AUSTRALIAN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 252, 4 November 1879, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN.

(Per Wakatipu at Wellington.) Melbourne, October 28. It is probable that the Government will exempt Building Societies from the operation of the Stamp Act. The body of the man Tobio, who committed a murderous assault on Mr and Mrs Jacobs fire weeks ago, was found in the river with his hands tied together. One of the returns furnished shows the expenditure by the present Government to have been enormous in all the departments, especially the Chief Secretary's and Post Offlce. A number of the crew of the steamer Afghan have struck work, being dissatisfied with tbe treatment. Warrants are issued against 13 of them, It is reported that the Kelly gang appeared in the vicinity of Wangaratta a few days ago, but nothing authentic bas transpired. Sydney. A 44 ounce nugget bas been picked up at Braidwood which had been exposed by the rain. . Adelaide. Benjamin Judkins has been sentenced to a month's imprisonment for using insulting language on the occasion of delivering a lecture in the thoroughfare on the demoralising influences of the police. Pleuro pneumonia is said to be spreading in the neighborhood of Yorke's Peninsula. The disease is assuming a serious aspect aud ibe Government have been requested to appoint a local inspector at once. Phylloxera bas broken out at Fullarton three miles from Adelaide. The expenditure last quarter was £443. 754, against £393,190 during the same period of last year. The revenue for the quarter was £408,659, and for the corresponding quarter of last year £39!, 756. Brisbane. Tbe drapers intend to close their shops at six on Saturdays instead of ten as heretofore. Intelligence from Norfolk Island via Noumea says that eleven inches of raiu fell on the 10th October. The writer of the letter adds : "We have been washed away." Information had also reacbed there of a tragedy on board the Mary Anderson, a labor vessel. On her last cruise one native laborer on board, seized withafitof madness, took an American axe and cut of the heads of two of his comrades, and fearfully wounded two others who endeavored to secure him He would not be secured, and fought to the death. Full particulars of the affair have not yet come out.