AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 588, 8 May 1876, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

In the Brisbane Courier is given some interesting information respecting the progress of telegraphic extension in the north of Queensland. The contractor for the erection of the telegraph line from Cook town has conpleted the line to Palmerville, and makes a detour thence eastward for two miles, at which point the line being stretched from Junction Creek northwards will join. The latter is complete 127 miles north of Junction Creek, and the poles have been erected to within thirty or forty miles of the intended point of connection near Palmerville, but the total extent of wiring to complete the main line is about sixty-five miles. It is expected that the wire to the Palmer will be open for business in about two months, The contractor for the northern end of this line will proceed beyond the junction wi'h the main line east of Palmerville, and carry a branch some twenty miles to Maytown. The business of Cooktown and the Palmer will make large additional demands on the wires southward of Townaville, and a third wire thence to Brisbane will soon become an absolute necessity in order to ensure the prompt despatch of messages. The telegraph line from Brisbane via Dilby to Cooktown will be 1473 miles in length. The will of the late Mr Alfred Anderson, musician, who married Mdlle. lima dc Murska. was proved in the Supreme Court yesterday. The docament is a short one, and was made on the 26th of February last, and by it he leaves all his real or personal property to his mother. Mr Anderson, the father of the deceased, and Mr Bentvvitch, tobacconist, are appointed executors. The property is sworn at £2300. A telegram from Brisbane says •—" Gold Commissioner Selheim telegraphs from Bryerstown to the Secretary of Mines as follows :—' On arrival here on the 15th inst. I proceeded immediately to the new rush at the Hodgkinson River, but found the Mitchell River bank high. There was no chance of crossing for a week, so I returned to Bryerstown. Reliable persons have arrived at Bryerstown from the rush, at considerable risk of their lives, on purpose to stop their mates. They briDg most miserable accounts. Bight hundred men are on the ground, unable to get aay gold, and there is nothing to warrant such a rush as is now setting in. The utmost misery and starvation must occur if people from the Southern colonies will insist on pouring in. I recommend every effort to be made to stop such an insane rush.'"

Scarlet fever has spread so rapid'y in Pootscray that a proposal has been made to establish locally a temporary hospital, in some suitable building, for the treatment of the disease, with a view to isolating sufferers and preventing a further spread of the fever. A lonely death of a stranger m a strange land is related by the South Australian lleghter :—" Michael Johnson, a Greek, foi whom the Strathalbyn District Council,knowing him to be a feeble, delicate man, had for three years obtained a ration from tht Destitute Board, died at his lonely slab but on the Dry Plains either upon Saturdaynight, the 15th inßt, or Sunday morning. Hewaf last seen on Saturday morning by Jesse Bray, a dealer, in r whose employ he was. He came

to say he was so ill that he could uot mind sheep, and had been crying with pain all night. Bray told him that he had better go to a doctor and get medicine, which he promised to do, and gave him one nobbier of brandy, thinking that it might do him good. On Sunday forenoon he went to the man's hat to see how he was, and found him seated on a chair dead. His body was quite cold. He had his clothes on, but bad apparently been dressing or undressing. Some medicine which the man had obtained from a chemist and two bottles of colonial red wine, with a little gone from out of them, were found, and also £1 7s Bd. Dv Albert W. Walls stated that from the appearance of the body, and from the evidence, he judgid that Johnsou died from English cholera. At the inquest a verdict was returned that the deceased died from natural ca"s D s."

Another seizure of goods, alleged to be uncustomed, has been made by the Customs department, the firm implicated on this occasion being Messrs Sander, Lazaim and Co, fancy goods importers, Bl ; z ibeth street. The investigation in this case has been proceeding fo - some days past, says the Argus of the latest date, and it is believed that sufficient evidence has been obtained to justify the authorities, in their opinion, in taking the step of seizure of certain goods upon which they believe sufficie .t duty has not been paid The amount of the seizure at present is not very large, but if it in shown that there has been any systematic evasion of the Customs, the matter will assume very serious proportions. A quantity of goods belonging to this firm is now detained in the M. and H B. railway sheds, pending further investigation.

" The vintage at the Murray Valley," states the Albury Banner, " has progressed rapidly, and is now drawing to a close. The yield from the Murray Valley Vineyard, ae near as can be yet estimated, is likely to be close on 30,000 gallous, and as, in addition to this. Mr Fallon purchases about an equal quantity from the small vineyards in the neighborhood, the new wine stored in the Kiewa street cellars will amount to something like 60,003 gallons. Owing to the spell of fine weather and hot days which succeeded the late rains the quality of the grape must have considerably improved, and the average strength will prove greatly in excess of expectations formed a fortnight since. The end of next week will probably see vintage operations for the season brought to an end. As a specimen of the average spirit strength of the musts in this locality, and as a proof, if any were required, of the absurdity of the Thudicum theory, we append a list of the strength of eight samples of must tested a few days since as they came into the cellar :—Keisling, 25 0 : Carbinet, 2fi 0 ; Verdeilho, 27-5 ; Tokay, 27 6 ; Shiraz, 28 8; Pineau Noir (Burgundy), 29 G; Aucarot, 313: Muscat, 310. We may add that these results were attained not only by the usual tests, but that in several instances they were checked by actual distillation of the must in a miniature still, similar to that nsed for similar purposes in French vineyards" " A virulent disease has broken out amongst the cattle in the Miuhamite district," says the Belfast Gazette. "It is sup posed by some to be a kind of dropsy, and it has provrd so fatal that in some paddocks half of the flock have been carried off by i's ravages. At Messrs Learmonth's station we learn that the loss has been very grett, while Mr Laidlaw has also suffered to a large extent, In a paddock containing some 2000 sheep, we are informed that, being unaware of the breaking out of the disease, the owner, when he went to inspect them, found it almost impossible to drive his buggy along owing to the quantity of dead carcases,"