AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Evening Star, Issue 14413, 8 July 1910, Page 1

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Though no date hue yet been fixed, it is likely (says the ‘Sydney Daily Telegraph’) that the issue of new Federal notes will start from October 1. The banks will deliver their unsigned notes over to the control of the Federal Treasury, and these will be signed by the Treasury and issued as Government noics This will be the interim arrangement until the Government have provided their own design and installed their own plant. The notes will be payable in Melbourne in gold. A holder who wants gold will therefore have to go to the Federal Treasuiy for it, unless the bank, ’ as most probably it will, will afford him the necessary accommodation. As the bunks have expressed their readiness to co-operate with the Government, Mr Fisher has no doubt that thcpublio will rapidly become accustomed to the new r issue, and will for general purposes gradually prefer the paper to gold. Outside Australia the notes will have only the value that can be obtained for them at any exchange bureau abroad. This, of course, applies also to the existing bank notes, though the bank notes, being payable in Australia at any issuing baidp on demand, are now more readily convertible into gold. The Federal Premier does not intend to make use of a proportion of the notes for ordinary current defence expenditure. The notes will be issued “apart from any of these exigencies.” The amount of the reserve Mr Fisher regards as subsidiary to the question of having the issue of the notes within the control of the Government instead of in tlio hands of private corporations. Already in Melbourne the notes are known as “ Fisher's flimsies.”

A ghastly blunder was perpetrated at the expense of Mis J. Quigley', of Richmond, Victoria-, on Friday week, -when the body of a child, who had expired at the Children’s Hospital, was taken to her residence in lieu of that of her own child. _ It appears that one of Mrs Quigley’s children—a fine boy about eighteen months old—was taken to the hospital two days previously, suffering from an acute phase of teething. It is stated that the tusk of cutting a number of the teeth at the same time proved too much for his nervous system, and eventually led to his death. The mother was duly acquainted with the fact. On Friday afternoon a casket containing inefantilo remain? - was brought -to her residence,- and the agonised woman set about preparing the child for burial _ She had scarcely entered upon the preliminaries of her sad task when she discovered tliafc it was not tho body of her child that had been brought to her, but that of a little girl. The hospital, authorities were then communicated with, and the blunder was eventually rectified.

“What has happened to William Duncan?” This is a question that cannot bo answered at present. Sergeant Jones, in charge of the Footscray police, received word on Sunday night (26th ult.) that- a young man named William Duncan, who resided at Hobbs street, Footscray, bad been missing from his home since the Saturday. The information was furnished to the police by a young woman, who said she,came from tlic country, and the story she told was very interesting. She said that on rho Friday evening she met Duncan by arrangement. They were to have been married on the following Wednesday, and every arrangement had been made for the wedding. He told her that he would sco her again on Saturday. However, he failed to put in an appearance, and has not been seen or heard of since. Duncan’s family stale that the young man seemed delighted at the match ho was about to make, and this makes his disappearance all the more a mystery. The police have sent a description of the missing man around to different stations, and inquiries made at friends’ places at Mooneo Ponds and South Melbourne show that he has not been there. Tho missing man is only twenty-one years of age, about sft Sin in height, and lie is stated to lie a teetotaller. The North Fremantle {West Australia) Municipal Council have made a democratic departure in respect to the medical care of the indigent. The Council, who pay £2OO for treatment of necessitous cases in the hospital, have now engaged a district nurse to attend necessitous cases, under supervision of a medical officer, at the rate of is per visit. . Leslie Semmens, about nine years of age. was accidentally shot by an cider brother* with a pea rifle at Mangana (Tasmania on the 24th. Tho lad did not know that the rifle was loaded, and was in the act of placing the weapon on a hi bio when it exploded, The toy was takeip to Finga* for treatment. His condition grave, , According to a return laid before i arliament the aborigines of New , outn Wales continue to decline. The aboriginal population in September last numbered 7,370, as against 8,919 in 1892, when ii census of tho native population was fhA taken. Tho number of full bloods has declined from 6,540 to 2,123, while the half-castas show an increase, there being now 5,247, as against 2,379 in 1882 1 he. present population consists of 886 male and 539 female full-blooded adults, with 643 full-bloodod children. The total expenditure for the year was £24,744. Mrs Douglas, wife of Captain Douglas, of tho coastal schooner Grace Darling, was recently victimised' to the extent of £2O. On March 16 Mrs Douglas, who lives at Esperanee (West Australia), received a telegram, apparently from her husband, asking hoi* to telegraph £lO to Fremantle. She complied with the request, and three days later sent another £lO in response to another telegram. It hus since been found that Captain Douglas’s name was forged by* a person who collected the money at the Fremantle Feet Office. . , ... A shocking accident took placo at the copper reduction works of tho Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company, in Queensland, last week. Two young men, ira. M'Donald and Christopher Beyer, were at work on a slag dump blowing portions of it away from where it had bankcd_ up. They had made a hole, and put in, a charge, and were enlarging the hole when, it is surmised, tho heat exploded the charge. Both were blown some distance away. When their work-mates arrived on the scene a dreadful eight mot their gaze. McDonald was found to have been almost blown to pieces, hie scalp and part of his 3fead being picked up come yards off. An arm was discovered a considerable distance away. He had been killed outright-. Btwer wan -badly hurt.

