AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2793, 30 January 1872, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

The Sunday train question is now agitating the minds of the Victorian public. Things in Tasmania are in such a depressed state that the very thieves are reported to be leaving the Colony. At the last licensed meeting at Geelong not a single grocer applied for the i enewal of his bottle license. Mr B. L. Farjeon’s now novel, “Blade o’ Gras,” is being republished in the Sydney weeklies. A drunken tailor was nearly drowned in a gutter in Elizabeth street, Melbourne, during a recent thunderstorm. The whaler Oscar was attacked by a whale when between Tasmania and Newcastle, the animal causing the ship to leak dangerously. The Presbyterian Sunday School teachers in Melbourne, have resolved to present Captain Fraser, of the mi sion schooner Dayspring, with a purse of sovereigns. For kicking a policeman and sitting on his hat, a Melbourne rough was fined L2O, with the alternative of three months’ imprisonment. The Ballarat Slim understands that Mrs B. C'. AspiuaU has been appointed telegraphist to a station in Victoria at a salary of L2OO per annum. The Victorian Government are going to import from home a supply of rifles and ammunition of the latest approved pattern for the use of the volunteers. At Geelong a Mrs White, who was staying at an hotel there, fell through the floor of one of the rooms into a jeweller’s shop below, ’Divided opinions exist amopgst the Anglican clergy of Sydney as to the adoption or otherwise of the new lectionary recently sanctioned by the" Archbishop of Canterbury. The Curator of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, reports having discovered on Sidmouth Island a new fruit the size of a large cherry, which he considers the finest indigenous Australian fruit. Our sporting readers will recollect that a match was made for Lsoa-side in Melbourne recently between A. E. Bird and Nearing for a spin of three or five miles. By the last Melbourne papers to hand, we see the match is off, Bird having forfeited his first deposit. We learn from Melbourne that the salvaging of the cargo of the Sussex continues, and the purchasers will propably make a profit out of the transaction, as the ship holds together well. Diptheriais making fearful ravages amongst children in some parts of Victoria. In one family near Ballarat six out of seven children died of the complaint, and the father had been also seized with the disorder. Malignant scarlet fever is also prevalent. The appearance of the foot and mouth disease in the herds is causing excitement amongst the stockowners of New South ijVales. An effort is to he made to pass an aot to prevent further importations qf English cattle for a time.’ 11 The inefficient supply of Yau Yean water for the past four or five hot days formed s n iuexhaustible topic of conversation in Melbourne, and whenever two or three people met the first remark, after the weather had been anathematised, was, “ How are you off for water down your way ?” In the majority of instances the reply was, : ‘nofc a drop," followed by a shower of “same here,” “had none since Sunday,” “s : x days without a show,” “cameto town without washing,” and so on. One gentleman was heard to remark that there had been no water from the Yau Yean at hia place for six days, and that he had yesterday morning to give his children lemonade aiul ginger-beer for breakfast, there being no water fit for drinking or making tea within reach. The Chief Justice of New South Wales, Sir Alfred Stephen, now aged seventy years, hks asked to be allowed to retire on his full salary—L26oo a year. The retiring pension allowed by law is LI4OO a year ; but upon this Sir Alfred states he cannot live, and unless he is allowed his full salary he will hold the office as long as he lives. He has threatened never to repeat his application, and the Government have refused to accede to bis request. Til® PP Q PI e °? are now interesting themselves with the question Hiqw long wul Sir Alfred choose to remain hi office ? Should he Hyp tp fie lOQ years of age is He to be permitted to occupy the Bench merely because he cannot compress his private expenses within the limits of bis pension ! Excepting in a few extraordinary erses the intellectual faculties of men begin to decline at Sir Alfred’s age, and it is not reasonable to suppose that he will form an exception to {to xule. But whether or not,

there he is, and there he Says he will remain until he gets his L 2600 a-year as retiring allowance. He has deliberately matched himself against time, and somewhere about the beginning of the next century the eoncontest will begin to be a very interesting one, not on y for Australia, but for the world at large.