AUSTRALIAN SUMMARY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 260, 30 November 1876, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN SUMMARY.

[Pjeh Albion.] Melbourne, November 23. The Railway Construction. Bill provides for eleven separatelines, comprising an aggregate . distance of nearly 300 miles, at a cost of £1,300,000. The country lines are not to exceed £4,250 per mile. The Hobson's Bay Railway is under offer to the Government at the lowest estimate of £1,374,000, being at the rate of £85 per share. The proposals are likely to give rise to a long discussion, rendering it very doubtful if the session will close before Christmas if this Bill is to become law. The Swiss Bordietti lies under sentence of death for murder. Prisoner is an old man and a foreigner. The Alfred Hospital scandal is being well ventilated. The English cricketers are at present in Melbourne.^ Bowling is their strong point. Large numbers witnessed their practice on the Melbourne ground. They play iu'Sydney on the 7th December. Large numbers of professionals continue to arrive. Another bank defaulter has been discovered. A clerk in the Union Bank was some hundreds in arrears, but the matter was settled by his friends. There was no prosecution. An immense quantity of rain has fallen in all the colonies, and most beneficial to all interests. -■ > ■ : Dr. Gordon, Superintendent of the Ararat Lunatic Asylum, who committed suicide lately, had been drinking heavily.