AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2179, 18 February 1881, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

[Br TatBGBAPH.J [Per s.s. Hero, at Hokitika,] MELBOURNE. The Government will probably confine the business of the approaching meeting of Parliament to the Bo farm Bill, which will b« proceeded with to the exclusion of all other measures. The Ministers expect the session to last only five weeks, Mr Berry desiring ample time to prepare the estimates. The Melbourne City Council on Wednesday resolved to borrow £25,000 in.

*£loo debentures, at 4)- per cent. The Mayor afterwards gave a luncheon, to which _ the majors of provincial towns were invited. Messrs Oliviera mid Lafatti paid the Customs department a penalty of £IOO for goods sold at the Exhibition without the previous payment of duty. The Adelaide Government now pay the Orient Company Is on ounce on letters, Is a ponnd on parcels, and 6d a pound oo newspapers, conditional on » fortnightly service being maintained. , J. B. Laurie, of Sandringham, near the place whore Skuthorpe alleges that he discovered Leiohardt’s relics, discredits Bkuthorpe’s statement. A oompony has been formed in London, with a capital of a quarter of a million, to work the mines in North Port Augusta. PERTH. A terrible hurricane swept the Ashburton river on the 6th and 7th of January. Three Europeans and several natives were drowned. Twelve pearling vessels were wrecked, and £3OOO worth of pearls were lost. SYDNEY.

Tho Budget speech, delivered on Wednesday, showed an increase of revenue for the year of £430,000, having a surplus on the year of £49.000, and the Treasurer’s credit balance ib £369,000. The chief items of increase on the estimates are £157.000 for education, £IOOO for the census, and £20,000 for the post-office. The Treasurer said there "would bo no need of additional taxation, and that tho railways last year paid 4J per cent., and the Government hoped, by timely reductions, to secure the Riverine trade. There was no present intention to launch a loan, except, perhaps, a halt-a-million, in tho colony. The public debt of the colony was reduced last year £33,600, and next year would, probably, pay off £232,000 at 5 per cent., in view of getting money at a lower rate.