AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 3280, 25 August 1873, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

The manufacture of oilcloth has recently been established in Melbourne with favorable prospects of success. Considerable difficulties were experienced at the outset, as all the necessary machinery and the blocks for printing had to be obtained from England. The_ works are situated near Northcote, and their producing powers are stated to be equal toj the manufacture of 200 square yards per week. The cloth can be sold at a price equal to that paid for the imported article in England. The agents are Messrs Allen Brothers, Market street, Melbourne. “ An important discovery of fossil remains has been made at Cowrie Creek, Queensland. They consist,” says the JJarlinii Downs Gazette, “ of the head, fore leg, and foot bones of an extinct species of a gigantic mammalian animal, named by Professor Owen, in 1844, Diprotodov Australis. Many remains of this animal have been discovered in various parts of the Darling Downs district, and particularly at _ King’s Greek and Cowrie. From these fossils Professor Owen has from time to time been enabled to proceed with the construction of complete skeleton, but for many years past lie lias been unable to procure the foot bones now brought to light at Cowrie. He is indebted to Mr C. B. King, a Toowomba gentleman, for the latter discovery. The whole aeries will be sent Home by the next mail.” Alluding to the establishment of an important industry in Tasmania, the Hobart Town Mcrcurv says “ A woollen factory is in the course of erection near Launceston. Another, with Hobart Town for its site, only wants the timely assistance of less than half a dozen investors of a small amount; and we have information that a third will probably be undertaken on the banks of the Clyde. Patents have been taken out in France by two Boulogne engineers for a series of machines jointly invented by them, for the manufacture of every description of cask* and barrel by machinery. New South Wales intends to extend the Southern Railway to Yass without loss of time. The railway is to be completed in two years, and the cost is to be L 1,500 per mile. A murder has been discovered near Bathurst, New South Wales, where a teamster named Muggeridge appears to have been killed and his body separated into pieces and partly burnt. A man named Jarvis is in custody on suspicion.

At the Ryde (New South Wales) Police Court, a man named Clarke was committed for trial for throwing a hive of bees into a Wesleyan Church during service. A shocking massacre by the Queensland blacks is reported in the Brisbane Telegraph of July 31: —“ We are informed by Mr M’Devitt, M.L.A., that on the day he left Townsville (Friday last), a schooner arrived iu port bringing tbe sad intelligence of the murder of a fishing party at Green Island. AMr Mercer and some others had gone to the island from Townsville, accompanied by two blacks and a gin; and the captain of the schooner, which was employed in seeking for bcche-dc-mer iu the same locality, found the whites of the party murdered in their camp, the deed having been evidently effected while they were asleep. The blacks were making off iu a boat belonging to the party, when they were overtaken, but they immediately took to the water, and made for the land, where they would doubtless lie perdu.