AUSTRALIAN SUMMARY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5435, 28 August 1878, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN SUMMARY.

(PER RINGA-ROOMA. AT THE BLUFF.) Melbourne, August 21. The Treasurer, in delivering the Financial Statement on Friday last, warned the House that increased taxation was looming in the distance, the present sources of revenue being found insufficient. The revenue did not cope up to the estimates by £187,467, the falling off being mainly in the live stock tax and the land tax. The expenditure proposed for next year is £5,127,642, and a surplus of £70,786 is reckoned on. Regarding the postal question, it was agreed that Mr. Berry should send a telegram direct to the Secretary of State, in the name of the Australian colonies and New Zealand, requesting that the present postal arrangements embodied in the treaty of 1873, which terminates on the Ist of January, 1879, may be continued until the Ist February, 1880, when the P. and O. contract terminates, both as regards India and Australia. This, it was pointed out, would afford time for a final settlementpf the relations between England and the colonies in postal matters. The captain who was tried for scuttling the barque Cota, at Roturaah, has been acquitted. On Sunday last an elderly man named Saxby attempted to murder his wife in a bouse at West Melbourne by cutting her throat, and then attempted suicide by cutting his own. Both are now in the hospital. The husband’s state is very precarious. Jealousy is said to have been the cause. She is a young woman, and they had lately been living apart. The amount subscribed to the Cathedral fund amounts to £13,000, exclusive of the £IO,OOO promised by Mr. W. J. Clark, Mr. Edward Henty, who died last week, was the pioneer settler of the colony, having come to Portland from Tasmania in 1834. Business continues dull. Mr. W. J. Clark has been returned unopposed as a member of the Legislative Council, and his presence in the Upper Chamber will, at any rate, add to the collective wealth possessed by the members of that body. Dr. Hearn, of the University, is being opposed by Mr. Robert Byrne, an auctioneer, and a former Treasurer for a very short timo. Mr. Hearn is opposed to tho Government Reform Bill and plchiscitim , and advocates Haro’s system of representation. Mr. W. M. Akhurat, well known as a journalist and burlesque writer, died recently on the voyage from London to Sydney. There is not much doing at the places of amusement. Hall’s engagement at the Academy of Music has closed, and a change of programme is at length being made at the Princess.’

There is somo talk of Sir George Bowen having been offered the governorship of Mauritius.

A long discussion took place in tho Assembly last night on tho question of tho unauthorised sum of £240,000 spent on the Law Courts without Parliament being consulted. A Board of Enquiry is to bo appointed to investigate the matter.