Australian Items.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 782, 28 April 1870, Page 3

Australian Items.

The following; paragraph with reference to drunkenness and crime in Australia is from the Melbourne Daily Telegraph j The list of appalling outrages '"ncreases in length daily. With mingled feelings of regret and horror, we see our newspapers rivalling the Newgate Calendar in details of crime. From east and west comes news of murder, of violation, of bushranging, and of nameless offences, such as brought swift destruction on the Cities of the Plains We may speculate, amid the comforts of oar homes, on the hidden causes of these outbreaks, and may, in cold blood, suggest stern methods of physical torture to strike fear into the hearts of evil doers ; but it is in our power to do something more than speculate and talk. It is a proved fact that nine-tenths of the crimes committed in this land are traceable to the abuse of drink. That is a practice which every man and every woman can discountenance, and every fresh tale of rapine and violence should incite them to the task. No licensing law, and no police inspection, can effect half so much as the moral supervision of society. To the women, who are mainly the sufferers in these outrages, a special appeal may be made to se* their faces against intemperance in all its forms ; to scout the fast lad who fre quents the music-halls, and the man who sots and brutalises himself at home. It is already a disgrace for a man to be seen under the influence of liquor in a drawingroom. It is should be equally a disgrace for a laborer to be drunk in his kitchen. All of us will do well to inscribe the lesson on our hearts that in destroying the monster Intemperance we drag down the demon murder, now stalking red-handed through the land.

The Biverine Herald has heard tha*- it is likely that steps will be taken to form the long-talked-of floating company for the purpose of prospecting the most likely portions of that district for gold.

The following paragraph is from the Melbourne Leader: —It is of course generally known that the erection of the Melbourne mint is being pushed forward. But the public are not, we think, a ware that to that establishment will be deputed the duty of providing gold coins for Great Britain, Ireland, and the rest of the British Empire. We have, for a long time, provided a large proportion of the rich raw material; we shall now have the privilege of turning out the manufactured article ready for use by the civilised world. The English mint will in future confine its operations to the coinage of silver, At any rate it is intended to suspend or cease ihe coinage of sovereigns and halfsovereigns at Tower Hill, and such additions as are required to be made to the gold circulation of the empire will be from the Australian mints. A preference will be given to Melbourne over Sydney coinage, and practically we shall coin gold for the mother country, her fifty colonies, and those numerous countries where the sovereign is the basis of exchange operations. In fact, so certain is the intention of the English Government on this point that no gold coinage has been manufactured fop some time, any requirement for addition in the circulation being satisfied by tb,9 issue of imported Sydney sovereigns,