AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

North Otago Times, Volume 1, Issue 13, 19 May 1864, Page 2 (Supplement)

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

The " Age" has the following Parliamentary item : — " One might have thought that we have had quite enough of land law dehate for a session at least, and that the one night of the parliamentary week dedicated by tncit consent to ' hi illiant flushes of silence'—Friday—would have been held sacred. Not so last night. Some were self-sacrificinf enough to make a house for the maiden effort of the hon. member for North Gipps Land to advocate free selection before survey, &c, and other hon. members, like so many Parliamentary giants refreshed, came down for a plunge into the troubled waters with all the zest that a Roebuck of old would rush into a House of Commous Iiish debate. After a dull detail to a drowsy House of the whole history of the land question, Mr Evorard moved his promised resolution, that the only satisfactory settlement would be free selection before survey, fixed upset price, | and deferred payments on the principle of the occupation license system. The Government reply was cui bono noAv, and Mr Snodgrass moved the pre\ious question. Mr M'Lellan, who described the situation as a pantomime, and exhibited himself with tolerable qualification for clown, characterised opponents as eternal noodles who talked snivelling hypocritical cant, lauded his own political honesty to the skies, and abused everything and everybody, from the Minister down to the printer's devil, and generally made a rare exhibition of himself for an hour and ahalf. Mr Don denounced Mr M'Lellau, declaring ' that he had uttered a greater amount of intellectual rubbish than was ever shoyelled by a long tongue out of an empty pate.' The exhibition of these two orators somewhat relieved the dreary iteration of all the land law points heard over and over again a thousand times. In short the evening seemed to be specially devoted to the rehearsal of speeches for the coming elections. The Chief Secretary declined to enter into any explanation of the views of the Government on the question at present, after the full exposition presented in the two bills already before the Legislature. Their policy would be fully stated at the proper time— at the coming general election. The debate lingered on up till about eleven o'clock, when the question that Mr Kverard's motion be put was carried by \o to 11. The House then divided on the motion itself, which was affirmed by 11 to 2. The principal result, as we imagine, will be that we shall have no more Friday sittings this session." The monthly meeting of the Acclimatisation Society of New South Wales was held in Sydney on the 2oth ult. Some discussion took place amongst the members on the subject of rust in wheat, and a sub-committee was appointed to obtain information as to the origin and nature of the disease. Dr Bennett mentioned that he had very recently received a letter from Mr F. Joubert, residing at New Caledonia, in which, he mentioned that he had thsn at his disposal three fine kagus, and expected to have more in a short time, as the dry weather was sending them out of the mountains to seek their food in the soft ground on the banks of the river. One is of the species called " grass kagus," a male, andjth.e other two the " bush kagus," but the sexes of the two latter birds are not reported in Mr Joubert's letter. Dr

Bonn itt also stated that the agoutis had nred, a youug one having been born on the 9th of April, but died, or was accidentally killed a few days afterwaids. The '• Sydney Morning Herald," speaking of the Governor's speech in proroguing Parliament, says : — " We do not blame the Ministers for the emptiness of their speech. What could they say? They began their administration Avith ' a beggarly account of empty boxes.' In spite of pompous labelling and a magnificent inventory, the search only proved the total absence of all that was available at the bank or disposable in the mai ket. They have held their ground through an opposition at first fierce and powerful. The financial confusion in which the country was left placed a barrier betwixt the late party in power, which they have not been able to overleap, though they have had many a run and made many a spring." By the last mail from San Fransisco, we (Aye) received a copy of the second annual report of the Surveyor-General of California for the year ending 31st December, 1803, from which we extract some interesting information. It appears that in 1802, the whole number of acres under cultiva tion in 37 counties was 1,071,082 ; while in 1863, it had increased to 1,897,98 4. The whole number of acres inclosed in 1863 was 3,407.923. There were cultivated 203,208 acres of wheat, yielding 4,147,6-19 bushels, or an average of only a little over 15? bushels per acre. Barley did a little better, as it generally does, 191,398 acres yielding 3,833,674 bushels, or a little mo>e than 20 bushels per acre. The other products are thus stated : — 36,879 acres of oats, yielding 803,523 bushels ; 1163 acres of rye, yielding 17,263 bushels ; 9355 acres of corn, yielding 226,579 bushels ; 2033 acres of peas, yielding 61,770 bushels ; 5682 acres of beans, yielding 162,292 bushels ; 9982 acres of potatoes, yielding 909,670 bushels ; 281 acres and 32,900 bushels of sweet potatoes; 407 acres and 16,565 bushels onions ; 185,128 acres of hay, yielding 254,582 tons; 368^ of tobacco, yielding 286,340 pounds ; "5191 acres and 7768 tons of alfalfa ; 208,920 pounds of cabbages ; 98 acres of sugar cane ; 3-10ths of of an acre of cotton (in Tehama), yielding 1100 pounds; 470 acres of broom corn; 888,359 pounds of butter ; 980,313 pounds of cheese; 584,511 dozen of eggs; 185,051 pounds of wool ; 10,647 beehives; 55,414 pounds of honey. Comparing these figures with Mr Archer's agricultural and live stock statistics for the year ending 31st March, 1863 (an abstract of which appeared in our columns on the 13th inst.), we must admit that this country is far behind California in agricultural enterprise, as the following table will show : —

