AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2558, 29 April 1871, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

In the legislative Assembly of N. S. Wales, the bill introduced for the purpose of reducing the sa;aries of future Governors to L 4,000 prr annum, and the salaries of Ministers to L1,()U0 eoeh per annum, bus been read a second time. It is considered likely to pass both Houses without much opposition.

Earl Belmore in a recent speech, spoke in opposition to an Australian confederation, and considered the re-appo ntmont of a Go-vernor-General advisable. lie intimated that the home Government had been asked to remove the military stores, but that they bad declined, as the troops might be sent back to the colonies.

The University of Sydney lias held its annual celebration. 'The ifon. E. Deas Thomson, who has been re-elected Chancellor read an address, in the course of which he pointed out that the bona fide st ;dent graduates in Sydney were more numerous than in Melbourne. lie announced the decision of the Senate to admit female candidates to the public examinations, and expressed a hope that some day the students from all the Australian Univcisitios would compete together. Dr. liadham, Lead of the Senate, made a capital speech, :n which he warmly supported the admission of females to University exam’nations, and even to hetares, and predicted, from their competition for literary honours, Hie best results for the other sex. He made an eloquent appeal on behalf of the clos m study of the English language and literature, and warned the rising generation against that cynical contempt for earnest purpose which some affect, as if it were an aristocratic grace. Celebrated as Melbourne justly is for the sensational character of its bank meetings, that of the Colonial Bank surpassed every preceding effort. The climax has surely been reached at last, for it is really impossible to go any further in the wrong direction. Disclosures of the most damaging nature, implicating the entire administrative force of the Colonial Bank, have been made, accompanied, of course, with deprecatory expressions of regret, but still with an apparent unconsciousness of the great discredit th y reflected. Every objectionable phase, from carelessness to criminality, was depicted, not upon mere ramqur, but from the authoritative statements pf the chairman of the shareholder's meeting. Mr. Hugh G-liys was open>y charged with fraud pi obtaining advances upon fictitious securities, and the entire managing staff of the Colonial Bank—directors, auditors, manager, and solicitor were acknowledged to be unequal to the task of keeping the bank even reasonably correct. To Mr, Glass they lent L200,1)U0, and the bank’s solicitor says that up to the day of Glass’s failure lie was not aware that he (Glass) owed a penny to the institution. This seems to imply that su.h mortgages as were taken over Glass’s properties were not registered until the cradi came. In some cases it is alleged that the so called securities had no actual existence. At the meeting in question it was freely slated that the chief cmharrasmeut of the bank bad been occasioned by fraud on the part of Hugh Glass in representing as security what was no security at all, and it transpired that the solicitor of the bank had recommended that he should be prosecuted. The chairman was pressed to say whether proceedings would he instituted against Mr Glass. At first he said he would abide by the recommendation of the solicitor, but subsequently retired behind the more guarded statement, that it was a matter which would require careful consider-

ation. The present total indebtedness of Glass to the bank was stated to be L60,9U0» which the directors believed was fully covered by freehold securities. Sub-Inspector Gilmore, of the Queensland Native Police, with a pat ty of troopers, were dispatched on January 16, to enquire into a report about a white man living with the blacks near Cooper’s Creek. Near the creek they found an old black capable of interpreting, and engaged him to accompany the party. At the creek the party found very large numbers of blacks, and all bad heard of a white man living at a waterholc called Wan-t.at-i, where skeletons of three men were lying on the ground, which evidently had never been buried. The black who took the party to .the waterholc appeared about thirty years of age, and stated that white fellows came there when he was a child, and vmt murdere.i. He stated that three others, belonging to tlic same party, left the camp, but where murdered when returning to it. There skeletons were not found, Wantala is a place likely to be chosen for a white man’s camp, and it had evidently been deserted many years by the blacks, who alleged as a reason that white man jump up at light and walk about. Gilmore believes that this superstition gave rise to the s:ory that white men were living among the blacks in the district. The only relics found were a piiee of moleskin and waterproof cloth. Gilmore brought as much as he could collect of the remains to Bulloo, pending Government instructions.

The Victorians may bo well proud of the defence against hostile attacks which the Cerberus a:lords them. Her guns are of the latest Woolwich pattern, lOiu. in bore, are mv.zzde loading, carry 4jolb. shot and shell, and weigh each IS tons. The turret will revolve once in a minute, and thus the guns can he linxl as fast as they are loaded, livery aid ingenuity can suggest to ea;e the work of loading, &c., has been supplied. Provisi ni is made fur the r: coil of the guns wiieu tired to be broken by indiarubber, The common charge of powder is 451b., the full battering charge is 001b.; and when 12

rounds were tired out of them on trial everything was found to work easily. They will hit at four mites distant}*, hut are calculated to do good execution at three and a half miles. The stores for them consist of 360 common shells, 24 shrapnel shells, and 36 were shot, being 100 rounds for each gur. The weight of the broadside of the Cerberus may be therefore stated at the enormous amount of 1,6001b. In the pilot-house are voice pipes and telegraphs, leading to every part of the vessel, and thus in time of action the ship can be covered, and the whole ships company directed, without a single person showing himself to the enemy, except that one or two men are needed to come out when the anchor is lifted. The Cerberus can frqm first to last present to an enemy a surface impregnable to any b it the best class q{ artillery in the world, and while her own guns are tiring with the utmost rapidity, supposing even she were boarded by 10Q men, they would be utterly powerless to do the vessel any harm, or even to check her riling for one moment. Two love-sick suicides this week, which, as L write, is not yet three days old. How many more voluntary exits there may be from sentimental causes before Saturday, it would be premature to guess. Both the .men who violently put an end to t mir lives professed intense affection for particular women, whose reputations they blast eternally hy the inquiry which necessarily follows self-murder. Mr Ellis claims kinship with General Struhenzee, with whose family 1 think it was given in evidence during a celebrated trial that Miss Longworth was staying while Captain Yelverton was paying his addresses to her in the Crimea. If sentiment is to lead to suicide, L shall bo inclined to re-echo Sir Peter

Teazle, when he finds that Joseph Surface has been tiying to seduce his wife—sentimentally, of course.