AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 241, 11 March 1880, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Melbourne

FKty-seven members of the old Assembly were returned. Of the new men 21 belong to the and 8 to the Ministry. St John Coode reports the construction of an entrance to the Gippsbmd Lakes wpl cost. L 85.700, and the works required to protect Portland Harbor, LI 75,300. Haokett, S ott, Morgan and Fawcett, directors of tin Provincial and Suburban Bank were found guilty, also Richard H. Willis, the manager. The Chief Justice fined the directors fifty pounds each and the manager two hundred and fifty pounds remarking that the disgrace of the conviction would be a sufficient punishment without imprisonment. The fines were pain. There is a feeling of discontent at the Court’s leniency. Immense quantities of breadstuff are reaching Melbourne Between January Ist and February 28lh 570,272 bags of wheat and flour wrr received, as agiinst 218,214 bags iu the corresponding period of last year. The quadruple system of telegraphy is likely to soon come into active operation on the direct lines between Sydney and Melbourne. Already three messages can be sent at once. At Messrs F'ndlay Eros.’ sale of Oleno.miston thoroughbred yearlings the bidding was very languid. A filly by F reworks was sold for 376 guineas, the highest price realised.

Severe storms and floods have occurred in several country districts. One mail was killed by lightning, and the rad way* were considerably injured. Sydney.

Sir H. Parkes has laid the foundation stone of the new lighthouse on the South Head.

The Agent-General lias applied for extended leave of absence) beirt ' prevented by business from leaving for London early. The Agricultural Show has been opetnd at Sydney, and is now quite complete. This colony, Queensland, and South Australia contribute the greater poitioh of the exhibits. The number f-om Queensland is particularly large. The Government has decided to proceed at once with tbe improvements at Circular Quay, at a cost of LOO,OOO. The work is to be carried out with a view to give employment to the surplus labor at present available.

It is probably the railway between Sydney and Melbourne will be constructed by Sept. Ist, except a gap of eighteen miles between Albury and Geroge y. Adelaide. Richard D. Henncssy, a laborer and volunteer, shot bis w'fe at Stewoey. He was not further than two yards away when he fired. The woman was wounded above the loft eye, and is in a very bad state. In the Supreme Court, a woman named Green being found gnilly of bigamy, a point was raised affecting tho validity of all marriages celebrated by Church of England clergymen, owing to their neglect iug to use the exact form of declaration prescribed by the law. The point ie reserved for tho full Court. John O’Brien, charged with tho murder of his wife at Barto on Jan. 2oth, was tried before Justice Barton. The Judge ruled that the woman’s injuries might have been the result of accident, and not of violence, on which ruling the prisonet got a verdict of acqtlittal. Hobabt Town. The Council reject 3d the Public Works Bill. Sir James Wilson, President of tho Legislative Council, died on February 29th, on his 68th birthday, after a long illness.