AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 545, 27 September 1872, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Between the ages of fifteen aufl twenty there are 773 males anil 433 females returned in the last Victorian census as unable to read. The rush to Charters Towers still continues. As little as two pennyweights to the load, is considered payable. Water is very' scarce.

21,000 sovereigns -were issued from the Victorian Mint during the week ending on the Cth instant; the total number issued since operations were comm.-noed is 330.000.

Warnambool must be flourishing. No less than forty'-nine new streets have been surveyed. The Town Council is exercised to find suitable names for them all.

The first gathering of the pioneers of Ballarat took place on the 28tli of August last, says the Star, to ce’ebrate the twenty-first anniversary ef the rocking of the first goldcradle in Ballarat. The Alfred Hall was the trysting place, and the hall was gaily decorated with flags and evergreens. The price obtained (says the Argus) at public auction for a frontage in Collinsstreet east indicates the high value which is placed upon first class city properties. The site in question has a frontage of thirty fe -t with a depth of fifteen feet, and there are erected upon it the premises occupied by Messrs.' Lee and Kaye, musicsellers, and Mr. M’Guigm, bootmaker. This property was disposed of by Messrs. Stubbs and Company, for no less a sum than 11,100'., being at the rate of 370'. per foot. This rve believe, is aoout the highest ever paid for Melbourne freeh >ld property. Tire Hendi'jo Evening News writes mournfully of Sandhurst “ Th t ‘he population of Sandhurst is r ipidly decreasing we have ample evidence. Empty houses are now becoming as plentiful as blackberries, and the outcome will be a vast and neces-

s.iry redaction in house rent. Shops, too, eau he hl l n » ,v in aim ut any Ideality, but unfortunately the supply is more than equal to the demand. Various business houses are * taking slock ’ with long faces, in the sad conviction that the light of other days has faded.” Our contemporary, though is hopeful of the future, however dark the present may be.

On Tuesday the 10th instant some persons contrived to abstract the bottle containing coins and documents which had been placed in the cavity beneath the f ouadation stone of the intended woollen cloth laetory at Sunny Coiner. On the evening in questiin the contractors and men engaged on the works left the foundation stone in the positi uin which it had been formally aud solemnly laid the previous day, the ropes and tackle with which it had been placed having b on removed. However, it was discovered that during the ni.ht the stone which was of immense weight and nearly two feet in thickness Had been raised by means of planks used as levers, and the cavity rilled of its con-t-ms. The bottle was broken and all the ■: >ins taken, the documents, papers, &c., oeing strewn around, and, from the effects of tlie rain which had fallen Curing the night, reduced to a pulp. The memorial of the templars alone remaiued intact. It seemed to have been proof against the assaults of “ cold water.” Of the various coins placed In the bottle—one of which was a new sovereign of the Melbourne ■lint—only a threepenny piece was left reoaiuing.— Ltallarat Courier.