AUSTRALIAN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 301, 21 December 1871, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN.

Bltjff. Dec. 21. The Albion arrived this morning at 7, having left Melbourne on the 1 6th inst.— Passengers, for Dunedin : Messrs Gnnn, Lees, Anders, Johnstone, Mrs. Watts, Mrs. Cameron, Miss Lees. For Lyttelton : Messrs. Tunee, Spencer, Strange. For Auckland : J. Plunkett, J. Harris.

MELBOURNE.

December 16.— Mr. Vale has been elected for Collingwood by a considerable majority. Mr Duffy is recruiting his health at his estate neir the Meads. s The Rev. Gsorge Mackie died after a short illness, and Mr. Ogilive, his brother-io-law/died suddenly on the same day, The funeral of the former was largely attended by representatives of various sects and of the Temperance bodies. Foster, the New Zealand pedestrian, is matched to run Steward, at Sandhurst, three hundred and eight hundred yards, for £50 aside. """A collision occurred between the Alhambra and the collier African Maid. The inquiry resulted in a decision that it was caused by an error of judgement on the part of Captain Underwood in starboarding ins helm after seeing the red and green lighis. /There will be probably a civil action.

SYDNEY.

The market is cleared of Tookey's at £45. The wool sales realized satisfactory prices. There is a rumored discovery of oil wells in the North. Edwards, the Warden of Darlinghurst Gaol is missing; foul play is suspected. There has been a hiutal murder at Cathcart,. when Mrs Murphy's house was entered and plundered, and the woman murdered in the absence of her husband. The Australian Steam. Navigation Company have made arrangements for entering into the New Zealand trade, and have announced a monthly service between Sydney, Auckland, Dunedin, and other Ports.

A Ne3v" Measm&eserving Pkocess has just been brought oot in England, and a company called " The Pressure Meatpreserving Company," is being formed to work it. Flesh, in its natural condition, consists of about seventy-five parts of water and twenty-five parts of solids, and it is proposed to remove the greater part of the water, whereby the meat will be reduced to one-half of its original weight (without loss of substance), and will be preserved at the same time. The novelty in this process is the employment of powerful pressure as a means of making the drying possible. In six hours the bullock which walks into the slaughterhouse may be put on board ship in the shape of highly-dried pressed beef and dessicated beef juice*. The Japanese in Amebic a. — "A notable feature of College Commencements this year," says the New York Tribune, "is the frequency with which Japanese faces appear. The Government of Japan has sent several hundred young men to this country to be educated, and in a few years they" will carry back with them all that our'colleges can give in the way of scholastic culture, as well as such germs of Christian civilisation as may effect more for the ultimate advancement of Japan than a century of ordinary missionary work. According to universal testimony, these young men are apt, thoughtful, attentive, well-behaved, and eager to learn. Year by year the number I of those coming hither appears likely to increase, and the result may be that in 1900 Japan herself will have become the Athens of the East." The Last of a Great Name.— Among recent deaths in Germany there is announced that of a man whose character and career supply a curious commentary on the principle of "hereditary genius" r-the eldest son of Wilhelm von Humboldt. He had in common with his father and uncle both name and wealth, but besides these absolutely nothing. He was all his long life— and a long life of 75 years it waiT— what is called in Germany a " sonderling," which in his case meant rather more than our " queer fish." Among the various feats whereby he laid claim to distinction among his contemporaries must be reckoned bis spending his last thirty years or so exclusively in bed, although endowed with the most vigorous health, and not even being able to impair it by this long-drawn-out freak. As to the rest of his career, all that can be said of this small scion of a great house is, that he was proprietor of the estate of Ottmacliau, in Silesia, a very fine and large property, which had been given to his father as a reward for his service to the Prussian State. Also, that both his death occurred in Berlin, and that he was buried at Begel, the sepulchre of his great namesake. New South Wales v. Victoria.— No better comment upon the ruinous policy which Victoria is pursuing, says the Australasian, is required than the following circular which has been forwarded by a leading Sydney house to the principal firms iD New Zealand -.—"Sydney, 21st October, 1871. Messrs. , ,N. Z, Dear Sirs, in consequence of the new tariff of Victoria placing the trade of that colony in a disadvantageous positioa, several N.Z. orders have recently reached our market. Owing to this, the A.S.N. Co. contemplate dispatching a steamer monthly, to call at all the ports, and their manager, Captain Troutoo, will shortly visit your colony to make the necessary arrangements. Our market for nearly all commodities is well supplied, and prices generally rule below those in Melbourne, irrespective of fiscal legislation. We therefore trust to see a speedy resumption of our foreign business relationship, which we shall most assiduously endeavor to cultivate to our mutual benefit. — Yours, &c, A Mystery. — Our Australian telegrams have twice referred to the mysterious arrival of a steamer from New Zealand with regard to which all sorts of rumors were afloat. A writer in the Australasian thus alludes to the matter: — Talking of the share market, there has been a mysterious arrival at Sydney of a mysterious steamer from Mew Zealand, with one mysterious passenger, who landed in a mysterious way, with some mysterious news. Now, of course, this meant; | Tookeys. Tookeys had. got the reef, or j Tookeys had missed the reef Cand really which it was mattered very little), for the friends of the myßterious stranger could, by a little judicious wire work send the market either way they chose. A3 no one j could pluck out the heart of the mystery,' they had only to. make a buying demonstaation to force a rise, or ; a selling movement to iuduce a fall. They have it allj tlieir own way till the next New Zealand! mail arrives. The popular impression j is that the Tpokey Ueef has been struck, ; and 1 ike forbearing Christians, where j good, reefs are struck they heap coals of;