[SPECIAL TO MELBOURNE "AGE."]

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 152, 1 May 1886, Page 5

[SPECIAL TO MELBOURNE "AGE."]

London, 16th April.— The Chancellor of Exchequer, Sir W. Vernon Harcourt, in the course of his budget statement delivered on Thursday in the House of Commons, said it was probable an arrangement would shortly be made between England and Spain for the extension of the minimum duty of le per gallon to all wines shown by the alcohol teet not to contain more than 30 degrees of spirit proof. The Chancellor stated that definite action in the matter had been deferred to afford the Imperial Government an opportunity of consulting with the colonies relative to an appeal made to them that Australian wines should be admitted at a reduced rate. The mails to and from Australia and the East will for the present be carried through the Suez Canal via Port Said, instead: of going by the Egyptian Railway via Alex andria, to escape the risk of quarantine. Sir Thos. Erskine May, X.C.8., D.C.L., the writer on party usage and other subjects, who has now attained the age of' 71 years, has resigned hia position in ,the House ot Commons. A proposal has been made that the (demand made for the separation of northern Queensland from the present colony should be referred for set'lement to the next sitting of the Australian Federal Council. The call made on the shareholders of the Oriental Bank corporation, which failed some months ago, realised £1,250,000. ; The liquidator ia doubtful whether the assets will prove sufficient to enable the creditors to be paid in full. A sculling match on level terms has been arranged between Perkins, the English oarsman, and Matterson, of New South Wales. The match will be rowed or» the Queen's Birthday. The Colonial Office is greatly impressed with the opinions of Mr Thurston, the Acting Governor of Fiji, relative to the proposed annexation of the New Hebrides by France, as. they are expressed in a precis of Mr Thurston's memo,, which has been telegraphed to London by Mr Gillies, Premier of Victoria,