AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 351, 28 July 1875, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Melbourne, July 21. The Treasurer delivered his budget speech last Thursday, and it has excited considerable attention. The statement showed that the Treasurer commenced the financial year with a credit balance of £81,629, obtained through the actual expenditure not exceeding the estimate by £152,000. For the current year, the revenue is estimated at £4,487,318, and the expenditure at £4,488,658, or £201,845 more than the receipts. He also proposes a loan in the London money market for £2,750.000 for railways and other works. The Treasurer proposes the remission of Customs duties to the amount of £280,000, and the imposition of new taxation amounting to £517,000. The spiritduties are raised to 12s per gallon, and there is also an increase on beer and tobacco, as well as one penny per gallon on colonial beer. The land tax proposes to tax all lands above 820 to 2000 acres at fourpence per acre, and above this 6d per acre. Taxes on houses, cheques, bills of exchange, fire and marine insurances, and on the incomes of absentees are all proposed. A number of 20 per cent duties are abolished, and thus reduced to 15 per cent. Taken as a whole, the Budget has been favorably received, although the Protectionists conceive that the tariff is a step in the direction of Free Trade, The direct taxation is generally considered fair, but all the propositions are likely to give rise to considerable discussion, and will meet with much opposition. At first sight the Treasurer’s budget met with seeming approval, but soon opposition was raised in various quarters. The Protectionists have formed a league against the reduction of duties, and the manufacturers also are in arms on the groundof interference with existing rights. The publicans even find that the operations of the tariff will be prejudicial to their trade, especially the House tax. No one section is apparently satisfied, and the Government proposals are likely, if passed at all, to be severely handled. Since the introduction of the tariff the Land Bill has been almost forgotten. The Assembly have decided to increase the area of selection to 610 acres, and declined to strike out the cultivation clause. The scandal anent Judge Dunne has culminated in his suspension by the Government, not, it is stated, on the ground of alleged intoxication, but that on Monday he neglected to opei the Insolvency Court, at Sandhurst, at the proper time. It is evident the Government ielt the necessity of doing something. The mail steamer Ceylon, after being aground for twenty-eight hours, got off safely, and proceeded on her voyage. Captain Kay, R.N., late clerk to the Executive Council, is dead. He was a nephew of Sir John Franklin, and came with him to Tasmania, The steamship Somersetshire has arrived, fifty-four and a half days from London. A young man named Kaveiagh, aged twenty, has been convicted of forging a consent to marry, his wife being a minor, and was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. At a meeting held yesterday, it was resolved to form a colonisation and trading company connected with New Guinea, capital £SOOO. Mr Carroll, a late member of the Assembly, is being tried on charges of forgery. Ah Kat, a Chinaman, has been found guilty of the murder of a German, near Maryborough, and recommended to mercy.

