Late Australian News.

Hastings Standard, Issue 408, 25 August 1897, Page 4

Late Australian News.

The people of Newcastle are about to celebrate their centenary. Th;; prtafr- o? tho. late John Hodgkisn, of Somcrton, Glenelg, South Australia, has been sworn at nnder £19.000. It is stated that the tick plague will extend over the whole of Eastern Australia. Mr Smith, a resident of Ringarooma, Tasmania, who married 72 years ago, has attained the age of 107 years. Mr Louis Becke,~ the well-known author, does not intend returning from England until the middle of next year. The Victorian marksmen who fired at Bisley are coming home by way of America, and will fire at the Canadian Association meeting. A young girl named Ross was unlacing he-1* boot with a fork at Warrnambool (Victoria), when the prongs of the fork entered her eye and gouged it out. At the Carlton (Melbourne) Court a pawnbroker was fined £lO for having falsely applied the registered trademark of a German firm of cigarmakers to cigars of inferior quality. The goods, about 300 in number, were ordered to be confiscated. A man named William Keenan lately sold his iarm in Victoria. With £I,OOO in his possession he went to a Chinese camp near St Arnaud. In a a fortnight he got through £3OO, when he was arrested for drunkenness. " Fools and their money." A young man named Robinson was killed during a bicycle race in Melbourne recently. The head tubing of his cycle snapped, and he was thrown on to the track. His nose was smashed and his head and face were reduced to a pulp. Ho died shortly after the accident. A start has been made with the construction of the Waratah-Zeehan (Tasmania) Railway. The new line is of great importance to Tasmania, but especially to the W 7 est Coast mining fields, as it will give them direct communication with Emu Bay. A difficulty has arisen between the guarantors of the visit of the English cricketers and the trustees of the Tamworth Oval as to the terms on which the latter will be granted for the match. The trustees want 15 per cent, of the gross gate, whilst the guarantors offer half the net profits. A conference on the matter is to take place. At the recent Hobart criminal sittings Walter Williams, charged with unlawfully assaulting Frances Virtue Dixon in her own house on the night of May 10 last, was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment. He had secreted himself at night in the house where a widow and her two daughters resided. The Judge stigmatised the prisoner's conduct as atrocious. At Brisbane J. R. Dickson, Minister for Railways," was recently charged with employing a Kanaka contrary to the Act. His counsel raised the plea of Parliamentary privilege. This, however, was over-ruled, and defendant then pleaded not guity. He was adjudged guilty and fined 10s and costs. Mr King opposed the conviction. Mr Hoolan said he hoped the press would note the fact that the counsel for the defence had maintained that slavery existed in Queensland, the defence being that if the islanders were compelled to leave their domestic employment and be returned to the Islands they would come back to slavery in Queensland. Mr Hoolan declared that this was a direct challenge alike to the Government and the planters, and he thought the fine imposed was not heavy enough. At Melbourne the other day a solicitor named Vail was pioceeded against by the Law Institute for retaining moneys belonging to Frederick Coare, of Warracknabeal, amounting to £6 18s. The offence was admitted, and the defendant pleaded guilty. He also pleaded extreme poverty and misfortune. When he collected the money he said he had fallen into arrears for re-nt, and his wife became seriously ill. The bailiffs seized the furniture and effects, and for several weeks in the depth of last winter he had slept on the floor of his office, without any covering or fire, and with newspapers for his pillow, and had often to take a walk instead of a meal. He had to sell his watch and ring for food. The Institute did not press the charge. The Chief Justice said that it was a tale of pitiful misery, and the defendant had been led into the offence by very deplorable calamity and wretchedness. He ordered him to pay £3 Bs costs within a month, or in default to be suspended for three months. Mr Harry Rickards and his wife have returned to Australia. He has entered into engagements to appear with a vaudeville troupe for a period of two years. The engagements entail an outlay amounting in the aggregate to nearly £IOO,OOO. During his absence, Mr Rickards has visited Paris, Genoa, Rome and Naples, and he also went to Egypt. He has brought out with him a biograph, which he says is a great advance upon Lumiere's cinematograph. It is a cinematograph on an enormous scale. It fills the whole stage, and vibrations are reduced to a minimum. He is going to open the Palace Theatre, at Sydney, with it, assisted by Miss Fanny Wintrutb, England's great society entertainer, and Master Arthur Sherwin, the phenomenal mezzo-soprano. He has also engaged the Morritts (Charles and Lilian), who have been appearing in the Egyptian Hall, London, for over two years; Miss Lilian Tree, who has appeared as prima dunna for four seasons at Covent Garden ; and one or two minor arists to complete the company. His intention is to run the company at the Palace Theatre until the end of September. Mr Bowern, of Melbourne, has a tale to tell about some gold specimens. Some time ago a young man named C. C. Shackell told him a tale of reefs carrying plenty of gold of good quality, and running through his land at Mount Manna, near Wyalong, New South Wales. To syndicate a block of laud, and arrange for the flotation of a company, wera the work of a da/,

and Shackell was presented with Mr | Bowern's promissory note for £149 j —as part of his reward for the- i "bonanza." He was also to receive ; n pood sum in paid-up shares. Two \ oxvjtr'?, who were s<uit to Wya- j to examine the prospecting claim, : (Lt. !.e:I to the "round tho hope-: of tho j promoters. There Mas gold, certainly, I hut it was by no means a " jeweller's | shop" that had been discovered, and when Mr Bowern learned this he made inquiries about the origin of the sample specimens, and next he issued a warrant for Shackell's arrest. The accused had passed the promissory note in trust, and when arrested he confidently expressed the opinion that the investigation by the court of the circumstances would prove that he had done nothing wrong. An unconditional discharge for bankruptcy was the other day applied for at Melbourne by Arthur Garner, theatrical manager. He stated that his estate would not pay 7s in the £. In regard to his membership with the firm of Williamson, Garner and Musgrove, the insolvent stated that between the years 1882 and 1886 the business of the firm was very profitable, and during these years his average share of the profits was at least £4OOO per annum. He also drew a salary of £2O a week. From 1887 the business showed a reduced profit, but in 1888-89, in consequence of the Melbourne Exhibition and general commercial prosperity, the profits of the firm were again very large, and the books showed that between August, 1888, and August, 1889, the dividends payable to him out of the profits amounted to This was additional to his salary of £2O a week. His schedule showed that the whole of his liabilities were due to banks, financiers and financial institutions, and the personal expenses of himself and wife and family at no time exceeded £2OOO a year, while his income for nine years was always double that and frequently a great deal more. Before leaving for England in "1891 his income from all sources (including investments) was nearly £IO,OOO per annum, but with the collapse of the land boom his securities went, and during the last three years he had found it difficult to make a living owing to the fact that he was an uncertificated bankrupt telling against him. Judge Molesworth said Garner was a bold and unfortunate speculator, and as a result owed £53,000. He reserved his decision.