AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IX, Issue 453, 14 February 1867, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

We clip the following; items from the Sydney Morning Herald, of the 20th January : A committee of the Assembly of South Australia have strongly recommended the A il __ J jl OAVV4AOAW4* W 4 «CftU«IOJ» IUIVUgUOUI Liie ooloiij". A prospectus has been issued of a company to build houses for the working classes at Melbourne,

TTssrfb'-r j. I4t vuwi xc.ii/* ox t'Atu fUUUCIO JAA-pCUAtiULI in 1802 hare been found at Port Lincoln.

liTcobro. HeriiOt, ITuuartOll, *md Co. ii&Te D6c-n appointed agents at Adelaide f ur the Panama Mail steamers. The territorial revenue of Victoria for the past year shows a decline of £109,909 : the deficit in the Customs department alone is still greater, being £205,011. The cultivation of cotton is rapidly ex- ■ tending in Queensland. Four years ago, the growth of cotton in that colony was considered in the light of an interesting experiment, and but few persons expected any practical results would foUow, in 1862, 14,314 pounds of cotton valued at £1423, were exported ; in 1865 the quantity had increased to 612 bales, containing 103,680 pounds of clean cotton; during the past year a much greater breadth of ground was put in cultivation, and the total yield will, it is estimated, be about 3000 bales.

Mr Hitchens, who ranks as the second billiard-player in England arrived in Victoria early in the month, and has already been engaged in several matches. Important discoveries of gold conrimie to be made in the district of Ballarat, Victoria.

Regulations of a very stringent nature have been issued for the guidance of the Civil servants of the colony of Victoria. They are not to take part in private business, nor to speak disrespectfully of members of Parliament.

Tho South Australian Parliament was prorogued on the 11th instant. An engagement has been made with the eleven Aboriginal Cricketers of Victoria to visit England, for a season of cricket there. They will be accompanied by Mr Wills, and their original instructor, Mr Hayman. They are to make the voyage to England via Panama. They have lately been engaged in several matches in Victoria, and have proved themselves excellent plavers. The demand for labor in Queensland has now so nearly equalled the supply, that the government have come to to the resolution of discontinuing tho various relief camps that hive for some months oast been at in the neighborhood of Brisbane and Ipswich. The Legislative Council of Western Australia closed the session on tho 11th ult.

A serious disturbance between tho European and Chinese diggers at the Crocodile Creek diggings (Queensland), took place early in the month, and an enquiry into tha circumstances of the affair has been held, and some of the ringleaders punished. The Parliament of Victoria opened its sittings on the 17th inst. The Governor’s speech congratulated the country on the abundant liarvest mid general prosperity, and numerous reforms were promised. The police force of Seuth Australia is rapidly becoming disorganised, owing to the general feeling of dissatisfaction existing among the men. Chief Inspector Hamilton is about to resign, and a commission of enquiry has been appointed. A man named Anderson on the 22nd inst., at Adelaide, commenced the feat of walking 1000 miles in 1000 hours.

Detectives have lately been employed as clerks in the Melbourne Post Office, to detect letter stealers.

Captain Cadell has been appointed by the South Australian Government to fix a site for a settlement in North Australia. An instance of the great and sudden variation to which the climate of Australia is liable occurred recently at Port Bourke, where the thermometer fell sixty-one degrees in half-an-hour—it stood at 1.10 degrees and fell to 49.

Considerable seizurees of smuggled cigars, packed in furniture, have lately been made in Melbourne and at Balarat/Victoria.

The total export of gold from the province of Otago, New Zealand, from the time of the gold discovery until November last amounted to 2,007,007 ounces. Near the entrance of the main hall of the Intercolonial Exhibition at Melbourne, several specimens of paper, made from the fibre of the bark and foliage of trees common to the Australian colonics, have just been placed by Dr. Mueller, Government botanist of Victoria.

The Queensland Government has agreed to submit a proposition to Parliament to offer £3OOO reward for the discovery of a payable gold-field in that colony. Twelve Angora kids were dropped this season by the Victorian Acclimatisation Society’s flocks.

An experiment of an interesting nature is now being tried with one of the staple exports of Victoria. Hitherto all tho wool exported from Australia has been sent to Loudon or Liverpool—almost exclusively to the former port. It appears, however, that American buyers are not infrequent at the London sales and to test the United States market a fine ship—the Isabella Hercus—has been dispatched foi New York direct, taking 1200 bales wool. Tho result will be looked forward to with considerable interest. If she finds a good market, a new trade may be opened up between America and the colonies.

i,.. i ; j v *M*vi*uttvwu uo3 t/ccu icootrcu in .Brisbane of the discovery of a quartz reef at lalgai.

Newspapers from all the colonies speak cf the intense lieat experienced daring tbs past few weeks. Hush fires have been very numerous, and great destruction of property has taken place in consequence. In the Tasmanian Court of the Intercolonial Exhibition at Melbourne has been lately placed a bottle containing fish* and labelled thus;—“The progeny of English perch hatched in Tasmania,' November, 1865, and caught November, 1866, the exhibitor, Morton Allport.” Manganese is now reckoned among the products cf Queensland. Two tons have been shipped at Gladstone for Brisbane, to be there transshipped for the English market.