ENGLAND AND AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4479, 28 July 1875, Page 2

ENGLAND AND AUSTRALIA.

ARRIVAL OF THE ALBION AT HOKITIKA. Hokitika, Tuesday. The Albion left Melbourne at 5.15 p.m, on the 21st. She experienced moderate weather throughout. Passengers for Wellington : Mrs. Harding and son, Messrs. McMaster, Palmer, and sixteen steerage. From Hokitika : Hon. J. A. Bonar. London, July 15. New Zealand wheat is worth 465. to 48s. ; three cargoes arrived. Flour, £2B to £3l. The New Zealand cable is to be laid before May. CABLE MESSAGES. London, July 16. Owing to the incessant rains and disastrous floods in South Wales and the West of England, the Lord Mayor is receiving subscriptions for the sufferers. July 1/. A public meeting, Disraeli president, resolved on the erection of a statue to Lord Byron in London by a national subscription. The Liverpool Cup was won by Tam o’ Shauter. Owing to the incessant rains, the value of all kinds of cereal produce is enhanced. There is great excitement in the corn market, and prices are advanced 3s. and upwards. Arrived—Glenlora, from Auckland. Paris, July 16. During the debate in the Assembly on Bonapartist intrigues, Gambetta attacked M. Buffett, Minister for the Interior. A motion by the Left was rejected ; and a motion of confidence in the Government, submitted by the Eight, was approved. The union of the Government with the Left has been destroyed, and the Bonapartists are exultant.

AUSTRALIAN SUMMARY. Melbourne, July 21. The Treasurer delivered the Budget statement last Tuesday, and excited considerable attention. The statement showed that the Treasurer had commenced the financial year with a credit balance of £81,629, obtained through the actual expenditure not exceeding the estimated by £152,100. For the cux-rent year, the revenue is estimated at £4,187,313, and expenditure £4,488,658, or £201,345 more than the receipts. The Budget also proposes a loan in London, as the only market, for £2,750,000, for railways and other works. The Treasurer proposes remission of Customs duties to the amount of £230,000, and the imposition of new taxation amounting to £517,000 ; spirit duties are raised to 12s. per gallon. There is also an increase on beer and tobacco, as well as a penny per gallon on colonial beer; a tax on all lands, above 320 to 2000 acres, of 4d. per acre; and above, 6d. per acre. Taxes on houses, cheques, bills of exchange, fire and marine insurance, and on the incomes of absentees are all proposed. A number of 20 per cent, duties are abolished, and have thus reduced to 15 per cent, the taxes as a whole.

The Budget has been favorably received, although the protectionists conceive that the tariff steps in the direction of free trade. The direct taxation is generally considered fan-, but all propositions are likely to give rise to a considerable discussion and be mot with much uppuolilon. At fimt sight the Treasurer’s Budget met with seeming approval, but soon opposition was raised in various quartern. The Protectionists formed a league against a reduction of duties on manufactures. They are also in arms on the ground of interference with existing rights. The publicans even find that the operations of the tariff will be prejudicial to their trade, especially the house tax. Not one section is apparently satisfied, and the Government proposals are likely, if passed at all, to be severely handled.

Since the introduction of the tariff the Land Bill is almost forgotten. The Assembly decided to increase the area of selection to 640 acres, and declined to strike ont the cultivation clause.

The scandal auent Judge Dunne culminated in hia suspension by the Government, not, as stated, on the ground of alleged intoxication, but that on a Monday be neglected to open the Insolvency Court at Sandhurst at the proper time. It is evident the Government felt the necessity of doing something. The mail steamer Ceylon, after being aground twenty-eight hours, got off safely, and proceeded on her voyage. Captain Kaye, K.K., late Clerk of the Executive Council, is dead. He was nephew of Sir John Franklin, and came with him to Tasmania.

The steamship Somersetshire has arrived in 54 days from London. A youug man named Kavenagh, aged twenty, was convicted of forging a consent to marry, his wife being a minor, and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. A meeting yesterday resolved to form a colonisation and trading company to Kew Guinea, with a capital of £SOO (sic). Carroll, late member of the Assembly, is being tried on charges of forgery. Ah Cat, a Chinaman, was found guilty of the murder of a German near Maryborough, and recommended to mercy. Another Chinaman, and the murdered man’s wife, were acquitted. 11.M.5. Blanche is shortly going to England via Cape Horn. Bishop Hall, of Western Australia, has been elected Bishop of Brisbane. The mail is just telegraphed at Adelaide, and arrives here on Friday, 23rd. Arrived—l6th, Gleaner, from Greymouth ; 19th, Mary Campbell, from Hokitika; St. Kilda, from Greymouth ; 20th, Antipodes. COJIMEUCIAL. —Since the recent news from England there has been great excitement in the wheat market. Victorian sold yesterday at ss. 5d.; Adelaide, ss. fid. The first of the new season’s teas have arrived ; good qualities. A portion was sold privately at from Is. Id. to 2s. fid. Sugars continue firm, and are in good request. Other descriptions of merchandise are without material alterations. Sydney, July 21.

It is reported that a hitch has occurred in the Pacific contract, with reference to the powers of the American company, under their charter, to form other companies. The Government has postponed a resolution asking the sanction of Parliament to the contract.

The Macgregor has reached San Francisco. The date is not given. Hanley Bennett, a member of the Assembly, who was incarcerated during an unsatisfied judgment, has been released. The AttorneyGeneral expressed an opinion that members had the same immunity from arrest as members of tlie House of Commons.

A shock of earthquake was felt in several localities on Friday. It lasted five seconds. Its direction was north to south.

The charge of alleged corruption against the Minister of Bands, after an excited debate, has ended in nothing, after witnesses had been summoned to the bar of the House, It de-

dared the evidence as not considered privileged. The Leparito, from New York, reports rescuing the crew of the barque Hesperus, bound to Montevideo. They lived three days in the mizzentop and rigging. The ship Isabella, bound from Newcastle to Hongkong, was wrecked on a reef. A boat’s crew was picked up. Six men were left on an island, without provisions. The following failures have occurred: —-Sims, miller, liabilities £37,000 ; Kendall, miller, liabilities £38,000. A meeting of bank managers was held yesterday to arrange terms of business. The Valeta colt, and Hyperion, are the best favorites for the Derby. Arrived—l9th, Easby, from Dunedin. Sailed—l 3 th, Union, for Auckland; Emperor, Adelphi, and Queensland, for Lyttelton ; 15th, Eose, for Timarn ; 16th, Duke of Edinburgh, for Dunedin ; 17th, Italy, for Lyttelton ; 18th, Bobyoito, for Dunedin ; Jane, for Lyttelton. Adelaide, July 21. HALS. Nymph has arrived from England via the Cape. A company has been floated in Loudon'fcr the construction of extensive breakwater works and wharf accommodation near Hemaphore, with a capital of a quarter of a million subscribed. Initial steps have been taken.