Another Chinaman and the murdered man’s wife were acquitted. H.M.S. Blanche is shortly going to England via Cafe Horn, Bishop Hale, of Western Australia, has been elected Bishop of Brisbane. The mail is just telegraphed at Adelaide. It arrives here on Friday, the 23rd. Sydney. It is reported that a hitch has occurred in the Pacific mail contract with reference to the power of the American Company under their charter to four other companies. The Government has postponed a resolution, asking the sanction of Parliament to the contract. The MacGregor has reached San Francisco, but the date is not given. Mr .Hanley Bennett, a member of tne Assembly, who had been incarcerated during an unsatisfied judgment, has been released, the Attorney-General having expressed an opinion that members have the same immunity from arrest as those of the House of Commons. A shock of earthquake was felt in several localities on Friday. It lasted five seconds and the direction was from North to South. A charge of alleged corruption against the Minister of Lands, after an excited debate, ended in nothing, The Leparito from New York reports rescuing the crew of the barque Hesperus, bound to Monte Video. They lived for three days in the mizen-top and rigging. < The ship Isabella bound from Newcastle to Hong Kong, was wrecked on a reef. The boats’ crews were picked up, but six men were left on an island without provisions. The following failures have occurred ; Sims, miller, with liabilities of £37,000, and Kendall, miller, with liabilities of £38,000. There was a meeting of bank managers held yesterday to arrange terms of business. The Valetta colt and Hyperion are the best favorites for the Derby. Adelaide. H.M.S, Nymph has arrived from England via the Cape. A company has been floated in London for the construction of extensive breakwater works and wharf accommodation near the Semaphore, with a capital of a quarter of a million. It has been subscribed, and the initial steps taken. COMMERCIAL. Melbourne. Since the recent news from England there has been some excitement in the wheat market. Victorian sold yesterday at 5s sd, and Adelaide at 5s 6d. The first of the season’s new teas have arrived of good qualities. Portions were sold privately at from Is Id to 2a 6d. Sugars continue firm, and in good request. Other descriptions of merchandise are without material alteration. INTERPROVINCIAL. Auckland, July 27. The cutter Hero, abandoned off Mokau, was insured for £4OO in the South British. The body of ,a man has been found in the swamp near Mercer, with deep wounds in the head. It is supposed he has been struck by a locomotive. The body is not identified, Typhoid fever has broken out in the industrial school. The timber contract made by Mr Russell with the Admiralty is participated in by Messrs Stone Brothers and Mr W. C. Wilson, who are joint contractors. The ship Director, 800 tons, has been chartered to come over from Newcastle and load the first cargo of timber. The contract is stated to be for only about a million and a half feet yearly. The barque Lochnager has arrived from Newcastle after a smart passage of seven days. She reports the ship Colombo, bound from Newcastle to Hong Kong, with 800 tons of coal, was wrecked in Torres Straits. Six men were left without provisions or water on the island. Seventeen Chinamen remained on the wreck. A schooner picked up the boat with ten of her men who reported the wreck. Gbahamstown, July 27. Great indignation is expressed at the reported proposal to give the Thames only one additional member. A monster meeting will be called when the proposal is officially answered. New Plymouth, July 27. The Herald's special reporter says:—■ “ Hunt, of the cutter Hero, states he is nephew of Captain Fairchild, and was cabin boy in the Luna, but ran away. He is seventeen years old. The heavy rollers sent in from the beach frightened the master during the night, owing to the starting of a plank on the port side. The vessel labored and made water, and the pumps were kept at work. The captain resolved to go for Mokau, and shook out the reef from the mainsail, but no sooner was this done than the mast cracked. They took to the boat, and the first surf capsized it. Hunt swam ashore. He saw the captain on the top of the boat, ,and he was washed off. He saw the men struggling in the water.” Wellington, July 27. In the House of Representatives, Mr Reader Wood gave notice that he would ask to-morrow whether the Government had taken any authoritative or legal opinions as to the legality of their abolishing the provinces, and whether they would lay the same and all correspondence connected therewith upon the table. The House adjourned at a quarter to three, to present the address to the Governor. July 28. It is understood that Mr Reader Wood this afternoon gives notice to move for the appointment of a Select Committee to inquire into the condition of the finances of the colony. Hokitika, July 27. The Albion left Melbourne at 5.15 p.m. on the 21st, and had moderate weather throughout the passage. Passengers for Lyttelton— Mr and Mrs Thomas, Miss Thomas, Mrs Matson and three children, Messrs Buckley and Wright, and thirteen steerage. Dunedin, July 27. The first case under the Protection of Animals Act in Otago, will come on at Palmerston in a few days. Three Shag Valley settlers were discovered by police coursing hares, and when apprehended, they had two hares in their possession. The case causes the greatest excitement in the district, but there is no sympathy with the alleged offenders. A meeting of ladies was held yesterday, to take into consideration the present expensive style of mourning. An association was formed, and a resolution carried, that ladies will promise for themselves, and induce others to adopt a less oppressive style of mourning.