Australia.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 6, 15 December 1869, Page 6

Australia.

A Queensland paper steles that at the Wallaroo Reef, in that colony, may be witnessed the most primitive method of quartz■orushing to bo soon perhaps on any goldfield in the Australian colonies. A rude fire-place for burning the quartz, three wooden stampers for crushing it, worked by a lever in a wooden trough—such is the machinery constructed by the industrious proprietor of the reef, Janies Alien, of Warwick. The Hobart Town Museum was visited by upwards of 2000 individuals on Friday, the 22nd ult., the attraction bein'§ the two salmon smolt which had been caught in the Derwent the previous night. The Government of Queensland has made a bold step in the matter of education. The Governor, in his speech on the prorogation of Parliament, made the following announcement :—“ The liberal provision made by parliament enables me to state with thankfulness that on and after the Ist January, 1870, public education in the primary schools of Queensland shall l>e free to every child in the colony.’’ The amount of the education grant for 1870 is .£21,000, and the decision at which the Government has arrived is purely spontaneous, and is not the result of any Parliamentary pressure. The confectioners of Sydney have dis--r-overed that a protective tariff is a very bad thing, and upwards of a hundred manufacturing confectioners in Sydney and their emplo?/es have caused a circular letter to be addressed to the members of the Legislative Assembly. They allege that t hey suffer great injustice from the existing tariff, and that they are apprehensive of the total destruction of their trade by the proposed abolition of ad valorem duties. There is now before the New South Wales Parliament a bill “to authorise and regulate assisted immigration.” It proposes, says a Sydney paper, to revive the scheme of assisted immigration, with this important modification, viz., that the portion “ resident in the colony,” who nominates and pays for the proposed immigrant (at the rate of £8 for an adult, and £4 for a child), shall receive from the Government “ Land Receipts” for the full amount of any moneys he may pay for such a purpose. The passages for the immigrants will be provided by the Government, and the land receipts given to the nominator will be transferable and available, with interest at the rate of 5 per cent, for tlm purchase of land by free selection for three years thereafter ; after which period, for 12 years, they will be available for the purchase of any Government lands whatever. Persons in the United Kingdom, not nominated by residents in the colony, may secure passages at the rate of £ls for adults and £7 10s for children, together with land receipts for the full amount, available under the same rules as before mentioned for assisted immigrants. The persons eligible under this Bill are mechanics of every description, agriculturists, miners, domestic servants, and all persons of the labouring classes, being of sound bodily and mental health, of capability and fitness for industrial employment, and of good moral character. The Melbourne correspondent of the Daily Times writes ;—The Flying Squadron has at last all arrived. The Endymion, which only got in to-day, had been separated from the rest of the Squadron by the severity of the gale. We are quite gay, however, just now—officers in uniform, Jack in blue shirt, with unlimited lay-down collar, arc common as blackberries, and Melbourne might he Portsmouth, The delay in the arrival of the missing ship will, I believe, necessitate a slight deviation from the original programme, or possibly they will pull up the difference before they reach your shores.— The admirers of muscular Christianity will he pleased to find that a number of Wesleyan ministers can be met with in any one place of sufficiently liberal mind to see ny impropriety in a harmless game of cricket. A short time since, a convocation of the clergy of that denomination was held at CfaStlcmaine, and eleven gentlemen af the cloth met a team of typos in the field, and all unaccustomed as they must naturally he to the use of the willow, they succeeded in scoring 42 against 51 for their wore practised antagonists, the printers.