AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2758, 18 March 1890, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

' (JSY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.— COPYRIGHT). Brisbane, March 15. Tiie water is subsiding. Most of those flooded out are suffering fearful privations, and are said to be on the verge of starvation. Belief is being sent to them • by the authorities. Great damage lias i been occasioned to the railway line. Yesterday three houses were washed ; down the river. March 17. ; A lunatic named Chippendale stabbed and killed a warder at the Maryborough , Asylum, and them effected his escape. The Government is distributing blankets and food to the sufferers by the floods. Bread is up to Is per loaf. Several more bodies have been found. Thursday Island, March 15. The rock on which the British-Indian Company's steamer. Quetta struck has been discovered half-a mile from where the vessel lies. Sydney, March 15. A dredge engaged in clearing out the Clarence River during the late flood was carried cut to sea. Two steamers have been sent iu pursuit, but so far the search has been unsuccessful. The dredge was valued at £15,000. March 17. The details of the floods show they have been most disastrous, and many farmers are totally ruined. The Government is making special grants to the municipality for road repairs. A man named Chalmers, engaged in rescue work on the Hawkesbury, was drowned. The damage alone in the valley of Clarence is estimated at half a million. The maize crop is almost wholly destroyed. The river, in places, is forty miles wide, and at Maitlaud, in low-lying places, the houses were submerged to the eaves. An auctioneer, of Narrabri, named Leej was drowned whilst trying to rescue his children, and a doctor, also named Lee, is missing. Mekisourne, March 17. Archdeacon Julius. Bishop-elect of Christchurch, has taken his farewell of his Ballarat congregation. He waa presented with an address and ring and various demonstrations, combined to present him with a purse of 250sovs. A man, while driving a van home, fell asleep and upset a can of turpentine. On arriving? home his wife struck a match to look for her husband, and ignited, the turpentine. She found he was dead from the effects of liquor.