LATE AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 959, 5 April 1872, Page 3

LATE AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

The Victorian Diphtheria Commission has commenced its labors. A new Scotch Church, to hold 900 persons, is to be erected in Collins | street, Melbourne, at a cost of £20,000. Sir Alfred Stephen, C.8., Chief Justice of New South "Wales, was sworn in as Governor of the Colony upon the departure of Lord Belmore. One firm in Melbourne, Messrs Goldsbrough and Co. have already offered for sale during the present season 61,000 bales of wool, representing £1,200,000, and have actually sold 47,000, or more than £940,000 worth. The " Age" urges the construction m tramways in Melbourne. * Nine persons near Urana, N.S.W., have been poisoned by eating a. pie ■which had been cooked without an orifice in the paste for the escape of toe steam and the gases evolved in ■cooking. The "Argus" publishes the intended tariff of telegraphic charges with •Europe and the east. From Victoria to Port Denison the charge for twenty words, inclusive of the name and address, will be £1 2s. From Port jJemson to London, the charge for twenty words, including the name and address, is to be £8 9s, with half rate ! lor every additional ten words. The Melbourne " Argus " has been shown the following passage in a private letter from an authority in the

P. and O. Co.'s service:—" The introduction of Australian butter and jams to our ships has been a great success, and I think we shall be able to avail of—to some extent at leastyour soups and meats. Not only are all those articles cheaper than anything we can gut at homo, but their quality is very much superior." This season, it is reported, has been the most pi liiivibie the pearl-hshers on the north-west coast of Australia have yet experienced. The number engaged in this new industry is but small, yet they have succeeded in taking seventy tons of shell, which may be roughly reckoned as worth £14,000. Among these pearl-fishers is the party of Captain Cadell, so well known in South Australia and Victoria from his connection with the navigation of the Murray. The deposits in the northern districts of New South Wales are attracting attention. The Elsmore Tinmining Company, with a capital of £60,000' was floated in the course of a couple of hours.

A short time since a large railway waggon was constructed in Victoria, on the Bogie principle, as an experiment. This waggon or truck could be loaded up to eighteen tons, dead weight; and since it has been in use on the different Victorian lines of railway it has been found to work so successfully that the Commissioner of Eailways has given orders for the construction of eleven others of the same size and pattern. The unemployed in Melbourne are constantly calling upon the Government to provide them with work. At a meeting held at the Polytechnic Hall, upwards of 600 men were present who professed themselves unable to obtain employment, and it was said by one of the speakers that there were 4000 men in the colony in the same position as themselves. It is said in Melbourne that fiveshilling gold pieces will be coined at the Victorian mint, which is to commence operations in April.