AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1945, 19 May 1880, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

CBt Tbmqbaph.] A portion of the Australian news, p°r a a. Wakatipu, was given yesterday. The following are additional items : VICTORIA. Steps are be’ng taken to provide extra space for the United Spates in the Exhibition and the British implement court, for which a special annexe will be erected. The Victorian implications for space are so numerous that difficulty is experienced in the allotments. Some excitement has been caused at Uonnolly by the discovery of rich stone in the Queen’s Birthday Mine, surpassing anything previously obtained. A deputation representing the Victorian farming interest, waited on Mr Service to ask whether the Government were prepared to place an additional duty on imported feeding grain to the extent of 2s per cental. It was p inti d out that at the present prices farmers could not compete with New Zealand. Mr Service said that they were asking for relief in a wrong direction. He did not fori that the step they ashed him to take was likely to result in the prosperity they wished to bring about, and expressed the opinion that the whole system of protection must break down, and that he could see clearly the folly of trnrting to artificial means to maintain high prices. He did not give them the slightest encouragement. Soon after the Orient left Plymouth a passenger. named Travers, when the vessel was near St. Vincent, jumped overboard and was drowned. A third-class passenger, named Scott, was also missed, and it is believed that be also jumped overboard. T y e actual steaming time ef the Orient was thirty-four days one hour and a half. NEW SOUTH WALES. The district engineer, Mr Berth-m. at Miranda, while temporarily insane, escaped from his watchers and committed suicide in a lagoon. Some French merino sheep belonging to the French Government were sold at prices ranging from 30 to ISO guineas each. The rise in the price of wool has affected values of woollen goods, and merchants announce an advance on blankets, &c., of 20 per cent. In explanation of the recent fall in wool as compared with the opening sales, the “Sydney Morning Herald ” states that it is dna to the decrease in the French demand in consequence of strikes in France. SOUTH AUSTRALIA. It is authoritatively alleged that the amount of wheat in farmers’ hands has been grettly under-estimated, and that in the districts northeast of Jamestown immense quantities have been held by farmers for better prices. A peculiar case has occurred at Hindmarsb. A man named Cousans, formerly of New Zealand, and having property valued at £IOOO, died. An inquest elicited the fact that he was taken recently into the house of a Mrs Collins, and that he made awillin herfavour. She gave him brandy contrary to the doctor’s orders, and would not let bis friends see him. The jury decided that the deceased died from natu-al causes, accelerated by the treatment of Mrs Collins. The Agricultural -Society has decided to request the Orient and P. and O. Company’s to prepare specific compartments in their vessels for the reception of shipments ef fruit for the English markets. QUEENSLAND. The blacks attacked the minors at Mr.lgrave on May 10th, and attempted to carry off their tools. One European was wounded. The tent of two miners caught lira while the occupants were drunk. One was terribly burnt, and has since died; the other made no effort to escape, and was saved by being dragged out by the lege. The Brisbane Licensing Bench has announced that a : l applications for renewal of licenses to wooden houses will bo refused. This intimation has created considerable excitement, as most of the second rate hotels in the city are of wood. The Hon. G. M. Waterhouse arrived at Cooktown by the Torres Straits steamer Somerset on May 7th.