Late Australian New.

Hastings Standard, Issue 132, 28 September 1896, Page 4

Late Australian New.

The residents of Bathiirst, N.S.W., aro claiming that their city should be the federal capital of Australia. ■Hare drives aro being held all over the Wellington district, N.S.W., in order to keep down the hare pest, which is proving destructive to young crops.

The water supply at Wilcannia, New South Wales, was cut off for several hours by a large codfish, weighing 321b, forcing its w T ay into the main pipe from the river. A pure English fox was shot a few days ago at Barber's Creek, near Moss Vale, New South Wales. The Queensland Government has appointed Mr Chester, Police Magistrate at Oooktown, to make a searching enquiry into the charges of illtreating the aboriginals preferred against the police. Ten missionaries, including five ladies, will leave Australia this month for work in China. Many of the inland districts of New South Wales report that the weather has been unseasonably warm. The Brought Company opened at the Sydney Criterion Theatre in " A Mother of Three." Mr Lyne, leader of the New South Wales Opposition, addressing a meeting at Narrabri, expressed gladness at Mr field's determination to fully load the gun of Freetrade, as it would then explode. The. time in which the last A.J.C. Derby was run was the slowest on record in the Southern Hemisphere. The other evening a gold watch, which he had received as a presentation, was stolen from the Hon A. H. Jacob, M.L.C. About 10 o'clock Mr Jacob was about to proceed to his residence in Victoria-street, Aslifield, Sydney, and just prior to his entering a tram at the corner of Market and Elizabeth-streets two men jostled him. Mr Jacob found that his watch-chain had been snapped and the watch extracted from the pocket. The article was valued at between fifty and sixty guineas.

The minimum wnge question came before the Melbourne City Council the other day in connection with a tender to supply 1800 pairs stamped and numbered leather labels for hackney carriages for £7l. Objection was raised to the acceptance of the tender on the ground that, as it would barely pay to do the work for double the money, the Council in accepting it would be violating the principle of the minimum wage. The tender, however, was accepted. The complaints of the members of the Philatelic Society, Melbourne, as to the issue of stamps of an obsolete class have caused the Premier, the Attorney-General and the PostmasterGeneral to hold an enquiry. Information has been obtained which is considered to be most unsatisfactory, pointing to stamps of an absolete kind being printed and sold for the benefit of officials. For one class of stamp 011 the sheet, worth on the face £9, a representative of Baron Rothschild hal paid £4O, and similar sheets were selling at £9. Two officers have been suspended. It is not known how far the practice has been carried. A prisoner, who is serving a sentence of eight years, was nearly successful in escaping from Goulburn Gaol. At half-past one in the morning the warder on going his rounds saw something resembling a rope hanging from the window of one of the cells of the second floor. He gave the alarm, and on opening the cell door, Sinclair was found to be dressed in his private clothes, and had made all preparations for his escape. An iron bar in an aperture in the wall had been cut at both ends, an old saw, it is said, having been employed for the purpose. The blankets had been torn up and made into a rope, which was secured inside, the other end being thrown out of the window. After descending this rope the prisoner would have been in an open yard, from which escape would have been comparatively easy. In the course of his speech at the welcome tendered to him in Melbourne, Commandant Booth said he had been reminded by something he had read in the papers of the visit paid by him to the field of Waterloo, and then followed a rather good bit of wordpainting : —" Methought, he said, referring to the charge of the Scots cavalry, " I could see the serried ranks on the slope looking towards where the bayonets of the foemen gleam; methought I could hear the shrill clarion blast that tightened each hand on the sabre hilt in a clutch that only death might unloosen; methought I could see that tornado of living valour fly onwards till it was checked in a crash of steel; and then I thought that if mere duty and the sense of patriotism could do this, what ought we who are Soldiers of Christ to do ? "