AUSTRALIAN CLIPPINGS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 58, 1 March 1876, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN CLIPPINGS.

At- a complimentary lunch to Ihe Rev. Dr. M'Dowd, in Melbourne, who left by the mail to represent the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, a purse oi T! 300 sovereigns was presented to him. At. -t\ .meeting of the subscribers to tbe^Paitesbn Memorial Fund of the Melanesian Mission, held in Sydney, Six A. Stephen in the chair, it was resdlved to invest the money (£1015) in the New South Wales 4 per cent stock, tn% income arising therefrom to be hati'de'd a t 6" the Melanesian Missionary Bishop, for the support of the mission. The New Tabernacle in Elizabethstre'eV Sydney, is advancing rapidly towards i completion. It is a very handsome building, and will cost over £20,000, the whole of which sum is now reader. > • Ten thousand pounds' worth of fencing has been burnt by bush fires in t^e r Port Lincoln district, South Australia. A movement was on foot in Sydney for creation of a fund to .pay the travelling expenses of the Very Rev. Dean Cowper to England, and already close upon '£soo had been subscribed. It is suggested to have photographs taken of, all unidentified bodies taken to the Melbourne morgue. $ome excitement was caused in Pittstreet, Sydney, through the hoisting of a gigantic safe into an upstair room of a branch Bank of New Zealand. Shears were erected for the purpose, and Btrong tackle used, and during the progress of the work there were hundreds cf spectators present. Some of the blue gums in Mount Runaway Forest, near Melbourne, are over 300 ft in length; 250 ft without a branch, straight as a gun-barrel, and almost always perpendicular. These giants of the forest measure about sft in diameter near the ground, and quite 3ft where the branches begin; their taper is therefore very Blight. Wild turkeys are eaid to be unusual-ly-numerous ih New South Wales this season, also heavier and in better condition than general. Several remarkably fine? birds have been seen within a few miles ol Albury, and a few have been killed. ,Mr Jamrack, the well-known animal dealer of London, arrived in Melbourne by the Sobraon. Mr Jamrack is to the world- of wild beast dealing what Wombwell was to their exhibition. He has stocked most of the English menageries, national and private. The Victorian silk is considered equal in quality to Japanese, and better than Egyptian, in Europe, and its culture is watched witb great interest. • ' The caterpillar pest tas appeared on many farms in the neighborhood of Tuenut. The coru crops have been saved from its destructive ravages by tbe timely arrival of several small birds quite strange to those parts, which have come in flights of countless thousands to wage a war of extermination against this crawling nuisance. ■; The Victorian Mining department have issued regulations in the Chinese language, for the prevention of accidents, on ' goldfields where celestials congregate. The Legislature of Western Australia has voted a sum of £800 towards the establishment of a high school in Perth, on a purely secular basis. , iMr-Smart, of Port Wakelield, S.A., suffered from a cancer for years, He cured it effectually by the application, twice a day, of an ointment made thick from the yolks of eggß and salt.