AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2089, 2 December 1879, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

[By Telegraph.] [Per s.s. Tararua, at the Bluff.] VICTORIA. The position of the Ministry is daily becoming less seeux’e. At the Ministerial caucus only thirty-live supporters attended, though some others apologised. They profess great indignation at the angry communications in the “Age,” which pressed Mr Berxy to reconstruct his Ministry and abandoned all his reform Bills. They also advise him to resist the dictations of the “ Age” which, however, has not modified its demands. The stamp Tax proposals have been considerably modified. A full Court reduced the damages awarded to the contx’actoi’s for the Gong reservoir at Ballarat, from £27,000 to £BOOO. The accounts of James Evill, Town Clerk to the Emerald Hill Corporation, arc found to be £IBOO short, and it is feared there arc further defalcations. It is not known whether Evill’s recent death was a natux’al one or suicide. A woman named Alice Higinbotham has been arrested on a chai’ge of stealing property belonging to her reputed husband. It was shown that she has three husbands living. NEW SOUTH WALES. Two transport it ion service policemen in New Caledonia committed suicide together’, owing to defalcations. Five runaway convicts were x’ccaptured thirty miles olf the coast. One jumped overboard, aud resisted all efforts to x’cscuo hinx. Two diabolical attempts were made to wreck trains on the northern line, by placing fish bolts on the metal. Captain Hutcheson, Secretary to the Australian Club, Sydney, lias been sentenced to two years for embezzling the funds of the Club. His army career was a most honorable one.

A silver reef, three feet thick, has been discovered at AVarrebarrambukra. It yields thirty-eight ounces to the ton. Mr McElhone staled in the Assembly that private members were being bribed to assist the Private Tramway Bill. SOUTH AUSTRALIA. The “Register” estimates the harvest yield at at least 11 bushels per acre for 1.100,000 acres, which gives a surplus for export of 825,000 tons. The Government have matured schemes for the establishment of trust agency companies under legislative sanction. Sir A. P. Burt, who has been Chief Justice of the Swan River colony since 1861, is dead. It is proposed to give Sir Alexander Forest a public reception at Perth. QUEENSLAND. The Cricket Association wish to arrange an intercolonial match with Sydney. The distinction between duty and postage stamps will be abolished after January 1. The Government has prohibited the falling of cedar trees of less girth than seven and a half feet at a height of six feet from the ground.