AUSTRALIAN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 173, 22 July 1881, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN.

Stdnet, 14th Jane. The report of the Military Defence Commission recommends the increase in the number of the Permanent Artillery to 440 men, officers included, without delay. When the whole scheme of defence is completed there will be twelve distinct batteries, viz., five at South Head, two at Middle Head, three at Sir George^s Head, one at Bradley's Head, and one at Still Point. In these 45 guns are to be mounted. The Commission also recommend the formation of a reserve force, and in. addition to the paid forces, the functions of a purely volunteer force, not exceeding 1200 men, should be affiliated to the volunteer militia. They add that two gunboat&i in addition to well-designed torpedo boats of great spied, oright to be procured in England. Mklboubse, July 14. The Board of Health met on Tuesday to consider measures for the suppression of small-pox if it should appear in Melbourne It was decided that all vessels arriving from China be quarantined at Port Nepean, and detained until bedding} clothing, and passengers haVe been disinfected. All vessels from New South Wales are to be stopped for inspection at the quarantine grounds. A contagious diseases hospital is to ba at once provided in a suitable and isolated place. 15,000 shades in the Southern Cross Petroleum Company of New Zealand were placed on the Melbourne market yesterday, and applied for ftithin two hours* being the balance of 33,00 d previously allotted. A woman named Wilson has been Committed for trial for infanticide of a child three weeks old, which wag found in a car pet oag in the passage of an hotel. The child died shortly after its release from the bag. The woman was traced and apprehended in Tasmania, and brought dve"r under arrest. A disturbance occurred at Collingwood through a mob attemping to enforce early closing. Several windows were smashed. Amongst the passengers by the steamer Venetla Is Major-General Feildiog, who proceeds to Queensland aa representative of London capitalists interested in the TransContinental railway line from Roma to the Gulf of Carpentaria.