AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1762, 13 October 1879, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

[Br Telegraph.] (Per s.s. Arawata.) The most important event of the week has been the welcome rainfall, which, though still insufficient, has proved highly beneficial, and will be the salvation of the crops, which have already suffered, while the creeks and dams are so empty that, on many stations, the wool will not be able to be washed. The rainfall is still nearly 6in. below the average of the last twenty years. Mr Berry is ill, and some exaggerated accounts have found their way into the prints, as to the serious nature of his indisposition, but it is only temporary ; still he is incapacitated from giving his attention to public duties this week.

The Executive have decided, in the case of Lawrence, that the capital sentence be carried out next Monday. The decision has given rise to much difference of opinion on the question of insanity, and much correspondence has taken place, and petitions have been sent in.

Mr Thurston, the present Colonial Secretary of Eiji, has been appointed Secretary to the High Commissioner of Polynesia in conjunction with his present office. In the Assembly the tariff of new duties has been agreed to. It is expected to realise £260,000 rer year. The duty on oils was withdrawn, as it was found that one firm had bought up the market, and that nothing could be obtained from the impost. Sir Charles Sladen’s Reform Bill has passed its second reading in the Council. It proposes several liberal reforms for widening the basis of representation. The revenue returns for the quarter show receipts of £1,133,680, being a decrease on the corresponding quarter of £33,749, while the decrease on the year is £65,763. The estimate for the exhibition is £274,802, but with the amounts estimated to be derived from the value of the temporary buildings and admission fees, the real cost is set down at £224,802.

There is just now a miner’s strike at Sandnnrst, owing to the reduction in the rate of wages, but it is probable that, before long, some arrangements will be arrived at, as the cessation of work is most injurious to claim holders.

The prosecution of the manager and directors of the Provincial and Suburban Bank is progressing slowly, and will probably last several days longer. The education question is still attracting much attention throughout the country, and Protestants, as well as Catholics, are forming leagues, both of which it is anticipated will have their effect at the general election. Mr William ;McOulloch has lost his imported bull Oxford DeVere the Second, which cost him between two and three thousand pounds. A few days ago, a mounted constable was about to arrest a man for a larceny when the fellow pointed a revolver at him, fired, and lodged a rbullet in the constable’s thigh; the constable fired four shots in return, but without effect, as the fellow got off, and has not yet been arrested. The man is identical with the Edwards who in 1864 was sentenced to death, but had the sentence commuted to twenty-one years’ imprisonment. Somehow he got out after serving only three years. The Academy of Music remains closed, the original proprietor having entered upon possession owing to the non-fulment of the lease by the lessee. Business continues dull, but the rainfall and the settlement of the tariff are expected to have a good effect. The Melbourne Meat Preserving Company are £13,900 to the bad on the half-year. The loss is attributed to the operation of the stock tax, and losses on shipments to England. It may be deemed advisable to wind up the company if the stock tax is not repealed. The report of the Aboriginal Board shows an increase of mortality amongst the natives, principally from Jung disease.