AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2578, 12 April 1877, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

We are indebted to the New Zealand Herald for the following digest of Australian News from papers to the 28th March, our own late dates not having yet reached us :—

Several house robberies took place daring the funeral of Archbishop Poldihg. ........ ■ Mr John -Young, Canadian Commissioner to the Sydney Exhibition, is in Melbourne. The Victorian Government, and that of New Zealand also, will probably send commissioners. The South Australian Government have accepted the tender of Overend and Uobb for the Kapunda and North-west Bend Kailway at £165,523, seventeen -miles, less £17,000 worth of earthworks already clone by Government. Master Ernest Hutcheson, aged five years and eight months, called the Australian Mozart, gave a wonderful performance as a musician recently in Melbourne. -

The provision of the New Consolidated Criminal Act, allowing whipping in certain cases, has been brought into force in the Adelaide Supreme Court in two cases.

David Gladstone, a labourer, has committed suicide by placiug himself on the rails of the Hawthorn Kail way.

In the action, Langton v. Syme, proprietor of the Melbourne Age newspaper, the full Court has granted a rule nisi for a new trial to reduce, the damages, on the ground that the,two counts ■in plaintiff's declaration were substantially the same," and as the jury assessed damages on each count,,they gave damages twice over. The. total exports- of breadstuffs from Adelaide have been over 30,000 ton s.

A woman named Bennett has been much burned, in a cab in Melbourne, through a lighted match, carelessly thrown down, setting fire to her dress. The •' Banner man testimonial reaches nearly a "hundred pounds. A proposal is made for eleveni gentlemen players to visit the colonies. - - ..-.."... ,

Teh thousand bushels of wheat have been sold at equal to 6s Id at the Port, South Australia. ..

The Victorian Locomotive Board t in their report, state that they consider the Engineer-in-chief' s statement well founded in regard to the engines made at the time his report was dated. As compared with the best English-made engines, they had several disadvantages. The Colonial-made engines had given a great deal more for maintenance in repairs than an. equal number of the best JEngHsh'-made engines. But in the opinion of the Board, the faulty and inefficient designs, not only in the general arrangements, but also in point of detail, must be held chiefly responsible for these faults. Considerable.alterations were ma.de in the engines.of all the.contracts at.the Government expense. The floods have injured the Hoyleton Railway, and traffic has been suspended. A hundred men are. employed repairing damages. _„ Mr Wisker, of Brisbane, playing blindfold, won four out of six games of chess one night recently, A fire broke out in Hughes' grocery store, "in Eefuge-rosv, Brisbane. The damage is estimated at £500. The build? ing is insured in the Norwich Union. A fireman named. Mooney was seriously burned by the explosion of a cask of rum.... .'<■. .'*"■....:• -.;.- ; ..- ■■- .■"■ ...'

The Generaal Pel, the. first of the new line of steamers chartered by the South Australian and Dutch Governments, has amved at Adelaide; from Port Darwin. She is a fine vessel, and steams 12 knots. '' The Queensland Cabinet has decided that all the Chinese per Brisbane, excepting those booked if or Brisbane, must be quarantined at Keppel Bay. The.smallpox patient is convalescent, the eruption being very slight. The man was strictly isolated. The steamer bad"43o Chinese for Codktown and lftO for the pther ports. The racehorses shipped by the Macedon arrived safely from Melbourne. . Alfred Arthur Violet was brought before the Police Bench, Gulgong, charged with setting fire to Biley's Hotel, Home Rule. Ten witnesses were examined. One-rMrs Mackay—swore to seeing him strike matches and set fire to the hotel. Prisoner was committed for trial.