Australian Telegrams.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3081, 2 January 1879, Page 2

Australian Telegrams.

(Fxk Pbess Agency.) .'

« (Fbl s.s. Tababua, at the Bluff.)

Melbourne, December 24. The events of the week hare been ..without any special interest. By (be time this reaches New Zealand the Embassy Commissioners will be on their way to_ England. A farewell banqvfet was given in the Town Hall last Friday, and was attended by 700 persons. The Tickets were 10a 6d (including railway fares), and, in consequence, a large number of persons availed themselves of the opportunity of making a trip to Melbourne from the most remote parts of the colony at such cheap rates.

The .railway pass question has raised such an outcry that a hurried Cabinet meeting was held, and the Ministry gave out that the amount of the railway fares would be paid for conjointly by the Ministry out of their private means. Mr Berry made a fiery speech at the banquet as to what would be the result if the will of the people was not carried out. It was a revolutionary sort of speech, and was enthusiastically cheered by the,meeting. A far.se is being played as a sort of set-off to the Embassy proceedings. The whole of the "doings of Berry and party are being paraded by a negro polician" very much washed who has been a nuisance as a sort of popular agitator. The man who is named Henderson, is called Henderson Africanus, and is now designated the third archdeacon. He was banqueted on the same 1 night as Berry, and was furnished with a private , secretary, and new clothes, in addifon to credentials to the Secretary of State. Most'people think the joke a capital one, , and has been carried far enough; but others persisted in carrying it further, and sending the man to England in the same steamer with Mr Berry and Professor Pearson. Henderson is inflated, with vanity, and is being fooled to the very top of bis bent. .'..^

Sir Win. Jervois is at present in Melbourne on the subject of defence.. There is no intelligence of the Kelly gang, and no trace of their movements. There are all sorts of rumors circulated c daily, but few have any foundation in fact.

Martin Widerington, late carpenter or. the Avoca, under remand for stealing £5,000 from that vessel, has escaped from the custody of the police. He had been taken by detectives to a lonely part of the Gippsland district to point out the place where he bad hid the sovereigns, and although three officers were present he contrived to put them off their guard and escaped into the bush. He has not yet been found. There have been several accidenli and offences lately. A man nameff John McLean, of drunken habits and violent temper, hft been committed for tfjal for murdeiing his infant child at Colling wood by fracturing its skull; and a man and woman were killed on Friday night by being run over by the Brighton train. The woman was fearf'u'ly mangled.. '* A fire at Emerald Hill destroyed three houses On Friday night. # On the same day a very destructive storm* occurred at .Carlton, levelling several dwellings and damaging many more. Very few houses in the township escaped. The Town Hall at Deniliquin was burnt down by the bursting of a kerosene lamp while lighting up for Bachelder'i panorama, which was quite destroyed. A woman and her two children were drowned in a dam at Kokewood. It is supposed the children fell in, and the woman, in trying to rescue them, tumbled in also.

The Argus is sending a special com* missioner home by the mail to accompany the Kmbassy.

Captain Amsie, R.M., a well-known old colonist died on Thursday last in his 80th year.

The weather has been very fyot, with no rain. The crops in many districts are nearlyJiurnt up. - Thai theatres are all opening with v Qhristi&as pantomimes. The Princess was re-ppened, under the management ot Baylisfr with Weavil in " Cncle Tom's Cabin." *