AUSTRALIAN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 69, 22 March 1881, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN.

(Per Rotorua.) March 15. In the Victorian Assembly on Thursday, Murray Smith said he recognised that the Government were determined to pass the Reform Bill in tolo, and ho therefore considered it useless for the Opposition to waste time

in discussing the details. As a test point he moved the rejection of clause 3, which provided for the dissolution of the Council on the expiry of the present Assembly. This motion being negatived, Smith said it was clear that the Government intended to make the Bill acceptable to the Upper House, andho therefore abandoned all proposed amendments. A number of clauses were then read projormt, leaving only the working clauses undisposed of. Mr Quick notified a motion en Thursday that female employees should retire from the; Government service on marrying, to leave room for others. The coroner's jury retnrned a verdict that the deaths arising from the recent accident to the Cerberus boat crew were caused by the explosion of a torpedo, but that there was no evidence to show how tha explosion occurred. It was clearly proved that the electric current was not, completed aboard the Cerberus, that the torpedo was not fired by eleetiicity. The explanation suggested by Mr Ellerj', Government Electrician, is tbat the torpedo contained dynamite, and p. portion of the evidence proved that Groves had some about him, and that he had been making a torpedo of which nitroglycerine was a component part with dynamite. Ellery thinks the escape of the latter was the cause ot the accident. MiGraham Berry will appoint a scientific commission to fully ci quire. Sydney. The schooner Leslie, from the South Sea«, reports another murder by natives. Captain Schwartz landed on one of the Solomon group to nude, and while speaking to the nativea ami traders the villages was surrounded by natives, and ha was suddenly tomahawked The savages theu rushed for the boat, but the crew regained it first, and pushed off They followed a short distance, and then made off with the captain'd body in fin opposite direction, Reports are al?o received that the captain of the Black Hawk, ir mi Melbourne, has been murdered by tlie na'ives, but the report is unconfirmed. It was clear from the play of the Australian Eleven at Sydney that they are quite pumped out, and need rest. After au animated debate on a vote of £50.000 f0r assisted imigration, to which there was much opposition shown, the Government consented to reduce tho vote by £10,000, and. the vote was thereupon passed. The Government intend utilising <hs Exhibition Building for tho University, LinnaeanSociety, and Technological Muscu n, the transept being utilised for public promenade concerts. Efforts are being made to collect £2i)00 to present to Laycock on his return. Adelaide. The new Ministry will probabiy follow the lines of their predecessors, except in taxation. The expacted reduction in ad valorem duties has now been abandoned. A diver, named Inkster, working at the Kingston Jetty, on Saturday, was attacked by an enormous octopus, which dragged him twenty yards, but with the assistance of another workman he managed to escape with difficulty. The Advertiser Bays the present is the worst wheat harvest in Adelaide for ten years. The total yield is estimated at nine million bushels, leaving five millions available for export.