AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 80, 13 December 1884, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Stdney, December 4. No further cases of small-pox are reported. There are ten or eleven cases in quarantine, some of the patients being very bad. The dry, hot weather of the last few days has been so far favourable. The scare has drawn attention to the unsanitary state of the citj 7 and most of the dwellings. The Premier i 3 considerably improved in health. He has now returned home, and is preparing to leave for New Zealand. This colony will not take any part in the Antwerp Exhibition. H.M.S. Nelson has returned to port from New Guinea. She will remain here now until the arrival of the Admiral and new commander. The English cricketers have returned from Grafton, where they were hospitably entertained.

Brisbane, December 4. The Government protest against the amendments being made in the Land Bill by the Council. Flying foxes and other vermin are very prevalent on the Darling Downs.

Melbourne, December 4. Captain George Service has been appointed to the pilot service. There is some hope of a settlement of the dispute among the bootmakers. The Government has undertaken to bear half the cost of the establishment and maintenance of a lighthouse on Eddystone Point, on the north -east coast of Tasmania, at the entrance to Bass's Straits. The cost is estimated at £18,000, and the maintenance £600 a year. A bill has passed its second reading in the Church Assembly establishing a High School for Girls. The Government Astronomer and Board of Visitors' Observatory recommend that a party be equipped and sent to New Zealand next September for the purpose of observing the solar eclipse.