SYDNEY.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 590, 28 October 1869, Page 4

SYDNEY.

(From SoutJiern Cross Correspondent.) October 4. After a protracted negotiation, more ■ than once renewed, the shareholders of i the Australian Library have sold the | whole of the books and the fittings to the Government for LISOO. When it is mentioned that the library contains upwards of 16,000 volumes, many of which are very expensive, it will be seen how miserably small if the offer that has been closed with ; and it is tolerably evident that only a state of pressing embarrassment could have led to the acceptance of such low terms. It must be confessed that in tho whole of this transaction the Government have shown so mean a spirit, and the public so much apathy, that the I colony hardly deserves to possess such a treasure. The result, however, is that the Government have followed up their bargain with commendable alacrity, and have leased the building of the Australian library, the walls of which are now secure, with the view of establishing a free public library, after the example of that of Melbourne. This was opened with due ceremony on the 30th September. It is proposed to erect a large and elaborately designed building for the same purpose adjoining the Auß r lian Museum, the plans for which will be laid before Parliament during the present session. This movement will, doubtless, fora time detrimentally ftffect the School of Arts, a mechanics' institute which has progressed much of late, and which now contains some 13,000 books. The en-jrgetic secretary, Mr Rogers, has compiled a bulky catalogue, which has the novel feature of advertisements, on every other page, and the proceeds from these vary nearly pay for the expense of printing. Ten thousand copies are to be distributed throughout the city. WhilQ much of the weather in this clima,te is. inexpressibly beautiful, i% is. yet liable to great extremes and suddenness of change. Instances aje afforded all the year round, but they have b§en uncommonly striking during the last few weeks. Strange as it may sound, many days in August were oppressively hot. A period succeeded in whiph the fall in the temperature was so great and sudden, with a S.W. wind s,o keen and searching, that people were to be seen rushing to an.d fro muffled up, hardly able to preserve a comfortable warmth. Heavy snow fell "towards the south, south-west, and west, at Kiama, Glenhurn^ and Mount Victoria, and trace waa actually seen only a few miles from Sydney, at Liverpool i and at one time it becaniQ so. cold, and the sky became so laden with grey clouds, that one might have expected a fall in Sydney itself, as is recorded to have happened onco before in history. One lnorn-

ing an amusing and certainly novel incident took place at the Sydney railway terminus, in the shape of a brisk snowballing, the train having brought clown a large quantity of snow from the upland regions. On Saturday, the 18th ultimo, we had another of those meteorological displays with which we are by no means unfamiliar. The day opened sultry with a bright sky, and the ice-cream man had been doing a good stroke of business in the morning. But in the far west, where so many of our thunderstorms are bred, a dense cloud, suspiciously black, hung over the mountain ; it grew rapidly in size, the air became still, the storm signal was hoisted, and at three in the afternoon a furious tornado, which lasted upwards of an hour, swept over the city from the west. At first every object was obscured by the density of the dust whirled into the air ; but presently a far more extraoiv dinary obstacle presented itself ; a hailstorm came next on the heels of the dust, amidst the most fearful thunder and lightning. The crash of the thunder, the strange rattle of the hail, which averaged half-an^inch in diameter, the bolting of frightened horses, the fields whitened with the hail, the streets swarming with ice and water, the smashing windows and skylights, and the obscured atmosphere lit up by fitful gleams of lurid lightning — made up a picture which will often be recalled to mind. The hailstones were angu'arshaped, and of remarkable hardness ; some of them measured three-quarters of an inch in diameter, and at first they came down with such forge that one man had his cheek severely wounded. Had the wind not lulled, the damage in glassbreaking would have been very considerable. It is singular that at Ashfield, in the direct line of the storm, there was no vestige of hail ; while east and west of that locality, in the same line, the fall was heavy, so that a space of two or three miles was bridged over. It then settled in an hour's quiet rain, with no wind. At eleven the same night it began suddenly to blow a gale from the N.E., which in a short time as suddenly ceased ; and then, with equal suddenness, a hard gale of cold dry wind blew from the west with unabated force during the remainder of the night and throughout the next day, when the groimd was again familiarly dry, and familiar homely dust once more met you in the streets. Yet, in spite of the dust and dry ness, the changeful temperatuie, or the electric and meteoric forces that often are so destructive in their effects, there is a large residuum of weather splendid enough to tempt one to say that nowhere iv the world is the air so balmy or nature so resplendent as in Australia.