AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 46, 23 February 1881, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

EXCITING GOLD DISCOVERIES IN KEW SOUTH WALES. fti'DNET, February 15. Excavations made have exposed the foundations of the great 'hall of the Town Hall Building 8 as beinp of a disgraceful oharacf,er> la places the atones look os if nsei-ely thrown into trenches ; there are open joints in the masonry, and the base h not down to ibe rook in some places. A Bill to establish a system of local government, under which it is proposed to create a general central authority, to establish and conirol municipalities and districts, and otherwise reorganise our present system of municipal government, was laid before Parliament on the 10th instant. The. Bill comprises 456 clauses, hordes thirteen pages of echedules, sod is divided into thirtyseven r, ar ( S# Mr Becker, merchant of Sydney, appeared at the Water Police Court on a charge of setting fire to his warehouse. , He was admitted to bail, himself in i £400 and two ot £200 each. Mr John YouDg received £8750: commission for superintending the! erection of the Garden Palace. At the Austrian Band Promenade Concert in the Qarden Palace on Saturday, there was an immense attendance, estimated at 10,000. Fifty ounoea of gold from two 1 buckets of quariz have been obtained irom the Garibaldi Claim, Solferino Reef, Graf ton, nnd eighty ounces from two more buckets. At Temora, Head and Aldridge'a Claim is atill yielding splendid stone, specimens being banked for safety a& fest aa they are raised. Great excitement jiravsils, and ground in the vicinity is pegged out in every direolion. At Newcastle Jamee Kilgour, master of the public school, has suicided by drowning. Abaraiion ot intellect, caused by over study. A miner named James Evans brought into Wilcannia on the 7th 24ozg ol gold, consisting of a nuggat weighing lOozß, a" second weighing 20z5, end the remainder coarse uuggetty gold. He siotes that himself and party obtained it in three days from two to bix feot from the surface with dishes. The diggings uro about 200 miles from Wilcannve. Twenty-five miners' rights were ; ,cßued. "fao reports brought by the s.s. Gunga of the fearful hurricane at Levuka are lacking in details, as those aboard were unable to communicate with the shore, and the vessel slipped cable end sailed for Sydney. The house of the Chief Justice and alao the public school were seen to bo levelled, and many others unroofed. The steamers Rewo and Go-ahead sunk in the harbor at their moorings, The Ocean Queen dragged her anchor and collided with the steamer Surprise, damaging the latter, and numerous boits floated past the Gunga bottom up. It is feared that the loss of life was considerable. Victoria. A number of Irishmen have sent a congratulatory telegram to Pornell. A man named Filzgibbon was robbed by an armed roan, five miles from Merino. The police apprehended the robber, who has been brought to court and reinauded. A wotnun, named Seville, has committed Buicide by taking strychnine because a constable corned O'Callaghan refused to marry her. The Minister of Railways, at a banquet at Yes, epoke in favor of an increase of population to develop the resources of the country, and said the wisest policy was s s to make the colony eo attractive that the roost enterprising men should be induced to settle amongst us, and that ae we want men of some capital find great energy we should not be afraid of increasing population, but, on the contrary, all we required was hands to develop our resources. The tender of Mr Amess has been accepted for the west front and! dome of Parliament Houses at £180,023. A stormy meeting of the Melbourne Woollen Mill Company was held on Friday. No dividend was declared, and the shareholders refused to adopt the report until the property had been valued, A woman named Perry, who was Bhot by her suitor, is still an inmate of the hoepital. On Friday more shots were extracted. Kate Layland, aged sixteen, was run over and killed by a train at the Williametown Junction, while crossing the line after being warned jnot to do so. She was literally torn to pieces. News has been received of the death in Texas of Charles W. Lugar, many yearß Surveyor-General of the colony. He had enjoyed a pension of £500. Queensland. Parliament hes been further prorogued to the 29th March. An Afghan, having a female camel with a young camel at her side, passed through Yuko on the Paroo River. The Afghan, in broken English, was understood to say that he found the camel in (he bush, and is supposed to have belonged to the Burke Expedition. The man is suspected to be a deserter from Elder's Expedition. Skuthrope, up to the present, has not permitted a single person to see the record or a single article which he alleges he has of Leichardt. Skuthorpe left the town of Blackall on the 24th January, and nobody seema to know anything of his whereabouts. A hut keeper, at Idamere Station, Pituri Creek, has been murdered by the Blacks. Tenders for a railway from Emerald to Capilla, thirty-two miles in length, were received on Saturday. The lowest tender was £1090 per mile. A Malay proa in ballast, with nine men on board, has been picked up off Mulgrave Island, having been blown to leeward in a heavy gale and drifted about for thirty-four day. The crew have since landed on Thursday Island. It is reported that the Duke of Manchester intends purchasing some Queensland sheep stations. The mate of the barque Stormy Petrel has reported to the detectives that the captain attempted to throw him into the river, and afterwards fired a revolver at him. | A residence at Tar amp a, near Ipn-

wiob, has been stuck up by two armed ] men, who knocked down a female and robbed her. , ' A boat, unknowu, with two men aboard, capsized off Thursday Island on the 6th instant, and no traces have since been found of the occupants. South Austbalia. Mr Laurie, of Sandnngham Station. Mulligan River, Queensland, who arrived at Adelaide on Thursday, throws discredit on Skuthorpe's Story of the Leicbardt's relics. Sandrihgnam ie near the country in. which the relics are said to have been diicovciecf. A company hag 'oeen registered in London, called the Corporation South Australian Copper Mines Company, with a capital ot £250,000, tp work the mines north of Port Auguatn. The Government has inotitWoi a oerieo of experirr.eats with poisoned grain to ascertain if it can bo iissd in the destruction of rabbits, Several roberiee have occurred at Pa'merflfoDj and it is generally sup. posed that a gang of Chinese thieves are operating there. VvFsr Australia. A disastrous hurricane Was experienced on [the 6th and 7tb, at Tanuary, Ashburton River-, ; Three Europeans and several ntotiVeb were drowned, and the 'c&Buailties among the pearling fieet were terrible. Twelve vessels were either hopelessly shattered, and cast on the beach, or lifted; bodily into the Mangrove Creek. Upwards of £5000 worth of pearls and shells was lost. It is supposed that a tidal wave accompanied the storm, as an immense volume of water washed over the coast for a long distance, throwing up Gab, turtle, and completely changing the conformation of the country.