Late Australian News.

Hastings Standard, Issue 198, 16 December 1896, Page 4

Late Australian News.

■o(N.Z. Timi. ) In summing up to th<> jury in Syd--11, v tli" other <!:■ y in an action for slander, Mr -In tire Simpson said that ttie law was not intended to assist persons in bringing actions for libel and slander purely for the purpose of making ntoney out of them. It would be a beneficial thing if some provision was introduced into the law to ensure in such proceedings. A little girl named Bond was bitten bv a snake at Tarago, New South Wales. She was walking with her mother, and complained that her leg was sore. Her mother made an examination, but discovered nothing which appeared serious. The child was shortly afterwards seized with a fit. The wound was scarificed and sucked, and the child was taken into Goulburn. I>r ISurkett met the conveyance on the road, and administered ammonia and strychnine. It is supposed the child was bitten ill passing tli rough a crop. An inquest was held at the Parramatta Hospital for Insane, touching the death of an inmate named Claudius Leach, who was found hanging in his cell. Evidence was given that deceased was admitted into the institution suffering from symptons of delusional mania. He occupied a single room owing to his quarrelsome nature. He had drawn his bed to the window, having previously torn a. strip from the bed coverlet, one end of which he fastened to a wire grating, which was in all the shutters for the sake of ventilation. He tied the other end round his neck, and was found hanging in that position. The steamer Titus, which is now regularly employed in the island trade by Messrs Burns, Philp and Co., on December I brought news to Sydney from the Solomon Group of an attack upon a labor vessel, said to be the Fearless. The natives of Guadalcanal* fired upon the vessel, but no details of the result reached the Titus. It was in Guadalcanal* that the massacre of the scientific expedition under JSaron von Mouler took place, and from the news tli it readied the Titus it is believed the bodies of the victims were not used in a cannibal feast as was first reported.

On I Vcember 4 n."ivs was received by Mr Pratt, as agent for the London Missionary Society, that tin; lianamoa, a cutter, had been wrecked. She belonged to the New (luinea Mission, and was used by the mission for coastal service. The report states that the craft was lost oft' Motumotu in a gale, which also wrecked another vessel twice the size of the Hanamoa. The members of the crew were saved. The wreck is a great loss to the mission, as those in the mission were dependent oil the Ilanamoa for their supply of native food, firewood, Ac., all of which had to be procured from some distance down the coast. The trading barge Laurel, the property of Messrs A. Martin and Co., of Wentworth, New South Wales, was burnt to the water's edge near the Murray bridge oil SifSth November. Nothing was saved. The vessel was just being loaded, ready to proceed to tin Muri iv and Darling ports. The \< - 1 v. is only partly insured. This makes the third vessel the .lirm hi-, lot by fire, whilst another was blown up. and their bulk store at the boundary was destroyed by fire a few years ago. At Bathurst a Japanese cook, who gave the name of Tonie Mikuni, was fined 20s, or 11 days' imprisonment, for travelling from Dubbo to Sydney without paying his fare. The method he adopted was a novel one. He got under a tarpaulin on a truck of chaff, and remained there till the station was left behind. He then crawled out and climbed on the cop of another truck, always returning to his shelter as each stopping place w as approached, the engine whistle being the single of his disappearance. Annie Mars ton, aged 41, residing at North Richmond, Melbourne, committed suicide on the 2nd inst. by junping from the Church street bridge, a distance of 50ft. She struck the rocky bank, and sustained frightful injuries, dying a few minutes afterwards in the arms of her husband. The deceased was discharged from the Kew asylum on probation only the day before.

Ac Brook field. N.S.W., a party of " tin kettlers" went to the house of a fanner named Martin, whose daughter had just been married. Martin's son went outside the back door to see the cause of the row, when a gun was fired, and a heavy charge of coarse dirt struck him in "the face, causing a terrible wound and ruining the sight of one eye. An Australian paper says: —"The latest in the way of mining ex]iert.s. The Geraldton Express last year engaged a man to report on the Murehison fields, and his opinion amounted to a statement that our mines were half-ounce shows. This ye:ir the Express has engaged another noted expert, who has stuck up a written notice outside a Cue pub. asking owners of leases to communicate with him if they want their mines noticed." What appears to have been a dastardly attempt to blowup the Angus mine has been reported to the Broken Hill police. It appears that a quantity of explosives, such as dynamite, cartridges, and other mining material, were left in the drive at the 140 ft level, and the following day these articles could not be found. On Nov. 27th a boy working at the mullock heap unearthed with his pick some peculiarlooking stones, and later on the missing box of cartridges. The stones proved to be plugs of dynamite, 28 in number. Had an exlosion occurred whilst the dynamite was being roughly handled with the pick, the mine must have been wrecked and the boy and three men working below killed. In Banco Court, Adelaide, on December Ist, Emily Lathleen obtained a divorce absolute from John

Lathlccn. She got the decree nisi for her divorce as long ago as 1878, and then, hearing that her husband had been killed in an accident at Gawlor, she married again in Mew South Wales without getting the decree nisi made absolute. Since then she found that her first husband was alive and well, in the same colony. The decree absolute was granted. Two men broke into a dwelling last week at South Broken Hill, and had collected sundry articles together when disturbed in the act. They immediately cleared off across country. Constable McLeod was communicated with, and as the burglars had a good start an exciting chase followed. The constable meeting a butcher's cart took possession, and after travelling for some miles arrested a man and took him to the lock-up. A comparative table of Australasian railway statistics has been prepared by the Comptroller of Accounts in the South Australian Department. Victoria has the largest system, the number of miles open last year being 8,121, and the capital expenditure .£88,108,151 New South Wales comes next with 2.581 miles, and a capital cost of £80,852, 191. Queensland has 2,880 miles, the cost being £10,759,406 ; and New Zealand 1,998 miles, at a cost of £1 5,425,582. The cost of construction "per mile in New South Wains has been £11,559; Victoria, £12,272; Tasmania, £B,:-t9O ; New Zealand, £7,059 ; South Australia, £8305; Queensland, £7024 ; and Western Australia, £8995. Last year the New South Wales lines produced the most revenue, namely, £2,820.417, Victoria coming next with £2,401,892. The earnings per train mile in the different colonies were : New South Wales, 87.08 d ; New Zealand, 85.75 d ; Western Australia., 82.44 d ; South Australia, 08.57 d ; Victoria, 01.lid; Queensland, 51.91 d; Tasmania. 19.80 d. The population per railway mile is thus stated: New South Wales, 510; Tasmania, 8«8 ; Victoria, 877 ; New Zealand, 819 ; South Australia and Western Australia, 207 ; Queensland 198.