AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 213, 9 September 1870, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Melbourne, Sept. 3. Since the receipt of the war news, the Victorian Ministry held several Cabinet meetings, and has decided to re-organise the volunteers, placing them on militia footing, three hundred at a time to be drilled every fortnight in barracks Workshops are also busy putting gun-carriages in order. A Royal commission on Federation is appointed. The Government contemplate sending a dispatch boat to Galle to bring intelligence direct, should England be involved in the war. The Germans throughout the different Colonies are subscribing a fund to relieve the families of the killed and wounded Prussians. The fancy ball yielded a surplus of £600, which was divided among the charities. Our latest new industry, a match factory, has come to grief, its prospectors having filed their schedule. The foundation-stone of the Jewish almshouses has been laid. The iron-workers are agitating to get all the Government work done in the colony. The Insurance Companies have raised the rates of marine risks by two and a-half per cent., as war risk. The banks in the different colonies have raised their marine risk two and a-half as war premium. The Sydney Inter- Colonial Exhibition was opened on Tuesday with great eclat. The weather was fine, and immense crowds gathered. There was a general holiday. Victoria took fifteen prizes out of twenty offered for agricultural implements, and the first prizes for woollen cloths, hams, and bacon. Sydney was excellent in horses. Twenty-five thousand people vi sited the exhibition next day.

For remainder qf News see Fourth page.

The City of Melbourne left on Thursday with the Californian mails, and nearly sixty passengers. The mail as to wool news is considered very disastrousx to Sydney, most of Sydney wool being at the July sales when the reduction occurred. Brisbane elections are going rather against the Ministers. Mr. Biel, the prominent member of the Opposition, is returned, and Ministers are likely to meet the House with a minority. Adelaide advices report the departure of the overland telegraph party. The Land Act passed through Committee; and it offers liberal inducement to settlers. Sydney, Saturday, Sept. 3. Lady Cliffden almost equal favorite for Derby witli Florence. A public meeting of Germans was called for Thursday, to raise a war relief fund.