Victoria, 186.3. California, 1803 Acres Aues Area occupied 1,722,050 Arc i endowed 3,353,200 3,107,923 Area cultiuitcd 405,130 1,897,981 In other words, Victoria, with a population of 550,000, cultnated, in 1863, 405,430 acres; while California, with a population of only 338,000, cultivated 1,897,984 acres ! But then, in the one country there m as a liberal land system. and in the other there was not — free selection at a dollar and a quarter 'in acre, in the one case ; and auction, and an upset price of a pouuJ an acie in the other. With reference to the salmon experiment in Victoria, the " Aigus" of the 28th ult. says : — " While the successful intioduction of the salmon ova to the prepared ponds adjoining the Derwent River in Tasmania gi\es gi omuls for the highest hopes, the portion left in this colony is in an equally prosperous condition, excepting that at piesent no definite arrangements have been made for placing the cinbiyos in a position to completely fulfil their destiny. For the piesent they are in a Mnall shed built adjoining the ice works in North Melbourne. This shed has been erected at some cost, and as the amount paid to the proprietor of the works, both for permission to build and for the use of ice, is considerable, the sooner the cold \\ eather sets in, and preparations for removal are perfected, the better. The plan adopted has been to place the live ova, so soon as they were taken from the moss in which they .were packed, into earthen pans neaily filled with coarse gravel. A stream of iced flannel-strained rain-water is kept running through these pans, and an even temperature of about forty-eight degrees Fahrenheit secured, by means of which the eggs are kept healthy, the per centage of death being small. There are now in North Melbourne some 9)0 ova alive, and they are like glass beads dully blotched with pink, t anything to solid opaqueness .be,ing regarded as proof of death. In many the eyes are getting visible, and such as exhibit that sign of

devolopeinent are expected to be hatched in fourteen or fifteen days. There need be no hurry in arranging their final destination, as they can remain many months in their present position, if only larger pans be provided for 'their accommodation ; and no doubt the curious in such matters will soon be able to see the live infant fish with its umbilical appendage, in the fulness of rude health and wriggling activity The same journal of the following day says. : — The salmon ova left in the care of the Acclimatisation Society, and now located at the ice works in North Melbourne, are going on prosperously. The per centage of deaths lias largely decreased, and only five or bix dead eggs were picked out. The nineteenth annual report of the South Australian Mining Association was adopted at the annual meeting of the shareholders, held at Adelaide on the 20th ult. The directors inform the shareholders that the productiveness of the Burnt Burnt Mines, although not quite equal to the yield of former times, is nevertheless very considerable, particularly when the number of yeai s that many of the pitches have been worked is taken into consideration. The returns annexed to the report show that during the six month's ended March 81 the quantity of ore raised was 3952 tons, which is estimated to produce, on an average, twenty-two and a-half per cent of pure copper. The financial statements included in the report show, in the first place, what was the position of the association on the 30th of September, 1863. During the six months which ended on that date, the quantity of ore raised was 4131 tons, at a cost of £11,743 19s. 4d , or £10 2s Id per ton. The produce thus raised realised £55,700 lGs. 2d., or £13 9s. 8d. per ton; and yielded a profit of £13,950 10s. 5d , or £3 7s. 7d. per ton ; the total profit being within a few hundred pounds equal to the amount estimated by the directors in their last report. These results, it is said, bear faA orable comparisons in every paiticular with those of the previous half-year.