AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3103, 20 January 1871, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

In consequence of the advance in the> price of flour, the bakers of Melbourne and suburbs have raised the price of bread to 7d the 4lb loaf. A miner, who has arrived in Sale en route for the Thomson River, for the purpose of bringing down his mates,, speaks very highly of the diggings at the Corner Inlet. He says that the sinking averages 60 feet, and that the majority of the holes bottomed are turning out good gold, and estimates the average weekly earaings at £3 per man. The "Federal Standard," in narrating the death by lightning of a man named Campbell, at the Loyala Station, states that one of the witnesses mentioned that Campbell's heart continued to pulsate intermittingly for about twenty minutes after death had apparently taken place. This fact, although strange, is not altogether singular, as similar instances have been noted by medical men. " Several weeksago," writes the "Yass Courier," " we reported that some mysterious disease, supposed to be what is known as ' the English rot,' had broken out in the flocks around Gundaroo, and caused a large number of deaths. This misfortune has now happened nearer Yass, and exists more or less throughout . the neighboring districts. Indeed there are few flockowners who have not suffered very serious loss. We have before us a list of a number of sheepowners ia the Yass, Gundaroo, Dalton, and Collector district, and find that the loss sustained up to Saturday last by particular owners varies from 70 up to 8000 head. The disease up to the present time appears to attack ewes and lamljs only. In several instances the carcases have been opened, and in the paunch thousands of thread-like worms about an inch long were found."