AUSTRALIAN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 819, 15 December 1882, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN.

[bKUTRK’s TELEGRAMS—COPYRIGHT.] Decided to Retire. Melbourne, Yesterday. It is announced that Sir Charles Sladen, M.L.C., has definitely decided to retire from political life. The No-Confidence Debate. The debate in the Legislative' Assembly on Mr Munro’s motion was last night further adjourned. Wool. At their wool sales to-day the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Limited, offered 2,900 bales. The sale was well attended, and the competition was animated at full prices/ 2,500 bales were sold at satisfactory prices. Good qualities are a shade higher. The Wairarapa. ; Arrived, this morning —Union Company’s steamship Wairarapa, from the Bluff. The Mining Disaster. _ Latest telegrams from Creswick state that the rescuers’ work was one of extreme difficulty owing to the quantities of mullock and washdirt in the drived Numbers nine and ten rise were searched unsuccessfully, but on arriving at number eleven the relief party beard a cry, “All right,” and this led to widespread belief that all were safe. The rescuers, however, subsequently found that five only were alive. The namef are Manley, Bowen, Corbett, Maloney, and Kirk, All are very ill from their long confinement. The total deaths number twenty-two. All the bodies of those who lost their life were found in the vicinity of the survivors. Manley one of the survivors, states that the majority dropped down from exhaustion,and were suffocated by foul air or drowned. Kirk is suffering from congestion of the lungs, and is in a critical condition. The distress of the relations of the deceased miners was increased by the groundless report that all had ban saved. A subscription list has been opened for the widows and [Received Dec. 15, 1.40 p.m.] Melbourne, To-day. The survivors from the Australian mine state that some, of.; their mates died some time before the rescue party arrived. The deceased men have left seventeen widows and fully one htm dred orphans, and there is a general and spontaneous movement throughout the colony to raise subscriptions for their relief. Kirk, one of the survivors, who was in a critical state when rescued is now better.

Negatived. In the Legislative Assembly last night, Mr Munroe’s motion for the appointment of a select committee to report upon the railway administration, which was treated by the Government as a vote of want of confidence, was, after further debate, negatived otf|a division by 44 to 33 votes. The Coming Man, Adelaide, To-day. Sir William Jervois leaves this city for New Zealand on January Bth next.