AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1819, 18 June 1897, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

Last week two lads named Le Fevre and M'Larcn, occupying a tent and engaged in trapping opossums at Mitta Mitta (Vic), cooked and ate for their suppers a rabbit which had beeu caught by a dog. An hour or two after they each complained of a burning sensation in the stomal), and later, after getting into their bunks, the pains increased. They got up and started for their homes, a distance of three miles. On the way they were sick, and, reaching home, were given emetics. For two days their bodies broke out in numerous swellings of the size of a threepenny piece, and having a black scab the sizi of a small pea. It is supposed that the rabbit may have taken a poisonous bait. The lads are now well. A miner named Charles Dale, who left a few months ago, with several miners (all of whom have died), for the New Guinea goldfields, has returned to Gastlemaine, and gives a very doleful description of the great hardships that have to be endured on the goldfields. Fever and dysentery are very prevalent there, and Dale's mates succumbed very quickly after being attacked. He was fortunate enough to recover from a severe illness, and strongly advises intending prospectors not to try their luck in New Guinea. He states that a feeling of callousness is shown by miners towards their comrades who may be stricken with fever. He considers that there is a good deal of gold at Woodlark Island, but the climate is too severe for Europeans to work there. It will doubtless come as a surprise to ministers of religion to learn that they rank as among the most heinous offenders in the way of Sabbath breaking. Such, at least, is the plain accusation brought against them by no less a body than the Anti Sweating League, which, acits last meeting, passed a formal resolution to the effect that " This Council notices with regret the iucreased work entailed on a body of already overworked men—viz., Press reporters, by the pleasant Sunday afternoon and other Sunday meetings, and resolves that, in connection with all meetings held under the auspices of the Anti-Sweating League on Sundays, they will supply their own reports ; and, further, that all ministers of religion and promoters of Sunday meetings be communicated with seeking their co-operation in the efforts of the League to minimise Sunday work for pressmen." A fort Darwin reporter interviewed Murif, who cycled from Adelaide to Port Darwin, but found him indisposed to give any details, of his journey, as he intends to write a book on his trip. He arrived there in good health. Starting from Glenelg on March 10, he arrived at Port Darwin on May 22, two months and eleven days being occupied in the journey, about a month of which was sjjent in spelling at various camps en route.. The cyclist met with hospitable treatment on his journey. Occasionally he was short of food. The long wiry grass, full of seed, somewhat retarded his movements, ai:d the occasional stretches of stony and sandy country made travelling heavy and difficult. He had no trouble with the blacks, who, for the most part, seemed afraid of his bicycle, and dispersed on its appearance.

A young man, who was formerly an inmate of Dr BarnarJo's Home for Boys, was the co-respondent in a divorce suit before Mr Justice A'Beckett at Melbourne last week. It appears that in July, 1893, Annie Louisa Downing, the wife of Joseph Tregarthen Downing, having no children of her own, adopted Alfred Charles Couves, then a lad of sixteen years, who had come out from England, where he had been one of Dr Barnardo'a " boys." From the statements of Mr Downing it seems that the lad's relations with his wife were more intimate than those of an adopted son should be, for he was found one day, when the husband came home unexpectedly, with the lady sitting on his knee. The parties then lived at Elderslie, Park street, Glecferrie, and, in a suit for divorce which the husband is bringing, he alleges that his wife committed adultery with Couves at that and other places in Hawthorne. He told his wife that the boy must go away, and he offered to pay his passage back to England, but she alleged that she would go too if the boy was sent away. Ultimately Mrs Downing left for England with her mother in August, 1895, and on the same day Couves left in another ship for the Old Country. Tho case stands partly heard. Kalla Singh, a Hindoo, aged thirty-six years, died last week of typhoid, and his two brothers obtained permission to cremate the remains at Claremont. There being no crematorium, the arrangements were primitive. Firewood was piled 3ft high, and a deal coffin, containing the corpse, was placed on it. More firewood was put on top, and the whole was soaked with kerosene and fired. When the coffin fell to pieces the corpse was exposed to the view of the spectators for some time. A prisoner named George Williams was brought up for sentence at Sydney on several charges of robbery from dwellings. It was shown that Williams was a wellknown Melbourne criminal. He handed in a written statement, in which he admitted that he was a bad character and should consider himself lucky if he got off with ten years' penal servitude. The Judge fell in with the suggestion and sentenced him to that period. Six Japanese have been fined £2U each at Robuourne (W.A.) for gambling, and the Japanese owner of the premises on which the offence occurred was fined £3O. The fines were paid. Minnie Decker, aged ten, was playing with some boys in a paddock at Sydney, when her dress caught fire from a spark from a cracker. She was so severely burned that she died in two hours. Nicholas Stafford (forty), who was undergoing a sentence of a month's imprisonment in Gerald ton (W.A.) gaol, was drowned on a recent Saturday afternoon. The prise iers are allowed to bathe in the sea, and Stafford, when in the water, was carried away by the current and drowned. A brilliant meteor was visible at Broken Hill last week. * It fell at an angle of 90deg, and appeared like a ball of bluesh green fire, the size of the full moon, with long red tail. For two or three seconds the town was lit up by the glare of the meteor, which, altogether, was in sight for five seconds. Dr Francis, medical officer of the steamer Menmuir, in boarding the ship at Port Darwin, slipped on the gangway, and fell against a jetty pile. He fractured his skull by the fall, and died within two hours.