AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2108, 7 February 1870, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

VICTORIA. Among tho passengers by the Hero, for Auckland, will be a party of Christy Minstrels, engaged here and in Sydney for a tour in New Zealand. They have been selected by Mr J. C. Raynor, who has been so long and so favorably known in these colonies in theatrical matters. The party will be eleven in number, and include the clever singer familiarly known as Johnny Cowan, Messrs Rainford, Brahatn, Buckley, Chittenden (from Sydney), and others. Almost all the kinds of English river fish introduced into the Colony by the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria seem to thrive well in these waters. The way in which twenty English roach, placed in the Middle Gully railway reservoir in 1863, have multiplied is another proof of the success of these experiments in acclimatisation. Mr Dixon, the gentleman in charge of the water supply at Middle Gully, states that the reservoir now abounds with the progeny of the parent fish. A fish of 241b. came under his immediate notice, and he had heard, from a source which he could not disbelieve, of another specimen of 41b. weight. If a report communicated to the Melbourne Anglers Society be correct, the attempt to introduce the salmon into Victorian waters has been more successful than was imagined. At the last meeting of the society, one of the members present stated that he had heard of two real salmon being taken —one of 141b. off Port Albert, and another of 71b. near Queenscliffe, Inquiries are being made to ascertain the truth of these statements. The weather has been, and not without reason, a somewhat prominent topic of conversation this month. We have again had some very trying days, and this summer will be remembered as one of the hottest we have ever experienced. Twice in Melbourne the thermometer has reached 107deg. in the shade, and on many other days the mercury has stood at lOOdeg. aud upwards. At Sandhurst and Echuca, and other inland towns, the heat has been even more intense. On one of the hottest of the hot days, the thermometer at Echuca stood at 113deg. in the shade, and at Deniliquin, a town 50 miles further inland, and within the territory of New South Wales, the almost incredible temperature of 117deg in the shade. Mr Walter Montgomery has actually sailed for California. Mr Crisp, the jeweller, has received by the incoming mail the parcel of diamonds, 115 in number, which formed the first batch transmitted by the Australian Diamond Company to Europe to bo cut and polished. No one who inspects these gems now can have any remaining doubt of their value. Mr Crisp’s correspondents write of them in the highest terms, as being unsurpassed in brilliancy by any diamonds in the world. A telegram was received in Melbourne to the effect that the Australian Diamond Company had washed out ninety-nine diamonds during the last week, making a total of one hundred and forty-nine diamonds for the last ten days. The Xyster Opera Troupe were to have opened on Feb. 5. It consists of Mdlle, Barratti, prima donna, Miss Lucy Chamber?, Signori Neri and Devoti, tenori, Signor Dondi, bass (whose voice is described as of great depth, round, and smooth, resembling the voice of Lablache rather than that of Formes), and Signor Contini, baritone. Besides these, the company will include Mdmc. Fanny Simonsen and Mr A. Beaumont, Commercial morality would appear to be at a low ebb in Melbourne at present. Another Custom-house seizure of goods improperly undervalued has been made within the last day or two, and the firm concerned has not been unconnected, we are informed, with similar discreditable transactions in time past. Among the goods seized is a large shipment of eight-day clocks, which has been much undervalued in the entries passed at the Customs. Some of the clocks, which would sell readily at from 10s to 15s, were valued by the importers at the modest price of Is fid.