AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2336, 28 September 1881, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

fßr Telegraph.]

[Per b.b. Estonia, at the Bluff ] MELBOURNE, September 21. Ministers are taking advantage of the brief recess, and are visiting different parts of the country for the purpose of ascertaining local requirements. Everywhere they have been well received.

At the annual dinner of the Victorian Brewers’ Club on the 15th, Dr, L. L. Smith, replying for the Ministry, said they had taken two resolves, one being not to run down their predecessors, and the other, as far as possible, to go in for practical, useful, and just legislation. They had the interest of the colony at heart, and if they did not oome out with a startling policy it was not for want of ability, but because tho colony had had too much of “ burning ” questions. An attempt has already been made on behalf of the Railway Department to arrive at a settlement in respect to claims for oompensation by the late railway accident, and in several instances mutually satisfactory arrangements have been effected. It is understood that the total claims will amount to £35,000. Several of the injured are not progressing so satisfactorily as anticipated, and it will be several weeks before many are able to resume their ordinary avocatione. Bank notes to the amount of £2500 were missed from the Back of Victoria on the 14th. It appears that after the receiving teller made up the accounts that afternoon the missing bundle, with others, was locked up by the assistant teller in an iron box, and banded to the assistant manager. The following morning the large bundle of notes was missing. A thorough investigation was made without success, and the robbery continues (o engross the attention of the police and the bank officials. Although a number of important discoveries have been made, no definite action has yet been taken, as the way in which the robbery was effected cannot be ascertained, but a number of £IOO-notes of the Bank of Australasia, which were included in the missing money, has been traced to a certain officer in the Bank, who, it is stated, failed to account for them. The police offered to arrest the officer, but the Bank declined to accept the responsibility. The Bank has since offered a reward of £3OO, to be increased to £530 on detection of the offender.

During the past month some rich specimens of quartz and gold have been found at the head of Dry Gully. Another sample of lOoz of flaky gold was found on the beach workings at Waratah Bay. The discovery is considered important, as drawing attention to the possibility of the marine beds formed from the wearing down of palaeozoic formation being sufficiently auriferous to pay for working. One of the earliest measures introduced by the Government, viz., a Bill to Check Chinese Immigration, was brought up and read a second time in the Assembly yesterday.

The British Commission for the Melbourne Exhibition has received a handsome letter of thanks from the Prince of Wales, chairman of the commission.

The tariff commission will consist—one member of the Council, four from the Assembly, the Mayor of Melbourne, the presidents of the Agricultural and Manufacturers* Associations, and the president of the Chamber of Commerce.

A new light to replace the old Swan Spit light, recently carried away by the barque Omeo, will be placed in portion without delay. Applications continue to he made to the Board of Health from Sydney for supplies of vaccine lymph. The Government ha* presented Lieut. Houston with a gold watch on behalf of the Government for his gallant conduct in saving Jasper at the torpedo explosion on board the Cerberus.

At the inquest railway accident, Mr Toul severely commented on the evidence of Mr Elsdon, general manager of the Victorian railways, who he declared was the worst witness he had ever examined. The general feeling is that Mr Youl’s remarks os to the laxity of management on the Hobson’s Bay line wer# fully -justified. ' SYDNEY, September 21.

A disastrous fire broke out at Townsville on the night of the 16th, and ten premises were destroyed. The origin was the bursting of a kerosene lamp. The imuranoes amounted to nearly £IO,OOO. The third contingent of smallpox patients, twenty-two in number, arrived from the Quarantine ground on the afternoon of the I7th, There was an absence of the distress and indignation previously manifested by discharged patients. ADELAIDE, September 21. Advices from Calcutta say that the sample shipment of pulleine is all that could be desired, and the consignor is recommended to send a regular quarterly consignment. The Adelaide Exhibition, which has been a great success, closes this week.

It is proposed by M, Maspero to open al the Pyramids, in order to verify his conjecture that the tombs of all the kings from the fourth tp the twelfth dynasty may be discovered within them,