AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 841, 5 March 1877, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

From our files to hand by tho Alhambra we extract the following items: — Two important sales of city property have lately taken place. The Criterion Hotel, Collins street, has apparently come to the end of its career as a public lionise. The property, wl ish has been several times offered sit auction, has been at laet privately gold to the Union Rank of Australia for £33,000. The land formed part of the estate of the late Mr Michael Pender. It in half-an acre in extent, and has a frontage of 6Gft Sin to Ooliias street, and runs bick 2'9lt Sin to Flinders lane. Mr George Petty has bought the block of land on the east side of the Prince of Wales Opera House. The frontage consists of five shops in Bourke street, while at the back the Hunt Club Hotel is included. The price paid was £36,500. It is proposed to build a large theatre on the American prin ciple. The matter has gone so far that plans are already in course of preparation. As new premises are substituted for old ones, the ancient landmarks of the city one by one disappear. The latest to be pulled down is the building in Collins street west in which the Port Philip Patriot was first published. The Patriot existed in the early days of the colony, and subsequently became merged in the Argus. Of late tho premises have teen occupied by the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Company, for whom new offices are about to be erected on the same site.

The actions commenced by Messrs L. Stevenson and bons, wholesale warehousemen, against the Government for the seizure of goods by the Customs authorities, which caused eo much commotion some months ago have been discontinued. Technical difficulties which stood in the way of th.e prosecution of tho suits have been pronounced by eminent lawyers in London—whose views fortify opinions already obtained in Melbourne—to be insurmountable. Tho somewhat arbitrary powers conferred by the Customs Act have placed the Government in an advantageous position. The firm has been obliged, moreover, to show deference to the expressed wishes of the manufacturers it has been accustomed to deal with at homo. These manufacturers objected to a disclosure of the transactions between them and their customers. The oiiginal invoices of the gloves arid flannels, which formed the subject of police court prosecutions under tho Customs Act, have been received from England, and shown by Messrs Stevenson and sons Lo leading members of the mercantile community, whom they have satisfied that the charges of fraudulent evasion of duty brought by the Government were unfounded. The tcchuical difficulties alluded to above have rot affected the action which was instituted against the Postmaster-General for the unlawful detention of the firm's letters, but as the chief olject the plaintiffs had in view —the maintenance of the r -putalion of the firm—would not be aided by success in that action, it likewise has been withdrawn. lufintaliou has been received by telegram of the appointment by the Home Government ( n compliance with the request pent from the colonies) of Colonel li. M. Lafpin, commanding the Royal Engineers at Gib raltar, and Colonel fc'cratchley, director of works at Woolwich Aisenal, to report on the defences of tho principal Australian ports. Colonel Scratchley, whose selection was suggested by the Government of Victoria, wiil bo stationed in Melbourne for ■tome year. 1 -', in order to superintend the ixtcution of such scheme of defence as may be adopted, Advantage has been taken in the meantime oi tho presence of Lieut. Dugdale, oC 11.M.5. Wolverine (with the|permission of Commodore Hoskino), to have the floating defences of the port examined by him. Tue knowledge which Lieutenant Dugdale possesses of the latest improvements in gunnery leads us to expect a valuable report from him. Suggestions wero lately offered by Captain Cole, M.L.O, ror tho conversion of the wooden ship Nelson into an armour plated vessel. The subject received due attention atthe hands of Captain Panter, of the Cerberus, but the proposal was found to be quite impracticable, and the Nelson will have to remain a training L-hip. Lieut Dugdale, who wan necessarily consulted in the matUr, shovrsd that no amount, of money spent upon tho vessel in alterations would render her any more efficient than she is at present [as a man-of-war, [A subsequent telegram states that Sir W. Jervis is coming instead of Colonel Laffaa.J Negotiations entered into for the admission of Victorian barristers to the English bar on easy terms have been concluded for the pr<. - sent. The petition sent to Lord Carnarvon I some eighteen months ago showed that mem-

bera of the English and Irish inn= and Scotch advocates were admitted here without examination; that in this colony there was the same distinction between the profession;s of barristers and attorneys aa there was in England; that the standard of examination for banisters in Victoria was equal, if not superior, to that in England; and that the ■itatus uf colonial attorneys had been recognised by the Imperial act, allowing them to be admitted in England on certain terms, I! was therefore asked that seme recognition of he same kind should be accorded to the Victorian bar. Through the instrumentality )f Mr G. U. P. Webb, an emiueut member of the colonial bar, the Inns have agreed to recognise the claims of the Victorian bar, so far as to dispense with the preliminary examinations, and to require attendance for six instead of twelve terms as a preliminary to being called to the English bar.