AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 3474, 11 April 1874, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

It is expected that the first instalment of the Martini-Henry rifles will be issued to the Victorian Volunteers in a couple of months. Mr George Petty has sold his estate at Vlaribyrnong, with the whole stud of thoroughbred horses, brood rnares, &c., for the sum of L 40,000, the purchaser being Mr Charles Fisher, The steps taken by the South Australian Government in the interests of forest culture are attracting attention. The Government of Ceylon has just appointed conservators of forests, whose chief business is to protect the extensive Crown forests from the depredations. of the _ Cingalese, who fire hill sides with the object of cultivating one or two miserable grain crops on the virgin soil. Nurseries and plantations are also to be commenced. The solicitors of Sydney have Sir Alfred Stephen with a complimentary address and testimonial. The address was beautifully illuminated on six leaves of vellum, bound in album form ; the covers, about 14 by 12 inches in size, being of magenta velvet lined with white silk. The devices about the different pages represent, amongst other things, the insignia of the Bath and of St. Michael and St. George, besides the national rose, thi-tle, shamrock, and other emblems, all most artistically and accurately colored and mounted. The testimonial compth-ed an elegantly chased salver, tea-pot, coffee-pot, sucar-basin, and creamewer—all of sterling silver. At Sandhurst some excitement was occasioned on St. Patrick’s Day by Dr Backhaus, the chairman, proposing the toai-t, “His Holiness the Pope,” before that of the Queen. He justified his action by saying that “there were many parties present who were not Catholics, and he did not expect them to enter into the spirit of the toast, or even to drink the toast. In prop, ising it not the least disrespect was intended towards their sovereign lady the Queen. The occasion was an ecclesiastical one, and in connection with an l ecclesiastical event in which his Holiness

played an important part. Individually his Holiness was worthy of all honor, but he did not expect the non-Oatholic portion of the assembly to respond to it.”