LATEST AUSTRALIAN TELEGRAMS.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 289, 4 July 1868, Page 4

LATEST AUSTRALIAN TELEGRAMS.

KEW SOUTH WALES. Sydney, 11th. June. The Colonial Secretary, the hon. Mr Parkes, received a deputation today from a number of gentlemen anxious to form a Volunteer Highland Brigade, and at their request gave his sanction to the formation such a brigade.

A parcel of Lyttelton wheat, recently imported, was offered at auction to-day, but was bought in, the highest price offered being 7s per bushel. News has been received from Rockhampton that there is an abundant supply of water at the Cape Diggings, but that the ground is patchy and not at all suited for a poor man's diggings.

Sydney, 12th June. The Rangitoto, P., N.Z. and A.R.M. Co.'s steamer, has been refitted, and is again afloat. Mr "Wadsworth, her engineer, metwith an unfortunate accident at her trial trip, by which he lost two of his fingers through being jammed in the machinery. A Chinaman, name unknown, has committed a series of shocking murders at Avisford, a small township about twenty miles distant from Mudgee. He entered the shop of a man named Lee, a butcher, for the purpose of robbing the place, and meeting with some opposition, he stabbed Mr Lee, his son and. two daughters. The father and one of the daughters have since died of their wounds. The murderer ransacked the shop and then decamped, and as yet no trace of him has been discovered.

Sydney, 13th June. It is stated, on reliable authority, that the French G-overnment are m communication with the G-overnment of New Zealand and I'J.S. Wales, on the subject of mail communication with the several islands in the Pacific under their protectorate, and that they have offered, on certain conditions, to bear a portion of the subsidy to the P., JS. Z. and A.R.MCompany.