OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 7447, 16 February 1888, Page 4

OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

From our Melbourne Correspondent. 1

Tuesday, February 7. SUDDEN DEATH FROM EXCITEMENT.

A sudden death Jiaa taken place at Moonambel, Victoria, under strange circumstances. A woman named Ann Morris and her husband, George Morris, were jointly charged by their son-in-law with stealing a LlO-note from his Louse, and were summoned to appear at the Police Court. Mrs Morris was having a consultation with her solicitor before the Court sat, when she fell forward on her face and expired. An inquest has been held, at which the opinion was expressed by the medical witness who made the post mortem examination that her death was caused by intense excitement, a rupture of one of the heart valves having taken place. DISTURBANCE AT A THEATRE. Mr O. Knight, a theatrical manager, had a sorrowful experience at the Ballarat Academy of Music last Friday night. There beiDg only a small audience to witness the performance by his Happy Hours Company, he announced that the entertainment could not be given and the money would be returned at the doors. Some of the performers then appeared before the curtain and said that as they had not been paid for some time they declined to play any longer. Some of the audience thereupon smashed the pit bos and took all the money there was Others who did not get their money went back and beset Knight, whom they pelted with eggs for nearly half an hour. GENERAL. Captain Alliran, of the Union Steam Ship Company's steamer Penguin, is at present in Melbourne to form a company to work his lifesaving raft and other nautical appliances. Lady Fox Young, wife of a former Governor of Tasmania, is going to pay a visit to that Colony, after an absence of twenty-seven years. No lew than 247 poems have been sent to the Executive Commissioners of the Melbourno Centennial Exhibition in connection with the prize cantata competition. Mr Harris, J.P., of Poowong (Victoria), died last week from the effects of a snake bite received three weeks before.

The narrowness of Sydney streets is not an accident, as is generally supposed, but due to the advocaey of the ' Herald ' in the early days that narrow thoroughfares produced a draught.

At the banquet giveu to journalists during the Centennial celebrations in Sydney by the proprietor* of the ' Evening News ' and ' Town and Country Journal,' Sir Hcniy Paikew proposed the toast of " The Press." Great amusement was caused when some one called out " How about the ' Bulletin' V" an organ which weekly attacks the Premier. Sir Henry immediately replied "I never read that oigan. For years past I have given up reading papers that attack men's private characters. My time is of such value that I never waste it in reading the intemperate vaporing of a set of people who don't respect the truth." At the last meeting of the Commissioners of the Melbourne Exhibition, a letter was read from the secretary of the Commission in England agreeing to send out a loan collection of pictures valuad at L 250,000 conditionally on all expenses and incurance being paid. It was at once agreed to vote the necessary sum of 1-5,000. Typhoid fever is still on the increase in Victoria. From the Ist December 2,398 cases have occurred, of which sixty-eight have resulted finally. The accommodation for visitors to Sydney during Centennial week was miserably insufficient, many persons, after being refused admission to the best hotels, having to be satisfied with a, residence at second and third-rate suburban ones.

IJThe drunken quarrel at Brighton between Ross Henry and Thomas Wall, which caused the latter to break his neck, has resulted in Henry's committal on a charge of manslaughter. The Premiers ot the different Australian colonien had a short consultation at Sydney during Centennial week on the subject of the Federal Council. Sir Henry Parkes expressed his strong disinclination to his Colony joining -the present Council, and said that he had in his mind the creation of a body of larger powers and wider representation.

A peculiar case came before the Albury Police Court, a young man named John Smith, a groom in the employ of Cobb and Co., being charged with maliciously removing the cap from a wheel of tho Upper Murray coach, thereby endangering the lives of the passengers. The case was brought under the section which on conviction renders the accused liable to a long term of penal servitude. It appeared that Smith was discharged owing to drunkenneso, and on last Wednesday evening, when the

coach .started at midnight, one of the hind wheels camo off. Accused was Been with a screw-wrench near the coach the same evening, and the cap of the wheel has not yet been found. Smith was committed for trial. It is understood that the Minister of Justice of New South Wales is about to take action in the notorious Mount Rennie cases. The whole case, with the subsequent statements ot the prisoners, is to be again reviewed. A dispute has aiisen between the Melbourne Ironmasters' Association and the Ironworkers Assistants' Union, the latter claiming a fixed rate of wages at 7s Cd per day. Delegates from both bodies have met twice to discuss the matter without comimr to any settlement, and the dispute has been referred to the l->canl ot Conciliation. , A movmte.l awoid contest between Sergeant J R. Donovan, of Sydney, and Sergeant J. C. Meats, of Melbourne, took place at the Sydney Bondi Aquarium on Saturday. Meats showed far greater skill than his opponent, and had scored five points to three when he was obliged to retire owing to a severe wound in the thigh, caused by a point from Donovan, who had previously cut his opponent on the hand. Donovan scored two of his three points after having partially disabled his opponent. Meats did not give in until the police interfered, and he was almost fainting from loss of blood. A young man, whose name is supposed to be Mitchell, committed suicide at Sydney on Friday by cutting his throat. A memorandum found amongst papeis belonging to the deceased indicates that he was suffering from remorse for some horrible crime which he was tempted to commit by some woman, whom he curses as the cause of his ruin. Ingenious, not fo say ridiculous, proposals are being daily received by the Victorian Minister of Lands for the extermination of the rabbits. The latest is from a resident of Prahran, who recommends the introduction of madness among them. To effect this he proposes that a large number of rabbits should be caught, small portions of their brains removed, or other operations in the brain matter performed, after which he would have the animals liberated, his idea being that they would become lunatics. The lunacy, he believes, would be inherited by their young, and eventually the rabbits would die off in consequence.