AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 192, 6 November 1879, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

"VICTORIA. The Hon Graham Berry has. announo that as soon as he has recovered from recent illness he will stump the country.; wi the view of influencing the forthcomi elections. It is understood that Sir Gavan Dufey will retire from parliamentry life at the end of the session, and that he will proceed to England. It is considered likely that the session will drag on until February, thus affording an excuse to postpone the dissolution until May. Th*i manager and directors of the Provincial and suburbian Bank have been committed for trial, bail being allowed. They are charged with conspiring to defraud the public and shraeholders of the Bank. , ■ The Government engineer reports that the boilers of the ironclad monitor Cerberus cannot bear a pressure of more than 171 b to she square inch, though the nominal pressure is 40. The council have forwarded to the Assembly a Bill to alter the Constitution of the Council, which was read a first time in the Assembly. Mr M’Dougall, of Arundel, sends by' the Tararua five Booth nils for exhibition at the Christchurch show. They are Don Carlos Firby, Skobeloff, Baron Broughton, and LeancUr. The Schooner Fliza Firth, which left Grey mouth on Oct. 6, experienced terrible weather on the voyage to Melbourne. On Oct. 13 a tremendous sea broke over the stern and washed the captain away from the wheel The schooner was thrown on her beam ends, and the mate washed overboard, but seized the jib guy, and regained the deck. The vessel escaped without serious damage. HEW SOUTH WALES. The steamer Strathleven has arrived. A meat preserving apparatus is reported to have worked splendidly. On the voyage a pigeon flew 208 miles in 275 minutes.

The new goldfields at Curragong are turning out well. Mr Cohen, late Treasurer, asserts that tbe extravagant expenditure of tbe Government would cause a deficiency of balf a million. Tbe Commissioners unanimously resolved not to open tbe Exhibition at night for an-> Sundays. A terribly tragedy occurred on board the Mary Anderson, a labour vessel. A native seized with a fit of madness cut off tbe beads of two of his comrades, and fearfully wounded two others, with an American axe, was killed. X / Tbe steamers Lyemoon and Bamboo narrowly escaped collision off Cape Shannon Oct. 23. Each attributes tbe blame to tbe other. The vessels just shaved. A singular railway accident was caused by a violent storm of wind. Tbe gale startedthree trucks at Picton, which gaining a velocity of 20 miles an hour, ran into a passenger train and threw tbe engine off tbe line, but did not injure the passengers.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA: Pleuro pneumonia is spreading in t he neighbourhood of Maitland and York’s Peninula.

T ,: iyeloxera has broken out- in a Urge vine'at Fullarton, near Adelaide. It is Aired that the disease exists iu other vineyards. Government firmly refuses to pay Tictoria £2500 a year fo r mail calling at Glenelg. '=■- The Loan and Northern Territory and Indian Immigration Hills have passed both Houses. The Taxation Hill was lost in the Assembly. Parliament has been prorogued till imp ary :-,0. The Governor stated, that the Precis of the harvest were such as to excite general hopefulness. Government are takingfiaw proceedings to recover a quarter of a chill ion for defective rails supplied to the Port Augusta railway.

QUEENSLAND. Captain Webb, master of the schooner Pride of Logan, reports the massacre of eight persons belonging to his vessel at Cloudy Bay, near New Guinea. Three were Europeans, three Chinese, and two Malay women. Webb states he had been fishing on a reef, and on returning found the schooner gutted, end the natives trying to haul the' vessel ashore. Jumping on board he cut the hawser, ■and stood out to sea. He returned next day-, bht saw nothing of the cre\v, alid ■concluded that they had all been murdered-. H.M. schooner Spitfire proceeds to Cloudy Bay. t

CAPE NEWS. ' Latest Cape news states that Zululdnd has been divided into thirteen districts, with a chief over each, all subject to the British Resident in Zululand. Oham, Citowayb’s brother, who surrendered •at anj early stage of the war, was rewarded with the chieftainship of a large district in the Transvall. Cetewayo states that hut for the gallant defence at Korke’s Drift, the Zulus would qave overwhelmed Natal. Cetewayo sent a message to the Queen asking for forgiven sss.