post, and the forms male up for that day's issue were ruined. The loss to Mr Comb, the proprietor of the Evening Post, is close upon ,£2OOO. The second exhibition of dogs held in Melbourne was opened in the last week of December in the vestibule of the Duke of Edinburgh Theatre. The affair was got up by a few persons as a kind of speculation. The only member of committee who appeared to direct tbe arrangements was Dr Smith; and from the want of supervision and forethought the affair was rather a failure. Tbe dog pens were set about the vestibule and in the bars with a most puzzling irregularity, and without any reference to the order of sequence followed in the catalogue. With respect to the entries, it must be said that for most of the prizes they were very meagre in number, the prize takers stauding alone in several divisions. The classes which filled up best were the Pointers, Spaniels, some of tbe Terriers, and the Newfoundland dogs. Several very fine dogs were, however, exhibited. The prizes open to competition in each class were silver medals, first-class certificates, and second-class certificates.