AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5381, 26 June 1878, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

(per arawata at the bluff.) Sydney, June 20. The Key. W. B. Clarke, the geologist, who recently died, was aged 81. He had a large funeral. Snow storms have taken place in various parts of the colony, and the weather is colder than has been known for years. Parliament stands further prorogued to August 13 th. The Wolverine has gone into dock, and is found to be slightly leaky. Melbourne, June 20. The Government are preparing for the coming session. The first measure taken up will be the Reform Bill, dealing with the question of boundaries and property suffrage. Parliament will meet on the 9th July, when a stormy session may be anticipated. Some rather startling revelations have been made as to the doings of certain members of Parliament. The disclosures were made before the Lands Commission now sitting, and will probably lead toasimilarregulation being made here as in Sydney, prohibiting members of Parliament from acting as land agents. At the inauguration of the new buildings of Trinity College the Bishop of Melbourne made an excellent speech. Answering a supposed objection of wealthy men, that recent events created a doubt whether Victoria was a country in which men of prudence, sagacity, and fortune could permanently cast their lot, he said he had the greatest hope for the future of this colony. We had here men of the British race, and men who were gradually becoming possessors of property; and though they might temporarily become the victims of adventurers, it was utterly impossibly that they should remain the dupes of such men permanently. Young Pearce, one of the two survivors of the Loch Ard, is being lionised, and money is being collected for him everywhere. Miss Carmichael still remains at the station. Captain Mandeville, commanding the naval forces at Victoria, recently made an extravagant proposition to Mr. Berry, that the Cerberus should be stripped for action, and run the gauntlet of the batteries at the Heads, allowing herself te be peppered by the guns, in order to test the value of the batteries, and to ascertain whether it was possible that ironclad could run through the Heads uninjured. Mr. Berry accepted the proposal, and the necessary orders were given; but there was such an outcry in the Press that the idea has been abandoned. Tho steamship Cuzco broke her main shaft when thirty-eight days out of Plymouth, and had to come on under canvas, which accounts for the delay in her passage. She sailed well, and there never was any danger from tne accident. ... , A team of gentlemen cricketers leave October mil for the celeste*)

and play the first match at Melbourne on Boxing Oay. The team will be a strong one. Captain Ring and Mr. Butters, the mate of the brig Alexandra, were found guilty of an attempt to scuttle that vessel, but judgment has been reserved.

An injunction suit has commenced to preserve the rights of Wolfe’s Aromatic Schnapps against alleged imitation of H. X, Hart, formerly sole agent here for Wolfe.