AUSTRALIA.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13547, 7 October 1909, Page 7

AUSTRALIA.

United Prese Association— By Electrio Tel ©graph—Copyright. CO-OPERATIVE MEAT WORKS. SYDNEY, October 6. A conference of Queensland pastoralists here came tb a decision which may result in the establishment of two co-operative meat works, with c ca{pital of £200,000. One will be in North and the other in Central Queensland. THE COAL TRADE. SYDNEY, October 6. The Newcastle trade returns for the (past nine months show an all-round decrease compared with the same period of the previous year. The decrease in the export of coal amounts to 839,000 tons, valued at £377,000. THE REPORTED VISIT OF AN AMERICAN FLEET. (Received October 7th, 12.55 a.m.)' MELBOURNE, October 6. Admiral Sperry, in a letter to Mr Deakin, states that he knows nothing officially regarding the reported visit of a second American fleet to Australia. THE PERTH MURDER. FREMANTLE, October 6. Four petitions to the Executive, and a strong appeal to the Assembly, for commutation of the sentence having failed, Martha Rendell was executed to-day for poisoning tho Morris children. Death was instantaneous. [This cose was described by the Judge, in summing u,p, as the most difficult he had ever had. In passing sentence on Rendell, ho said she had been found guilty of one, of tho most horrible crimes he knew of. The facts were these: —Martha Rendell and Morris (who was acquitted) had been living together for several years, Morris being separated from his wife. The children had remained with the father, and Rendell passed herself off as their mother. Three children died successively from a disease which the medical men could not identify, Though they gave death certificates. One symptom wos a peculiar membrane appearing in the patient's throat. Nearly a year after the death of Arthur Morris, his brother Oeorge ran away from his father to his mother, and when found by the police said he would not stay "to be poisoned like tbe rest." The bodies of tho three children were exhumed, but no signs of spirits of salts could be detected, though appearances were compatible with death from an irritant. Spirits of salts had been frequently purchased by the woman Rendell. The boy George swore he saw her pour out spirits of salts and take it into Arthur's room. He heard the latter screaming soon after.]