AUSTRALIA.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 265, 4 May 1860, Page 3

AUSTRALIA.

(From the Melbourne Age, April 17,18,19.) v

Sydney, 17th April.—The. Williams, Hunter River steamboat, ran into the Emeu last night, and, besides other damage to the mail ship, broke her rudder. It is believed that she will be docked, and that the Benares will have to take the mail.

Adelaide, 17th April.—Major Nelson has been called upon to assume the command of the troops proceeding from the several colonies to New Zealand. April 16.—A fire took place at the Burra Mine on Saturday. It has been extinguished. The exact nature and extent of the damage done is not yet clearly stated. No live 3 are reported to have been lost.

Hobart Town, 17th April.—Two companies of the 40th Regiment have been ordered to proceed to New Zealand. They will probably sail by the Victoria steamer to-morrow. -The rise in and flour has been well maintained. Wheat, 10a to 10s 3d; best flour, Bran and oats firm. April 16.—There is great activity in the flour market. On Saturday, transactions took place at £22 per ton, and to-day a further rise to £24 ensued. Potatoes from £6 10s to £7. Oats and bi-an in good demand. Colonial butter, Is 8d to Is9d.

Spirits.—During the year 1859 there was exported from British ports alone (as shown in the tables we published yesterday) no less than 1,605,332 gallons of spirits, of all kinds, for consumption in this colony. Taking the population of Victoria, on the 31st December on the same year, as stated in the official returns, at 525,367, that will leave an allowance cf 3 gallons of spirits to every man, woman, and child in the colony— an alarming allowance truly, considering that it would be equal to a "nobbier" for every man and woman (the grown up population being reckoned as one Half) for every day in the year.

Revenue.—The quarter's revenue of the colony of New South Wales exhibits one or two features that are worthy of notice. The most remarkable is the large falling off from all the most important sources. The nef decrease on the quarter amounts to £94,920, which is distributed among the heads of Customs, distillation, land, licenses, railways, and miscellaneous. The falling off in t!ie revenue derived from the Customs amounts to £26,890 for the quarter only ; and the receipts from the sale of the public lands are less than those for the corresponding quarter last year by £71,070. The land sales for the quarter ending March 31st, in 1858, produced £53,930; for, the corresponding quarter in 1859, ,£72,129, and for the same quarter in the present year they amount to only £20,328. The " finance minister," in making the statement, suggests that the decrease may be due to the unwillingness to purchase, or to the depression of the times. May it not also be partly due to the unsettled state of the land question, both in Victoria and New South Wales; and to the attractions offered to intending settlers by the new colony of Queensland ?

Soldiers for New Zealand.—Detachments of H.M. 40th Regiment, amounting to upwards of two hundred rank and file, will leave the Flinders street station of the Melboure and Hobson's Bay Railway by the 1.30 p.m. train this day, and embark on board the City of Hobart at the Railway Pier, Sandridge, about two o'clock, en route for New Zealand.