AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume III, Issue 764, 23 September 1878, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

(PER RINGAROOMA, AT WELLINGTON.) Melbourne, Sept. 21. In the debate on the Loan Bill, members versed in financial matters, while agreeing that the loan was necessary, urged that the debentures should not be forced on the London market just now. in the face of the following telegram, whioh was received by the Associated Banks :—" London, 29th August. To J. Matheson, Esq., Bank of Australasia, Melbourne. Associated Banks advise that stringent state of our money market and alarm taken by Stock Exchange as to amount of Australian loans, make it hopeless at present to launch your loan. Banks believe that minimnms of L9O would fail to float it. (Signed).—D. Larnach." Graham Berry, when speaking at Daylesford, at a Liberal banquet given to himself and colleagues, defended his Ministry as the best ever formed iu the country, and pointed to the large amount of work they had done as an evidence of their fitness for office. He congratulated the country on the formation of a real Liberal Party, accused the Opposition and the Council with being the cause of the dead lock and all the depression in the Colony, and promised, if the Council dared to reject his Reform Bill, to appeal to Bowning-street, He sat down amidst prolonged cheers. The Government have brought in a Bill to abolish fees at the University, and to throw it open to all the State scholars, The Admiralty survey has been given up. Captain Stanley and his naval assistants, being Imperial officers, have been ordered Home by the Admiralty. There appears little likelihood of the session coming to a close before Christmas._ We are yet in ignorance as to who is to be our future Governor. The Duke of Buckingham is spoken of, but there is a strongpreference in favor of Sir Hercules Robinson or Lord Normanby. There appears to be some doubt as to whether Mr Walker's gentleman team is coming over. It is said that a sufficiently strong eleven cannot be got together, and that the Zingari Club will send out a team ; but, as yet, nothing is certain. The diamond drills, ordered from America, have arrived, and applications are being made from nearly every district for their use. The will of the late Edward Henty, the pioneer of the Colony, shows that he leaves L 184,000. Business of all kinds continues very dull, and complaints are heard everywhere. The only hope is that things will mend in the Spring. There has been literally no wagering on the Melbourne Cup for the past few weeks.