AUSTRALIAN NEWS.
(from our own correspondent.) Melbourne, 13th January, 1866. The Holidays are over, and people have returned to the serious business of every-day life. Rain has been wished for, and prayed for ; (Friday, sth inst., being proclaimed a day of humiliation and prayer for that blessing), but still it comes not, and gloomy forebodings for the future hangs over the Colony. The General Election of Members for our Legislative Assembly has been commenced, and made good progress, the Government, or Protec. tionist party, being decidedly in the ascendant; nearly all the candidates professing these views having been elected, in fact, it is now a question whether the Chief Secretary, Mr McCulloch, will not in less than twelve months find himself in a greater difficulty with his plurality of friends than he before found himself in with a strong opposition ; and it is also surmised, that should everything else fail, the anti-ministerialists, or Free-traders, will revive the question of StateAid to .Religion, and should they succeed in doing this, there is little doubt but that there would soon be a split in the House, —for no matter how the members may agree in ordinary politics, the question of religion is bound to raise a faction fight, it being a subject upon which the best of friends can never agree. The forthcoming Intercolonial Exhibition is likely to be a great success —the neighboring colonies, New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, have, with a spirit promising tangible results, offered their assistance. The Argus has published a communication from the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company to the Secretary of the General PostOffice, London, in which it endeavors to excuse its culpable neglect with regard to the Australian Mails, but the excuses given are the lamest of the lame, and, in reality, make the Company’s case worse, —the whole of the blame being attributed to the breaking down of their ships no less than five trips out of six. An Extraordinary Meeting of the Shareholders of the Australasian Sub-Marine Working Company was held a few days since, the proposition being to arrange for a re-construction of the Company, with a view to raising, by calls, sufficient money to pay off existing debts, and to send the Boat, now built, to New Zealand, for the purpose of working the beds of your rivers for gold. In the course of the meeting, the chairman remarked, that the speculation was anything but a risk, as the idea was not a new one, for that in Russia these submarine boats were known and constantly used. It was ultimately decided that the Committee be empowered to confer with the patentees, in order to carry out the re-construction of the Company for the purpose of dispatching the boat to New Zealand by one of the Otago Steam Navigation Company’s Steamers, the Company having offered to allow the expenses of freight to stand over for payment for four months. Catharine Winifred Jackson, wife of F. W. Jackson, landlord of the British Lion Hotel, Fitzroy, has committed suicide by poisoning herself with arsenic. Some legal proceeding of an unusual nature took place in our Supreme Court on Thursday last. It appears that several months ago a successful New Zealand miner named Ross arrived in this colony and started for England with a draft, as he alleged, on the Bank of New South Wales. This was stolen from him on the voyage, and on applying at the London office for payment his claim was refused, no record, of the transaction appearing in the books of the Bank. The plaintiff thereupon commenced an action, which the bank resisted, and at the instance of the corporation a mandamus was issued from the Court of Common Pleas, calling upon the colonial judges to hold a court and take evidence on the matter. This power, which has never been exercised in relation to this colony before is conferred upon the English Court by a statute of George 11., the provisions of which -were extended to all the British colonies by an act pased in the reign of William IV. In obedience to the mandate, a court, consisting of Mr Justice Barry, and Mr. Justice Williams, was held yesterday, in Mr. Justice Barry’s chambers, when witnesses -were examined. The principal evidence was given by Mr. Bad cock, manager of the Melbourne branch of the Bank of New South Wales, who stated that from an examination'of the books it was clear the plaintiff’s story
was a complete fabrication. - The duty of thte co lonial" Court* •will now be to forward to London a report of the evidence, ;upon which the English Court will base its decision, Mr. Wrixon appeared for the Bank, but the plaintifl was unrepresented by council. Melbourne is decidedly making progress in some things. Ten years ago I suppose the total weight of fish disposed of in the city would have been less than 1 cwt. pier week; but for the weeks ending December 20th, 1865, and January 6th, 1866, 13 tons and 10 tons respectively passed through the hands of our fish dealers. William B. Buchanan, accountant to the Telegraph department of the colony, has been committed for trial on the double charge of embezzlement and forgery. The long drought is driving large flocks of emu’s down from the interior into the haunts of man in search of water. In the neighbourhood of Castlemaine large numbers have appeared.
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Evening Star, Volume III, Issue 845, 20 January 1866, Page 2
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906AUSTRALIAN NEWS. Evening Star, Volume III, Issue 845, 20 January 1866, Page 2
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