LATE AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume III, Issue 497, 5 January 1869, Page 2

LATE AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Mr Robertson, the Premier inj New South Wales, has stated that', the Government werenotin possession of documents to support the statement of Mr Parkes as to the existence; of a Fenian conspiracy prior to the! attempt on the life of the Duke of; Edinburgh. Mr Parkes, it appears,! at once gave notice of a, motion of want of confidence in the Govern- • ment.

A report is going the round of the papers that Mr Jones, who.is in the Victorian Ministry, is brother to the hoy Jones who, many years agoj was found concealed under Queen Victoria's bed.

It appears that the Rakaia was detained at Sydney i>y creditors on the day she was to sail; but the embargo was removed in the evening", and she sailed. .

Mr Manning1 of Brisbane, a brother to Sir Wm. Manning, lias been fiercely attacked by a discharged clerk to the Bench. Little hope is entertained of his recover}'. A prospectns of, the proposed: steam route via the Cape of Good Hope has been issued. The capital is £600,000, of.whir.'h bne-half is to v be taken up, in the Colonies, and the remainder in Britain. ,

Count Yon Atten, of swindling notoriety as Svrtney. and Brisb <ne, has' been apprehended at Sourabaya while repeating his swindles on the banks there. ■■''.""..?

A fight for the championship has taken, place in Victoria. Sellars beat Carstairs after 18 rounds.

In pipps Land, a man named Cuddhy has killed his1 wife arid a, person named Crofts, whom he regarded s>s her paramo'ir. He shot Rhem.in,.a cart, cut their throats, and theii drowned; himself in a waterhole.

The fiuindation-sfone or cornerstoi c -of! ilie' rieW 'Ifoinan Catholic Cathedral in course of erection -on the site of the:old St Mary's Cathedral, which was almost entirely destroyed by fire some time ago, was

?sj|the l&'Bevif Afbhjji^ijop [ofl Sy&ieyv.l^ vpjer&morpr \fa^;mqst; fsuccessfully per- '%,• t^^sence of: serevai thbtisahds" Several Bishops and a large number of the clergy took part itt th^^)POGeed«igß*c A large amount of money waiTcol-* lected; and placed upon the stone! The money will go towards^-fhe' building fund : r The drought'"still continues in the northern parts of Queensland. A letter from one, of the sheep inspectors stationedat Bowen states, The sheep are dying in hundreds on many stations, from the combined effects of; grass seed and: jiianition. The country throughout, unless in isolated cases, where a thunderstorm may have fallen, presents the appearance" of a desert, without a blade of grass, and all water, except on the main streams'and lagoons; has disappeared.":' :v : ■ ;