LATEST AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 908, 2 January 1872, Page 2

LATEST AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

The Alhambra arrived at the Bluff on th night of December 25th, having left Melbourne at 5 p.m. on the 20th. Passengers : For Dunedin—Mr and Mrs Brown, Messrs Harrington, Whiteman, Estou, and Williams ; for Lyttelton—Mrs Heller; for Auckland —Mr and Mrs Stoddart; for Wellington—Mr Gall. Melbourne, Dec. 20:

The contest between Mr Hamilton and Mr Sullivan for the South provinces is likely to be severe. Mr Austin, of Barwon Park, and the Hon. George Rolfe are dead. The lecture by Mr Anthony Trollope, in aid of the Caxton fund, was a great success, there being a very large attendance.

A Melbourne Woollen Company is about to be formed.

The 'wife of Mr Gallogly, of the Civil Service Hotel, has died suddenly. The inquest is not yet concluded. The medical evidence shows that death was caus )d by external violence. George Fountain, a fruiterer; has committed suicide, and his paramour has since become insane.

To key's shares which were £39 to £4O, fell on receipt of the news by the Hero, to £26 and £27, settlers' prices, buyers' £2O, with no business doing.

Sydney

The submarine cable from Java to Port Darwin is working effectively. The news has been brought from Normanstown, Carpentaria, by one of the Northern territory party. A team of bullocks has been killed by lightning at Bathurst.

The Gulgong goldfields are favorably reported upon.

In Lord Kimberley's despatch he refuses the proposed annexation of Fiji to New South Wales.

Business is dull, pending the arrival of the mail. James Collins has been committed for trial for the murder of Osborne, his mate, at the Gulgong diggings.

ADKLAIDE. There has been a perfect plague of locasts.

Wheat is firm at 4s lOd, It is rumored that the Government will not take persons intending to prospect for gold on the northern expedition, lest the development of goldfields should cause the employees to leave the service and take to gold digging.