LATEST AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 685, 16 July 1870, Page 3

LATEST AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

(From the G. R. Argus.} Melbourne, July 7. Business is stagnant: Flour unchanged : Wheat firm ; Victorian 4s lid to 5s Id. Three thousand bushels N.Z. under the hammer brought 4s 6d. Oats, ex Ceres, fetched 3s s£d. Woolpacks, 3s 6d. Fine congous in demand. Maize 3s 6d. Wool sales brisk ; 113 bales were sold yesterday at full rates at prices reserved. Sugars flat. Cornsacks, 10s IOJd. Sarah Spogue has been committed for trial on a charge of murdering her illegitimate child. The citizens entertained the Conference delegates to dinner in the Criterion Hotel on July Ist; 150 gentlemen were present, the Mayor in the chair. The speakers were reticent regarding the conference proceedings. Varieties' Concert Hall, Melbourne, and adjoining premises, have been burnt down. Estimated loss £25,000. Some old colonists have laid the foundation stone of two cottages as a home for necessitous old colonists. The anniversary dinner took place last night. Patrick Dulea, a well-known storekeeper, at Fraytown, has committed Buicide by drowining. Arrived —Claud Hamilton, July 2nd; Ceres, from Lyttelton; Maid of Erin, from Hokitika. Mr M. A. M'Donnell has resigned his seat in the Assembly through in- \ solvency. The Lyater and Smith's opera comSny commence a second season on onday. Melbourne Handicap.—The first

prize of £3O was won by Higgins ; second, Ford. A man named Cussack, a wellknown resident at Wood's Point, ha* been committed for trial for wife murder. Sailed—Prosperity, for Hokitika, on the 4th. The Malta had arrived in ITobson's Bay on Wednesday afternoon. The Intercolonial Conference, at its last meeting on Wednesday, reported that the proceedings will be published in all the Colonies next Tuesday. A general opinion is expressed that no practical results regarding a Customs Union have been arrived at. Russian war steamer Bozarin sailed from Syndey for Fiji on the 6th. The death sentence recorded against O'Neill, butcher Brunswick, convicted on a charge of rape, has been commuted to ten years' imprisonment with hard labor. The Anti-State Aid Abolition Bill was read a second time in the Council on Tuesday. Division 18 to 7. The Bill passed through all its stages on Wednesday. The members of the Yorrick Club have presented a silver inkstand to Mr B. J. Kane, their secretary^ The Van Diemen's Land Bank has declared a half-yearly dividend of 10 per cent. The Government intend proroguing Parliament next Wednesday. Preliminary arrangements have been commenced with a view of diverting four miles of the Goulburn Biver to facilitate gold-mining purposes. The Government view the proposition unfavorably. A hotelkeeoer named Musicka, landlord of the old Post Office Hotel, fired a revolver at James Davis, standing in his bar. The ball was extracted. Musicka is in custody. A hundred-mile race between the Colonel and Barmede was won by the former in ten hours and a half. Barmede was thoroughly beaten after going eighty miles. J. M. Grant has resigned his seat for Avoca. The Government propose placing £7OOO on the Supplementary Estimates for the Hon. J. M. Grant's family. John Stubbs, carpenter, was killed yesterday. He fell 40 feet from a scaffold. John M'Gee and Co. have called a meeting of creditors. Liabilities, £48,000 ; assets estimated at £45,000. Charles Matthews is attracting immense audiences in Sydney.