LATEST AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 826, 17 June 1871, Page 3

LATEST AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

THE WRECK OF THE QUEEN OF THE THA.MES. Mejvboubne, June 8. All the passengers of the Queen of the Thames were forwarded to England. The Government at toe Cape ordered a new enquiry into the circumstances, as it was alleged the ship was lost through ignorance and recklessness.

Captain Macdonald refused to give evidence, as he had already been acquitted by a competent tribunal. A fixed light on shore being taken for the Angulhas lighthouse is said to have been the cause of the wreck.

Rose, the defaulting clerk of the National Bank, has absconded. Australian journals are causing excitement by articles exposing the adulteration of food and drink.

An attempt to examine the wreck of the steamer Auckland, with a view to salvage, was unsuccessful. Her mast-heads or yard-arms were only visible. The passengers lost all their property. Some of the Somersetshire passengers still refuse to submit to re-vacci-nation. They are detained at the Sanitary Station during the pleasure of the Government.

The news by the mail of the continuance of disturbance in Prance ran brandy up twenty per cent. Other articles are unaffected. The Royal Birthday Ball was held at Toorak, no Government building being available. Owing to the limited accommodation there were only 900 present. The Rev. 'Sir Annear, the great temperance lecturer, charged with indecent liberties and criminal assaults on children has absconded. Sydney. Ninety pounds worth of gold has been received from New Caledonia. The Government of the island impose a n export duty of half-a-crown an ounce. ■./■'. The mate of the Queen of the Thameß admitted in his evidence at the inquiry that he took no part in the navigation of the ship from the tune of her leaving Melbourne. BirHenry Bprkly, the new Governor, has been enthusiastically received at the Cape. The Nebraska ...has arrived. Mr Paukes has gone to Queensland to negotiate with the Government as to the Canfornian mail route.

An Attached Couple.—A pair of °jsteraheUs. : ■•* ' ' *'•

NEW ZEALAND STATISTICS. COMMERCE. The following tables show the amount of imports and exports for the Colony for the quarter ended 31st March, 1871 : IMPORTS. Province. Value. Auckland £205.222 Taranaki 2,982 Nelson 91,274 Marlborough 3,610 Wellington 143,950 Canterbury 177,878 Otago ... 304,927 Westland (County) ... 78,756 Hawke'sßay 14,663 Total value ... £1,023,268 EXPOHTS. Province. Value. Auckland £394,197 Wellington 118,688 Hawke'sßay 79,680 Marlborough 40,906 Nelson 82,707 Westland (County) ... 140,395 Canterbury 263,609 Otago 638,609 Total value ... £1,758,791 The amount ef exports, which were not many years ago greatly below the imports of New Zealand is now seen to be largely in excess, being no less, in the quarter under consideration, than £735,523 over the value of our imports for the same period. In the corresponding quarter 1870, when both imports and exports showed a higher figure than in the present year, the excess of exports over imports was £611,661, so that in the first quarter of the present year, this increase of our exporting, which means our producing power, shows a steadily growing balance in favour of our productions. * POPULATION. Subjoined is a short table showing the gross returns of population for the Colony, according to the census taken in the beginning of the present year, giving the numbers for the various provinces, together with those taken at the close of 1867. The increase for the three years over the whole Colony is 38,456. The figures for Southland are open to some slight correction, but it will only be a hundred or two either way:— 1871. 1867. Nelson ... 22,506 ... 23,814 dec. 1308 Canterbury 46,801 ... 38,333 inc. 8468 Otago (without Southland) 60,578 ... 48,577 „ 12,001 Auckland ... 62,357 ... 48,321 „ 14,231 Westland ... 15,367 ... 15,533 dec. 176 Marlborough 5026 ... 4371 inc. 655 Taranaki ... 5480 ... 4359 „ 121 Wellington 23,982 ... 21,950 ~ 2029 Hawke's Bay 6059 ... 5283 „ 776 Southland (now part of Otago) 10,000 ... 7946 „ 2057 Grand t0ta1...257,124 ... 218,668 inc. 38,456