AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 525, 7 January 1878, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

0 (PER UOTOIIUA AX \THLLINGTON.) Sydney, December 29. The total of the Indian Famine Relief Fund is H 5.089. The torpedo corps has been increased to 100 men.

The following is a complete list of scratching fur the races : —Maiden Plato —Royalty, Moira, Amendment, Strathearn, and the Dolly Varden colt. Tattersall's Cap—Timothy, Ramorn, Lockwood, Kismet, Amendment, Atlios, Coventry. Victor, Ringwood, Saladin. Flour, Ll4 10s to Lls 10s ; brau, Is 2d to Is 3d ; maize. 4s Gd to 4s 9d ; Adelaide wheat, Gs 3d.

Melbourne, December 20. A man named Houghton, who had been living with a young woman named Egerton, stands charged with beating her to death with a sapling. They were both drunkards. A woman named Mary Ryan has bfien arrested on suspicion of kidnapping a child named Potts. Blood-stained clothes belonging to the child were found in her possession. All Government departments are ordered to cut down expenditure to the utmost. The salmon experiment lias been successful. Thh-ty-iwo thousand miles of road are declared open. The Government intend to mitigate the sentences of life-sentence prisoners. Flour, Ll2 10s ; wheat, 5s 9d. Brisbane, December 29. Mr. Beadmore, Police Magistrate at Somerset, telegraphs to the Government stating that Mr. Goldie, botanist, has discovered gold inland from Port Moresby, it iNow Guinea. He had fine gold in his possession. A bottle of bli.ck sand shows one speck, believed to be g >kl. The Rev. G. SilvirS has a likely-looking specimen, but showing no gold. A man named Bill Smith, in consequence of a business dispute, ahotanuther named Robert Craig dead, and then shot himself through the head. Hailstones as large as hens eggs fell during a thunderstorm afc Brisbane, doing great havoc to the gardens. Trees were stripped, buildings damaged, and verandahs blown away. Government House was much damaged, and one side of the Assembly Rooms was blown in.