AUSTRALIA.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2343, 5 October 1870, Page 2

AUSTRALIA.

{From theArf/ua, Sept, 12 to Sept. 24 inclusive.) By last mail a memorial went home from the vignerons of South Australia to Mr Gladstone, asking him so to alter the English tariff as to al low the admission of their wines on the same terms as Continental wines .ire admitted into the United Kingdom. It is likely the Government of New South Wa'cs will adopt a system of torpedo defences for the safety of Sydney Harbor in the event of England being drawn into the European war. The arrangement of the barracks for the use of the Volunteers is progressing. and the palace will shortly be placed at their disposal. The Arijus of the 17th ult. devotes a leading artxlc to the practice among newspapers in Victoria of receiving commercial reports from a gentleman holding a position in the mercantile world, and states that in consequence attempts are often made to raise or depress the market according to the interest of the informant.

The outgoing mail took L 452 2s 6d as the result of the subscriptions hitherto collected on behalf of the families of the killed and wounded Germans in the present war. Of this sura LlO2 came from the Germans of Sandhurst, and L 39 as an instalment from Maryborough. The Loudon Chartered Bank in Melbourne and the Bank of Australasia in Sandhurst gave drafts on London without chaz'ge. Onr neighbors in New Zealand seem to be fast treading on our heels in the way of manufactures. A sample of bulk ale from that colony, brewed by Mr Martin, of the Black Eagle Brewery, Invercargill, has been submitted to our inspection, which, in quality, comes nearer English brewed ale than any which has yet been shown in this Colony. It was Mr Martin’s intention (o open a trade for this (rade in Melbourne, but it is found that the heavy charges, including duty, &c., will preclude any attempt of this kind, at least until our tariff becomes more of a "reciprocal,” and less of a “retributive,” nature. In an action at the County Council of Melbourne the other day, a witness assigned as a reason for leaving a “cabby” in a wretched plight in a gutter, that he had not been addressed by the jehu in an A 1 manner. On being cross-examined he said he was originally “ nauticaland admitted that M r Fisher, counsel in the case, was addressing him in an A 1 style. He was then politely told to leave the box in his best A 1 manner. Surely, in theatrical parlance, he must be spent “ in advance” for Lloyd. If Mark Tapley was alive, he would have taken the first hoafc for Stawell in order to prove how happy he could make himself under difficulties. The Pleasant Creek News reports a curious feature during the late floods and rainfall in "Victoria: —“Stawell and its neighborhood yesterday experienced experienced a literal plague of small insects resembling mosquitoes. They were in myriads in the streets and houses. At present, while we write, we cannot keep the insects off the paper. The spots surrounding the office lamps are swarming with thousands lying helpless and singed ; while_ the roof and windows are perfectly black with them. About one and a half inches of rain is thought to have fallen at Stawell since Tuesday morning.”