Australian Items.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 763, 21 February 1870, Page 3

Australian Items.

It is officially stated that the number of prisoners who passed through the Melbourne gaol during the year just over was 50A7- The number who have been lodged in the Swanston-street look-up would probably amount to 20,000. As a sample of Chinese enterprise in Australia, we do not remember to have met with anything to beat this. It is from the correspondent of the Bockhampton Bulletin, on the Gilbert diggings:—Vegetables are now brought in regularly by the Chinese from their gardens, fii'ty-fiye miles distant, at reasonable pcices. The foliowing is from the Melbourne Argus : —The results of the thrashing in the district of Bellerine proves that the early sown crops of wheat have yielded even larger returns than was anticipated. One farmer has been forty bushels, and others thirty bushels per acre. The late sown crops are, however, of little account, —rust, and it is said the influence of the hot winds, having played havoc with them. Silver-mining in South Australia is beginning to assume important dimensions and a remunerative character. The South Australia .Register gives the following as an recent week's return : —Amalgam, 3631bs 20z.; ore, 119 tons, crushed ; I'd bars of smelted silver from the mine arrived the other day, of good appearance, weighing about 4000 ounces. This is equivalent to a yield of £8 sterling per ton. The experiment of introducing salmon and trout into Tasmanian waters has reached the final stage of success. It is now an undoubted fact that the Tasmanians have both the salmon and trout "at home" in their waters, and also that their new home seems to agree with them. Two undoubted salmon were captured a short time ago, and, during the visit of the Flying Squadron at Hobart Town, the veritable brown trout was served up at the Vice-regal table, and partaken of by hi* Excellency and the officers of the Squadron. The fish had been caught the previous day in the fiaver Plenty, and the largest of them was 22 inches long, 13 inches in girth, and weighed 6 pounds. The eighth half yearly meeting of the Victorian Woollen and Cloth Manufactur ing Company was recently held a; Geelong. l'ho secretary read the half-yearly report, which was received with cheers. It stated that during the half-year 47,797 yards of tweed were manufactured, being an in crease of nearly 11,000 yards on the manufactures of the previous six months. The sales for the same period have been 52,426 yards, showing an increase, compared with the previous half-year, of nearly 17,000 yards. This satisfactory result is a convincing proof that the company's tweeds are gradually finding favor with the trade and public, and that the efforts of the manager to turn out the manufactures as perfect as possible (combined with the increased skill of the work people) : have not been unavailing; and the directors believe the time is not far distant when the colonial will entirely supersede the imported tweeds. The result of the half year's working is higaly satisfactory, showing a profit of £2,511 10s 6d. <