AUSTRALIAN TELEGRAMS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 136, 15 September 1870, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN TELEGRAMS.

(From the " Daily Times.") Melbourne, Sept, 3rd. Mr, Aspinall has resigned his seat in the Assembly, owing to his estate being compulsorily sequestrated. Since the receipt of war news the Government have held Cabinet meetings, and have decided to re-organise the Volunteers, placing them on a Militia footing; 300 at a time to be drilled for a fortnight in barrack life. The workshops are also busy putting gun-carriages in order. A Boyal Commission on Federation has been appointed. The Government contemplate sending a despatch boat to Galle to bring the intelligence direct, should England be involved in the war. Germans throughout the different colonies are subscribing funds for the relief of the families of the killed and wounded prisoners. The Privy Council has quashed the conviction of Hugh Levinger, and has directed a writ of venire de novo to issue. This virtually will release him, as witnesses are now come-at-able. The Navigation Boai'd has censured Captain Gregory for losing the barque Sussex, and would have suspended his certificate if he had had one. Cusack was executed on Tuesday, for the murder of his wife, at Woods Point. The Government contemplate reducing the first and second-class railway fares, and abolishing the third-class. The Tom Thumb Troupe give an entertainment in the Town Hall to-day, for the benefit of the local charities ; and proceed to Sydney and New Zealand shortly. The return fancy ball yielded a surplus of £600, which was divided among the various charities. The latest new industry in Melbourne, a match factory, has come to grief, its projectors having filed their schedules. At the Criminal Sessions of the Supreme Court, Sanguilly, one of the survivors of the wreck of the General Grant, was acquitted of a charge of robbery. The arguments in Supples were postponed until Thursday next. The foundation stone of the Jewish almhouse has been laid. The ironworkers are agitating to get all Government work done in the colony. The Insurance Companies have raised the rates of marine risks by 1\ per cent, as a war risk, and the Banks in the different colonies have raised the rate of exchange to| premium. The annual Eeport of the Shipowners' Association shows that the number of vessels owned in Victoria is 90 less than last year. Arrived. — Claud Hamilton, s,s , this morning ; Hero, Maid of Erin, and Nightingale.

Sydney. The Exibition was opened on Tuesday with great e'elat. The weather was fine, and it was a general holiday an immense crowd was present. Victoria took 15 prizes out of the 20 offered for agricultural implements, and the first prize for woollen cloths, linens, and bacon. New South Wales excelled in horses. 2,600 persons visited the Exhibition on the following day. Lord Canterbury arrived from Melbourne and attended the Exhibition banquet on Thursday, making a fine speech in reply to the toast " Our Sister Colonies." A public meeting of Germans has been called for Thursday next to raise a war relief fund. Sailed — Auckland, s,a., and City of Melbourne, s,s., for Auckland, with the Californian mails and nearly 60 passengers, The mail news is considered very disastrous to. New South Wales, most

of the wool clip of that colony being offered at the July sales, when the reduction in price occurred. Adelaide. The overland telegraph party have left. News from Port Darwin states that Captain Douglas has arrived there and assumed the command. Mr. Forrest's exploring party has been lionised in a small way. The Burlay railway has been opened. The Criterion reef has yielded 86 I ounces of gold from 20 tons of stone. The Land Act has passed through Committee. It offers liberal inducements to settlers. The Agent of the Prussain Government bought 4000 tons of copper for manufacturing cartridges, previous to the declaration of war in Europe. In the corn market prices continue to keep up.

Hobast Town. A German immigrant ship having arrived, she was visited by the G-o-vernor, Ministers, and members of Parliament, who were entertained at lunch by the captain. The toasts of the King and Queen, and Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia were duly honored. Parliament have commenced the debate on the main line of railway resolutions on the proj)osals submitted by Captain Coote. The Lavinia has arrived at*Launces~ ton, from Hokitika. Wheat is at 5s 4d, to 5s 6d.

The Hobart Town Mercury, says the Australasian, has done a good deed by exposing what appears to be the commencement of a system analogous to that which was brought to light in England a few years ago, when it was discovered that attractive young girls were lured over from Belgium, under pretence of being provided with respectable situations, and found themselves on arrival the inmates of houses of the most infamous character. Twenty waitresses were advertised for to proceed to Melbourne, at the handsome remuneration of 303 per week ; and the Mercury has reason to believe that they were intended to figure in those hybrid costumes the wearers of which have conferred some sort of notoriety on certain houses in one of our principal thoroughfares, and that the young women so required were to be exposed to the debasing and demoralising influences by which they would necessarily be surrounded in these haunts of ruffianism and depravity. Beferring to a similar advertisement which appeared in a Launceston paper, a correspondent of that journal writes :: — t; Two young women were some time since induced to leave [ Launceston and happy homes, and on enquiry, have been traced by the distressed parents of one of the girls, to one of those places in Bourke street, and their photographs in this demoralise in or costume, purchased at a shop in Melbourne, have been sent over in corroboration of their present employment." In this particular instance, as we have reason to know from independent testimony, neither of the girls who were thus decoyed from home had the remotest idea of the debasing occupation she was about to undertake, and when, upon their reaching the Queen's wharf, a casual remark from the fellow who was in charge of them awakened a suspicion of the mistake they had made, each girl looked in the other's face with a scared expression, and exclaiming, " Is not this dreadful ?" prepared to follow the instructions of their conductor with the helplessness of people who had taken a step which was irretrievable, who felt their utter friendlessness in a strange populous city, and who had no alternative but to yield a blind obedience to the man in whose power they had so inconsiderately placed themselves. How often this incident, described to us many months ago, by one of the passengers in the steamboat, has been repeated since it is impossible to say ; but as there is a constant change of waitresses in the drinking dens of Bourke stree t and a steady accession to the ranks of the miserable creatures who flaunt their tawdry finery on the footpaths from sunset until midnight, it is to be feared that a great many ignorant and innocent girls are decoyed from the other side of the Strait by the promise of light and respectable employment, combined with high wages and the opportunity of dressing handsomely. We cannot do better than reiterate the caution which the Hobart Town Mercury offers to parents and guardians against suffering their daughters or wards to be entrapped in accepting engagements as waitresses in Melbourne, without having first satisfied themselves as to the respectability of the house in which, and of the people by whom, their services are required. Even the really gifted may sometimes become conceited. Northcote, the artist, whose intellectual powers were equal to his professional talent, and who thought it much easier for a man to be his superior than his equal, being once asked by Sir William Knighton what he thought of the Prince Eegent, replied, "I am not acquainted with him." " Why, his royal highness Bays he knows you." "Knows me ? Poah ! that all his brag,"