NEW SOUTH WALES.

Press, Volume IX, Issue 995, 16 January 1866, Page 3

NEW SOUTH WALES.

The Ministry.—A supplement to the " Q-overnment Gazette" was published yesterday afternoon; announcing that the vacant Ministerial appointments of Secretary for Lands and Colonial Treasurer had been filled. Mr. John Robertson has returned to the office of Secretary for Lands, and Mr. Marshall Burdekin has been jappointed Colonial Treasurer. In consequence of these appointments fresh elections will take place for West ; Sydney and for the Williams. Several days must elapse before the new Ministers can be re-elected, as their seats will have to be declared vacant at the meeting of the Assembly on Tuesday next. The Electoral Act only authorises the Speaker to issue a writ of election without waiting for the seat to. be declared vacant when the recess is longer than a week, and the adjournment of the House on Tuesday last was for that period. The-Ministry, as now reconstructed, is as follows: —• Colonial Secretary & Premier ... Mr. Gowper Secretary for Lands Mr. Boberteon Secretary for Public Works ... Mr. Smart Colonial (Treasurer Mr. Burdekin Attorney-General Mr. Plunkett. —" Herald," Jan. 5. The Btjbning or St. Matty's CatbleDEAii. — Last Saturday afternoon, a man, who gave his name as Edward M\Encroe, surrendered himself to the custody of Mr. Sub-inspector Breunan, at the police quarters, stating that he was guilty of having wilfully set fire to St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney. It will be in the recollection, of our readers that at the time of the destruction of St. Mary'e, i a supposition existed amongst some of the clergy that the conflagration was the act of an incendiary, and the inquest which followed the disaster was carefully watched over by one or two of the number. The jury ! brought -ia. a verdict that the fire had ibeen accidentally caused by some of! (the ineenee bearers having thrown the J charcoal on trie floor beliiml the altar, j and they believed that some of the embers had ignited iiijiaminable matter beneath the boards- M'Eueroe states j j that he is related to the venerable f archdeacon, aod also to Mr. M'Enqroe, \ of the firm of Bergin and M'Enefoe, of ; George-street south, that he arrived in j ; the colony from Ireland a year or j i liore ago, that he applied to both oi"!

if those gentlemen for employment, and 10 that they had refused to exercise their 3. interest on his behalf. He appears to 0 have gone to Braidwood, where he J became an inmate of the hospital, but y previously, in order to revenge himself s of the supposed injuries inflicted c by his relatives by their neglect, d ho attempted to set fire to St. 11 Patrick's Church, in Sydney. Disc appointed in accomplishing that design, c he afterwards procured a bottle of t kerosene oil and a box of matches, and - with these attended the evening service ! 3 at the Cathedral of St. Mary on the j '. occasion of the festival of SS. Peter I 1 and Paul. Whilst the congregation fc were quitting the edifice, accord : ng i to his confession, he smeared the kerep sene oil on the floor near the alter and ignited it just as the last persons were i leaviug the church. Mr. Brennan took j M'Encroe to the lock-up, where Dr. t Blake attended, and received hisvoluni tary statement in the presence of cont stable Wheally. He will be brought i before the Court this morning. It is 1 stated that M'Eucroe exhibits no I symptoms of insanity, that he is a I married man, having a wife and two children in Ireland, and there is reason ; to believe that he left his country for [ some misconduct, which induced his relatives and his clergy in the colony to give him no countenance. Previous to giving himself up tb Mr. Brennan, he was at Mr. H. O'Brien's, Douro, where he entered into a conversation with a person there, enquiring of him the particular offences that the law punished with death. Onbeing told that arson was one of those offences he made special enquiries, and appeared satisfied that it was one punishable with hanging. — " Yass Courier," Jan. 3.