AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 40, 13 September 1887, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

A lady contributor in Melbourne eende the 11 Sydney Telegraph " the following • •Itie not generally known that there dwelt in Bait Melbourne during the paet six years !h utter seclusion oat of the most gifted l t Jented and brilliant women of the present age. Yet such is the case. This wonderful woman Is Madame de Hazard, kndwn la the aristocratic circles of Europe as one of the | eateet sculptors of modern times. For Bah's reason at present Unknown, she left art, home, country, friends, and relati ns ' to live alone in Victoria, unknown and uacared for, and until a few weeks ago her very existence was a blank save to the vari. fid I tradespeople with whom she dealt. It #as then discovered that the poor lady was • n a very weak state of mind and body for aonta weeks, unattended except by a young grocer's assistant and a lawyer. She died leaving all her worldly possessions to th e grocer's boy who finds himself the owner of One of the most valuable private art collections in the world, irrespective of diamonds, Sapphires and pearls, statues from the chisel of the gifted woman excelling anything of thi kind in Australia. There are complete •etc of Limoge china, bearing the monogram i< N " surmounted by thejrtperial crown in gold', together with a set of crystal, similarly crested. Among the collection were exouisito and historical articles of Virtu, purChased at a sale in the Tuilleries. The collection includes presents from the Hopes, mii and preasnt J btonies from Herculaneum and Pompeii; oil paintings and proof engravings of rare veins, one of the former supposed to be from the brush of no less a painter then Raphael. More will probably b« hoard of this extraordinary woman, who le a Russian countess, and was married 20 ears ago to a Mr John Hazard, an American miHitmiart.” The health of the prisoner E. B. Holt, who is now undergoing a sentence of four years Imprisonment for embezzling the funds of the Bank of New Zealand, is still a matter of Concern to the prison officials at Darling, hurit and the Government medical officers, a report has been submitted to the Minister of Justice, showing that Holt has suffered greatly in gaol, and that since his incarceratiTO he has lost 2st 131bs in weight. The Government adviser states that the prisoner is suffering from a complication of diseases including insomnia, chronic dyspepsia, and severe attacks of ague. A dinner was held in connection with the thirtieth anniversary of the wreck of the Dunbar at Watson’s Bay, New South Wales, When Mr James Johnston, the sole survivor of the wreck, and Mr George James, his rescuer, were brought together Mr the .first time since the.day of the wreck. While the party were viewing the scene of the wreck from the cliffs, a cabinet-maker named Robert Sibbald, committed suicide by jumping from the top of the cliff. He fell a distance of 200 ft. and struck a rock jutting out from the" chff, and his body, fearfully smashed, fell into the breakers, where it was recovered gome time afterwards, The proposal of the Tasmanian Government to impose a tax of £25 a year on commercial travellers doing business in that colony was referred to the Victorian Assembly, and the Premier was asked if he proposed to take an action in the matter. He replied that it would be a very delicate m ?.ter for the Government of one colony to interfere with the fiscal proposals of another ; but if it were shown to the Tasmanian Government that their proposals, if, Carried into effect, wou.d cause a bitter feeling in this colony the impost might be so reduced as to become comparatively unobjectionable.