AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 499, 4 December 1877, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

(ltEtTHa's TELK< H! \ '.fs, PKU STEAMER AT IJOKITIKA.) Melbourne. There has been very little political action during the last week, as the Plouse only sat on two days, but there has been a good deal of talk and speculation upon the acts and intentions of the Ministry, payment of members now actually appearing 011 the Estimates, and as t'.e appropriations here will be laid aside by the Council, the Assembly will adjourn for six weeks, and then further adjourn from time to time, for so long as the present session of Parliament continues, so long does payment of members remain the law of the land, the last Act having been enacted to remain in operation for three years of the last Parliament and during the session of this the fourth. The Armaments Bill, embodying the whole of Sir William Jervoise's scheme of defence, and involving an outlay of L 350.000, is to be laid before the Council, because it contains a free gift preamble. The Mining 011 Private Property Bill, and the two disputed Railway Bills, will not become law this session. T. e Governor has been somewhat taken to task for the part he has played in regard to the payment of members, but he prides himself upon acting as a constitutional Governor, while Mr. Berry has declared that the Government are determined to carry out the clearly expressed wish of the people. The Wolverine w T ill shortly leave for Sydney, and thence for New Zealand. The Soldene Company, which has been playing to crowded houses, will open in Dimedin about Christinas. A young man named Samuel Odell, who was receiving Ll5O a year, having embezzled L2OO of his employers' money, j committed suicide by drowning. He had i won some money over the last races. «