AUSTRALIA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 828, 8 February 1868, Page 2

AUSTRALIA

By the Kaikoura, arrived in Wellington we have Sydney papers to the 30th January, from which we extract the following items of news : It is feared that the Rev. S. Bromley has been lost in the ranges about the Pyramul. Bush fires have been very prevalent—not only in the neighbourhood of Sydney, but throughout all the country districts. A distressing and fatal accident took place on the railway, at the Newtown Station, Sydney, on the 3rd of January. The long drought ceased in Sydney on Wednesday, Bth January. It then began to rain moderately,, and continued to be more or less wet until ten o’clock on Thursday evening. Towards the close of the wet weather it frequently rained hard for some considerable time.

A robbery of cash-boxes from the Regis-trar-General’s Office took place between Saturday evening and Monday morning 11th and 14th January. The boxes contained about £2OO which had been received as fees.

On Friday, the 17th January, a hurricane passed over Araleun, blowing down houses and fences. The storm was accompanied by heavy rain and hail. Human remains have been found at tlie Bangas Station, near Gundagai, on the Bth January. H.R.H. Prince Alfred, on the 4th Jar., laid the foundation-stone of the new graving dock at Williamstown, Victoria, which will henceforth be known as the Prince Alfred Dock. When completed it will be 420 feet in length over all, and 400 feet long on the floor within the entrance. It will be ninety-seven feet in width on the top, and the entrance will be eighty feet wide in the clear. .At ordinary spring tides there will be a depth of water of 24 feet 6 inches on the sill at low water, and 27 feet at high w ater. The work is expected to be finished in 1869.

Speaking of the wheat harvest of South Australia, the Register says :—The wheat harvest for 1867-8, in an exporting agricultural colony like South Australia, may almost be considered as a total failure. In some districts thousands of acres will never be reaped at all, whilst in others many hundreds of farmers will not gather more than enough for seed and flour for their own use during the year. The extent of the injury caused by the red rust is only fully ascertained after the machine has been at work, for fields which promised splendidly as far as appearances were concerned, have timied out not worth reaping. £70,000 worth of copper is annually exported from the Peak Downs Copper Mines Queensland. Large numbers of miners are leaving the South Australian mines for the Peak Downs.

The ship Light of the Age, from Liverpool to Melbourne, with forty-five passengers and a general cargo, ran ashore about a mile to the west of Point Lonsdale, on the 16th of January. The vessel became a total wreck, but the whole of the passengers and crew were saved. The ship City of Melbourne, 1828 tons, belonging 1o the Black Ball Line, was discovered to be on fire on Sunday morning, at Williamstown, near Melbourne. All attempts to extinguish the fire proved unavailing, and she was ultimately scuttled. *She had £3OOO bales of wool on board.