Thera was a gathering of business men on the steamer Matunga at Sydney on the 25th ult. to wieh success to the Island contract between Burns, Philp, and Co. and the Federal Government. Sir Joseph Car-' ruthers said ho was associated with private enterprises in Papua, and two and a half millions were to be spent there in the next few years in-developing the county’s mineral and agricultural resources. Ho thought New Guinea would eventually prove of great value to the Commonwealth.

A witness in a case in the Sydney Supremo Court disclosed his earnings as a sheep shearer and. shearers’ cook. At shearing ho had earned from £4 to £8 and £9 a week. His experience had enabled him to shear from 150 to 160 sheep in a day of eight or nine hours, but as a shearers’ cook ho had made up to £l2 a week clear, after paying one assistant £4 a- week. Ho liked cooking better than shearing, and for that reason first undertook it. In the Sydney Supremo Court last- w r eek the City Finance Co. sued Marie Napier Edwards for £556 10s. According to the statement of claim, the defendant had guaranteed the repayment of £SOO and interest of that sum lent to Dr Heupt by thejalaintiffs to purchase a medical practice at Bulli and certain furniture and effects belonging to the defendant. Dr A. H. Heupt deposed that £7O or £BO was due to him by the defendant for locum tenens work. Ultimately ho agreed to buy the practice. The loan was for £SOO. and the interest was 12 per cent. By Mr Coyle (for defendant) : The practice had been represented as worth £1.200 a year. The value turned out to be only about £4BO. At this stage Mr Coyle -withdrew from the case. The defendant, who was very excited, deposed that the document she signed was never in her hands. It was never read over to her, and she understood that it was a mere transfer of the practice and the furniture. When the verdict was announced against her the defendant asked for a stay of proceedings, which was refused. Defendant : My husband is an English nobleman, and because he is a lunatic your laws will not allow me to divorce him. I have nothing, and no means to pay. In Australia there is no justice. You can send me to prison if you like. His Honor: I am going to send you to gaol for perjury. Defendant: I thank you. lam an Englishwoman. 1 hope tlie public of Sydney will in some way protect a woman not only blackmailed and misled, but denied justice. Now you can send me to piison if you like. His Honor then committed the defendant for trial for wilful perjury. A figure in white attracted the attention of a policeman at Enmore, near Sydney, about 11.30 the other night. It was a lady, and the constable saw that she was walking in her sleep. He had heard it was best not to disturb sleep-walkers, and quietly followed. She was in front of St. GcorgeJs Hall, when a tram rattled past and she awoke. With a startled scream the lady rushed aimlessly across King street, apparently for the first time realising; how hard were the wooden blocks on her bare feet. She was stayed by- one of her own sex, who succeeded in quietening her. The policeman borrowed a cloak from a tramway conductor, and, wearing this, the lady was taken to her home. She lived at Marrickville, half a mile away, yet her absence had not been noticed.

“I intend to send you to gaol, because I think it would be a scandalous thing to let it go abroad that a human being, even a Chinaman, could he shot at with impunity by a gang of boys.” These remarks were made in the Melbourne Criminal Court by Mr Justice Hood, in sentencing to twelve months’ imprisonment a youth named Leonard Attwood, who liad been found guilty of a charge of having, unlawfully wounded a Chinese named Ah How at East Brunswick on -May 20. The Chinese was dangerously wounded by a. shot from a pearifle fired by Attwood' who said that he aimed at a bird.