LATE AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 473, 4 March 1869, Page 3

LATE AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

By the s.s. Bangitoto we have dates from Melbourne to the 20th. Priuce Alfred was enthusiastically received at Adelaide, and was being liberally feted. He was to remain only a few days, and sail for Melbourne on the 9th. The discussion of the O'Farrell conspiracy vis still going on in the New j South Wales Legislature. Mra J. H. Bates, late of St. Kilda, has been accidentally burnt to death a* Hay, New South Wales, through the explosion of a kerosene lamp. • It is feared the wrecks along the coast will be considerable. Some cargo, supposed to be that of the schooner Messenger, has been washed ashore at Newcastle. The er ptain and two seamen of the shooner Young Australian have been arrested on a charge of murdering South Se i Islanders. Sir .Jnines Ferguson has arrived at Adelaide, and has been sworn in. The dead body of a man has been found hanging to a tree at Petersham. It is supposed to be that of Dr Piomley, who bas i.een missing. The Fiji fever appears to be still spreading in Australia. Efforts are now bei ig made to start a line of steamers from Eockhampton to those islands in opposition to the Sydney line of the A.S.N. Company. An intelligent Celestial, for many years resident in Talbot, informs the local paper that the cause of the present osc. us of his countrymen is to be found in the fact that the Imperial Chines:- Government has caused letters to I e wi'itten to Australia and California offering great inducements to skill. 1 miners to go home and work therect itly discovered Chinese gold fields. Our i !d friend Schafer has come to grief. I n Melbourne he first attempted to commit suicide, then he was brought up as a lunatic, and afterwards charged with vagrancy. Dr. M'Crea's certificate, which was read, set fort! that Schafer was quite sane and fit to be at large. Mr Sturt: " Haveyou anyfriends, or any means ?" Schafer: " I have no money nor any place to go to ; when I've money I always have friends." He was ordered to find one surety of .620 to keep the peace for three months; but as he could not procure bail, he was sent to gaol.