AUSTRALIAN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 83, 7 April 1879, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN.

[Per Ringarooma at Bluff.] MELBotrcwE, April 1. The Government are preparing measures for the coming session, which probably wili not be for three months or more. Of the three million loan about one million will be available for railway construction, so that all the lines projected can be carried out. Tbe Governor opened the Sandhurst Industrial Exhibition on Wednesday night. On Saturday night the steamer Leura fell in with a disabled barque off Wilson's Promontory. She had lost her rudder, and became so unsafe that the captain and crew abandoned her, and she became a derelict. A large fire occurred at Chamberland and Kumpton's mill in North Fitzroy. The damage is estimated at £6000, only partly insured. A large quantity of wheat and flour was stored in the mil!. Tbe Rev T. C Cole, a well-known Church of England clergyman, committed suicide by strangulation whilst in unsound mind. On tbe same day a neighbor of his on hearing the circumstances also hanged himself. He was apparently sane and well off. No reason for the act is assigned. The want of rain is very much felt all over the country. The record at the Observatory shows a great deficiency compared , with previous years, and as yet there is no sign of a change of the weather. The Coffee Taverns Company, having secured a suitable site, will at once commence the work of building. The report of the Melbourne Meat Preserving Company shows a loss on the transactions of the half year of _£15,301. This is , attributed to the small quantity of stock brought into the market and the operation of the Stock Tax.