AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 3394, 7 January 1874, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

A Melbourne business man ofj Some 20 years ’ Standing - died last week’.' Rather uiore than a year ago’VS was : married, ami a friend,of his advised hipa to insure his life. .He made two proposals of Ll,ooo each, and was accepted by two companies. W hen* the time came for paying the, premium, .his Relatives' -and' co partners objected* to ’ the amount be.ng,withdrawn from the*firm to pay what they considered a private matter, and. the proposed . insurance. fell through. The two, companies don’t in the least regret the impracticability of these partners. ' i ;The 'telegraph ■' announces lo|' us another failure of the attempt to pass from the centre of 'Australia to the settled dis' ricta of the western .colony, . Several attempts have been'made of late to explore this large tract of terra incognita, and to open up its secrets, bub Ml ,°f them. up to the pre-ent.time, have been failures. Mr.Giles was the leader of a party who last year made a gallant effort to cross, the;great despite region, and he succeeded in reaching to longitude iVfideg.; ?Bmin , a meridian he .has touched in two places ,100 miles ap at, But each time, he was compelled to turn back, the first, time from encountering some dry sandstone ranges in-the..midst of dense scrub, and with; na fresh Crater, , and the second, time from/ coming on to the' shore of a large sale lake,’ equally destitute of that indispensable element. Mr Gosse, the leader of .the expedition fitted out ’by the Eolith Australian Government, now returns to tell a similar Story of non-success. He reached longitude 1293 eg; 59min., nearly as far westward's Mr Giles, And about 120 .miles to the southward, btit from some cause or other not. yet explained unable .to go any further, and had to return - . Mr Gosse about the end of : March from Alice Springs, and. now. telegraphs’ his return, to Charlotte Waters, after about nine, months’ absence. So this large , regipp, ibe, largest unexplored tract upon the earth’s surface, still remains a mystery, and.stands as a problem and a task, for future explorers,