AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1149, 10 February 1874, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

A hospital is about to be erected ai Port Darwin.

The Victorian vintage promises unusually well this year. The Age now puffs its circulation as exceeding 20,000 daily.

The locust difficulty in Victoria is reported to be growing more formidable than ever.

The New South Wales Parliament has voted £3OOO to the Agricultural Societies of the Colony. The Wallaroo Mines have declared a dividend amounting to £20,1.-00, being £IOO per share. The sugar crushing season in Queensland is jnst over, and it is stated to be about tho best yet known in the Colony. The GeelongCo-operative Association has collapsed. The apathy of its pro. motcrs is stated to be the cause of this result.

Tho Argus suggests that each of the Australian Colonies should vote a small sum yearly for the purpose of exploring the interior of the continent. At Albury tho other day a lad aged IG, and his two sisters, aged 13 and 12 respectively, were charged with assaulting and robbing an old man. It was slated that they had lassoed him first and then rilled him; They were remanded.

A Gripps Land mail contractor the other day rode, in eleven hour 3 with one horse, a distance of eighty-four miles —a great part of which is hilly and rough country. 'At Adelaide, Messrs Marret and Shanks, the publisher and printer respectively of the Mirror, have been committed for trial for contempt of the Supreme' Court, for stating that the jury tossed in a hat for their verdict.

The Ballarat Courier writes :—" The fines inflicted upon the persons convicted of assaults connected with the late disturbance at Chines were paid from the funds of the Chines Miners' Association. The expenses altogether amounted to nearly £BO. A subscription in aid of the fund has been started, and is being liberally responded to at Clunes, and assistance is expected from other places." The following interesting telegram from Brisbane is published by the Sydney Morning Herald : —A telegram has been received by the Government from Walter Hill. It says : —" Since the 20th "November we have examined the banks of the Mulgrave, Bussell, Mossman, Daintree, and Hill rivers, and Lave been more or less successful in finding suitable spot for the growth of sugar and other tropical and semitropical productions. The ascent to the summit of the Bellenden and Kerr was successfully made by Mr Johnstone, Mr Hill, and eight troopers. At 2500 feet they observed a tree with crimson flowers, which excels Poinciana regia, Colvillia racemosa, Lagerstroma regia, and Jacaranda mimosifolia. At 4500 feet a tree fern was discovered, which excels in grandeur all others of the arboreous class, and palm trees of the same height will rival any British India species in gracefulness. On the Banks of the Daintree we saw a palm tree (cocoa), which far exceeds the unique specimens of the same genera from Brazil in grandeur and gracefulness. Whilst cutting a line on the banks of the River Johnstone for the purposes of examining the land, an enormous fig tree stood in the way, far exceeding in stoutness and granddeur the renowned forest giants of California and Victoria. Three feet from the ground it measured 150 feet in circumference; at 55 feet, where it sends forth giant branches, the stem is

enormously thick. The River Johnstone, within a limited distance of the coast, offers the finest and best inducements for sugar cultivation.'"