AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1861, 10 February 1880, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

[Via Bluff.] MELBOURNE, February 2. Phylloxera was discovered near Batesford, in Geelong district. The vineyard is being uprooted. The Maori Haka troupe, consisting ©f twenty Maoris, is performing at Melbourne. An old man named Thomas Woods died from tho effects of brutal injuries inflicted in a drunken row by a publican named Montgomery, of Creswick. Woods three days before his death insured his life for £4OO. At the annual sale of St. Albans’ yearlings the progeny of King of the Ring realised 2650 guineas, the average being £556. Two men wore sentenced to nine months for an attempt to rob the Commercial Bank. Murchison, the manager, raised the alarm by firing a revolver. Mr Hobbs, who as a boy came to Port Phillip when Governor Collins in 1803 endeavored to form a penal settlement at Point Nepean, died at Melbourne on January 30th. A social science congress is to be held during the first month of tho International Exhibition, when there are most foreign visitors in Melbourne. An international wine competition is also arranged in connection with the exhibition. SYDNEY, February 2. A meeting under the auspices of the Trades and Labor Council, Sydney, condemned the expenditure of £76,000 on immigration as unjust to the laboring classes. A fishing boat left Newcastle about a month ago with three men bound on a fishing excursion, It has not since been heard of, and is supposed to have been lost in a gale. News from New Caledonia states that the ten convicts who recently attempted to escape are to be guillotined. Fifty more seized a email steamer and got away. Destructive bush fires are frequent. Forty thousand acres of grass were destroyed on one station. Edward Trickett proposes to proceed to England to row Hanlon for the Championship of the World on the Thames. It is suggested that Clark, captain of the Sydney Rowing Club, should accompany him. The Assembly rejected Mr Garrett’s Totalisator Legalisation Bill by a majority of four. The Treasurer, in arranging the schedule of legacy duties, showed a disposition to shelter real estate. He has been forced to take back the schedule with a view to amendment. The Exhibition awards are not officially published yet. It has transpired that the convict Hume’s story that an aged white man, supposed to be Classen, of Leichardt’s party, was living amongst the blacks on the Mulligan, was correct. The man died in November, 1876, in attempting to reach tho camp of some white settlers, A committee appointed to procure a painting of Sir Hercules Robinson has given the commission to a Melbourne artist. The French Government have chartered a steamer to convey to France the liberated political prisoners who are unable to get employment in New South Wales. It is stated that the Government are making arrangements with the Orient Company for a fortnightly service to alternate with the San Francisco service. Kelly and Leon produced the Victorian prohibited version of “ Happy Land ” at the Academy of Music with good success. It is reported that the detectives warned them, but were unheeded. The Irish relief fund is £11,500. ADELAIDE, February 2. A man named Whitelock was assaulted by two men named Heard and Odeady, and nearly killed. Subsequently another man named Mant threw Heard over his shoulder and killed him. It is not considered probable that the wreckage recently found off the Australian bight is identical with the Craigol.