LATEST AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 507, 22 May 1869, Page 3

LATEST AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

The now famous or infamous Mi C. E. Jones has again been returned by Ballarat West, after being expelled the Victorian Assembly for accepting bribes in the most barefaced manner. Mr Yale, one of the M'Culloch Ministry, resigned his seat for the sole purpose of preventing his return, but he polled 559 votes more than Mr Vale. Another member, Mr Butters, who was also expelled on the same grounds, has been re-elected for Portland without opposition. A new Bank is to be formed in Melbourne, the capital of which will be £1,000,000. The Colonies are to subscribe one-third, and G-reat Britain two-thirds. The Customs Union Conference has closed. It favors an Australian Customs Union with a free interchange of colonial products ; the Customs Union Kevenue to be divisable between the colonies in proportion to the ratio of their respective population. It also favors a simple tariff of fixed duties, supplementing the revenue by direct taxation when necessary. Considerable reductions in the present telegraphic charges are also advocated, and also a uniform weight iu cereals. An armed bushranger stuck up the Buckland coach two miles below Hooper's, near Beechworth. The police are in pursuit. In New South Wales disastrous floods have taken place at Windsor, Penrith, and Camden. Hay, maize, and other produce has been swept away. The Camden mail-boat was capsized in endeavoring to cross the torrent, and a publican named Lakeman and another who were in the boat were drowned.

At Brisbane, Pearson, the bushranger, has been sentenced to death for shooting Constable M'Cabe, in a recent encounter, when the police were trying to arrest Pearson. The Cape River goldfields, in Queensland, are now supporting some two to three thousand diggers, and hold out fine prospects for the use of machinery. The rush to the Gilbert Kauges, two hundred miles north of the Cape River goldfield, still continues.