Australian News.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3093, 16 January 1879, Page 3

Australian News.

(PBE AUCKLAND HEBALD's SPECIAL WIBB.)

Melbottbne, January 9. A proposal has been made to establish a new bank in Melbourne, to be called the Australian Gold and Estate Sank, to aid in the development of mining, farming, |n^Vi]|januf*ctureß. • . -.V^illiam S. Lyster will leave England by the January mail. A portion of his company will arrive in Melbourne by the Lusitania, and. the remainder, including Mdlle Eoso Hersiboz, in the Chimborazo. The Royal Commission on the Lands Question has reported adversely to Mr Byron Mocre, the last Assistant- SurveyorGeneral, but the animus of the commission ii obvious. I The Oceania, a barque which left. Hokianga, New Zealand, on the 17th, met ■'-' with severe weather on her voyage to Melbourne. On the 10th December the barque was struck by a very heavy sea, which flooded all the deok cargo, stove in the galley, and did other damage. She • arrived pa January sth. The Pride, from Quebec to Melbourne, passed a long line of .icebergs, ten in number, but extending a distance of 74 milei. This was on "^December 2, in latitude 43 degrees 3 minutei, and longitude 3 degrees 25 , minutes. The position of the vessel wag critical in the extreme. An enquiry was commenced on the 6th inst. by the Steam Navigation Board, into the circumstances attending the collision between, the schooner St. Kilda, while coming from Greymouth, and the barque .Seagull, off Bratel Island, on the 27th December, but was adjourned till the 9th, ,in order that the master of the Seagull might attend. The evidence showed ". that every was made to save the ■ unfortunate man who fell overboard. At the time of the collision the Seagull was in such a bad state that directly the ships -came together there was*a stampede of the sailors to get on board the St. Kilda. 'The New South Wales seamen, fire,tnen, and .others on strike, jby a large majority, endorsed the action of the committee of the Seaman's Union in terminating the strike. Great satisfaction is felt,at the settlement of the difficulty, except oli the part of a few agitators, who think the men should not have agreed. The men resumed work on January 4th. A public trial of a new brake, under Grose's,. patent, has been made on the Newcastle railway, and resulted satisfactorily. A waggon was stopped in 176 feet, against 464 feet by the ordinary brake. The Bulli coal mine proprietors have locked the miners out, and the lock-out is expected to last three months. The supposed object is to break up the proposed niion.

It is stated that there i« leprosy among the men employed in a tobacco plantation in Wbollongoog. Robert Purvis and three Solomon Islanders were murdered at Melen, in the Solomon Islands, about November 25. Their bodies were cut into nmall pieces by the natives, and hung up in tins. The South Australian revenue for the quarter amounted to £403,385, and for the half year, £794,119. The new Tasmanian Ministers have been re-elected without opposition. The Treasurer, Mr Lewis, stated that the Government had no scheme of taxation at present, and did not think the taxation proposed by the late Government neces* ■ary. The Queensland revenue for the December, quarter was £347,556, and for the half-year .£782,024, a decrease compared with the same period of 1877 of £41,586.