BRITISH AND FOREIGN NEWS.

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 July 1915, Page 2

BRITISH AND FOREIGN NEWS.

[per press association— copyright j WIFE MURDERER CONVICTED. LONDON, July I.—Justice Scrutton, in summing up in the Smith case, in which the accused was charged with the murder of three wives on different dates, the body in each instance being found in a bath, pointed out that in the absence of eye-witnesses, there was no direct evidence as to what happened in the bath room. The jury, however, could act with reasonable certainty. Smith-made several outbursts, and once cried: "You'll hang me the way you are going on." After the verdict, Justice Scrutton said that he entirely agreed, and felt that an exhortation to repentance would be wasted.

MINING FATALITY

LONDON, July 2—Twelve miners were killed and seven injured by a falling cage at Bentwick colliery, Kirby, in Ashford.

IRRIGATION FAILURi

LONDON, July I.—ln the House ot Commons Mr. J. McVeagh asked whether tlie Government was .aware that Victorian official literature held out inducements to settlers in the irrigation districts, assuring them of immunity from loss in the dry seasons, and that the irrigation had failed, the Government "Water Commission having gambled on the chance of rain and lost j and whether steps had been taken to compensate the British settlers misled by the official prospectus. Mr. A. Bonar Law. in reply, said that he believed that the statement that any Victorian Government publication eliminated risk was foundationless. The provision for water was made on the basis of the lowest' river flow on record. The recent drought had produced a new record and the Government had suspended rent for three years by way of compensation.